Before I get into manga itself I want to start up the Anticlimactic Meter. If you read my pervius review(mostly recapping I know) you may remember me saying that several actions took place off screen, will volume 2 tries to up stage that by having set ups that fall flat. But how many you ask well that's what the Anticlimactic Meter is here for. Anyway lets begin.
So we open up with the battle between Sora and Cerberus which is over in one hit from Sora..... it is quickly reveled that Hercules already weaken Cerberus which is why the fight was over before it began. Anticlimactic Meter-1. Yes I know this is what happen in the game as well and it was played for laughs but here's why I added it to the Anticlimactic Meter. 1. Volume 1 ended with the cliffhanger of the trio about to fight Cerberus and this is the outcome,2. Let's say someone who read the first volume never played the first game and after reading the first one they waited for the second volume to see the outcome of the fight only for it to end in one hit and that it ended that way because of a character who won't appear again till another manga series. Anyway after this Sora is high on his "victory" and thinks he can push a pedestal that he couldn't move last volume(which I neglected to mention). Sora is able to push the pedestal with help from Donald and Goofy "but I didn't see a yellow symbol on the floor", when moved the pedestal is shown to have covered Olympus Coliseum's Keyhole which is promptly sealed. And so our heroes leave to continue their journey also receiving a Gummi piece from Cloud.
level. But you better pray you win the other
piece in Rock,Paper,Scissor"
But Wait!!! What about Hades? you ask. Well after Cerberus was defeated Hades while pissed off went to the Coliseum's washroom and after accidentally destroying a sink it cause a whirlpool that sweeps him away....ah..um...Anticlimactic Meter-2. I mean really sure it is pretty funny but not only was this cause because Hercules sucks at being a janitor but Sora and company didn't even know Hades was a member of the Disney Villain Gang, and guess what Hades won't be seen again till the Kingdom Hearts 2 manga.
Alright so after leaving Olympus Coliseum our heroes are quickly eaten by the giant whale Monstro. So after passing out(for some reason) and waking up our heroes meet Pinocchio, who is quickly greeted by... JIMINY ?! Who the hell is this strange bug we've only see in about a 2 panels? This is one of the things that really really really doesn't work in the manga, Jiminy's purpose. OK so for people who never play the first game or 2 Jiminy main point in the game is that he keeps a journal of the journey,what this means is he keeps a record of every character,enemy,world,etc, though for some reason Chernabog isn't included. This however doesn't translate well to other media, hell in the games outside of Montsro in the first game and a world in Dream Drop Distance Jiminy only has small presence in Chain of Memories and Coded. What's my point. well in the manga his role is so meaningless that when he shows up here it's almost like they just made up a character. Really I think it would have been better had this been where he first meets the trio and joins them on their journey before leaving. Wow that went on longer than I wanted it to, anyway our heroes learn that Pinocchio is here in Monstro along with Geppetto, why the two are here is never stated but whatever. So Geppetto is trying to build a Gummi ship so they can escape and after Pinocchio goes off to find some more Gummi he is captured by another boss Heartless named Parasite Cage who shock of all shock did this under orders from Riku(GASP!!) wait we already kinda knew he was working for the bad guys. Riku chose to be vague saying Pinocchio might be the key to saving Kairi before leaving telling Sora he'll save Kairi on his own, As the trio fight Parasite Cage we cut over to Riku and Maleficent. It is reveled that Kairi has lost her heart and Riku is helping Maleficent to tri and find a way to restore her heart. Maleficent tell Riku(and the audience) that there are seven maidens across the worlds who they called the Princesses of Hearts and that when all seven are brought together the door to the heart of all worlds will open, Riku believes he will find a way to restore Kairi's heart there. We cut back to our heroes who have defeated Parasite Cage OFFSCREEN!!!... I would count this to the Anticlimactic Meter but the fight did happen we just didn't see it because of plot. So despite Riku saying Pinocchio's hearts was gone he is fine and is brought back to Geppetto who has set a fire to get Monstro to sneeze so they can escape in finished his Gummi Ship. However it only has room for four so he will have to stay behind while the others escape. Oh no it's not like our heroes don't have their own ship they can escape on and oh wait..Anticlimactic Meter-3. Yeah I know this was kinda play for laugh but really this whole scene didn't need to be if Donald just said they had their own ship when they met Geppetto, but he couldn't because..................................................................................................................................................................................................because. So Pinocchio and Geppetto are on their way to home I mean Traverse Town if you play the game, while our heroes are sent out of control toward Atlantica.
So after crashing in Atlantica we get a little pointless scene I actually kinda like it, our heroes are still in the Gummi Ship looking at the undersea world before venturing out. Now why do I like this scene if it's pointless? because it adds a little thing that I feel enhances the experiences and makes the the world feel more alive as oppose to how static the games can sometimes get. We'll see better examples in later series but I still really like this little touch. Anyway our heroes leave the Gummi Ship being turn into half sea creatures by Donald's magic;Goofy becomes a sea turtle(though unlike the games he doesn't carry his shield on his shell),Sora turns into a merperson(?) who is part dolphin(I assume) based on his dorsal fin but what's weird is he doesn't has the fins(?) around his waist like the merpeople have in the Little Mermaid movie, and lastly Donald turns into a cephalopod seeing as he now has six tentacles under his waist. After seeing themselves as unholy abominations our heroes are meet by Ariel, Flounder, and Sebastian who are soon attack by Heartless who our heroes quickly defeat, offscreen of course. Now that I think about maybe I should have started a offscreen meter as well. After the scuffle our heroes arrive at the undersea palace where they meet King Triton, now here's another weird thing how come Triton has nipples but Sora doesn't? Yes I know Triton had them in the movie as well but this isn't the movie and it's the same case as the game as well. Anyway Triton is angry at Ariel for leaving the palace with Heartless running amok, one wonders if he's this worried about his other daughters, which is what seven all together. Goofy tries to ask about the Keyhole which enrages Triton making him and Ariel get into another fight over the idea of helping the trio, so she storms off with everyone but Sebastian following. Ariel decides to take the trio to her grotto(where her collection of random surfaces stuff is) no doubt to sing Part of your World but oh no the collection was destroyed by Triton which causes Ariel to flee in tears. Donald berates Triton but he explains it was the Heartless, he also revels he knows our heroes are from another world(s) and tell them to leave Atlantica for violating scared principles(getting involve with their businesses),in the end this exchange comes off as pretty pointless so because Triton wasted the readers time and I wasted your time explaining it I'm going to add it the Anticlimactic Meter for being so wasteful, Anticlimactic Meter-4. Anyway, after feeling Ariel while crying is greeted by Ursula(along with her henchmen Floatsem and Jetsem) who says she can grant Ariel wish to see the outside world if Ariel gives Ursula her voi.. I mean her father's trident,boy wouldn't the Little Mermaid been a much different movie if that was the deal. So Ariel steals the Trident giving it to Ursula who quickly turns Triton into one of those weird things from the movie while also having her speech balloons go back and froth to being white and black. Our heroes jump into actions and along with Ariel head for Ursula's lair where Ariel makes the sea witch accidentally killed Floatsem and Jetsem with the Trident pissing off Ursula so much she turns giant attacking grabbing our heroes with her tentacles, also Ursula speech balloons have all turned black.
Hetai with your Tentacle Hentai"
Our heroes are freed when a ship crashes into Ursula leaving the trio to beat Ursula, I actually really like this short fight as all three of our heroes help to stop Ursula; with Donald blasting a Blizzard spell in her eyes, Goofy tripping her up and Sora smacking the Trident out of the sea witch's hands causing her to be blasted by the Trident. So the villain is defeated Triton is turned back to normal(along with countless other merpeople), Triton and Ariel make up, and Triton revels the Keyhole location, to be in Ariel's grotto. Now do you see how pointless the previous exchange was, all Triton had to say was "here's the Keyhole now leave and never return", really it might have worked because the trio didn't know about Ursula. Anyway our heroes find a page from Ansem's research notes and leave for another world.
As our heroes are in the Gummi Ship they are contacted by Cid who tells them Aertih has made a summery of the notes they found giving some info on Ansem. We learn that Ansem was a scholar from the world that Cid &Company were from and that he was well respected among the masses even governing over the world. However that all change when Ansem discovered the Heartless, Ansem became so obsess with studying the Heartless and in turn the heart itself he made a machine to make his own artificial Heartless because that's the logical path. I should also note that artificial Heartless or Emblem Heartless as they are officially know are not really heartless seeing as they are powered by hearts stolen by Pure Blood Heartless(the official term for normal Heartless) but they are "born" heartless so it's still kinda clever. Anyway our heroes come to the conclusion that Maleficent is abusing this machine and speak of the devil the Gummi Ship is attack by a pirate ship commanded by Captain Hook the final member of the Disney Villain Gang.
Our heroes are captured with Sora being brought to the..bow..stern..port of the ship (I don't know nor do I care) where Riku is (along with a heartless Kairi) so he can gloat to Sora about being able to command the Heartless, after pointlessly summoning a shadow of Sora he has him dropped into the ship's hold..brig..whatever ship terms are stupid, where Donald and Goofy are. Luckily our trapped heroes are found by Peter Pan, unfortunately, Pan believes Sora to hold the heart of the true believer but he is proven wrong. Anywho enough of that pointless reference. Peter explains that he along with Tinker Bell are here to save Wendy who was captured by Captain Hook under orders from Riku too see if Wendy was one of the Princess of Hearts, however she isn't. Peter agrees to help our heroes out(though Wendy is his biggest concern) having Tinker Bell covered the three in pixie dust allowing them to fly, but the three fail, everyone heads to the hold where Wendy along with Kairi are being held. Unfortunately Smee plus some Heartless come to collect the two, Peter saves Wendy but Riku escapes with Kairi and Hook captures Tinker Bell, well 1 out of 3 is...OK? Sora tries to chase after Riku but is slow down but the Shadow Sora who Sora takes out in one hit, Anticlimactic Meter-5, I'm adding this to the meter because the Shadow Sora was a Heartless(?) boss from the game taken out in one hit, something that hasn't been done or will again,though there is one other Heartless boss but we'll get to that. Anyway Hook threatens to kill(maybe) Tinker Bell unless Sora surrenders over the Keyblade or Sora walks the plank with the Crocodile waiting underneath, Hook retreats after hearing the Crocodile leaving Smee to oversee Sora walking the Plank. Sora walks the plank after a returning Peter Pan yells out that Sora can fly if he believes he can thus Sora is able to fly(Donald and Goofy also learn to fly) saving himself from the Crocodile.
The heroes defeat the Heartless, rescue Tinker Bell, Smee runs and Peter tricks Hook to fall in the ocean where the Crocodile is waiting leaving Hook to flee along with a retreating Smee. Our heroes head into Neverland to pick up Wendy to bring her home to London where the Keyhole is also located, so is there actually a Keyhole in Neverland or is London a different world? So Sora bids Peter and Wendy farewell while Donald and Goofy play Rock,Paper,Scissors with the Lost Boys to win treasure, which also includes another page from Ansem's research.
After leaving London our heroes head towards Maleficent's base at the world of Hollow Bastion(Hook had mention it after Riku left his ship. The three arrive in Hollow Bastion where they find The Beast trying to fight Riku as it turns out Maleficent had captured Belle and destroyed their world though Beast survive and made his way to Hollow Bastion by sheer willpower. Sora confront Riku though Riku tells Sora that he could never control the Keyblade summoning the Keyblade to himself, which in turn causes Donald to Goofy to follow Riku as their orders from King Mickey was to find the Keybearer(and to lesser extent follow). Now my biggest problem with this in both the game and manga is the amount of time it takes the two too leave Sora, sure I get their logic because they're sure that if follow the Keybearer they be reunited with King Mickey I'm just saying I think there should had been more doubt about leaving their friend. So after being abandon Sora teams up with the Beast as both want to save someone close to them, the two fight their way through Heartless, which should be impossible because if I remember correctly the wooden sword is equip with can't hurt Heartless and sucks with magic but whatever. The duo make their way inside Hollow Bastion's castle where they are split up as Beast runs off after he sees Belle who turns into a Heartless leaving Sora at Riku's mercy. Riku getting pissed off at Sora tries to end with a darkness attack but Goofy blocks the attack saying he can't abandon Sora even if it means disobeying their king, Donald rejoins Sora and Goofy though because this is kinda played for a laugh it's a little confusing why. Is it because he doesn't want to alone Riku? Is he jealous of Goofy for having a good moment? or is it just because he didn't think Goofy would go against their king's order so he kept quiet but was taken a back by Goofy's action? Really with Donald it is kinda hard to tell with the guy, I mean this is the same duck who was once a Nazi. So after the trio is reunited Sora is able to reclaim the Keyblade with the power of friendship, Riku attempts to fight the three by as to retreat due to the darkness being too much for him where he soon meets the man in the robe who encourages Riku to fully embrace the darkness, afterwards Riku meets up with a disgruntled Maleficent who is questioning why the the Keyhole to Darkness won't open despite having all Princesses of Hearts, I should also note that other than a cover for one chapter we are never told who all the Princesses of Hearts are as such I will, the seven are; Belle,Alice,Jasmine,Cinderella,Snow White,Aurora, and Kairi. So as our villain is waiting for the Keyhole of Darkness(or Door to Darkness which I shall to refer to it as) Riku betray her impaling with a Keyblade he had acquired after he embraced the darkness, our heroes arrive as Maleficent's body disappears. I'm debating adding this to the Anticlimactic Meter because on the one hand Maleficent isn't the main villain but on the other hand we miss out on Sora and company fighting a dragon,ah screw it, Anticlimactic Meter-6. After seeing Riku disposed of Maleficent Sora doesn't believe this to be his friend as such "Riku" introduces himself as Asem the Seeker of Darkness, now you might think that since we just saw Riku the man in the brown robe so he must be Ansem? Well if you played Dream Drop Distance than you'll know that's not the case. Ansem explains to Sora that Kairi's heart is inside Sora so it is impossible for Kairi to regain life nor is it possible for the Door to Darkness to open fully or close, as such Ansem suggest Sora used Ansem's Keyblade on himself to release Kairi's heart which Sora does returning Kairi her heart(as well as the other Princesses for some reason) but also fully opens the Door to Darkness. After Sora disappears and Kairi is revive we are formally introduced to Ansem who is very very black, I don't mean he has dark skin I mean his skin is pitch black, this doesn't make sense for two reason;1. This isn't how he looks in the game and 2. This isn't how he will look in the Chain of Memories manga. Anyway Kairi,Donald, and Goofy are force to retreat while Ansem is held back Riku using all his willpower, as the trio make their escape a random Heartless appears who Kairi realizes is Sora and after Kairi hugs HeartlessSora he is returned to his original self.
Heartless look the same!
Goofy- Donald, that's racist A-hyuck"
As Ansem leaves everyone returns to Door to Darkness to seal it but oh no a Behemoth(another Heartless boss) emerges what ever will our heroes do..oh Cid takes it out with some random machine, yeah I adding this to the meter because this the second Heartless boss not giving a proper fight, sure the battle with Parasite Cage might have been offscreen but at least it happened, Anticlimactic Meter-7. So the Door to Darkness is seal and our heroes as leaving to where Ansem is they are told by Leon and company that once the world are restored the world will be cut off from each other and not even a Gummi Ship will be able to travel between so everyone will return to their original worlds never to see each other again, until Kingdom Hearts 2 comes along and says screw that. So Kairi tries to leave to with our trio saying how she and Sora made it this far by sticking together and how she wants to save Riku just as much as Sora, however explains that they don't need to stick together to be together as their hearts are connected, I'm bringing this up because I don't remember(and I'm too lazy to watch a Let's Play or the like) how this scene played out in the game, but the ending is the same as Kairi gives Sora her good luck charm, and with that Sora, Donald, and Goofy are off to save all worlds. Meanwhile Riku is wandering around the darkness where a mysterious voice saying maybe it was faith for the two of them to be here to close the door.
So our heroes arrive at The End of all Worlds(which isn't named in the manga) and after fighting some Heartless come across an area which houses portals to all the worlds they visited.
on the meter?
This is something from the game that I though didn't make any sense, are they trying to say all the worlds are gone now(which could work better in the manga sure) but no you can travel back to previous worlds if you chose or is it that all the worlds are now connected by darkness. Anyway our trio arrive to what's left of Destiny Islands where they meet Ansem who explains how easy it was to control Riku before transporting them all to where Kingdom Hearts(the heart of all worlds) resided and we get our final battle as Ansem is destroyed by the light inside Kingdom Hearts.....wait what. Yes our heroes don't even do anything to stop Ansem they just watch as he is destroyed by light, yes this is how it happen in the game but I also imagined the way he perish so easily was because Ansem was weaken from battling our heroes, but this, this is just sad. I mean seriously how do you a story where our main hero does nothing to stop the main villain, sure Sora,Donald, and Goofy need to be here to save all worlds but what are you trying to say when Ansem meets his end in such an unceremonious way. You know what the meter is going up by two for this boneheaded move Anticlimactic Meter-9. Anyway our heroes soon realize that while Kingdom Hearts did house powerful light that same light was keeping vast darkness which is now trying to escape but unforunatly they can't do it alone but thankfully King Mickey(the voice from earlier) and Riku are on the other of Kingdom Hearts to help seal it. Our heroes are of course uneasy about this as it means Mickey and Riku will be trapped in the darkness but Mickey assures our heroes that there is always a door to the light so they will see each other again. So the darkness is trapped in Kingdom Hearts which also causes all the worlds to return back to normal, Sora sees Kairi on a fragment of their world, Sora reassures Kairi that they will see each other again as their always together and with all the worlds are restored as Kairi is stuck waiting on Destiny Islands for Sora and Rik's return. And thus story ends with the trio on an unknown world trying to figure out how they will see their friends again, just than they see Pluto with a letter from the King letting them that Mickey and Riku are out of the darkness, and the chase after Pluto to read the letter.
Thus end our story, or does it? We have two bonus chapters left. The first involves Sora going to 100 Acre Woods to meet Motorcycle the Pooh..I mean Winnie the Pooh.
I'm skipping this because it's pointless. Our second chapter as our heroes meeting the hidden boss the Unknown while they are still inside Hollow Bastion, the encounter amounts to the Unknown attacking Sora with a electric attack saying some cryptic stuff before leaving, I wish the real the real Unknown boss was that easy. We conclude this chapter(and the manga with) a scene with someone wearing the same outfit as the Unknown while also wielding two Keyblades who demands to Riku(also wearing the same outfit) where Sora is.
OK now let's actually go over the overall story and characters. While Birth by Sleep is my favorite game in the series the first game really is the best from a story point of view, it has a nice simple plot of a young going to find his lost while saving the world(or this case worlds) from destruction from a mindless, dangerous threat. The incision of Disney movies world helps by giving a wide variety of unique for our hero to explore but also gives variants with the villains, whether it's the different types of Heartless or the members of the Disney Villain Gang. So thanks to factors this story can work really well in another medium. Unfortunately countless actions taking place offscreen and several Anticlimactic moments(yes I know I cheated with a couple shut up) hurts it seeing as how the original game was an Action RPG. I am surprise there hasn't been another adaption of this game(or series in general) like say a movie or TV show, I think it could work really well for either.
Sora works well as the dumb hero wanting to save his friends and others and it does work in making him a likable protagonist, but also doesn't leave for him to grow in development.
Riku I feel is the more interesting character as all he wanted was to see other worlds and Ansem took advantage of that dream feeling his heart with darkness out of such a simple desire that truly destroys the kid. In later series we'll see Riku wanted to redeem himself for letting the darkness ruin him and while it made go a little overboard in the games we still get where he's coming from, he wants to redeem himself.
Kairi for the most part doesn't do anything, it's nice the manga included her wanted to go to The End of all Worlds with the others but it was huge mistake(in my opinion anyway) to change how Sora turns back to normal after becoming a Heartless. In the game after she realizes the random Heartless is Sora a group of Heartless surround the two and as they attack Kairi shields Sora to protect, which is what turns him back to normal. The manga scene still gets the caring side of that scene it just I think the original was better. We will get a better than the game Kairi in the Kingdom Hearts 2(as far volume 5 anyway) but we'll get to that some other time.
While the the Heartless work as a huge threat to the worlds and poise a challenge to our heroes several time(more so in volume 1) Ansem and Maleficent just don't work all that great as villains in the manga. While Ansem does control Riku and almost destroys all worlds the fact our heroes didn't need to do anything to stop him makes him a huge letdown here. The fact Maleficent is stop by Ansem does make for a good twist it also makes her wasted here because we never see what makes her a threat. Hell except for Ursula(and kinda Jafar) all of the Disney Villain Gang is wasted here, we will see improvements with the villains in other adaptions but here like the lack of action really hurts.
There isn't much to say of the Disney characters because like the games they have been kinda simplify with Donald and Goofy being the worst seeing as their main characters. Because of being simplify there really much for Donald and Goofy to grow as characters, their nothing wrong with them but there could have been more.
I have to admit out of all the Kingdom Hearts manga I feel this is the weakest adaption. The story is done well sure and I like the little details which will be improve in later series. However again to repeat myself the lack of action and leasing the villains does really hurt. I think this is fine if you never played the first game and want to get the story without either playing watching someone play the game, and I do think it's a nice little manga to read just that it kinda fails as a adaption. Next time we'll continue the Kingdom Hearts manga with Chain of Memories volume 1, also I might start uploading these reviews on Sundays, just makes more sense for me. Until then this is WinterDeathPeach saying peace out.
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