Kingdom Hearts II Manga and Novel

After the success of the Kingdom Heart series, Shiro Amano wrote up and illustrated a Kingdom Hearts manga. The Kingdom Hearts manga covered Sora's journey throughout Kingdon Hearts. So it followed him from relaxing at Destiny Islands to landing in a home for creatures who have lost their worlds to a showdown between two friends. It managed to do fairly well in sales in Japan, so the thought on people's minds were if it was to continue. Well soon the release of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories in manga form was released.

Shiro Amano decided to continue with the manga and did both the illustration and script on the manga again. The manga spanned through both Sora and Riku's story modes. This time the characters took a more humorous tone in terms of both the writing and artwork. Both this manga and the first Kingdom Hearts manga have been licensed in English and published by Tokyo Pop.

Now Kingdom Hearts II was released in Japan. In 2006, the team decided to continue the tradition by making the Kingdom Hearts II manga. Shiro Amano returned to do the illustration on the project with Tetsuya Nomura (the games creator) as the author. The manga has been serialized by Shonen Gangan. Tokyopop has licensed the Kingdom Hearts II manga and will release volume one to North America on July 10, 2007. In Japan, only 8 chapters have been completed and released to the general public. The manga seems to take elements from the previous two: the comedy and the tones of writing. It has its light side, but it is much more serious.

A novel soon followed the release of the Kingdom Hearts II manga. The novel was written by Tomoko Kanemaki, while the art was once again done by Shiro Amano. The titles for the four novels are: Roxas- Seven Days, The Destruction of Hollow Bastion, Tears of Nobody and Meet Again/Axel's Last Stand. The first three novels have been released in Japan, and the last is expected sometime soon. The novel holds extra scenes that were not seen in the original game. Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ is expected to pick up these scenes in full 3D glory.