Creative Staff
Story/Art: Shiro Amano
Translation: Althea and Athena Nibley
What They Say
Here is the continuing the adventure begun in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories! Our new story takes place sometime later, in the quiet little ‘burb called Twilight Town, a place nestled between night and day. Sora, Donald, and Goofy awaken after a long slumber with clouded memories – and continue their search for their friends!
Technical:
The cover here is a nice one of a serene Roxas and Sora leaning back to back as doves fly in the background. The back cover is largely just a summary and the logo, along with a silhouette to act as the background of the image. The book is rather thick, paper quality is good, honorifics are not used, sound effects are left in their original form and translated, and text reads smoothly. Color pages are included at the beginning and as inserts, and character summaries appear throughout the book.
Like with the Chain of Memories Omnibus, the art here is stylized, doing a good job of displaying emotion while also properly capturing the feel of the Disney characters. It’s a nice style with a unique feel to it, and it definitely works well here.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After recalling his recurring dreams of Sora, a young boy named Roxas awakens in Twilight Town. Along with his friends Hayner, Olette, and Pence, he lives a peaceful life, and is currently enjoying the closing days of summer vacation. However, it turns out that his group of friends has been accused of thievery, and as such they’ve decided to hunt down the real thief in order to clear their names. Shockingly, though, they find that the thief has not only been stealing items, but the very word to describe them as well. While out searching for the thief, they run into the bully Seifer and his friends Rai, Fuu, and Vivi. After Roxas lays the smack down on the bossy Seifer, Pence goes to take a picture, only for a mysterious being to swoop in and steal the camera. Roxas follows the strange thief to an old mansion, only to find himself surrounded by a gang of the creatures. Conventional attacks appear useless against them, causing things to look rather grim for our hero, but he is fortunately able to call forth the keyblade just in time. The photos and the “word” photo that were stolen are returned thanks to Roxas, and he and his friends’ names are cleared.
Continuing on, we see DiZ manipulating Roxas from a control room, along with the help of a mysterious stranger wearing an Organization XIII coat. Strange things keep occurring around Roxas, and characters such as Naminé and Axel appear before him, making it clear in the process that Axel and Roxas were once best friends. As Roxas continues to delve deeper, DiZ becomes more and more annoyed, and we learn that the mysterious creatures from before were Nobodies, which are created from the shells left behind when Heartless are created. Furthermore, Roxas was once a member of the Organization, who are apparently all powerful Nobodies who were able to retain their human form. Roxas even gets a chance to communicate (seemingly telepathically) with Kairi, but even though he struggles against his fate, he eventually reunites with Sora, who is Roxas’ “original,” awakening the young hero in the process.
Once Sora has awakened, he and his friends resume their quest, though as they have forgotten the events of Chain of Memories they’re left rather confused as to their sudden change of whereabouts. Sora gets to meet up with Roxas’ friends and ends up surprisingly emotional, showing that Roxas still lives on inside of him in the process. Afterwards, Pete ends up appearing as an apparent henchman of Maleficent, and our heroes meet up with Yen Sid in order to get the gist of what they’re going to be fighting this time around.
The rest of the book is spent showing Leon and company’s progress in settling Hallow Bastion, as well as telling Beast’s story as he is pestered by an Organization member named Xaldin.
In Summary
The Kingdom Hearts II story is off to a solid start with this first omnibus. Though it’s a bit of an abrupt switch to suddenly be following Roxas, it makes for a decent change of pace, as well as a way to bring both new and old readers up to pace. He also has a solid story surrounding him, particularly in the way he interacts with the mysterious Axel, who is certainly a good bit more fleshed out of a character here than in Chain of Memories. Perhaps the biggest change from the previous entry, though, is the all around decrease in silliness. Personally, I found it to be a nice change as it results in a more “balanced” book, with the comedy still existing but in a much less intrusive, abrupt form, but if it was a key element to your enjoyment of the series, you may end up a little disappointed by what is presented here. All in all, an enjoyable read and an interesting start to a new story for the series.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: All Ages
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: July 30, 2013
MSRP: $18.99
