Kingdom Hearts through different media.

"The medium is the message."
- Marshall McLuhan​

We are all familiar with the lovely Kingdom Hearts series as a video game, of course. Less familiar are we, but still so, with the Kingdom Hearts manga. Even less so are the derivatives and the like. However, one can understand that all of these derivative works do indeed derive from Kingdom Hearts not as a novel, not as a movie, but as a video game.

However, what if Kingdom Hearts had instead been a novel? Perhaps a trilogy or a series with more than three books; perhaps a series with a large amount of books (where the spin-offs are treated equally with the main stories); perhaps a War and Peace style epic brick of a text. What if Kingdom Hearts was an epic poem, or written in a similar format? What if Kingdom Hearts was in fact a series of movies - Disney's next biggest film projects? What if Kingdom Hearts was a Doctor Who-like serial television series?

I ask of you, would this have changed the way that Kingdom Hearts was to be understood, appreciated, and respected not only amongst your individual selves, nor the forum, but society as a whole? Would the environments of the book, film, poetry, and television affect its content, or would the medium itself affect the way in which the creators decided to present the story of Kingdom Hearts? Would there have been any massive changes, or very little changes? Would it make any difference, really?

And most importantly, does reading the Kingdom Hearts manga, or any novel-like stories, change your experience of the plot?

 

To the first series of questions: Yes. Absolutely. Inarguably. It would be disingenuous to all forms of media represented to say otherwise. Because each one not only does but must have distinct differences in strengths, weaknesses, and the potential spectrum of expression, or else there'd be no point. We would have a single, globulous, gestalt medium through which all ideas are expressed.

Kingdom Hearts as a series of films might have been able to convey more intimate, tender moments where facial expressions and short lines of dialogue rule the day. Perhaps Sora and Kairi's relationship would have been strengthened.

Kingdom Hearts as a series of novels would be free to explore Sora's thoughts and meet less resistance in showing moments of weakness in him. Perhaps he wouldn't have seemed as invincible; his vulnerabilities and how he overcomes them would be the focal point and what truly endeared him to the reader.

Kingdom Hearts as a series of comics might have had a much more artful, unrestrained style, juxtaposing epic battles against sprawling backgrounds or vivifying the attacks of heroes and villains alike with wild brush strokes and an array of beautiful colors.

Of course this only touches on the possibilities; each medium is capable of much more in its own right. Though differences (and by implication limits) must exist, artists do their damnedest to overcome them. Life's a wonderful paradox in that way. :'D

Sadly, I haven't yet dipped in to the supplementary material. I really should pick up the novels...

 

To be honest if Kingdom Hearts were a novel, poem, or a manga I still probably like it as much as I like it now which is as a video game. I mean I'm sure I would have heard of the series if they were in any of those forms but it still wouldn't be the same for me if I were playing it as an RPG. In addition, I probably would watch it if it became a movie.

 

I think that KH as a movie or even a series of movies is impossible, in every game there are about 3-4 hours on average of cinematics only, then there is all the gameplay part. I think that a anime would be good.

 

The manga is my most favorite but I only have a few volumes. And if I'm correct I don't think it has A LOT of volumes within the series. It brings some more life into the games tho, more depth with some of the characters (which I love). But I don't think I'd enjoy it becoming a movie... maybe a 12/20 episode anime such but not a movie. I have such strong emotions with thee game.. I feel like a movie and sometimes the manga drives me crazy. So yes, it would change alot for me.

 

A KH novel wouldn't be a bad idea.

And I still surprise why they didn't made a anime/OVA of the series as well.

 

I'd have to say: Yes, if Kingdom Hearts had come out in any other way other than a video game, it would have changed the way most audiences perceived the KH series. A novel with a interesting front cover, and summary on the back could have attracted some other people, but I feel if it were not for the game that it's success might've been sub-par. As a manga converted to video game, it probably might've created a bit more Hype, thus perhaps drawing in a bigger audience early on.

I'm not too sure whether disney's pixar would have been interested in picking up the project as a film; seeing as Nomura was put in charge of the story and whatnot.

As an anime, I feel that it would've been one of those series where it would have ended short.

Just my opinion.

 

Well, after making Days into a sort of movie in 1.5, I quite liked that but would have rather had the whole thing animated and not had whole bits skipped over and explained with text- that was a huge disappointment for me. The only complete manga that I read was CoM and I loved it, I still have yet to finish the game but it didn't go over everything, it skipped past a lot of the worlds you go to and a lot of the floors and just focused on the main events of the game. I think though that if it was made into a proper film it would need to include everything, I wouldn't be happy seeing them skip out something like a whole world.

If it was to be made into a film then I don't want them gonig any where near live action, the Disney worlds wouldn't suit it let alone worlds like Hollow Bastion- I would want it to be exactly like it is in game which would be very hard to create in real life. Plus, a lot of live action is just terrible when converted from an anime.

 

I was ok with the manga. The story was understandable, and it was a bit fun. As for KH being a novel, poem, movie, or tv series, well not sure about poem, but everything else seems alright if done well. Movie and TV series might be fine if it's animated, if they somehow do it really well, and not make it hack and slash most of the time, because honestly KH has a lot of fighting, and will it's good in a game, if you put that into a tv show or movie it soon becomes predictable and boring.

 

A movie?

Well, I trust in Disney Animation Studios, so I think they'd come out with something cool.
But.. can you imagine a collab between Disney Animation Studios and Visual Works (the one who make all the Square-Enix's CGs)? That'd be awesome!

 

An anime would be great, but since young people cant seem to pick up a book these days, a novel wouldn't be a very good idea in my opinion.

 

This. It already has a decently drawn out manga (though majorly it has sora holding the keyblade on his back which is wrong) but also the manga story line is faithful to the original. an Anime doesn't seem like a bad idea.

 

Tucked into one of his belts. Still wrong, but the artist was taking liberties with the whole "appearing out of thin air thing".


Personally, I've read the manga, and I would totally read a novelization or watch a movie/show of KH. If it had been a book or a movie/show first though, it totally would have changed how I see the franchise. I normally drop shows after a few episodes. Even really good shows. I either get bored waiting for the new episode to come out or I get intimidated by all the episodes I still have to watch and get discouraged. I'm super picky about my books and normally only read the ones from authors I already know or ones that have been recommended to me by friends. As for movies, well, taking Frozen as my example, I loved the movie, I will rewatch it another few times in the next few weeks, but from a KH standpoint, the movie medium is too compressed. Even in a series of movies, KH wouldn't shine because it's pretty much impossible to fit that much detail into such a short thing and have it come out decent. The Eragon movie tried, and look how that turned out.

 

Bingo. This is my one stopping point for fully supporting a film franchise. I still think it's a great idea, but so much rides on the execution. And, honestly, games can do so much more than film. Even on the storytelling front. Look at the Naughty Dog 'x-factor' Uncharted really did bring a whole new layer of depth in storytelling, along with some others around the time, but really popularized storytelling in games as an art. No, it was not a new idea and yes, it had been done before; but the Uncharted series really brought it into the limelight and got other people catching on and paying more attention to that aspect. The Last of Us is a perfect example as well. As a movie, it probably would have been great, and a good quality film, which we may still end up seeing. However, by making it a game, they made it an experience. That interactivity, the factor of choice and play style, and lack of straight cutscenes to tell the story shattered the screen and threw you right into the mix, will a real sense of being there and going through everything Joel and Ellie did. What I guess I'm trying to say is, the game itself can be much more powerful, and much more capable. And when dealing with teams and writers who are familiar with writing for a video game medium, that may be the best direction to go. That being said, I still believe in the relevance of other mediums like film, novel, and manga; but only as supplemental material. I don't want to say there is only one way of doing things, and if it isn't done that way then everything is flawed, but I sincerely believe that the minute the focus shifts from the main gaming experience, something about this franchise we all know and love is lost.