Kingdom Hearts

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

Kingdom Hearts V. 4

By David Rasmussen
20th Aug 06

At long last the time has finally come to pass.
After much time waiting for it, and waiting for it, we have finally come to the end of the first storyarc of the Kingdom Heart manga franchise. The end of Kingdom Hearts (original), based on the original game of the same name (of course).

The first title out of the starting gate in the TOKYOPOP affordable manga line (short pops of manga at the pocket saving price of $6 a pop/$4.50 a pop from Right Stuf International), the title finally wraps with it’s final installment for the time being. Of course that doesn’t mean that you won’t be without low cost manga for… oh, wait… you will except for ONE thing but more on that later. Let’s wrap this up.

That’s it. No more world visiting. We’re closing this down with the trip to Hollow Bastion (which will become your base of operations in Kingdom Hearts II) and the moment when Riku steals the Keyblade from Sora, which brings about a meeting with him and Beast (Beauty and the Beast) which leads to that dramatic moment when Sora takes the Keyblade back and Ansem stands revealed at long last (or does he?)

Sora finally gets back to Kairi (doesn’t last dammit), the final battle is fought and… disappointment… we end the series with Sora and Kairi being split up and two volumes of nonsequiter “Episode II” stuff with Chain of Memories coming up (as the story ends it kicks off where Chain of Memories begins, of which I have a preview coming for you on that one).

But the story, just for edification sake, won’t really kick back in until we get back to Kingdom Hearts II… how that turns out, though, even I won’t know because I didn’t finish the game yet! Guess I have to do more than just rent the game, like buy the game and play it to completion eventually… but that’s it for now.

So that’s that. Kingdom Hearts is, for now, over. Yes, we do have Chain of Memories to “look” forward to but what else is there… wait, I’ll get to that at the end.
Speaking of end look for the brief little fieldtrip down to the Hundred Acre Woods at the end of this one (replacing the bonus material from previous volumes as the “bonus” of Kingdom Hearts V. 4).
I wish this one shot story was longer, and that Rabbit and Eyore made a more impressive appearance (like in the game) but at least they showed up and were not skipped over, and that at least is something.
Now the breakdown.

Kingdom Hearts Heartless Breakdown the Finale
(NOTE - Yes, this IS the finale because next review breakdown will be entitled “KH-CofM Breakdown”, just so you know.)

What’s Hot?
It’s over and… eh? I thought people said choke worlds were missing from this one but for the life of me I barely missed what was missing. I know, I know, two obvious worlds stick out in memory as being omitted, those being the non-Disney copyrighted worlds of Tarzan (which is still held tight by the estate of Tarzan’s late creator) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (which is still held tight NOT by the estate of the series’ not late and quite living creator, aka Tim Burton -- dude, I damn well hope you went and loosened up the tightwad strings a little for the Kingdom Hearts II manga because, damn, what‘s your damage with not allowing the manga version of the Nightmare Before Christmas!) but I can’t think of any other worlds that I missed from this game that didn’t make it into the manga. In fact I am darn certain a majority of the worlds did indeed get front and center (maybe not the summonings sure but at least most of the worlds).

That and the fact that this is a downright cost effective title for the manga reader on a budget? What is not to like about that? I can’t find fault in this one, no sir.

What’s Not?
That we have to go through Chain of Memories before we get to the star studded (or at least world packed), I’m damn certain Disney milked Pirates of the Caribbean in the manga since technically the manga should have been out this year which means it was a great time to promote PotC2:Dead Man’s Chest with it in the manga Kingdom Hearts, Christopher Lee featured (in the game), return to Tron world that actually worked including voices that worked (if they were not the original actors reprising their roles) Kingdom Hearts II manga… phew! That was a mouthful!

Moments to Remember?
All this time and we FINALLY see a touching moment between Sora and Kairi… hope you can wait for eternity since it might be this side of FOREVER before we’re treated to THAT again!
Oh, and Kairi’s ending scene at the last pages is beautiful too.

What to Ignore?
We won’t get another beautiful Kairi moments for… what… MONTHS?!? Damn MONTHS?!?
(If I was capable of doing so I’d cry right about now… think I’ll save it for Kingdom Hearts II though.)

Overall?
At last we have come to the end… and now we’re left holding the emotional bag (gosh it’s squishy) as we wait forever for Kingdom Hearts II and the true continuation of this story. Yeah, as you probably noted by now I wasn’t all that hot on Kingdom Hearts : Chain of Memories (if you read my review of the game for… of all things… the GameBoyAdvance you’d know why I was down on it).

Let’s hope TOKYOPOP doesn’t linger forever before rewarding us with Kingdom Hearts II.
While I’m wishing I’d like -- uh -- (cough cough) -- forget I just thought that. Sorry.
Now what I’ve been beating around the bush with. What’s next.

Right now the only thing I know of that you can look forward to in the $6 price tagged title is a new work from Alex de Campi (you might remember that as one of the talents from Kat & Mouse, another one of TOKYOPOP’s price budgeted $6 a pop reads that I gave a good score to recently reviewwise).
New out this September is Agent Boo, which I’ll have a review of in the coming weeks.
I’ll spend sometime on my Chain of Memories first look, by the way, looking at Agent Boo just so you have abit of substance to listen to then. Just so you know.

Otherwise good luck on finding any $6 a pop titles.
Kingdom Hearts : Chain of Memories… when will that come out? I’ll have a hopeful word on that in the first look.

Just don’t hold your breath for Kat & Mouse. Originally slated for November of 2006 it looks to be bumped all the way back to January of next year. So much for getting the next volume for review in a timely and orderly manner.

And then there’s Agent Boo. If Kat & Mouse is any indication don’t expect to see Agent Boo V. 2 this year.

But that, as they say, is that. Let’s agree to meet at the tos-- uh, no… I mean let’s meet at Chain of Memories V. 1 (first look) for more on the above. Otherwise that’s that.
And yes, Kingdom Hearts V. 4 gets what is listed on it’s cover as the series wraps. A 4... out of 5.

-- David Rasmussen 20th Aug 06