General Kingdom Hearts Manga Discussion

[SweetYetSalty]

So I guess Repliku died offscreen after his random humorous ending in the COM manga.

I'm still bummed by the situation the KH3 manga finds itself in. If given the time and having the freedom it could have been just as good as it's predecessors in some areas.

Honestly with how things have turned out I'm just looking forward to my RAX reunion, the ReMind fights (if they include them, and mainly for the interactions) and to see Shiro Amano draw Xion in her new clothes. Those are the only things I have left to look forward to. The manga version of TAV got cheated in more ways than one. Their only attachment comes their game counterparts. I stand by a manga version of Aqua, Terra, and Ventus would have been amazing.

I can't wait to see Saix's half-assed offscreen redemption play out here. He was even more hateable in the manga so when they play the sympathy-X card with this spawn of Satan I am going to get my popcorn out and have a good laugh. This has become my new guilty pleasure.

 

[KudoTsurugi]

So I guess Repliku died offscreen after his random humorous ending in the COM manga.

I'm still bummed by the situation the KH3 manga finds itself in. If given the time and having the freedom it could have been just as good as it's predecessors in some areas.

Honestly with how things have turned out I'm just looking forward to my RAX reunion, the ReMind fights (if they include them, and mainly for the interactions) and to see Shiro Amano draw Xion in her new clothes. Those are the only things I have left to look forward to. The manga version of TAV got cheated in more ways than one. Their only attachment comes their game counterparts. I stand by a manga version of Aqua, Terra, and Ventus would have been amazing.

I can't wait to see Saix's half-assed offscreen redemption play out here. He was even more hateable in the manga so when they play the sympathy-X card with this spawn of Satan I am going to get my popcorn out and have a good laugh. This has become my new guilty pleasure.

If you count the omake as canon, then yes
But I think the flashback Riku had while explaining Replicas implies there’s a retcon that the fight was played straight offscreen(or page in this case)

 

[Zackarix]

The funny thing is that if they hadn't decided to do a KH3 manga it would have worked perfectly fine as a separate canon. The original trilogy of KH1/CoM/KH2 is already mostly self-contained, and the only other game adapted, Days, is an interquel that doesn't leave any loose ends that aren't already tied up by KH2.

It was the decision to jump straight into KH3 without doing any of the games that lead into it that messed things up.

 

[KeybladeLordSora]

If you count the omake as canon, then yes
But I think the flashback Riku had while explaining Replicas implies there’s a retcon that the fight was played straight offscreen(or page in this case)

The manga retcon would be Repliku and Riku even meeting at all cuz Amano just omitted the guy once he got the lobotomy.

 

[KeybladeLordSora]

....welp.
I figured. Repliku just fucking erased.

 

[KudoTsurugi]

They’re gonna have to show him at some point. Dark Riku is still a thing, even if he hasn’t been shown yet.
Unless Amano is making an semi-alternate ending like he did with CoM.
If I’m not mistaken, I think we skipped over the Twilight Town kids meeting Ansem and went straight to where this chapter starts.

Those aside, I do like that Ienzo actually DID THE SMART THING and called security when Demyx showed up

Sure we, the reader, know he wasn’t a threat, but they didn’t know that. Also, seeing the former pupils crying at their master’s return was kinda nice. Otherwise, it’s pretty much what I expected: Sora and co meeting back at Yen Sid’s, everyone having their moments together(mostly), and ending with Sora and Kairi sharing a Paopu Fruit.

 

[KeybladeLordSora]

Every scene featuring Ansem the Wise except the Ienzo one was skipped.

And Dark Riku showing up will just be another outta nowhere feeling thing since SAN FRANSOKYO WAS DELETED.

This doesn't just feel inferior to the game, it straight up is inferior. It cuts and shortens way too much.

The damn prologue didn't end until just over halfway through ffs because Amano or SE somehow didn't think a seperate short 0.2 manga was a good idea so chapters that could've been used for KH3 were actually wasted.

 

[KudoTsurugi]

This doesn't just feel inferior to the game, it straight up is inferior. It cuts and shortens way too much.

Pretty much every single manga adaptation of a video game has been abridged in some capacity. It’s not just KH.

A lot of the Legend of Zelda games adapted to manga by Akira Himekawa are 1-2 manga volumes long, with the exception of Twilight Princess at 11 volumes. Skyward Sword only got a prologue one-shot.

Most of the manga in the .hack// franchise are roughly 1-3 volumes. As for their game adaptations, .hack//XXXX attempted to adapt the original 4 games(Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, Quarantine) in just 2 volumes, while .hack//G.U.+ adapted the G.U. trilogy(Rebirth, Reminisce, Redemption) in 5 volumes.

Even the multiple manga adaptations in the Persona franchise had to cut out and change certain elements to fit the medium.

The only major outliers in these kinds of adaptations are Pokemon Adventures/Special manga adapting multiple games in succession(3 volumes at smallest, 8-9 volumes at largest) and the Dragon Quest manga, The Adventure of Dai.
And even then, Dai didn't even adapt an existing game, it's a manga original story.

Am I saying these shorter adaptations are bad because of their length? Of course not. Because if that were true, we probably wouldn’t have had a Twilight Princess manga by Akira Himekawa if fans didn’t like their adaptations. And even to this day, Persona fans will have a protagonist name that they prefer to call them by, even when the anime names them something different.

The damn prologue didn't end until just over halfway through ffs because Amano or SE somehow didn't think a seperate short 0.2 manga was a good idea so chapters that could've been used for KH3 were actually wasted.

If 0.2 was originally supposed to be the prologue to KH3, it makes more sense to have it be in the KH3 manga. Besides if it wasn’t, there’s a risk that it might never have been brought over to the West, much like TWEWY’s one-shots.

Look, KH3’s manga isn't perfect, I will never claim it is. And for all my feelings on the game’s ending and the DLC’s story choices, they happened whether I like it or not. And I don’t expect the manga’s ending to be that much different.

Am I bummed that we won't get to see Monsters Inc or Big Hero 6 in a KH manga? Of course, I am.
Do I wish whoever is in charge of Gangan at Square would get off Amano’s back and let them tell those stories? Absolutely.

But there are worse things in this world to complain about than every time a character or world I like doesn’t show up. I’d rather focus on what does show up rather than laser focus on what’s missing. I may comment on it, but I won’t dwell on it.

 

[KeybladeLordSora]

Forgive me but what isn't there is all I can focus on because there's basically nothing else. Other manga adaptations no doubt had something unique about them to set them apart from their game counterparts, like how the Zelda ones usually make Link talk and give him a personality or in MM's case give Majora an origin.

Or like how the previous KH mangas had that "Amano charm" to them.

The KH3 manga...just feels incredibly mid and basic. What is there just feels like a lesser version of the game and what isn't feels real obvious. Like Vexen's choice to atone, since the last time he showed up in the manga was literally his introduction. Or how since every scene with AtW except the Ienzo reunion isn't included, the scene that basically shows how Aqua became Anti-Aqua is gone so the first time you see her in the manga outside of the 0.2 portion is just...bam she bad.

Plus how it just feels like a ton of scenes are shortened and feel crunched so things had a weird fast pace.

I just can't see much good about this adaptation aside from some of the art since it just feels like "The game but shorter and less cohesive"

 

[PikaPal]

They’re gonna have to show him at some point. Dark Riku is still a thing, even if he hasn’t been shown yet.
Unless Amano is making an semi-alternate ending like he did with CoM.
If I’m not mistaken, I think we skipped over the Twilight Town kids meeting Ansem and went straight to where this chapter starts.

Those aside, I do like that Ienzo actually DID THE SMART THING and called security when Demyx showed up
View attachment 16330
Sure we, the reader, know he wasn’t a threat, but they didn’t know that. Also, seeing the former pupils crying at their master’s return was kinda nice. Otherwise, it’s pretty much what I expected: Sora and co meeting back at Yen Sid’s, everyone having their moments together(mostly), and ending with Sora and Kairi sharing a Paopu Fruit.

They may still be mute but somehow Dilan and Aeleus have done more than they did in the game just off this one panel alone.

 

[KudoTsurugi]

New chapter on the way, we’re officially starting the Keyblade Graveyard arc.


Though I am confused by the preview choice, because my brain just went to overthinking that we’re getting an alternate timeline for how this plays out, like skipping the bad end or Sora fighting the Lich and going straight to the fights, but that’s probably not what happens. We’ll probably have another abridging of events, but I don’t expect they’ll be skipped entirely.

 

[KeybladeLordSora]

New chapter on the way, we’re officially starting the Keyblade Graveyard arc.
View attachment 16348

Though I am confused by the preview choice, because my brain just went to overthinking that we’re getting an alternate timeline for how this plays out, like skipping the bad end or Sora fighting the Lich and going straight to the fights, but that’s probably not what happens. We’ll probably have another abridging of events, but I don’t expect they’ll be skipped entirely.

Oh, so NOW a Repliku shows up.

Talk about being late to the party.

Edit: From what I'm hearing, skipping straight to the labyrinth is exactly what happens.

 

[KudoTsurugi]

Really?? So no bad end and no Sora fighting the Lich? Huh… maybe this will be an alternate timeline. If we’re skipping ahead like this, maybe Sora won’t disappear at the end of the story…. unless they decide to add that detail in through flashback.

 

[PikaPal]

Repliku: "Oh hey guys, so uhhh what did I miss?"

Riku: "Quite a lot actually."

 

[KeybladeLordSora]

Bruh

The chapter is only 13 pages long.

It quite literally skips straight ahead to the crossroads/labyrinth where the GoL are immediately separated from each other. SDG aren't but just...decide to split up.

Dark Riku's here as if he's been introduced earlier when this is LITERALLY his first fucking appearance in the KH3 manga outside of a damn CoM flashback. Like he's on the first damn page as if he's always been around and Amano isn't just hastily shoving him in cuz he friggin removed San Fransokyo

Because Amano is terrible at doing anything resembling a good fight scene, we're treated to a wonderful page of Xigbar going for the shooting at Riku thing with Sora blocking from the fight's second intro, Dark Riku summoning the damn Xehastand and apparently trying to make it swipe at S and R I guess because the damn paneling is hard to comprehend, and uh

I'm straight up assuming Dark Riku ends up hitting Xigbar instead??? I GUESS??? Neither Sora and Riku do anything except dodge and then we just see a panel of Xigbar bein knocked back and then just...dying on the next page looking bummed without Sora or Riku even talking to the guy. Man doesn't even do the death fakeout of falling off the wall. Oh, Ansem was here but compared to the game he doesn't even participate he just dips immediately.


Dark Riku is apparently dying already and tries to attack Riku only for Repliku to show up and do the thing from the game, with the only addition to the scene being Amano doing a crappy humor attempt via Sora going "DUHHH THREE RIKUS?!"


Repliku brings up the scene with Riku and his voice from the RoD so I'm assuming he's responding to Riku prolly going "wait wtf" and then the two Replikus fuck off like the game I guess. I think Naminé is mentioned cuz she just has to be even tho she has even less presence than the game.

Biggest takeaway is that if you put the Manga Org against the Game Org the latter would prolly win cuz man, Xigbar went out like a bitch.

 

[PikaPal]

It quite literally skips straight ahead to the crossroads/labyrinth where the GoL are immediately separated from each other. SDG aren't but just...decide to split up.

Oof. Sounds like the Keyblade Graveyard stuff will be just as rushed as everything else.

Not giving me much hope for Roxas/Axel/Xion and Terra/Aqua/Ventus's sections.

 

[KudoTsurugi]

I’m not going to bother arguing about the content in the chapter as I haven’t seen it yet. But in regards to the chapter length, I’m going to assume Amano’s just splitting chapters in to chunks just to get the manga out on time and minimise hiatuses. This isn’t the first time this has happened. It’s happened at least once per world in this manga starting with Toy Box.
Heck, the chapter is listed as Chapter 34-1 on the website, so there’s probably a 34-2(or 34.5 if we followed Yen Press’ old naming scheme) on the way.

 

[KeybladeLordSora]

I just love how Amano didn't even try to properly introduce Dark Riku.

Cutting out the first half of the world which featured a scene that could have been used as his intro didn't help matters either.

This chapter feels like we just skipped a few chapters between it and 33. The pacing is just...bad.

Do I even need to mention that Sora still hasn't even run into Luxord before this?

 

[Zackarix]

This feels kind of like an imitation of someone renting a game or borrowing one from a library. At first you're just playing the game and taking the time to enjoy it, then suddenly the due date is coming up and there's no option to renew, so you're rushing through the final levels and skipping cutscenes in an attempt to finish the game before the late fees hit.

 

[KudoTsurugi]

It feels less like that and more like Amano wants to tell the story but isn’t given enough chapters to do it.

Recently, Martial Master Asumi, a Shonen Jump manga about MMA or mixed-martial arts(note how the title matches the abbreviation), which started in June last year, was building up to the main character facing off against his older brother in the ring. It ended this past week at 32 chapters, most likely due to ranking low on popularity polls, ending with a cliffhanger as the brothers started the first round. Yes, it was announced that the final volume of this series will have some extra content, which will probably resolve it, but the editors at Shueisha still made the decision to pull the plug and cancel the serialisation.

I don’t know if this is what’s actually happening behind the scenes at Square’s publishing section, since they own Gangan Comics and its anthologies, but it could well be the case.

On topic of this chapter, it is an interesting choice to have Donald and Goofy with Sora in the maze. From context/hindsight, they probably went to help Mickey while Sora helps Riku. Might not be much help, but it’s not like Yen Sid needs it given how powerful he is. Would have been nice to see a longer fight play out for Xigbar and Dark Riku, but we’re probably on speed run mode for now

As for Sora’s reaction to seeing good Repliku.. what else were you excepting? He has no memories of Castle Oblivion thanks to the events of CoM, has not met Dark Riku in this continuity until this battle(and yes, I get it, it sucks), and suddenly he sees yet another Riku pop out of his best friend like a JoJo Stand and stick his hand in Dark Riku’s chest to painfully rip his soul/heart out of the Replica body?



Yeah that “what the heck” face would be my reaction too. Plus, ACTUALLY ACKNOWLEDGING HE COULD SEE REPLIKU in this scene is much better in my eyes than implying only Riku could see him in that scene in-game. While it worked for the scene on the island, and the game moment is touching in isolation, it feels more awkward when the game implies that in Sora’s POV Riku is talking at thin air. WE know he’s talking to Repliku in the scene, but it would have been nice to see some acknowledgment from Sora in-game for that scene.