Gummi Ship: Kingdom Hearts, Territoriality, Flow

Somebody out there must like Alice...

2009-12-30T13:02:00.000-08:00

The claim that unbirth from the upcoming PSP version is a mistranslation is, I believe, rather false. Why? Because somebody out there likes Alice rather a lot.

=
= Unbirth

Transmediating Mulan

2009-09-23T18:38:00.000-07:00

I watched Mulan on the airplane from Heathrow to Houston yesterday and paid rather close attention to ideas of transmediation, which is to say, how it moved from the film to the game. The Land of Dragons as Mulan's world is called in the game, is actually a rather easy transmediation/adaptation as there are only two real sources, the film and the game. There is, of course, the rough source from which Disney took the film, the Hua Mulan legend, but as the film was actually a combination of the legend and a short film called China Doll about a girl being whisked away from oppression by a British prince charming (according to Wikipedia). Sidestepping the film's issues of combining a Chinese legend about a tomboy and the Orientalist West to the rescue, the game takes the film at face value.

Cinematic Adaptation
The game begins with a scene of Mushu prepping Mulan to join the army, and reveals that she is a woman pretending to be a man. This scene has similarities to when Mushu reveals himself to Mulan in the movie: both use the dragon shadow to make it appear larger and more frightening. Similarly, there is a fight when Mulan enters the camp between herself and three minor characters. This is repeated in the game, but Sora, Donald and Goofy have a larger role in both starting and continuing the fight. Both of these scenes involve adapting the film script and visual tropes into the game's cutscenes, but also adding the game protagonists.

The movie has a subplot of Shang being promoted to Captain and trainer of the new recruits by his father who goes off to fight Shan Yu. Mushu fakes a letter by the father in order to get Mulan into a battle (and thereby gain fame). This moves the troops to the second camp. In contrast, the game simply has a move to the second camp/town and removes both the father and backstory of Shang. Unlike the segmented adaptations that take scenes, some larger aspects of the film (that are nonetheless minor plot points) are removed and the game progression must be altered to make it fit. In this case, a secondary reason is provided to move to a similar setting (burned camp and large field by a mountain). In order to cover for this alteration (and burn the second camp) the game adds a cave into which Sora goes, skirking his duty, which results in Shan Yu burning the camp (not a town, like in the film). This adds action into the game and results in a switch from Shang's father as focal point to Sora, the player character, as focal point.

Spatial Adaptation
One visual element that is taken almost verbatim is the Emperor's throne room. Within the movie it is seen from a vertical angle. Within the game it is an explorable room that almost exactly reproduces the film version, but in three dimensions. However, I do not know whether the game programers had access to sketches of the Disney animators or if they rendered the world from stills of the film. The courtyard and inner castle hallways are similarly rendered between the film and game. However, other spaces, such as the cave in which Sora is trapped by Shan Yu, are unique to the game and it is unknown from where they get the visuals.

Action Adaptation
Action adaptation is limited within Kingdom Hearts as the game itself has its own activities: you fight, you use magic, you seal world, and the aspects of the worlds/films/stories that reside within the game are (primarily) the narratives and visuals. One world where this is decisively not the case is 100 Acre Woods where Sora actually does certain things that happen within the books. The reasons this sort of adaptation is possible is twofold: one is that Sora simply replaces Christopher Robin. Sora can thus follow the same actions that Christopher Robin follows within the books. However, what holds up this element is that the 100 Acre Woods world is devoid of both Heartless and fighting. It is (in all of the games) a world of mini-games that avoid the action requirement. Rescuing Piglet in the air, throwing Pooh to get the pot off of his head, et cetera, are all adaptations of actions within the books.

Kingdom Hearts has very few action adaptations. They exist within 100 Acre Woods and minorly in some other worlds (you must have Alladin in your party to use Abu to activate certain idols in the Cave of Wonders, etc), but such adaptation is limited. It is almost completely removed in Chain of Memories as the only place where the worlds/original stories have any bearing is in the three rooms per floor that involve boss battles or cutscenes (the action in action rooms is completely standardized other than visual representation). However, Kingdom Hearts II adds a larger number of mini-games and mechanical adaptations into both boss battles and worlds that much better utilize this form of transmediation.

The Mulan world of Kingdom Hearts II's has one major instance of action adaptation: the battle with Shan Yu where you must protect the door to the castle (and thereby the emperor). The game actually takes out all of Shan Yu's henchmen (it turns them all into Heartless who simply swarm the door), which means the cinematic adaptation level has changed. Instead of fighting in front of, within and on top of the castle as Mulan, Shang and friends do in the film, Sora's (and Mulan if the player has decided to have her in the party) battle with Shan Yu takes place entirely outside of the door to the palace.

In the film it is Mulan and company who are bared from entering the castle by Shan Yu and his group who have kidnapped the emperor and taken him inside (they climb up the giant columns to get inside). Then, within the castle Shan Yu breaks down a door in order to follow Mulan. The game takes the two mechanics of breakable door and barring somebody inside the large palace doors and flips it around to fit the game. Shang takes the emperor inside for safety, Shan Yu tries to break the door down and Sora and company prevent Shan Yu from breaking the door. If he (and the Heartless) breaks down the door (or if you die) you lose the fight, if you prevent the breaking of the door and beat him you win. The game adapts a active element of the film into a battle element of the game (Pirates of the Caribbean has a similar adaptation with the 802 coins and immortality as I wrote of previously).

There is a second type of action adaptation within World of Dragons, but it is only somewhat related to the film. After Mulan joins the army there is a song that follows through their pathetic beginnings and ends with them being fully trained. Essentially, it's a hollywood montage that quickens time and shows the troops (and Mulan) learning to fight. The game does not have such a scene and instead features three 'training' missions. The oddity is that at the beginning Sora can fight (both as this is not the first world visited in the game - he goes to Hollow Bastion first and either Land of Dragons or Beast's Castle second, but the real training level is actually Roxas in Twilight Town, so the player has experience, and as Sora as a character has already been in to previous games and is fully experienced fighter in the game world), but Mulan cannot. The training missions thus provide the training of the film, to get her up to snuff, but prove to be an odd aside for Sora and the player as they have no bearing on his quest. However, during this section there is an added 'tension' gauge (also called 士気, which translates to 'morale'). This meter must be kept up by collecting items that enemies drop when defeated and empties with time spent and when hit by enemies. If it ever empties completely the game is over. This gauge only occurs until Sora exclaims that Mulan is a good fighter, and therefore exists as a adaptation of learning, or education for the war situation.

It is also notable that one of the next fights after the tension bar disappears is when the previously mentioned 'door' mechanic is used. On one level such mechanical additions are 'adaptations' (they fit the source/target situations), but on another they are simply a gamewide means of expanding/complicating the fighting engine from its simplicity in the first game.

Other Adaptations
Another element that might be adaptable, or perhaps translatable might be a better word, especially in this situation, is choice. Within movies a character might choose something and thereby exhibit agency. Games attempt to reproduce this in morality options. This is seen in good versus evil morality mechanics of games like Fallout, Fable and KOTOR. In the case of KOTOR it is actually adapting a mechanic from the movie of how to work the light and dark sides of the force (it is doing this rather poorly according to many voices, but that it is attempting to do so is good enough for me here). This is an alternate form of adaptation, but it is one that the Kingdom Hearts game, because of its linearity, does not do.

Finally, I will try to explain the use of the term translation instead of adaptation. In common thought adaptation is a subjective reproduction, but also change of some original element. In contrast, translation is a one to one equivalence of one text to another. This is a very base understanding of both words in that translation cannot ever be a one to one equivalence between source and target text and it always involves subjectivity and politics. Adaptation, then, is a type of willful acknowledgment of the limitations of translation at the same time that it sets itself up as a changed (in some way) text. While the word adaptation might seem closer to the core of the matter in some circles, I would say that all of my above examples are actually types of translation.

Square is to rectangle as adaptation is to translation.

From a recent Shouken Famitsu interview...

2009-08-14T00:08:00.000-07:00

–What is the definition of a heart in Kingdom Hearts?

Nomura: It is the theme of the series. To explain it simply, a person has a body, a soul, and a heart. As an image, the soul is the life source, without it a person would be dead. Since the heart doesn’t have a form, memories play an important part in forming a heart. Also, the heart isn’t limited to people, but to all things. I tried to explain this concept to Disney, and they merely said that it must be an Eastern way of thinking. It may be interesting how overseas players think of it.

Translation of interview available here.

Some Japans.

2009-08-13T22:30:00.000-07:00

In a recent interview, Tetsuya Nomura noted: "If Sora was a country child, Roxas would be the urban child." Reflecting this are two of the areas created by Square-Enix (rather than Disney) - Sora's Destiny Islands, a nostalgic archipelago of beaches (Kingdom Hearts) and a quiet community of chirping cicadas (Kingdom Hearts II) that feels unbearably small and provincial for Riku; and Roxas' Twilight Town, an urban space of (relatively likeable) gangs, skateboarding, job boards and public transit; both local and yet modern. Twilight Town, as the name suggests, has a sky in perpetual sunset, a "land of the setting sun;" Destiny Islands as a playable space is usually marked by dawns and mornings.

The sense of twilight is also reflected in the seasonality of the sequence in Kingdom Hearts II: it is the last few days before summer vacation ends, and school begins again. As Roxas says, reflecting on his pending absorption into Sora, "I guess my summer vacation is over."

Another allusion to tropes of spatiality is Hollow Bastion/Radiant Gardens, a world straddling an apocalyptic moment which led to the obliteration of even the memory of the original name of the space; it is, ironically, only after digital archives are released from the TRON-based world of "Space Paranoids" that the natives of Hollow Bastion - all characters drawn from Square's "Final Fantasy" legacy - recover their lost memory of the name and nature of their homeland. (Amnesia and false memory are a plot-device for Chain of Memories and a well-worn plot mechanic in anime, manga and videogame narratives; for the most part, however, it is a problem only for Square-Enix created characters. With the notable exception of Winnie-the-Pooh in Kingdom Hearts II, the Disney characters do not suffer memory loss.

Translation Issue #4: Stories, Movies, Games

2009-07-29T17:23:00.000-07:00

Various people have written of the limited number of types of translation from age old sense and word to John Dryden's metaphor, paraphrase and imitation to Roman Jacobson's tripartite of intralingual, intersemiotic and interlingual to Anton Popovic's four equivalences of linguistic word, paradigmatic, stylistic and textual. Translation is an intensely complicated issue that is deeply related to all aspects of the Kingdom Hearts franchise and all of the above divisions are both helpful and hurting toward understanding the stories.

Kingdom Hearts is itself somewhere between localized and translated between Japan and the United States. While the dialogue is in fact localized through a highly domesticating translation from Japanese to English (jokes are all domesticated/localized), the themes within the stories (innocence, transnationalism, Japan as Destiny island) are un'translated.'

The individual world stores are also translations (one might even call them iterations). By looking at the friction in the translations we can see important points. As usual, Atlantica provides one of the ripest examples, but I will also use Agrabah, Wonderland and Port Royal as opposing examples. Atlantica and Agrabah featured in Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II; Wonderland features in Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories; Port Royal is new in Kingdom Hearts II.

Agrabah / Aladdin
Agrabah is one of the most used worlds. It features in KH, COM, KH2 and 258/2. Olympus Coliseum and Halloween Town are the only other worlds that share this distinction. All are interesting for their similar translated reasons. In KH, Agrabah traces the vague story line of the movie Aladdin with the minor addition that Sora is the hero and not Aladdin alone. You find Aladdin who has already found the lamp, Aladdin takes his two wishes, Jafar steals the lamp and becomes a genie with his third wish, you beat Jafar and finally you leave. There is the alteration that the cave of wonders is not where the middle of the level happens, but the end. COM repeats this with the minor intervention that you stay within Agrabah proper never going to the cave of wonders. Like the story and hinted at in the movie, but unlike KH, Jafar in COM is a rival for the Princess' affections (or at least desires the throne through her).

Aladdin is an addition to 1001 Nights that has been taken up by Orientalist fantasies around the world and adapted into many narrations. It in many ways has no original version. Thus, the two stories presented in KH and COM are equally presentable and readable. KH2 brings up something new as it is the translation/adaptiation of Aladdin 2, a direct to video Disney release. Iago turns good, Genie Jafar gets loose and Aladdin (Sora for the game) stops him. The second film has been loosely translated to parallel the game progression. Finally, 358/2 has various mini-stories that fill in certain gaps between KH and KH2 but has certain large differences. Whereas the physical layout of the city proper resembles the KH, it is completely changed in KH2. Similarly, the cave of wonders changes in all of the games.

Wonderland / Alice in Wonderland
Wonderland featured as an initial world in both KH and COM. In both cases the refrain from the Queen of Hearts angered at Alice for stealing her heart/memory serves as informative of the rest of the games. KH's theft of heart reveals information about heartless and the princesses; COM's theft of memory reveals about the nature of memory and the creation of false memories. However, it is absent from KH2. The translation from Lewis Carroll to Alice the film is awkward enough in its highlighting of certain sections and avoiding of others. However, even more particular sections are highlighted in the games. The Cheshire cat, the white rabbit and the queen and cards are all there, but all of the other notables are removed (including the caterpillar for obvious reasons despite his perfect inclusion into a game based on memory (COM) and identity (358/2).

As for the physical translation the entryway, the small/big medicine, the queen's court and the forest. All of the games have the same rooms. KH leads from entryway to small/big room to queen's court to forest to tea party; COM's main rooms are forest, but queen's court and small/big room are both boss battles; 358/2 adds a room between the small/big room and the queen's court that then leads off to two addition sections that are blocked off at first.

Port Royal / Pirates of the Caribbean
Port Royal is a translation of Pirates of the Caribbean the film, which was of course an adaptation of the Disneyland ride Pirates of the Carribean. The ride takes you through the idealized Caribbean tale of pirates attacking a town, taking gold, chasing women, auctioning off women, and going back to their booty cave; the film adds an idea of 802 coins of cursed Aztec gold that then curses the crew of the Black Pearl as well as entire sections about British Imperialism and the East India Trading Company, and then Davy Jones' Locker, the Flying Dutchman and Pirates as resisting modernity in the sequels.

The film is about the rescue of Elizabeth Swann by William Taylor with the help of Captain Jack Sparrow and the eventual raising of the curse of the Aztec Gold. These elements are all used within the KH2 world, but the imperialist and globalization elements are all avoided, as is the idea of pirates as good, freedom loving individuals. Instead, they are depicted as untrustworthy and generally negative. The elements that were transferred directly are the places and characters to provide a setting, and the curse and gold to privide an interesting battle mechanic (ghosts that are invincible outside of moonlight and a boss that is invincible unless all of the gold is in the chest).

Otherwise, the translation is some what odd in various ways: unlike the costume changes when visiting other worlds, Sora, Donald and Goofy maintain their normal clothes and cartoonish appearance despite the pseudo naturalistic representation of the Port Royal characters. Port Royal is, in many ways, a poor translation precisely because it is too close to the themes of capitalism, globalization and individualism, all of which are at stake within the Kingdom Hearts franchise. As those elements must remain hidden in the game there becomes little meat to use from an already limited story. That pirates are turned into the bad guys in the game despite such piracy and individuality being their specific allure to fans is equally confusing.

Atlantica / The Little Mermaid
Finally, we come to Atlantica, the adaptation of The Little Mermaid, which came from the Danish tale by Hans Christian Anderson. The original story involves a mermaid who gives up her voice to get legs, but loses the love of the prince, is unable to bring herself to kill him with a special dagger and in so doing dies (but gets to go to Heaven instead of turning into sea foam). The Disney movie names the mermaid Ariel, the sea witch Ursula and has certain machinations of Ursula directly opposing Ariel's quest for love as a means for her to gain the power of the Sea King, Triton. The story ends with Ariel and the prince falling in love and Ursula being banished (Disney's true love ending replaces the bittersweet soul to heaven ending). This story is translated almost perfectly (singing included!) in the KH2 world of Atlantica, but that version supposedly follows the two previous iterations in KH and COM, both of which follow different paths that culminate in the death of Ursula (poor thing dies the same death 3 times - 6 times if you include her large form and Riku's memory as well). The story is repeated but each time stresses a different element: first protectionism, second friendship and sacrifice, and third true love.

On certain worlds: Hundred Acre Woods

2009-07-28T17:06:00.001-07:00

One of the worlds visited by Sora isn't reached by the Gummi Ship. Early in the game, Sora is asked by Cid to bring a book to an old man living in District III; the man is Merlin (from Disney's version of the Arthur legend, "The Sword and the Stone") by opening a book in Merlin's room, he enters Hundred Acre Woods and meets Winnie-the-Pooh, who is sitting on a log, contemplating how one can say goodbye to oneself.

The world of Hundred Acre Woods is a series of mini-games, set in different areas which become accessible after the player discovers "Torn Pages" in other worlds. There are no Heartless in Hundred Acre Wood; however, the world can be "closed" by finishing all the mini-games. Closing Hundre Acre Woods is a prerequisite for unlocking the preview short-film, but it isn't required to reach the end of the game.

The history of Pooh as an intellectual property, as a franchise, and as a license, aptly illustrates the vicissitudes of popular culture products since the mid-20th century. While almost all the worlds visited by Sora are taken from Disney properties which, themselves, are appropriations and retellings of existing narratives, the relationship between Disney and the estate of A.A. Milne is more complicated than most. Winnie-the-Pooh was among the earliest licensed cultural properties in the contemporary sense: the rights to publish, merchandise and broadcast Pooh material in the United States and Canada was first licensed to media producer Stephen Slesinger in 1930, only 4 years after the publication of the original book. Certain iconic elements of the depiction of Winnie-the-Pooh (the red shirt, in particular) were added to the original E.H. Shephard illustrations by Slesinger and his associates, and they would begin producing non-Disney Pooh films in the 1940s. After Slesinger's death in 1953, his widow continued to manager the brand, re-licensing it to Disney in 1961; the Milne family would also license global rights to Disney later the same year. After a series of complicated lawsuits, Disney has more recently allied itself with the Milne family to secure all rights from the Slesinger family; the franchise will go into the public domain in 2026.

Winnie-the-Pooh is Disney's most successful franchise, producing over $1 billion in revenues per year, surpassing the revenues brought in by the nominal flagship characters. The first Disney film to feature Pooh was Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1996). The visual depiction of Pooh as a Disney character has been relatively stable since that time; Pooh is often depicted wearing Slesinger's red-shirt, is given a portly and awkward style, and speaks slowly and amiably: the original voice work by Sterling Hollaway became the model for future vocal characterizations.

As Disney acquired broader rights to the Milne estate, they also managed to create a new line of merchandise and depictions which harkened back to the original Shephard illustrations. Called "Classic Pooh," the style is meant to evoke the original; however, Disney still does not own the rights to the original prints themselves, which are currently held by Egmont, a British publishing firm which took the rights to the illustrations in their acquisition of Reed's Children's Books, which had acquired them from the original publisher, Methuen, in the mid 1990s. The "Classic Pooh" line of merchandise also evokes that static and prosaic style of the original stuffed animals (owned by his son, Christopher) which inspired Milne's stories. (The original toy animals are on display at the New York Public Library.) Winnie-the-Pooh is a bifurcated franchise managed by Disney, which successfully markets the tension between them. Consumers who wary of the overtly animated style of the post-Slesinger Disney versions of the characters can instead collect merchandise with of the more illustrative, Edwardian style. The "pure" Disney version is the one which continues to produce new narrative configurations (Disney is planning a new film with a girl, Daphne, taking over the role of Christopher Robin,) while the classic version connotes its own historicity, appealing to a nostalgia that is made all the more pronounced by this bifurcation.

In Kingdom Hearts, the World of Pooh is encountered in both forms. The "classic" style is used in the interface by which the player, as Sora, accesses the various mini-games that constitute the Hundred Acre Woods, depicted as the pages of an open book, upon which Sora walks. The mini-games become available in a specified order as each new Torn Page is found in different worlds. The first, the "Hunny Hunt," is a game based on the first Pooh short created by Disney: "Winnie-the-Pooh and the Honey Tree" (1966). Completing all the mini-games closes the Hundred Acre Wood; winning each mini-game superlatively, by accomplishing more difficult tasks, wins Sora an additional power (Cheer).

The Hundred Acre Wood reappears in Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II. In all cases, the world is played as a collection of mini-games, with no fighting. Nonetheless, when first encountered by Sora, the world has suffered a kind of oblivion of its own: only Pooh remains, as the other characters have disappeared, only to slowly return as new Torn Pages are discovered. The association of the Pooh franchise with the innocence of childhood suggests both that the prerequisite darkness does not exist in the hearts of the denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood to produce Heartless. However, the near-oblivion also is consistent with the concept of Sora as someone on the cusp of adolescence, forgetting of the things of childhood.

Crunching Worlds

2009-07-26T23:54:00.000-07:00

Map

Kingdom Hearts
Destiny Islands
Traverse Town
Wonderland
Deep Jungle
100 Acre Wood
Coliseum
Agrabah
Monstro
Atlantica
Halloween Town
Neverland
Hollow Bastion
End of the World

Chain of Memories - Sora
Traverse Town
Wonderland
Halloween Town
Coliseum
Agrabah
Monstro
100 Acre Wood
Atlantica
Neverland
Hollow Bastion
Twilight Town
Destiny Islands
Castle Oblivion

Chain of Memories - Riku
Hollow Bastion
Traverse Town
Neverland
Agrabah
Monstro
Atlantica
Olympus Coliseum
Halloween Town
Wonderland
Destiny Islands
Twilight Town
Castle Oblivion

Kingdom Hearts II
Twilight Town
Hollow Bastion
The Land of Dragons
Beast's Castle
100 Acre Woods
Olympus Coliseum
Disney Castle
Timeless River
Port Royal
Agrabah
Atlantica
Halloween Town
Pride Land
Space Paranoids
Radiant Garden
The World That Never Was

358/2 Days
The World That Never Was
Twilight Town
Agrabah
Beast's Castle
Olympus Coliseum
Halloween Town
Wonderland
Neverland

Being

2009-07-26T23:14:00.000-07:00

There are three forms of being within the game world: living beings, heartless and nobodies. Here is the logic as explained by Yen Sid (the knowing wizard and diegetic tutor).

(Nobody and Heartless)

Sora: But wait a sec, how come the Heartless are still running around?
Yen Sid: Your past endeavors did prevent an immense effusion of Heartless from the great darkness. Make no mistake about that. However, the Heartless are darkness made real and darkness yet lingers in every heart. The Heartless are fewer, but while darkness exists in a single heart it will be difficult to eliminate them.
Goofy: Gorsh, that must mean if everybody's heart was full of light them Heartless would go away!
Yen Sid: Now it is time to speak of the enemies you will encounter. If one such as you, Donald, yields to the darkness in their heart they too will become a Heartless, but you know this. The Heartless are always lurking and ever seeking to capture new hearts. Never let your guard down. Now then, at times if someone with a strong heart and will, be they evil or good becomes a Heartless the empty shell they leave behind begins to act with a will of its own. An empty vessel whose heart has been stolen away. A spirit that goes on even as its body fades from existence. For you see, Nobodies do not truly exist at all. Nobodies may seem to have feelings but this is a ruse they only pretend to have hearts. you must not be deceived.
Sora: Nobodies. They don't exist
Yen Sid: Now then, the being you see before you is known as a Dusk. they are the most common form of nobody. but there are others. Some larger. Some with frightening and unique powers. be vigilant. on your journey you will meet an alarming number of Dusks. They will all attempt to do you harm. Still they are nothing but empty shells destined to return to darkness. But...the beings you see before you now are different. these powerful Nobodies have formed a group called Organization XIII. It commands the lesser Nobodies.
Sora: Organization XIII...
Yen Sid: While Heartless act on instinct, Nobodies function in a higher manner, they can think and plan and it seems they are working towards a goal. What that goal is we do not know. The king sensed the danger and journeyed forth to find it. He found the dark realms keyblade and closed the door. Now he's traveling from world to world fighting the heartless as he seeks the answer to the riddle of the Nobodies and Organization XIII.

Sora: それよりーどうして世界にはまだハートレスがいるの？
Yen Sid: そなたたちの働きによって大いなる闇から大量のハートレスがあふれだす事態はさけることができた。しかし、ハートレスは元々世界に存在している心の闇が具現化したもの。数は減ったが、心に闇がある限り完全に消し去ることはむずかしい。
Goofy: じゃあ、もし、心が光であふれればハートレスはいなくなるんですね！
Yen Sid: では、おまえたちが戦うであろう敵について話しておこう。もし、ドナルドが自らの心の闇にやぶれてしまうと心無き者、ハートレスになってしまう。これはよいかな？ハートレスは相変わらず心を求めてうろついているから気を抜いてはいかん。さてー良くも悪くも、強い心を持った者強い思いを持った者がハートレスになると、残された抜け殻が意志を持ち動き出すことがある。これがノーバディだ。心を奪われし器ー魂の存在ー消え行く肉体ーいや、存在しない者。感情的に動いているように見えるが、実際は心があるかのように振る舞っているだけだ。奴らの言動に惑わされてはいかんぞ。
Sora: ノーバディーー？存在しない者
Yen SId: さて、このタイプのノーバディはダスクと呼ばれている。ノーバディの一般的な姿だな。これ以外にも大きいものや特別な能力を持ったノーバディがいるから注意が必要だぞ。よいか？通常のノーバディどもは数が多いので厄介だが、しょせんはただの抜け殻。悪さはするだろうがほどなく闇に溶けてしまう。しかしー彼らはノーバディの中でも特別な存在だ。ⅩⅢ機関と呼ばれる組織を作り他のノーバディを統率している。
Sora: ⅩⅢ機関
Yen Sid: 本能的に活動するハートレスとは違い。ノーバディは統率され、何事かをなさんとしているようだ。しかし、その目的は見当がつかん。王は世界の危機にいち早く気づいて行動をおこした。闇の世界のキーブレードを見つけ出し扉を閉じた。そしてなお、ハートレスと戦いながらⅩⅢ機関ノーバディの目的を探そうと世界を駆けめぐっているのだ。

A being is thus comprised of various things, but mainly a heart, a body and memory. The heart is a repository for the various emotions (seen in the Halloween Town experiment as well as the Nobodies' lack of emotions) as well as somehow tied to both light and dark (known through the discussions between Xehanort's Heartless and Sora throughout the game). The body is a shell and both mistreated by the gameworld's logic and the characters: Pinocchio has a heart but is not really a body, and Nobodies are, in fact, a body even though they supposedly are an empty, non-existign shell (存在しない者). Finally, memories link/chain between people and in this way are one of the more important aspects of being.

As Yen Sid states, when a being gives in to the darkness in their heart they turn into a Heartless. In actuality, their heart is swallowed by the Heartless.

(Creation of a Heartless)

The Heartless is thus mindless darkness that has taken a heart. When the Heartless is killed the heart is then released into the world where it goes to Kingdom Hearts.

(A Heartless is killed and its heart goes to Kingdom Hearts)

The only instances of this not happening are the 7 princesses of Heart and Sora, all of which remain unexplained other than to give both Sora and Kairi Nobodies (Roxas and Namine respectively), but no Heartless.

The Heartless seek only hearts and as sucha re depicted as rather mindless creatures. Base and animalistic - primal evil, rather than 'cultured' evil.

On the other side of the equation is the Nobody that is formed when the being is strong. The Nobody is the body, the empty shell. It has no heart as the heart went to the Heartless, and it has no memories of who it was. It has memories of the present, but cannot form emotions. As such, the heart is posited as intrinsically tied with memory and what might be called the essence of being is somehow tied with both but unexplicated. When Sora is turned into a Heartless/Nobody he claims 'he' was floating in teh darkness, but that his ties to Kairi brought him back. His soul/essence is tied to memory and others.

If the Heartless are base, animalistic creatures the Nobodies are posited as strategic evil.

In a franchise so primarily about transnationalism and territory the question now becomes how does one read these forms of being? The heroes of liberal agency that has been given an equal pattering of the social subject, but what of the rest? At this point I'm not sure.

Translation Issue #3: 繋ぐ, Connect/Tie/Chain

2009-07-23T14:59:00.000-07:00

One of the key words or themes used throughout the franchise is that of connection. Sora's social self, as connected, survives/triumph's; Riku's individual self must be tempered with social connects; the worlds must be separated, must not be connected; memories are connected; people are connected through memories and hearts.

The word used in Japanese is 繋ぐ. The only instance it strays is during Chain of Memories when talking about how memories are 鎖, chains. However, like the idea of chains of iron and gold, chains in this way can be shackles or they can be lifelines. Whereas the Nobodies indicate that memories are shackles, or rather memory is a shackle (記憶の鎖), the good social subject Sora holds them as lifelines.

The English words used are link, connect, tie and chain. While there is no particular added meaning in any of these terms, and in fact the dual meaning of chain brings out Chain of Memories' theme far better than 鎖, the breadth of words does not in fact hammer in the concept, both good and bad, of connection.

Mobility

2009-07-22T00:55:00.000-07:00

There are various forms of mobility within the Kingdom Hearts franchise. Mobility changes forms over the course of the games as well as between the games. However, there are themes of acceptable and unacceptable mobility that hold throughout and between the games.

Kingdom Hearts
The Heartless travel through dark routes that are somehow connected by keyholes. That they do not disappear from a world when Sora closes the keyhole is suspect. However, that the world must be "connected, tied to the darkness" "闇と繋がった" is important (1)

(Leon explains the keyholes)

(Destiny Islands is connected)

It is assumed that Riku's method of travel where he uses his dark energy and not a 'vessel' '船' somehow links into the Heartless means of travel. This method is continually used throughout the franchise.

Second are those few who simply have strong will. Among these are Sora, Riku and Kairi at the beginning and Beast at the end of the game. This belief/will power induced travel is rare and not replicated throughout the remainder of the franchise. It is used to bring the main characters to a state where they can travel, but is then discarded. In this way it is almost a primal or innocent form of mobility.

(Riku, Sora and Beast travelling on willpower)

Third is Gummi Ship travel, which utilizes technology that came about through the introduction of heartless into the world. That the player fights Heartless ships between the routes indicates either that you travel along the same paths or that they simply are there to cause problems.

(Gummi travel)

The belief form of travel is given important stature an never really looked down upon in any way within the game world. It shows individual power and agency, and especially in the instance of Beast it is seen as something that must be investigated.

The Heartless travel, of connecting worlds to move between, is from the start seen as negative. It comes from the expansion of darkness, but also specifically from Riku's desire to escape his island, to travel. By him inviting darkness and homogeneity he can travel, but it is what is then combatted for the remainder of the game. Mobility is both desired and feared, good and bad, just as are connections. Destiny Islands loses its innocence, but then again, Sora and Riku are able to then save the expansive world through that necessary loss of innocence. Like Japan's entrance to modernity, the opening of the borders and the Meiji restoration, Destiny Islands' path must be read as bittersweet, but necessary.

In the end, the ultimate closing of the door to Kingdom Hearts returns to world to its unconnected, pure state, and in so doing eradicates (momentarily) Gummi Ship travel. However, the emotional links between people are maintained. Hearts and memories are maintained as links between people. Such links, unlike the connections between worlds, are consistently considered good (even in the case of evil characters' links - eg: Axel and Maleficent)

(Leon, Yuffie and Aeris explain the end of mobility and remaining emotional ties)

Chain of Memories
This brings us to the beginning of Chain of Memories. Riku and Mickey are on one side of the giant door in the world of darkness. Mickey finds himself, eventually, in Twilight Town then travels to Castle Oblivion by card. How this happens is unexplained, but such a mystery generally surrounds Mickey's movements. Riku is led to Castle Oblivion by Diz/Ansem instead of giving up/dying. Sora, Donald and Goofy seal the world from the End of the World (non dark) side and end up in some unknown place where they are led to Castle Oblivion by Marluxia (2).

Within Castle Oblivion all action, mobility included, is done through cards. Action cards (magic, attack, summon et cetera) as well as room cards are obtained during battles, but floor cards are different. Floor cards are made from memories of places even if those memories end up being both suspect and partial. Sora's friends don't remember him, he forgets Kairi, but ultimately he remembers (3).

(Action Cards ; Room Cards ; Floor Cards)

While the imperfection but dependance upon memory is interesting my purposes here remain focused on mobility, something that regains focus as one of Sora's final acts in the tower. After defeating Marluxia, and just before agreeing to have his memory restored, Sora seals Marluxia's room in the same manner as he sealed the keyholes in Kingdom Hearts. Thus, the same act of supremacy and liberal agency practiced in Kingdom Hearts is repeated at the end of Chain of Memories: mobility is for those who deserve it, which is to say, for Sora and Company to decide and enact.

(Sora seals Marluxia's room)

Riku's journey is less about mobility and more about liminality between light and dark. However, as his mobility is dependent upon his utilization of the dark, it remains an issue. He comes to terms with his own darkness, his individuality, by taking the middle path between light and dark, social and individual. Riku's mobility is interesting, but it is Mickey's that is important. Originally, he is barred from entrance, however, he eventually overcomes that and manages to arrive to save Riku. His adaptability, Disney's adaptability, while limited, is proved to be unstoppable. The same unstoppability allows Mickey to be everywhere in Kingdom Hearts II. He has absolute and unquestioned mobility beyond any other character.

Kingdom Hearts 2
Initially the only groups that can travel are the Heartless, the Nobodies, Riku through his utilization of darkness and Mickey through his mysterious mobility.

When Sora, Donald and Goofy are given the run down by Yen Sid they are told that the old connections are gone. However, the worlds themselves support the creation of new pathways:

Yen Sid: これこれ、まあ、待ちなさい。そなたたちの活躍のおかげで世界は今元の状態に戻っている。つまり世界をつなぐ道は消えてしまった。
Donald: 困ったなぁー
Yen Sid: 心配するな。王が言うには世界はそなたたちに新たな道を用意したようだ。その道はゲートを開くことによって使えるようになるはずだ。ゲートを開く方法はーわたしにはわからん。しかし、ソラのキーブレードが教えてくれるらしい。剣が光を放ったらグミシップに戻るといいだろう。目に見えぬ心のつながりのごとく、離ればなれになっても、全てはつながっておるというわけだ。
Sora: 心がつながってる。
Yen Sid: そのとおり。
Sora: 了解！
Yen Sid: しかし気をつけろ。闇に巣くう者たちーノーバディ、ハートレスは闇の回廊と呼ばれる道を使って世界を渡り歩く。その回廊とゲートをつないでしまおうとする動きもあるようだ。
Donald: 欲張りだなあ。

Yen Sid: Now, now. Just a moment. Because of your previous endeavors the worlds have returned to their original states. That means the pathways between them have disappeared.
Donald: How do we get around?
Yen Sid: Do not fear. If what the king suspected proves true the worlds have prepared new pathways along which you may travel. These pathways may be utilized by unlocking special gates. How these gates are opened I'm afraid I do not know. However, the keyblade will serve as your guide. When a beam of light radiates from the keyblade return to the Gummi Ship. Though the worlds may seem far apart and out of reach they nonetheless remain connected by invisible ties. As do our hearts.
Sora: Our hearts are connected.
Yen Sid: That is correct.
Sora: Got it.
Yen Sid: But, be warned. As you proceed the Heartless and the Nobodies will be using their own paths: corridors of darkness to travel from world to world. They may be attempting to link these dark pathways to the gates between the worlds.
Donald: Hey, that's not fair!

These new pathways take the form of commodity connections. One can travel between places as soon as they appropriate commodity is located. Specifically, commodities allow travel from the world to others and not to the world itself. Thus, the order of mobility is that one finds a world's commodity, activates it, and then is granted access to connecting worlds: follow the labour.

(Activating Hollow Bastion's card grants access to the connecting worlds of The Land of Dragons and Beast's Castle)

The only world where this does not in fact take place is the initial trip to Hollow Bastion where it is stated that they feel it's a familiar place: the same heart/memory connections from Chain of Memories justify the initial travel to Hollow Bastion, but not to other places where they've been before such as Atlantica or Agrabah.

(Going to Hollow Bastion from memory)

The end of the game brings about total connection between the worlds that have been granted by the worlds and the key bearers, bringers of foreign influence. However, the only ones to use this mobility are Sora, Riku, Mickey and Company (Diz/Ansem included), and the Moogles, the merchants.

William claimed that Moogles break the 4th wall, and they do. They are also the string that connects all of the games together. They are the merchants and creators. They synthesize/build items and they sell cards.

(Moogles in KH, COM and KH2)

Future
It can only be assumed the franchise will continue as it has been so popular. The logics of sequels and remakes demand no less. What we will of course see are the increase of key bearers (the count is at 10 although 3 of those are the same being, and 3 are 'dead') who are mobile. It will ultimately be a battle between the good key users and the bad ones. It will go directly back to Triton's fears of protectionism and the unavoidable havoc wrought by transnationalism and multinational business. On the one side will be Disney, Sora and Riku (if they do not move to new characters), and on the other can only be some allegorical embodiment of multinational big business turned bad, which of course isn't Disney. No never.

Notes:
(1) The word 繋ぐ is consistently used in the Japanese. However, it rotates between connected, tied and linked in English.

(2) Mobility of the Nobodies is assumed to be in full functionality between floors of the castle and it is assumed between other worlds although 358/2 Days will likely have more to say about this time.

(3) Memory here is not opposed by oblivion as it seems to be in the naming. Rather all memories are tied to hearts and people and if strong enough are permanent. This is, of course, a rather simple understanding of memory that is slightly more in depth throughout the game, but unimportant for the present purposes.

Connections: Memory, Heart, Friends and Worlds

2009-07-20T15:51:00.000-07:00

Friends and Subjects
The link between friends who avoid becoming heartless and heartless friendless people begins in Deep Jungle with Tarzan's talk of "ei ooh ooh ooh ah" which somehow translates to either 'heart' or 'friend' or possible both.

Jane: そうか※＆＆x％って”こころ”のことね？こころの中の友達ー
Tarzan: こ•こ•ろー
Sora: なんだよ、そういうことかー
Tarzan: ともだち、こころ同じ。クレイトンこころなくした。こころないともだちみえない。こころないひとりぼっち。
Jane: Oh, no I've got it. "ei ooh ooh ooh ah" means heart. Friends in our hearts.
Tarzan: Heart.
Sora: Oh, so that's what it meant.
Tarzan: Friends same heart. Clayton lose heart. No heart no see friends. No heart no friends.

Clayton lost his heart as he had no friends; Sora is strong because he has friends. This logic is extended through the Coliseum world where Sora proves his heroism in battle and claims his friends are his strength. For the majority of the first game friends themselves are considered strength in a more social aspect of being.

(Tarzan, Heart and Friends)

(Strength of Heart as Friends)

Chain of Memories clarifies the intricacies of the divide between individual and social, loner and group, friends and memory. The game begins with Sora entering 忘却の城, Castle Oblivion. Oblivion in some situations is equal to forgetting, but one irony that comes out through the story is that while translationally it works, the creators' understanding of memory works in a completely different way. Not a matter Oblivion. Sora's journey involves him interacting with memories of his friends. He slowly forgets his friends, particularly Kairi, and remembers Namine. The game's conclusion posits several things: a) Sora protects his friends regardless of whether their based on true or false memories, b) Sora's memories of his friends are too strong to be fully erased, and c) peoples hearts are tied to each other through memories. Essentially, Sora represents the social subject who lives and survives through his ties to others. The chains of memory are not shackles, but links that help and protect.

(Namine explains Heart, Memory, Chains and Friends)

Simultaneously, but unknown to the player until the end of Sora's voyage to the 13th floor, Riku enters the same castle from the basement and travels to the 1st floor where he leaves from the entrance. Like Sora, Riku visits worlds the player has previously experienced, however, many of these worlds were never visited by Riku in the first Kingdom Hearts. That said, the logic given is that he abandoned his home, family and friends and took on darkness. As such, he encounters only creatures of darkness.

(Only dark creatures throughout Riku's journey)

(Riku's memories are empty because he gave up family and friends)

Riku climbs up the castle, basement through empty floors until he reaches the memory of his home islands. At this point he finds shadows of his friends who disappear.

(Disappearing Friends)

Whereas the previous floors represent his individual, independent nature, Destiny Islands shows his abandonment of sociality. At this point Sora and Riku are simply two extremities, the social and the individual, what one might claim as the extreme Social and Individual subjects. There is of course a connection here to the Japanese social subject and the American individual subject. However, the conclusion of Riku's story indicates the necessity of the social. He requires Mickey's assistance. This is repeated in the conclusion of Kingdom Hearts II where Riku, who went solo, gave himself to darkness and took Ansem's form in order to help defeat Organization XIII, rejoins Sora and company and ultimately defeats Xemnas together with Sora. Like the typical reliance of a team of characters in Japanese RPGs opposed to the solo hero of Western FPS games like Doom, Kingdom Hearts ultimately falls on the side of the social subject. People are dependent upon the social, on friends.

(Riku wants to fight alone, but needs Mickey's help)

(Riku as the individual subject eventually teams up with Sora to defeat Xemnas)

Connections
Now we come to the concept of connections and ties. Worlds are tied to darkness; hearts are tied to each other and light. Some ties are explicitly good, but others are bad. Those that are good are between people, those that are bad are between worlds. Worlds are to remain separate and separated, but people must be connected. Within a transnational aesthetic the world order/border must be maintained, but the people must be connected through heart/memory.

(Ansem connecting the worlds through darkness is 'bad')

(Being connected to people is 'good')

Finally, in Kingdom Hearts II there is a third form of connection that is acceptable: commodity connections. These commodity connections are what Sora and company use to travel between the worlds. It is no longer the worlds themselves that have keyholes and passages, but items in/of the worlds, commodities, which connect.

(New Commodity Connections - Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee Card)

(The Land of Dragons - Sword ; Twilight Town - Sea Salt Ice Cream)

Mickey's Conspicuous Absence (part 3)

2009-07-19T18:28:00.000-07:00

In the Japanese version the first deliberate use of the name "Mickey" comes at the end of Re: Chain of Memories Reverse/Rebirth. Upon defeating Ansem in his heart, Riku finds Mickey on his way out and calls him 王様 to which Mickey indicates a certain embarrassment. As his friend, Riku then calls him Mickey.

(Riku and Mickey at the end of Re: Chain of Memories)

This link between Riku and Mickey is followed up throughout Kingdom Hearts II and especially at the end where Mickey hugs Riku while Donald and Goofy hug Sora.

(Reunions at the end of Kingdom Hearts II)

Why is it that Mickey as the main character of a certain franchise is not depicted fawning over the nominal lead character of Kingdom Hearts, but rather, the dark hero Riku? Is this deliberate beyond as a simple plot choice to allow Riku 'friends?'

Release Dates and Money

2009-07-19T15:34:00.000-07:00

2002
3/28/02 Kingdom Hearts Japanese Release Date
9/17/02 Kingdom Hearts North American Release Date
12/26/02 Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix Japanese Release Date

2004
3/17/04 4,000,000 Copies Sold (world data)
(1,230,000 Japan; 2,000,000 N.A.; 820,000 Europe)
11/11/04 Chain of Memories Japanese Release Date
12/7/04 Chain of Memories North American Release Date

2005
2/1/05 1,000,000 Copies Sold (Chain of Memories); 5,000,000 (total)
12/22/05 Kingdom hearts II Japanese Release Date

2006
3/28/06 Kingdom Hearts II North American Release Date
12/28/06 10,000,000 Copies Sold (world data)
KH: 1.5 mil Japan; 3.0 mil N.A.; 1.1 mil Europe
COM: 0.4 mil Japan; 0.9 mil N.A.; 0.2 mil Europe
KHII: 1.1 mil Japan; 1.7 mil N.A.; 0.7 mil Europe

2007
3/29/07 Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ Japanese Release Date
(Re: Chain of Memories Japanese Release Date)

2008
12/2/08 Re: Chain of Memories North American Release Date

2009
5/30/09 Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Japanese Release Date

Notes:
Unfortunately, the different Japanese editions are not separated out for sales diffence. It is unknown how much of the sales have been the original compared to the Final Mixes. Similarly, Platinum and other cheap releases are undifferentiated.

Sources:
Chihiro. "キングダムハーツ年表." KH-Informationキングダムハーツ2ファイナルミックス+情報Blog. Posted: March 31, 2005. Updated: December 16, 2006. Accessed: July 17, 2009. .
Gamespot. "Kingdom Hearts Series Ships over 10 Million Worldwide." Posted: February 5, 2007. Accessed: July 17, 2009.

The Prime Directive

2009-07-18T14:39:00.001-07:00

The Prime Directive is a term from Star Trek. General Order #1, the Prime Directive, dictates non-interference with the internal affairs of other civilizations. This coincides with the real world understanding of Westphalian sovereignty where nations have the sovereign right to direct their own affairs and control their own borders. Of particular importance within the Star Trek world is the secrets of both space travel and the existence of other worlds and civilizations. This then coincides back to the real world understanding of 20th century media and cultural interventionism/imperialism. The joke, of course, is that within the Star Trek universe and Westphalian sovereignty within modernity non-interventionism and the prime directive are both avoided at any and every opportunistic turn. In Star Trek, while the Enterprise's crew tried its best to avoid informing people of the outside world and giving them technology, Captain Kirk was known to break the Prime Directive regarding intervention time and again both in terms of trysts with nubile aliens and in terms of preventing other nations (Klingon, Romulan) from interfering with unaligned worlds. It takes little effort to see this as analogous to the 20th century actions of the US involving what was calld Development and later would be called Cultural Imperialism.

In the post World War II period the US believed it had the right and duty to help nations develop. This development came from a linear movement away from pre-modern, third world culture to modern, western culture. Elaborated within Wilbur Schramm's plan for national development such cultures chose to receive help from outside countries in the form of monetary aid, education reforms, and infrastructure changes. I will sidestep the ideas of 'choice,' 'ethnocentrism, and domination here and simply note that such intervention through 'development' happened regularly. However, as noted by Herbert Schiller, the US did not care in most instances whether or not the country developed. Rather, what was at stake was to prevent the communist Second World from expanding. Development was simply one level of the cold war where influence (the idea of Cultural Imperialism) was intentionally spread. While Cultural Imperialism has been much critiqued in its effectiveness, unification and on various other grounds (see Curran and Park, Tomlinson) Star Trek was created in the middle of the Cold War and is exemplary of the idealism of 'justified' US intervention.

While Star Trek's United Federation of Planets in general, and Captain Kirk's Enterprise in particular are on a voyage of discovery, such discovery is situated within a greater struggle between sovereign territories, galactic countries if you will. Every new world that Kirk and crew encounter must be protected from itself and from the Klingons and Romulans. The Prime Directive is used more as a means of justifying intervention than as a prevention of intervention.

From here we return to Kingdom Hearts' use of interventionism and the prime directive. Various moments within the games talk about this. The exchanges between Donald and Goofy and how that effects what Sora can and cannot do in certain worlds is the strain running through the majority of the game (costumes, not informing people of the other worlds, not taking people to new worlds). The world of Atlantica and Triton's protectionism is a second moment. The third aspect is the people: the Worlds, the Heartless, the Villains and the King, Keybearer and friends. I will briefly review the first two moments before elaborating the importance o the latter categories of characters and how these then relate analogically back to the real world.

Goofy and Donald's Ropes

During the introductory scene when they leave Disney Castle Donald and Goofy discuss the need of secrecy during their travels. Secrecy must be maintained so as to protect the world border/order. As previously noted, the 'order' to maintain is the 'border.' To do so they must follow certain rules including change their clothes so as to fit in, hide the fact that their gummi ship is a space ship and not a sea ship, avoid bringing people off world unless they can do so with their own power (as a summon), and of course not muddle/meddle in the affairs of the worlds.

(Different Clothing - Disney Castle, Standard, Atlantica)

(Sea Ship ; Space Ship)

Clothes and space ship represent the concept of technological intervention, which was of course neither followed in Star Trek nor in 20th century interactions. Captain Kirk and the crew regularly appeared in uniform even if they hid the nature of their phasers. Schramm's development plan notes that technology is important, but it alone will not help with development. As such, it must come along with/after the economic and cultural changes. Goofy, Donald and Sora follow through with the non-information side of the protection, but they are about as good with interventionism as Captain Kirk. They meddle in the affairs of the Queen of Hearts' state; they inform Aladdin of the existence of other worlds (even if they don't take him off Agrabah); their disguise and actions are completely laid bare in Atlantica; they deliberately muddle things up in Halloween Town by activating the Heartless.

(Meddling in Hollow Bastion)

(Meddling in Halloween Town)

The rules of the world order are tied to the first game's goal of closing the doors on each world. The worlds must be separate and separated. There are keyholes, doorways, and passages between worlds that allow passage. It is through these that the Heartless flow and it is these that Sora, Donald and Goofy, which is to say, the player, locks during the first game, but even as you lock the worlds you maintain the privileged position of being able to travel between worlds on your Gummi Ship.

Atlantican Protectionism

I have previously mentioned the idea of protectionism enacted by Triton during your visit to Atlantica. Triton holds a special position as one of three monarchs (the other two are the slighted Queen of Hearts and the ever present ever absent King Mickey). All other nominal rulers of the individual worlds are either lesser officials, absent powers or the like (the Sultan of Agrabah is absent, Halloween Town's mayor is an 'elected official,' Peter Pan is not a ruler, Maleficent stole power from the previous non-ruler Ansem the Wise, Zeus is missing from the Coliseum, et cetera). In a game with Kingdom in the title these three powers must be understood as important for an analysis. We already know what happens in Wonderland, Alice is accused of something by the Queen of Hearts, she dupes the queen, escapes punishment and makes a mockery of the monarchy. WIthin the Kingdom Hearts rendition Alice is accused of attempted theft of the Queen's heart, Sora comes to her defense, but she is kidnapped by Maleficent. Chain of Memories clarifies this situation by explicitly duping the Queen.

(Alice and Sora dupe the Queen by giving her false memories)

I have previously mentioned Mickey's conspicuous absence. While this position is highly modified in COM and KH2 for now it will be left alone.

Finally we come to Triton, the King of the Sea. Within the film itself Triton sacrifices himself to save Ariel (interestingly enough this happens within the second game, something that is much confounding in its temporalality). Within the first game he recognizes Sora, Donald and Goofy as not only outsiders, but as the Keybearer, one who brings trouble and destruction wherever he goes (as it is at this point arguably masculine - Sora, Mickey and Riku - even if the end of the second game allows for two women to utilize keyblades - Kairi and a mysterious armored woman).

Triton desires Sora to leave. However, he does two things explicitly: he destroys the icon that would reveal the keyhole and he requests that Sora rescue Ariel. The former is meant to prevent the opening of the door (that this door is already open is somehow missed by Triton; that it is Sora's goal to close this door is also missed). Triton acts out of fear that Sora as the keybearer will interfere with his rule, however he then proves that he is unable to rule individually, that he requires the assistance of Sora and company. Finally, he reveals what he previously used his kingly power to hide, the keyhole itself: he revokes his own power.

(Triton's Protectionism)

As I see it this form of protectionism is opposed to an idea of free trade and free movement. Whereas Schiller lumps the two as oppositional (free movement is opposed to imperialism; free trade is opposed to cultural imperialism) the situation is not so black and white. The second half of the twentieth century is a mass of acronyms battling these ideas out to a lack of resolve: GATT, UN, UNESCO, NWICO, NIIO, WTO, GATS et cetera. What must be taken at this point is simply that Triton is represented as bemoaning the loss of monarchic power, but similarly he is shown as unable to protet his own monarchic power. He needs and is 'deserving' of the intervention (despite his lack of desire for it).

The Prime Directive states non interference, one could say active protectionism. However, such is blundered at every instance in almost every place: Kirk and crew interfere to prevent Klingon interference, to help, to have some fun; Sora and company intervene for their own ends, to protect individuals, and even for amusement's sake; the United States intervened within Development Theory for the sake of other countries, but as Escobar and Schiller indicate, it was largely to reproduce the necessary/desired spread of Capitalist modernity as opposed to Communism.

Different Strokes for Different Folk: Modes of Mobility
Finally we come to the various forms of people/beings within the games. First, there are three forms of beings: Full/Living People, Heartless and Nobodies. For now I'm going to ignore the Nobodies as they mainly complicate the situation in the second game. The Heartless and Regular groups can be separated into various categories.

The most obvious group is the villains: Maleficent, Jafar, Oogie Boogie, Captain Hook, et cetera. Within the game they have teamed up in order to conquer the world through using the Heartless. They want to open the door to Kingdom Hearts and get its power. Simple enough. The second villain side is Ansem, or rather, Xehanort's Heartless as it is revealed later on. His goal is largely the same as the regular villains, but he acts with a slightly more directed line of reasoning being a heartless himself. Whereas Ansem (and Riku at one point) utilizes the power of Darkness to enact his mobility Maleficent warns against this and the villains largely move by using Captain Hook's ship.

(Captain Hook's Ship ; Heartless Travel)

Second are the people who remain on the individual worlds, unable to move even if they know there are places outside of their own world. Jane is one who doesn't know; Aladdin is one who knows, but cannot move. Triton is one who knows, but cannot go and arguably does not want to go. This group has neither agency nor mobility in large amounts and must be either helped and protected. Understood in terms of analalogy, they are the average person, the nationally bound person who identifies as such. The American, the Ghanian, the Brit, the Japanese, et cetera.

(Aladdin is refused)

Third are those who know and are able to move. They have mobility through either their own power (Beast, Sora, Riku) or through the power of the Gummi Ships (Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Sid and the rest of the exiles from Radiant Garden/Hollow Bastion, Gepetto and Pinochio). The villains mostly use vessels to travel in the same way as Mickey and company. On one level this group is just as dependent as the rest, but their access to certain techniques or technologies allows them access to their special position as transnational entities. These are the modern elite.

(Gummi Ship)

Lastly we move to the Heartless and Nobodies. When a being turns/gives in to darkness they turn into a Heartless, or rather, the Heartless steal their heart thereby making them a heartless, the left over shell becomes a Nobody (Weak Being -> Heartless; Strong Being -> Heartless + Nobody; Very Strong Being -> Heartless + Defined Nobody).

Heartless and Nobodies have a similar type of mobility. They move within dark portals that Sora attempts to close in the first game. Whereas the villains seek to capitalize on this mobility, and the average people desire this mobility, the transnational elite closes this mobility down to the best of its ability.

Kingdom Hearts is about mobility. It is about different groups having/using different forms of travel and the opening and closing of some of those forms of travel. It relates to a normative form of being and travel within the real world. It is about the interaction of groups (people and countries) within the real world and the concept of a Prime Directive has as much importance in justifying actions within the game as it did in Star Trek as it does within interventionist politics.

Sources:
Escobar, Arturo. Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995.
Park, Myung-Jin, and James Curran. "Beyond Globalization Theory." In De-Westernizing Media Studies, edited by Myung-Jin Park and James Curran. London; New York: Routledge, 2000.
Schramm, Wilbur. Mass Media and National Development: The Role of Information in the Developing Countries. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964.
Schiller, Herbert I. Mass Communications and American Empire. 2nd ed. Boulder: Westview Press, 1992 [1969].
Tomlinson, John. Cultural Imperialism: A Critical Introduction. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.

外 vs. 他 outside vs. other

2009-07-02T21:11:00.000-07:00

There is an interesting kanji use within the Japanese version of the game that particularly comes out in Atlantica. 他 and 外 both refer to alterity in some way, but do so slightly differently. 他 means additional, other, more, but all of these refer to something outside what exists. 外 more directly means outside and other. Part of the play of words is the difference between '外の世界' (the outside world) as it is longed for by Ariel, and '他の世界' (another world) as it is known to the player, Triton and Ursula. While the latter must be read as 'hoka no sekai' the former can be read either as 'hoka no sekai' or soto no sekai.' Thus, they can be homonyms, but their meanings are strikingly different.

Within the story the switch from 外 to 他 makes sense along lines of increased knowledge. The Atlantica situation is played out between Ariel's dreams to get above/outside of the sea (her world) and the greater knowledge that there is no outside reality, but there are different realities (worlds).

This is, of course, the same difference that happens with Riku, Sora and the player at the beginning of the game between when they yearn to get off their island and when they learn to travel between worlds. In these terms 'knowledge' is of the existence of other worlds, and 'power' is the ability to travel between them.

The true transnational subject is knowing and individually able to move between locales without difficulty be it 20th/21st century business elite, the Kingdom Hearts trans-world elite (Sora, Goofy, Donald, Sid, Gepetto, Mickey), and illegal syndicates that disrupt the order (both inside and outside the game). There is no outside, no foreign, there are simply other places. This would reproduce a standard view of globalization.

However, the Atlantica world also offers a reading about protectionism. Triton plays the role of protectionist sovereign power seeking to keep out the interfering foreign influence, specifically of the Key Bearer. He pushes away Sora and interferes in the initial attempt to close the keyhole due to his fear of the ruin and destruction wrought by the Key Bearer. For Triton, even though he knows the difference between 他 and 外, it is the latter that he fears.

Within a late 20th century milieu this role reproduces non-interference debates between countries. However, as Triton is shown admitting his need for Sora's interference (meddling, but not muddling) this protectionist side is displayed to be innefective within the world. Worrying about the foreign cannot/shouldn't happen within a global world as long as the trans-world entity legitimately exists (again, meddling, not muddling).

Mickey's Conspicuous Absence (part 2)

2009-06-30T14:08:00.000-07:00

In line with William's comment about the refrain from putting Mickey into the game until the results were known there is an interesting change near the end involving his, the King's, Mickey's, revealing at the door to Kingdom Hearts.

When King Mickey shows himself Goofy and Donald exclaim "王様” in the Japanese version and "Your Majesty" in the English version. King Mickey tells them to close the doors, but Sora worries about what will happen. Goofy calms his fears, but there is a slight difference. In the Japanese version Goofy says, "ソラ、王様を信じよう！" In the English version he says "Sora, you can trust King Mickey."

Whereas the Japanese version is unable to use the word Mickey in the entirety of the game, thereby limiting Mickey's existence beyond as an icon, the English version (and the subsequent International Version) insert the one verbal notation.

What does this mean toward logistics of using Mickey? Had the game simply garnered enough attention or been seen as positive enough by the corporate/bureaucratic powers that be so that the English dialogue was able to legitimately insert the name Mickey, or was it a matter of imbalance?

Territory and Being

2009-06-28T17:05:00.000-07:00

There are two main themes that run through Kingdom Hearts. Not surprisingly the two themes, territoriality and metaphysics, match up one theme to each of the words in the game's title. The worlds one visits seem to be largely based on either one or the other of the themes, but they tie together in many ways.

Heart, what it means to be without heart, to be heartless, to have a conscience, and where friends, villains and heroes come into the mix. Worlds where the 'heart' theme is dominant are Deep Jungle (friend in/and heart), Coliseum (strength/heroism is through friends), Monstro (puppet with a heart; girl that lost her heart) and Halloween Town (creation of a heart).

The other theme is the border, sovereignty, territoriality and (trans)nationalism represented in the concept of Kingdom. The idea of crossing borders, maintaining a boundary, the concept of local vs. global (turned world vs. universe) and the foreign all come into play here. It is certainly not the main theme of the game in terms of overt readings. However, it is the more important for a political analytic approach.

Like Frederic Jameson noting that Jaws or the Corleone family being decoys, the issue of heart and goodness are decoys here. They are important, certainly, but they do not get to the ideological meaning. To approach that the allegory of transnationalism must be taken apart. Transnationalism as it is both allowed and disallowed between different characters depending on their bodily identity (human, heartless, nobody) and their national identity (world of origin, canonical Disney status, refugee).

This second theme is present within each of the worlds in small amounts (in the heart dominated worlds it can be seen in Jane's quip about a ship, the existence of Sephiroth and Cloud in the Coliseum, and in Monstro and Neverland, the two worlds in motion it can be seen in the simple transgression of the worlds themselves being mobile - whale and ship), but it takes center stage in Atlantica, the Little Mermaid inspired world.

The Little Mermaid is a story about difference, acceptance and getting what you wish only to find out it's not what you really wanted. The original story, if I remember my reverse Disney trivia, doesn't end happily. Of course, the Disney version involves Ariel getting her wish, getting to see the 'outside world,' which is to say the world above the sea, and eventually finding her man and living happily ever after. The Kingdom Hearts rendition maintains her desire to see the outside world, but of course this has a kink put on it when the world of Atlantica itself (visible from the world select screen) is simply an ocean world.

There is no land for her to reach, nor is there a handsome man for her to attain. There is simply the outside that she seeks to find. It is the same outside that Riku and Sora (eg: you, the player character) sought at the beginning of the game and found. However, unlike you/Sora, Donald and Goofy, and King Mickey, and unlike the movie, Ariel does not eventually get off the world to see the outside. You save her from her escape at the hands of Ursula and she remains in the end hoping to eventually see the world. You prevent her movement. This result is after multiple confrontations with Triton, the king of the ocean and the king of the Atlantica world, where he accuses you of meddling, of breaking the world order, but then requiring you to save Ariel and protect the world order/border.

You a) are justified in your intervention, b) prevent the heartless from opening the door and traveling, and c) prevent Ariel from movement, but at the same time she is made aware of the possibility of travel through your interventions and vows that she will find a door and travel to another world without hurting anybody. She in essence vows to travel of her own, individual power (read: neoliberal individuality).

Ariel's vow of self enabled travel is in fact enacted two worlds later when you encounter Beast in Hollow Bastion. He has moved from his world through sheer force of will/heart.

"A cast away. Though his world perished, his heart did not. When we took the princess from his castle he apparently followed her here through sheer force of will."
生き残りさ。住んでいた世界が消えても心を失わない者もいる。プリンセスを追いXめる心の力でここまでたどりついたようだね。

This is the same method of movement that allowed Sora and Riku to both survive the initial destruction of their own world. It is this form of travel that is deemed acceptable within the world order and Sora and Co. offer to bring Beast with them when they escape (something they refuse Aladdin) only to have him turn their offer down so that he can stay and continue his search for Belle.

The ties between the ability to acceptably travel and that individual's territorial and metaphysical ties are key.

Translation Issue 2: muddling/meddling; 参上／干渉

2009-06-08T18:59:00.000-07:00

A second point of translational friction (see Tsing) comes near the beginning of the Wonderland segment when Sora, Goofy and Donald watch the initial section of Alice's trial.

Japanese:
Sora: なんだかかわいそうだなー
Donald: でもねえ
Goofy: 僕らは他の世界に参上したら
Donald: ”干渉”！
Goofy: そう、それはダメなんだよね

English:
Sora: Hey guys, we should help her out.
Donald Yeah, but the... [interrupted]
Goofy: We're outsiders, so wouldn't that be muddling?
Donald: "meddling"
Goofy: Oh, yeah. And that's against the rules.

The Japanese dialog opposes sanjyou and kanshou (which itself is nearer to kachou/captain or kanchou/enema). Sanjyou means, roughly, to present oneself to the place of a person of higher status. Goofy's mistake of "going to other worlds is bad" is replaced by "interfering with other worlds is bad." It is necessary and proper for the Goofy and Donald in their position of importance and power to go to other worlds, but they are not supposed to interfere. Obviously, much like Captain Kirk and the Star Trek Prime Directive interfering is the name of the game (see Bernardi).

The English translation switches the malaprop to muddling and meddling. Whereas muddle indicates negatively impacting some existing system, meddle indicates interference into a system where one doesn't belong. The irony of course is similar to the first malaprop situation where Goofy plays the part of the idiot savant. They do not "muddle" as they improve the situation. Just as mid 20th century developmental theories how can it be "muddling" when it "improves" the situation (Schramm, Schiller)?

The different translations in fact reveal the same covert meaning to be believed over the overt meaning. They are not supposed to interfere, but in fact they are not interfering as they are improving. Again, it goes to an idea of transnational elite prerogative.

Finally, Goofy explicitly uses the term "outsiders" in the English version. The idea of native vs. outsider is important with the concept of who should/can travel across borders and ideas of ethnocentrism and fear of difference/others.

Citations:
Bernardi, Daniel. Star Trek and History: Race-Ing toward a White Future. New Brunswick; London: Rutgers University Press, 1998.
Schiller, Herbert I. Mass Communications and American Empire. 2nd ed. Boulder: Westview Press, 1992 [1969].
Schramm, Wilbur. Mass Media and National Development: The Role of Information in the Developing Countries. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964.
Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.

Color Palette

2009-06-07T20:41:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure why, but between the original and the international editions the color palette on many characters was switched. This includes minor characters as well as bosses. While the giant shadow boss Darkside's color was not perceptively switched the following two bosses had large alterations. Interestingly, there does not appear to be a coherent pattern in the alteration.

Boss 1: Darkside (Destiny Islands)
Original --------------------------- Final Mix

Boss 2: Guard Armor (Traverse Town)
Original ------------------------ Final Mix

Boss 3: Trickmaster (Wonderland)
Original -------------------------- Final Mix

While Guard Armor's palette is switched from purple and black to a swathe of primary blue, yellow and reds, Trickmaster's colors are switched from more primary black and red to valentine's day pink and purple. So, the two color palettes appear to be going in the opposite directions between editions of the game.

Character Recognition

2009-06-06T01:50:00.001-07:00

The characters in Kingdom Hearts are in three categories: Disney, Squaresoft and Original/Other. Typically characters are characteristically represented depending on their categorical determination. A list of early characters as seen in Jiminy's Journal when first leaving Traverse Town is:

Sora
Riku
Kairi
King
Donald Duck (1934)
Goofy (1932)
Minnie Mouse (1928)
Daisy Duck (1937)
Pluto (1930)
Chip (1943)
Dale (1943)
Huey (1938)
Duey (1938)
Louie (1938)
Broom (1940)
Jiminy Cricket (1940)
Leon [Squall Leonhart] (Final Fantasy VIII)
Yuffie (Final Fantasy VII)
Aeris (Final Fantasy VII)
Sid (Final Fantasy VII)
Tidus (FInal Fantasy X)
Selphie (Final Fantasy XIII)
Wakka (Final Fantasy X)
Moogle (Final Fantasy III)

The first type of characters are those introduced for the purpose of the game. The player and non-player characters (other than standard enemeies) are extremely limited being Sora, Riku, Kairi and eventually Ansem. These introductions are generally explanative as they are new characters, but they are not startling in most ways (Ansem might be an exception).

All of the Disney Characters are shown in the journal with their first Disney animated short appearance. All of the Disney characters are represented in as faithful a rendition as possible. The proportions are accurate and the voices are the same as with the shows (Donald and Goofy sound like they do in the cartoons and movies, Chip and Dale get their original, non-linguistic voices and not their Rescue Ranger voices). The introduction to these characters is generally uneventful and often does not even use their name or dwell on them (Chip and Dale, the Brooms). Donald and Goofy are both introduced onto the screen after a short pan, but the rest of the characters are almost expected to appear: all of the characters from Alice in Wonderland show up eventually as do the rest of the individual worlds' Disney characters. Perhaps the only character with a more forceful introduction is King Mickey when he eventually gets introduced in person during the closing scene.

Finally are the Squresoft characters. Actually, closer would be saying Final Fantasy characters. While Squaresoft had access to a host of characters from various popular franchises including Seiken Densetsu/Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, SaGa, Parasite Eve and many non-series games (and this expanded when Squaresoft became SquareEnix between the first and second games, and even more at present with the inclusion of Eidos), the only characters included in the Kingdom Hearts games have been from the Final Fantasy series. These include requisite Moogles (given no introduction) and Sid (given a longer introduction as the shopkeeper) it also includes fan favorites given dramatic entrances (Leon/Squall, Aeris, Yuffie and of course Cloud and Sephiroth later on). These characters are created to mostly resemble the original representations where possible (pre FFVII characters such as Setzer from FFVI seen in Kingdom Hearts II is an example of necessary adaptation due to graphical differences). However, it is only the Final Fantasy characters that are given any sort of modification such as age alteration. Selphie, Wakka and Tidus are all altered fron their original forms into children, similarly, Seifer and his two lackeys Fuu and Rai (from Fujin and Raijin) and the from Final Fantasy X-2 are turned into teens in Kingdom Hearts II.

Beyond the simple representation difference, where the Final Fantasy characters have a broader range of accuracies, the Squaresoft characters generally all have sudden and surprising entrances. Part of the reason is that unlike the Disney characters, where it is the world itself that is a surprise (which Disney movies/worlds will be visited) and the characters naturally follow, the Squaresoft characters are essentially random, based in fan appeal and meant to surprise and satisfy the fans. Therefore, their entrances and attitudes are completely different from the Disney characters.

On another level, however, there is also the question of universalization of Disney and localization of Squaresoft. This answer might be more intersting and worth dealving into in the future.

Translation Issue 1: Border/Order; 近所／秩序

2009-06-06T01:07:00.001-07:00

One of my main interests is translation, especially with media that are either not considered to have translation 'issues' or where translation is almost unconsidered. Games are one of these. Playing the different versions of Kingdom Hearts is bringing out many of these translation issues. And (as expected) these translation issues are often based around the points of friction at stake: transnationalism, multinationalism, territoriality et cetera.

One of the most obvious early translation points of friction (there's got to be a good word for that), is when Goofy, Donald and Jiminy walk down to the Gummi Ship to leave the Castle. The transcriptions in English and Japanese as well as pictures are below.

Japanese:
Goofy: それじゃジミニー、キミのいた世界も消えてしまったの？
Jiminy: みなはなればなれになりー、私だけがこの城にたどりついたというわけで
Donald: グーフィー？
Goofy: わかってるよ。この城の外では僕たちがよその世界から来たことを明かしてはいけない。おたがいの近所の守るために
Donald: ”秩序”
Goofy: そうチツジョを守るために
Donald:
Goofy: むこうについたらこの服も着がえなくちゃね

English:
Goofy: Gawrsh, Jiminy, your world disappeared, too?
Jiminy: It was terrible, we were scattered. And as far as I can see, I'm the only one who made it to this castle.
Donald: Goofy?
Goofy: Oh, right... I gotcha. While we're in other worlds, we can't let on where we're from. We gotta protect the world border.
Donald: "Order"
Goofy: Right. World order.
Donald:
Goofy: I guess we'll need new duds when we get there.

The scene involves Goofy making a word mistake, choosing the wrong word for what he wants to say. In Japanese he says "近所" (neighborhood) and Donald corrects him by saying "秩序" (order). While not homonyms, the second character of both is read jyo while the first changes from kin to chitsu. It is not particularly close, but it makes a nice joke. Goofy proposes protecting both (their world and the other worlds') neighborhoods, and Donald corrects him so that what is protected is each's order.

The English variation changes two things. First is that the pun is moved to border vs. order, which is a closer rhyme and therefore slightly more humorous, but far more pertinent for the idea of transnationalism, borders and crossing. Essentially, instead of Goofy saying the wrong thing (as in the Japanese variation), Goofy makes a Freudian slip and reveals exactly the point of contention, the border.

The border is the issue; preserving the "world order" (a term that has interesting connotations linked to NWICO and the Macbride Commission) is done through preserving the borders!

Mickey's Conspicuous Absence

2009-06-05T21:19:00.000-07:00

The name Mickey remains unspoken/unshown throughout the game until the last scene. Instead, he is represented in symbols, and referred to by your majesty, the king, 王様 and the like. On one level this is might be a matter of economics or politics in that the group developing the game needed to get greater authorization to include Mickey, the big Disney breadwinner. That said, Mickey as a sign saturates the game as lights on the wall, as signatures, as portraits of ancestors on the wall and as door outlines. Some are seen below.

Disney Princesses

2009-06-04T15:33:00.000-07:00

After the first sequence on a beach, Sora wakes on a luminescent (stained glass/cel-shaded aesthetics) disc with the image of Snow White, the first of 6 princess spaces in the beginning of the game. The player/avatar is at his most innocent here; character configuration ("birth") and tutorial functions, etc. Next princess is Cinderella; then Sleeping Beauty (practice fighting Heartless), then Belle (early boss fight.) These are, perhaps, the princesses of already-captured world.

Disney Princesses started as a franchise of their own in 2000; they have their own line of videogames, media content, merchandise, etc.

Cutscene Notes (KH - English, IE)

2009-06-04T08:27:00.000-07:00

Videos obtained from http://www.kh-vids.net/index.php

2) falls through the world/water to glass floor (Snow White)

3) You are the one who will open the door (Snow White to Cinderella to Heart motif to Sleeping Beauty to Beauty and the Beast's Rose)

4) Wake up on Island. Desire to see other "worlds" through boat. "thanks to you. if you hadn't come here i'd probably never thought of any of this" (the idea that injunctions from the outside, foreigners, bring new concepts: Kairi as a westerner brings the idea to go outside)
Disney Castle: "Your Majesty" (mickey head outline is sign/sigil)

5) Base of the tree as exploration: door is opened (by whom). "Once I go I can always come back here" - the IMpossibiility of return "We gotta protect the world border" -Goofy "ORDER" - Donald

6) Door opens. Gets sucked in.

7) Star goes out (Archipelago). Guy's heart comes out of his chest, enters dark patch. Dark patch then turns into heartless, which poofs into darkness. Leon (Squall Leonhart) (unknown while talking, then camera move to see his gunblade) fights. [FINAL MIX CUTSCENE A] Aeris pops up from behind and also has the audience recognition factor. Kairi: "those creatures that attacked you want the keyblade, but it's your heart they really want, because you weild the keyblade." Yuffie: I think you might have overdone it, Squall." Leon: "That's Leon"
Flipping between groups (Aeris, Donald, Goofy; Sora, Leon, Yuffie). Other worlds are supposed to be a secret and were until now due to them being tied (doors opened. Ansem studied the heartless, but his report was scattered.... fight heartless, when it is defeated the heart goes out of it with a flash of light (opposite of beginning of scene).

Three join up; baddies talk a lot (about "conquers the darkness" and "darkness swallows him")

8) scenes of following the white rabbit. Alice in court. Pun/misword "we're outsiders, so wouldn't that be muddling?" -Goofy "Meddling!" -Donald. Alice is kidnapped/disappears at the end. Heartless battle (heart goes up again).
Doorknob has keyhole in its mouth: end is it being sealed.

9) Tarzan. Friends. Fail to find friends and heartless arrive. Hunter joins/turns heartless. Disappears with chameleon boss (single heart, but both poof). "Friends in our heart" "Friends, same heart. Clayton, lose heart. No heart, no see friends. no heart, no friends." (Shut the keyhole.)

Baddies talking. Hunter lured the heartless there. Jafar says he was weak hearted. Plans: Open doors; get princess. Alice is prisoner.

10) Heroes. Can't enter games; Hades gives them ticket; Cloud Strife shows up and walks by; Hades wants Strife to kill Sora (on contract to kill Hercules, but Hades says kill him). Hercules shows up upon beating Cloud; Sora and company attack Cerberus. Become "Junior Heroes." Talk with Cloud: Searching for light. Malificent to Hades: "As you wish. Fight to your heart's content."

11) Riku shows up; pissing match. Riku can hold the keyblade (he's pure of heart?). Switch to Malificent telling Riku that Sora replaced his old friends with new ones. Plug the Traverse Town keyhole after beating the boss (twice).

12) Jafar and Malificent talking; Find key, find Jasmine, controlling heartless. Malificent warns Jafar not to stay in Darkness and be taken over by the Heartless. Rescue Aladdin. Jafar steals lamp and uses first wish to find the key hole. "wait a second, are you... Malificent?" Open? -Goofy; The door? -Donald Jafar is turned into a Genie, but not a heartless; Jasmine is kidnapped by Riku; keyhole is sealed. Genie is freed and does a "favor" for his "pals." "Jafar was beyond help, consumed by his own hatred. One should beware of letting it burn too fiercely" -Malificent You're like a son to me, i only want you to be happy.

13) (memories have no sound) Hearing a monster (young Riku and Sora), just the wind, find the door. Talk of getting off the island and "new girl at the mayor's house." In Monstro the whale; find Pinocchio who leads them to Jepetto. Riku playing with Sora; Malificent warns him of heartless. Riku steals Pinocchio as he lost his heart (as did Kairi) to the heartless. "heart or no heart, at least he has a conscience." Defeat boss; free heart; Riku on Hook's ship. "There are seven maidens of the purest heart. We call them the princesses of heart. Gather them together, and a door will open to the heart of all worlds. Within lies untold wisdom. There you will surely find a way to recover Kairi's heart." -Malificent

14) Section of learning how to play underwater - diagetic. Triton gets pissed when they say they're looking for the keyhole. He's frightened of strangers. Intro to Ursula. "Young man, you're not from another ocean. You're from another world. Aren't you?" (star trek non-interference policy being practiced) "As the key bearer you must already know. One must not meddle in the affairs of other worlds... You have violated this principle. The key bearer shatters peace and brings ruin." -Triton. "Let me guess, you wish to see other worlds. That shouldn't be too hard. Afterall, your new friends came from another world." Threatens to send her "to the dark world of the heartless." - Ursula. Fight Ursula once, then she turns huge. The trident comes out of her body and reveals the keyhole in the cave; Sora closes it. Ariel is forbidden the exit from her world as she is a) not a princess of heart, and b) not a "high class citizen" (transnational elite).

15) Ghosts (heartless) for the Halloween show, but aren't "scary" enough. "Why of course, the heartless need a heart. Doctor, do you think we could add a heart to that device?" - Jack " Certainly, a heart's not all that complicated." "To make a heart first take a container with a heart." "We need the key to this thing first." (Sora opens it) "The ingredients for a heart: Pulse. Emotion. Terror. Fear. Hope and Despair. Mix them all together and we have a heart." -Jack "It failed... Let's try adding memory" (Go find Sally for her memory - dried flower; heartless out of control now) Oogie Boogie wants to "nab that heart and control the heartless" and they steal the heart. Oogie Boogie swallows the heart then calls the heartless, but gets pissed when they don't come en masse. Defeat him once, then Oogie Boogie turns giant/linked to the house. Defeat and then seal the giant keyhole.

16) On boat. Old friends vs. new friends. Siding with heartless and not scared as "my heart's too strong" -Riku.Hook hears ticking (clock). "Oh my poor nerves" -Hook (nerves? heart?) "Anyone can fly. You wanna try?" -Peter Pan (flying as migration, space travel). Wendy not a chosen one. Fight shadow Sora; rescue Wendy; Pan takes off. Riku heads to Hollow Bastion. "Be gald I'm merciful, unlike the heartless. So, which will it be? The keyblade or the plank?" -Hook. Sora learns to fly. Hook escapes while being chased by the crocodile. "Kairi couldn't wake up, so maybe she's really lost her... - Goofy I can't believe it. I really flew... if you believe, you can do anything, right?" -Sora Close keyhole at the clock tower. (Back to silent memory land Riku turns back and sees keyhole, then to him at Hollow Bastion). " A cast away. Though his world perished, his heart did not. When we took the princess from his castle he apparently followed her here through sheer force of will." -Malificent to Riku "Peter, are you really going back to Neverland? -Wendy "Afraid so, but we can see each other any time. As long as you don't forget about Neverland that is.

17) Hope and belief. (memory? silent) "Long ago, people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of light. Everyone loved the light. Then people began to fight over it. They wanted to keep it for themselves. And darkness was born in their hearts. The darkness spread, swallowing the light and many people's hearts. It covered everything and the world disappeared. But small fragments of light survived... in the hearts of children. With these fragments of light, children rebuilt the lost world. It's the world we live in now. But the true light sleeps, deep within the darkness. That's why the worlds are still scattered, divided from each other. But someday, a door to the innermost darkness will open. And the true light will return. So, listen, child. Even in the deepest darkness, there will always be a light to guide you. Believe in the light and the darkness will never defeat you.Your heart will shine with its power and push the darkness away. Do you understand, Kairi?" -Kairi's nurse? mother?

18) Win the coliseum. Strength of heart. Unity (not independence). Your friends give you strength. Team. The trainer rejects this concept; Hercules agrees with it; opposition of inter/in dependence. Seal keyhole.

19) "No vessel, no help from the heartless. So tell me how'd you get here." -Riku "I simply believed. Nothing more to it. When our world fell into darkness Belle was taken from me. I vowed I would find her again no matter what the cost. I believed I would find her. So, here I am. She must be here." -Beast Riku takes the keyblade "Only the keyblade master can open the secret door and change the world... you were just the delivery boy." -Riku Friends abandon; Beast goes on fighting; Sora finds purpose. Six Princesses in storage (Jasmine, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Alice, Belle) and Kairi in front with Malificent. Confrontation with Riku: "Quit while you're ahead. The darkness will destroy you." "You're wrong. The darkness may destroy my body, but it can't touch my heart. My heart will stay with my friends. It'll never die!" (Goofy stops blast - Sora as friend, liminal duty position) "I know now that I've got a better weapon. My heart." "Your heart? What good will that weak little thing do for you?" "Although my heart may be weak, it's not alone. It's grown with each new experience, and it's found a home with all the friends I've made. I've become a part of their heart just as they've become a part of mine. And if they think of me now and then... if they don't forget me... then our hearts will be one. I don't need a weapon, my friends are my power." (keyblade returns to Sora; Home as heart, nation) (defeat Riku, his battle clothes disappear) "Know this. The heart that is strong and true shall win the keyblade." -Cloaked Figure "What? You're saying my heart's weaker than his?" -Riku "For that instant, it was. However, you can become stronger. You showed no fear in stepping through the door to darkness. It held no terror for you. Plunge deeper into the darkness and your heart will grow even stronger... Open yourself to the darkness. That is all. Let your heart, your being, become darkness itself." -Cloaked Figure (gets his clothes back and a mixed evil voice). "I see the path has emerged at last." -Riku "Yes, the keyhole to the darkness." -Malificent "Unlock it and the Heartless will overrun this world." -Riku "What do I care? The darkness holds no power over me. Rather, I will use its power to rule all worlds." -Malificent "Such confidence." -Riku "Oh! Impossible! The princesses of heart are all here! It must be her." -Malificent "Without her heart she will never be able to release her power." -Riku (battle with Malificent; Riku appears) "Yes, a keyblade, but unlike yours this keyblade holds the power to unlock people's hearts. Allow me to demonstrate... [stabs Malificent] Now, open your heart, surrender it to the darkness! Become darkness itself." -Riku (Malificent turns into a dragon) Defeat Malificent, Riku says the heartless were using her; fitting end to a fool. "It's no use. That girl has lost her heart. She cannot wake up... The keyhole cannot be completed so long as the last princess of heart still sleeps." -Riku (Kairi's heart in Sora; Riku/Ansem reveals himself as "the seeker of darkness" then attacks Sora to complete the keyhole, so it can be opened, Sora wins the fight, but can't close the keyhole as it isn't finished yet) Sora stabs himself with the 2nd keyblade, smales adn disappears into 7 flashy balls that go into the various princesses, then disappears as Kairi wakes up [Utada Hikaru Light melody plays]. "Falling, falling into darkness" -Sora "So, you have awakened at last, princess. The keyhole is now complete. You have served your purpose. But now it's over... Impossible!" -Ansem "No. You won't use me for this! You gotta run. The heartless are coming." -Riku (One lost heartless [Sora] finds them and then turns back into Sora; they escape)

20) Telling Leon. "So the darkness is flowing out of that keyhole... nobody knows what will happen when it's sealed." "When I turned into a Heartless, you saved me, remember? I was lost in the darkness. I couldn't find my way. As I stumbled through the dark, I started forgetting things - my friends, who I was. The darkness almost swallowed me. But then I heard a voice - your voice. You brought me back." -Sora (hearts connected; light from hearts break through darkness) Memory linked with heart, light.

21) Beast finds Belle in the library. Team fights monster (Behemoth?) then gets to keyhole. "we may never meet again, but we'll never forget each other. No matter where we are, our hearts will bring us together again. Besides, I couldn't forget you even if I wanted to." -Leon, Aeris and Yuffie Sora closes the keyhole.

22) 100 Acre Woods. . Pooh is thinking how to say good-bye to himself as everybody has gone away (Going away as main theme of original). Sora finds Piglet who has a balloon for Pooh so he can float up and get honey. Tee aye double guh err. Bouncing games and other mini games. Everybody together again. Lonely. Brave alone. Sora goes looking for his friends who are waiting for him. Book closes and the lock shuts. Sora replaces Christopher Robin on the cover.

23) End of the World. water and detritus. "Gorsh, is that all that's left of the worlds taken by the heartless?" -Goofy. "Those worlds will be restored if we beat Ansem, right?" -Sora "You betcha" -Donald "But if we do beat him and all these worlds become restored and disconnected, what's going to happen to this place. And to us?" -Sora "Well" -Donald "This is a Heartless world, so maybe it'll just disappear... but no worries. Even if this place goes poof, our hearts ain't goin' nowhere. I'm sure we'll find our pals again. Yup, I just know that we will. [double meaning in Heartless World!] -Goofy

Falling down and start fighting a giant shadow creature; defeat it (no heart to go poof). Door opens, light spills out. At archipelago. "This world has been connected... tied to the darkness. soon to be completely eclipsed. there is so very much to learn. You understand so little. A meaningless effort. One who knows nothing can understand nothing. -Ansem's voice. "Take a look at this tiny place. To the heart seeking freedom this island is a prison surrounded by water. And so this boy sought to escape from his prison. He sought a way to cross over into other worlds and he opened hsi heart to darkness.... Don't bother. Your voice can no longer reach him where he is. His heart belongs again to darkness. All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end. The heart is no different. Darkness sprouts within it, grows, consumes it. Such is its nature. In the end, every heart returns to the darkness whence it came. You see, darkness is the heart's true essence." -Ansem "That's not true. The heart may be weak. And sometimes it may even give in. But I’ve learned that deep down there's a light that never goes out." -Sora "So, you have come this far and still you understand nothing. Every light must fade, every heart return to darkness!" -Ansem (Fighting; Ansem then tears up the island; more fighting) "Behold the endless abyss! Within it lies the heart of all worlds: Kingdom Hearts Look as hard as you are able. You'll not find even the smallest glimmer of light. From those dark depths are all hearts born. Even yours. Darkness conquers all worlds!" -Ansem "Giving up already? Come on, Sora. I thought you were stronger than that." -Riku (Sora flies up and fights giant monster's parts eventually getting to Ansem).

"It is futile. The keyblade alone cannot seal the door to darkness. Kingdom Hearts. Fill me with the power of darkness. Supreme darkness." -Ansem "You're wrong. I know now, without a doubt. Kingdom Hearts is light!" -Sora (light comes out of door and blows away Ansem) They try to close the door' The king (revealed as Mickey and finally called Mickey instead of ‘your majesty’ or ‘the king’) kills a couple heartless and brings out his keyblade "Now Sora, let's close this door for good... Don't worry. There will always be a door to the light." -King Mickey "Sora, you can trust King Mickey" (first mention by name). (they close the door from both sides; Sora runs to Kairi)

24) FMV
Kairi
Sora
Kairi, remember what you said before? I'm always with you too. I'll come back for you. I promise.
I know you will.
(their islands split up - Sora on snow; Kairi on the sand/island)
[utada hikaru - simple clean]
(switching between the two as light falls making the worlds regrow - Archipelago is reborn)
(Lights flash up into the sky marking stars/worlds being recreated)
(Kairi wanders the island. Into the cave. Sees the star drawing and makes another star from her to him)
[credits roll - main names and static images]
[2nd credits roll - concluding scenes/montage]
at the castle
cloud finds aeris
Pinocchio as a boy
jasmine and aladdin
FFX characters running on beach
princesses of heart.
[3rd credits - just names]

25) In the field. Looking for Riku and King Mickey. Looking for Door to the Light. Pluto has a letter for them
"Remember, Sora. You are the one who will open the door to the light."

26) Special Secret - "Another Side, Another Story..."
people fighting. words on screen. Woman at beach.

International Edition Additional Scenes:
a) Riku arrives at Hollow Bastion (after the island goes), screams for Sora and Kairi; Malificent comes down to indoctrinate him.
b) Riku is in the world of darkness. Mickey starts talking to him. His heart was closed, but is okay now. Close the door from both sides with two keys and two hearts. Mickey says Riku can feel his friends in his heart.
c) Cloud and Sephiroth. Sephiroth as Cloud's "darkness." Fight
d) Memories of growing up on the island between Sora and Riku (sepia).

Abstract: DIGRA 2009

2009-06-03T22:50:00.001-07:00

DIGRA 2009 Kingdom Hearts

Of Kingdom Hearts, Territoriality and Flow

This paper explores the relationship between companies Square-Enix and Disney as played out within the games of the Kingdom Hearts (キングダムハーツ) franchise. We contrast the relationship between these two transnational companies within the franchise's aesthetics and theoretical logics over the course of the various games. We are particularly interested in the games' own thematization and problematization of concepts of globalization, transnationalism and cultural flow. The games narratively and interactively foreground the collapse of membranes that separate worlds, producing legitimate and illegitimate modes of territoriality and intermixture.

Kingdom Hearts is a content franchise centered around a series of videogames, but also includes work in manga, novels and other media. The franchise is a collaboration between Square-Enix (a Tokyo-based videogame publisher) and Disney Interactive Studios (a California-based videogame publisher and wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company). When the player character's laconic archipelago is overrun by swarms of creatures called Heartless (ハートレス) he must flee to the "in-between" space, Traverse Town (トラバースタウン). As a refugee, the player embarks on a series of quests to identify the origin of the invasion that threatens to tear down the barriers protecting the various worlds, each representing a Disney franchise (Atlantica houses The Little Mermaid, Never Land is the world of Peter Pan, Tarzan lives in Deep Jungle, et cetera). Over the course of the games, more is revealed about the forces that are tearing down the barriers between worlds; the pressing goal of the player is to stop the invasion and protect the borders.

While the narrative of the first Kingdom Hearts game is about the retention and re-solidification of territorial boundaries (between worlds/narratives/companies/countries), in the process it creates a tertiary territory: the Kingdom Hearts franchise itself. The franchise thus acts as a place of mixture and transnationalism within a narrative and discourse of non-porous boundaries between territorial entities.

This territoriality is seen within the game in three different categories of place: the Disney franchise-worlds that the player preserves from disintegration by removing the invasive shadows; the interstitial Traverse Town which is home to refugee characters, and The World That Never Was (存在しなかった世界), a home to liminal Nobodies (ノーバディ), "non"-subjects that possess body and soul, but no heart. The ludic and fantastic metaphysics of subjects, heartless and nobodies which drive the narrative of the game are complex and richly allegorical; we will elaborate them in the full paper.

We play and refer to various English and Japanese editions of the games Kingdom Hearts (Playstation 2), Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (Game Boy Advance), Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories (Playstation 2), and Kingdom Hearts II (Playstation 2); issues of translation, localization and global distribution also intersect with our interpretation and analysis. Two new titles, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 (Nintendo DS) and Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (Sony PSP) are planned for release over the next few months, and will be incorporated into the final article.

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