Kingdom Hearts

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

Kingdom Hearts V. 3

By David Rasmussen
18th Jun 06

Looks like this will be the last review for awhile.
While I would like to say we’ll be able to wrap our Kingdom Hearts reviews next week that isn’t going to be happening, especially since we won’t see Kingdom Hearts V. 4 coming out for some weeks to come.
So, with that said, let’s see where we are now.

The journey had just begun as of last volume 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 ended 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.

Now we go into Volume 3, and the next go through.
After the defeat of Cerebus and leaving the world of Hercules, we move from worlds of fire to worlds of water as we first take a stopover inside the digestive tract of Monstro, the gigantic whale thing that swallowed Pinocchio and company. There once again Sora confronts Riku and things don’t go well, but you remember that from the original game (right)?

After that we dive “under the sea” for Act 1 of Little Mermaid, only without the singing and stuff… singing comes in Kingdom Hearts II (how that translates into manga is beyond me).
And then after we do that we’ll head to the land of Peter Pan where Sora FINALLY (finally) catches up to the soul-less Kairi (of course you don’t know THEN that she’s missing her soul since… well… you’ll find out in Kingdom Hearts V.4 is you haven’t seen the original game) only to lose her to Riku, which leads to the road to the final confrontations and the end… eventually.
Breakdown first though.

Kingdom Hearts V. 3 Breakdown
What’s Hot?
Well, even as we roll into this book and get three worlds in one volume we are still short.
No Tarzan, Nightmare Before Christmas (my favorite)… uh… wait… uh… I can’t remember anymore. Well, you do the math. We saw, what, 6 worlds to date. Take the number of worlds missed from the first game, compare, and see if this series truly is missing a lot of worlds or not.

Just for note, I can guarantee that Hollow Bastion will appear in Volume 4. That’s guaranteed.
If you add that as a world that’s seven worlds. I don’t know but it does sound at least a halfway decent lineup for the first game if I had to say anything about it.

So yes, I am still up on this title and still giving it a thumbs up.
New scenes are still not that many, but I still think this book is worth picking up.

What’s Not?
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.
Otherwise is there anything really bad about this? I can’t see anything.

Moments to Remember
The savings, more and more, may be the most memorable about this title that gets you in through the front door. 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)!! And now I can tell you about your second savings title with Kat & Mouse… coming up, let me finish this first.

What to Ignore?
Nothing. This time they didn’t even bother to make Aerith (Aeris) look stupid like they did in the Kingdom Bites extra last volume.

Overall?
A fan favorite SquareEnix/Disney game franchise now in print? What is not recommendable about that! Add to that the cost saving your getting on this ($6 a pop, $4.50 if you go to Right Stuf International) then you got yourself a recommendable title regardless of your present budgeting situation. Nuff said.

Next Time… Kingdom Hearts
We leave Kingdom Hearts V. 3, and… wait… and wait and wait and wait… until July… when the fourth and final volume of the manga comes out. Kingdom Hearts V. 4 wraps up the story and leaves us at the doorway to the 2-volume Chain of Memories mangas (no date of release mentioned yet).
But since we‘re going to have to wait awhile for that let‘s take a break from that and spin towards another cost cutting manga, in this case Ameri-manga, from TOKYOPOP.

Coming Soon… Kat & Mouse V. 1
When you first got ahold of the 90-ish page Kingdom Hearts you were given a cost saving read worth reading, especially if you were a fan of the SquareEnix/Disney game franchise. Now how about a title that is worth reading for a different reason (but also for the same reason of being a cost saving title)?

By Alex De Campi and Federica Manfredi, Kat & Mouse is a slice of school age mystery investigation, without the trappings of bad incarnations you might have seen shilled on TV as of late.
Kat is about to find out that the “high life” of the posh private school she has just moved into is not all it’s cracked up to be, especially when the snobby rich popular kids who go to Kat’s dad’s class (Science) frame the dad for theft of school property. Yeah, “nice” people.

When Kat finds herself a new friend in a rebellious computer “nerd” named, oddly enough, “mouse”, can she and her new pal sink down into the dim darkness of the heart of rich popular kids to find the guilty party in this frame job? That is the question, and the upcoming review, shortly. Stay tuned.

-- David Rasmussen 18th Jun 06