Yashiro Nanakase has been revealed for The King of Fighters XV! This marks his return to the series after 19 years of absence (since 2002).
"Wait, wasn't Yashiro death?" - After the defeat of Verse in KOF XIV, a lot of dead characters came back to life. Also, the game SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy was confirmed to be canon by Yasuyuki Oda, and in that game we see the New Faces Team alive and well.
Yes, Yasuyuki Oda actually said that SNK Heroines is canon to KOF lore and the direct sequel to KOF XIV in terms of storyline:
https://neogeonow.com/misc/exclusive-we-...-and-more/
"Wait, does that mean that Terry was actually turned to a girl?!" - SNK Heroines takes place inside a dream world (not to be confused with the term "dream match"), a pocket dimension created by Kukri. So the answer is yeah, kinda.
Some reactions towards Yashiro include:
"Yashiro looks like Akihiko from Persona 3" - Yashiro came first.
"Yashiro looks like a mix of Dante and Nero from Dev-" - Yashiro came first.
In other words, people are saying "Woah, Yashiro looks a lot like *insert character who made his debut AFTER Yashiro*"
"Yashiro looks like Urien from Street Fighter" - Urien actually came first here, I'll give you that one. With that being said, Yashiro and Urien look nothing alike. Their playstyles and personalities are also different from eachother. The only similarity is the hair color. This comparison doesn't make much sense if any.
EDIT:
"Wait, if Yashiro died in 1997 then why did he appear in 2002?" - KOF 98 and KOF 2002 are dream matches. In other words, those games aren't canon.
And no, characters in KOF do
not age. They haven't aged since KOF 95. For example, Kula Diamond was 14 back when she debuted in KOF 2000 and she's still 14. If she aged normally she would be 34/35 by now.
![[+]](images/collapse_collapsed.png "[+]")
Here's some music