Kingdom Hearts

Publisher
Tokyopop
Writer
Shiro Amano
Artist
Shiro Amano
Country of origin
Japan
Year
2005

Kingdom Hearts V. 2

By David Rasmussen
29th May 06

Considering that this is Disney’s big video game cash cow, you’d think that they’d do more to, oh I don’t know, “milk” it! However, to date, it seems that there just isn’t enough Kingdom Hearts to fill the need presently out there.
As far as I know there is no Anime version of Kingdom Hearts in the work despite the fact an Anime would be well received these days, what with the hype that both companies are presently riding concerning interest in Kingdom Hearts.
Nobody is working on an Official Kingdom Hearts CCG (though I was once with this group that I thought were commissioned to do an official CCG, only for me to find out they were making a “fan“ game).
Nobody is working to get any of the Kingdom Hearts novels translated into English despite the fact there are supposedly a lot of these novels already existing in Japan which tie into the Kingdom Hearts franchise.
And, yes, while we’re on this topic there are also no plans for Kingdom Hearts the Movie except for endless speculations and conjecture that is much talk signifying nothing.

So, with that said, the only other thing you can continue to look forward to in terms of getting ahold of stuff to feed and satisfy your Kingdom Hearts needs for the time being is the manga presently being published by TOKYOPOP. TOKYOPOP, who happen to have a presently cozy relationship with Disney publishing wise, has the reins on Kingdom Hearts the manga which finally delivers a new taste of the franchise to you.

You know the story (represented in last volume).
In the original Kingdom Hearts game you played as Sora, who is beginning to come to an understanding that there is more past the small world of his island home that he wants to explore. To that end he’s about to undertake a journey with childhood friend Riku (no relation to FF-X slash X-2 female character Rikku) and other childhood friend slash most likely later love interest Kairi out to the great sea to find new “worlds”.
But as the day of departure comes the island is swallowed in darkness, and things go south.

Riku is swallowed by darkness, Kairi is abducted by the darkness, and Sora is left to fend for himself as he is given the tool necessary to fight the darkness (in the form of creatures known as The Heartless) as he becomes the new wielder of a mystical weapon called the Keyblade.
However just as Sora gets his groove on fighting the Heartless, his world is torn apart and he’s flung through time and space to be deposited unceremoniously into a place called Tranverse Town.

He’s not the only one there. It seems that worlds are disappearing left and right, and one King Mickey has taken it upon himself to investigate, commanding Donald & Goofy to seek out Leon in Transverse Town, which leads them in turn to Sora as he finds his “destiny” dropped onto his head as he “meets” Donald Duck and Goofy for the first time in a rather painful manner. After a few battles, and an encounter with a few Final Fantasy characters, the trio head to their first world to explore : Wonderland.
There they confront a crazy queen, wild “cards”, a Cheshire cat and their first major Heartless battle.

But as the dust clears from their first major dustup it looks like they have the full and undivided attention of the council of darkness, helmed by a soon to be solo running Maleficent which brings us to the end of the volume, and the start of Volume 2.

Volume 2
The journey had just begun and already it’s weighting down hard on Sora.
First world has come and gone and no sense of progress, or success comes from it despite the fact Sora and company overthrew the first major Heartless enemy.

Returning to Traverse Town Sora is given the 4-1-1 on the whole sealing of the keyholes, as well as Sora having his “reunion” with a very alive and well Riku who, as it turns out, now is the right hand of Maleficent… how she sunk so low as to end up with PETE as said role in the 2nd game, however, is something that still defies logical dissertation to this very day.

From there it’s two trials by fire as the trio head out to the Middle East and Mediterranean with a trip to the hot desert sands of Aladdin, followed by a trip where everything is Greek to Sora and a stopover to the world of the Greek Gods (a kinder gentler Greek Gods unlike the world of God of War) with a stopover for hero lessons in the World of Hercules (where at least I know without a shadow of a doubt that the voice of Hades is indeed played by the very same person who voiced Hades in the Hercules movie).

As the volume ends Sora and company find themselves staring down the tri-faced Cerebus after his brief meeting with Cloud (Final Fantasy VII) which involved him getting his butt kicked by Cloud.
From there it’s a small (and I do mean small) smathering of four panel strips called “Kingdom Bites”, because everyone should emulate the success of Azumanga Daioh’s four panel strips, and then we wrap.
Breakdown and then coming attractions.

Kingdom Hearts V. 2 Breakdown
What’s Hot?
Yeah, this version is woefully short of content, missing a batch of vital worlds (as seen here now that the book is rolling along and only touched on Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin and Hercules to date).
But yet, regardless of that, I am still up on this title and still giving it a thumbs up.
That and NEXT review will actually have three worlds in a row, all themed to a certain theme as you are about to see. Otherwise despite the missing content, and the minimal “new” content that really doesn’t expand the game all that much, I still think this book is worth picking up.

Once again if I were to say who’d really be picking this up then I’d say we’re once again talking about the budget minded individuals who are looking for a manga hit of one of their favorite game series.

Those who want a bit of budget saving on their reads will like the low low price tag on these books, and really how can you possibly go wrong at $6 a pop ($4.50 if you are ordering from Right Stuf International)!! I mean at these prices you can really afford to snatch of volumes of this and feel little pain in the pocket, which makes this a tight solid light read for those with not so much pocket change for manga.

And, again, if you don’t want to buy this separately (four pops at $6 a pop) then TOKYOPOP is going to treat you to a collected book gathering up all four volumes into one tight single purchase in a few months (though you’ll have to pay abit more for having your Kingdom Hearts all at once though so be mindful of that). So, either way, TOKYOPOP has you covered with either four easy on the pocketbook pick-ups, or one large collected version for the coffee table… now all you have to decide is whether or not your ready for Kingdom Hearts the Manga. I think you are, by the way, how about you?

Next Time…
We leave Kingdom Hearts V. 2, and… urgh… go “under the sea” for Volume 3 and three worlds themed to the subject of water. First off a not so watery visit to the whale Monstro (and Pinocchio). After that it‘s a stop off over at the world of The Little Mermaid (ugh) and finally a stop off with pirates that DON‘T involve politically correct ride revisions or Orlando Bloom from Lord of the Rings in the world of Peter Pan.
That‘s that otherwise. See you next time, eh?

-- David Rasmussen 29th May 06