#kh censorship
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I know now without a doubt Kingdom Hearts is L—
No actually I think Kingdom Hearts is honestly purposely censored.
I used to be like well I don't think it's inherently the translators faults, Japanese is a tough language for people to know what it's referring to and likes to Americanized certain things like adding heteronormativity and romanizing things. People like romanticizing thingz so I can't exactly blame them it's part of westerners.
Like when you think of relationships most think of straight relationships so that probably what they thought of it's probably about even though the relationship doesn't really develop that much.
A lot of Action movies have the same problem when there is a male main character, there is always a forced romance with some side girl character when it's not a developed or good relationship it's just there to mark of the love interest category.
But now realizing how much Kingdom Hearts censors things, maybe they had an idea.
Some lines are WAY off from the original made to romanticized so much when the original wasn't even anything remotely like that or about a character in that way. And some scenes take out movements and edit it.
They change the entire meaning to censor things for American Audiences.
Nobody knows why.
And all I can think of is to make it have things that American Audiences would rather enjoy having romance in places unnecessarily or censoring things to be "safe"
I made a post about the Dream Drop Distance scene which gotten a crazy amount of attention only on the first few days it's at 300+notes, but the post was essentially about how when Sora was sleeping he tells Donald and Goofy it's his job to keep him on his toes and he puts his arm down in a fist. Then Riku moved his arm slightly to the left and put it in a fist again?
But the scene actually had Riku telling Donald and Goofy how he slapped Sora awake whenever he fell asleep on the beach and it shows Riku moving his hand in a slapping motion, not whatever that awkward motion was.
The thing is DDD was one of the side games and I thought they didn't pay much attention to the censoring in those. And given how gay DDD is and it wasn't as censoring their dynamic.
However, it got censored and it's like why? Did they think Audiences couldn't handle it?
Like it just seems like a silly thing he would do. It's kinda like how some people would pour water on someone to wake them up.
Like a teasing thing which he does A LOT and it probably wasn't that hard.
And other times I heard about how the language had some swearing or words that could be translated that way but of course since it's Disney the western version had to censor that.
The novels and manga actually still have more language in it.
And I think the main problem is Disney. They censor things a lot now.
They used to be more open to this kind of thing, but now they are soft and never take risks. I also heard how their team would edit things that would be in their original movie to tone it down for KH players.
It's kinda sad because there is definitely a lot of meaning to KH that is lost in translation. The battle with Vanitas is one in particular I had realized it's meaning is a bit more than the western version. The western version also simplifies things and tries to condense aspects as well. Xehanort's reason for everything is also worded very differently in the western version.
One of the reasons I look at fan translations is because it gives more meaning to certain events, not only because of dynamics and possible ships that are lost, but also explanations that are no longer there.
I'm so grateful for everyone who tries to retranslate things accurately and sometimes I use a site for certain things I'm curious but by no means do I speak their language and I get translation is hard, I really hope their future installments don't do this especially with KH4 and ML coming up in the next several years.
#soriku#kingdom hearts#translations#kh translations#kh censorship#the censorship is honestly real#Disney is probably the main team trying to censor things#but didney doesn't care about KH unless it does something with their properties#if they did care they would show it more#dream Drop Distance#kh3#chain of memories#heteronormativity#this plays a huge factor as well#Sora#Riku#kh Riku#kh Sora#I hope kh4 censorship won't do this
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Attention to my fellow KH fans, especially to the Soriku stans
The "Riku is Gay (and why it matters)" video is not available anymore
As some of you may already know, the account of the creator got hacked by a troll, who first changed the name of the channel and within a few hours made it unavailable.
The very last comment I was able to leave under the video kind of sums up my opinion, so I'm going to leave it there:
"You know the video is good when the homophobes feel so threatened they need to hack your account to feel legit"
Update because I'm not sure people have seen it in the reblogs
The video is available again, go watch it
youtube
#kingdom hearts#soriku#kh video#sigh (derogatory)#let me make this clear though#If you don't like the ship it's absolutely fine#but erasing someone's opinion just because you feel like it makes you hot shit IS what censorship looks like#and given the subject of the video I'd go as far as to call it homophobia#Youtube
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I haven't posted in a long time.
My anxiety and depression have backslid a lot in the last year. My social anxiety and agoraphobia are particularly out of control.
I have fallen out of producing fandom content, frankly because I have been too afraid to. Fandoms have become a lot more charged than they were when I was younger. I keep trying to get into new fandoms that I hope are less problematic only to stumble across the same patterns, up to and including someone being harassed and told to 'kys' repeatedly over fandom drama to the point of ending their own life.
But being isolated is hard. I haven't stopped making content I just... Stopped sharing it. I don't really know what to do, or if any followers I have here are even still active. I got back into JoJo's and expected most of the discourse to be more 'gay vs not gay' type stuff but some parts are... Really, *really* bad. Worse even than KH. And inconsistent! Censoring myself to fit some fear mongering anti's agenda seems like an anathema, so I just haven't posted anything, even the stuff I have I know isn't problematic.
To me the 'right' thing to do would be to post anyway and stand up for a censorship free Internet and community, but I'm afraid that, especially right now, I just don't have the resilience.
I guess I'm asking people more in touch with a 2024 Tumblr what they think. If it's even worth it. What tools there are. I've spent half the day blocking hate in a tag and trying not to panic about it. As an actual abuse survivor, seeing some of these accusations fly over such inane things is just... Disheartening. Especially knowing my abusers will never be prosecuted, but I'm getting accused of those crimes by trying to cope through artistic expression.
Also if there is anyone interested in some of the 'problematic' ships I've tagged, please give me a ring. I might try finishing and posting some stuff after all of it will actually make people happy. But after seeing witch hunt posts calling for people to haze or blacklist certain crators? It's just... Really scary.
But I'm so tired of being alone.
#eljin has an existential crisis#giomis#brugio#brupro#fandom discourse didnt use to be this scary#remember when the standard for being upset at fandom behaviour was literally physically assaulting someone with a bucket at a con?#i miss 2012#guess i should add diadop and risodop and risopro#because it seems like even just liking squadra can get you antagonized?#back in my day jodio was just normal shit it wasnt controversial at all what happened with that?#i just like a good mudad au...#were mad at brugio but dont talk about gyjo being a bigger gap like i love gyjo dont cancel it but im also confused at the inconsistency?#everyone should go yt seach 'its okay to not like things'#please just... be kind to each other. im begging you. im so tired.
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It's become apparent to me that KH characters using the word "disappear" (or variants of that) to mean death isn't actually self-censorship or anything. Disney characters in these games have used the word "die/death" freely before. Even in KHUX and KHDR which are fairly recent games (I think maybe KH3 and Melody of Memory, too? Also super recent games).
I'm pretty sure this choice was simply made to better serve the worldbuilding. After all, most original KH characters do, in fact, just disappear into light and sparkles when they die. They don't even leave a body behind. Of course they'd start referring to death as "disappearing". Especially in the KH universe where "death" is often not actually the end, and your existence simply transfers somewhere else and/or transforms into something new. KH characters actively and consistently using words other than "death" helps draw attention to this quirk of the universe.
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I agree with you that it´s a genuine intention. Although I disagree, I respect the idea that it´s queerbaiting (people have been burned many times and that shit happens a lot) more than that it´s an accident because the latter is just... totally ridiculous. If they suddenly made s/k canon (which I don´t think it will happen), it would be baiting on Sora's side. In order to be queercoded, KH would have to end with no canon pairs.
It's not that I think it's 100% impossible for it to be queerbaiting especially if sk did happen, however my view of it is that even if s/k did happen, but everything else with sr stayed the same level of genuine care and I don't know, not using their intimacy as a punchline like so many queerbaitey media does, then my first assumption would not be queerbait but censorship by Disney/Square. I don't think that's going to happen, but I'm just saying it's not automatically queerbait. Queercoded doesn't mean there can't by definition be straight romance. To me queercoded just means the writer has a sincere intent of coding a character as queer for a queer audience to be able to find, despite any limitations they might face due to censorship. There are queercoded characters in straight relationships in media (think about how up until very recently when Velma was confirmed lesbian, she had been queercoded for a long time despite having been in relationships with guys). It's unfortunate but it is what it is. It all depends on intent. And my feel of it is that the intent is absolutely sincere up to this point. I can't read Nomura's mind so that's just my opinion but I can't see it another way at the moment.
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The Kingdom Hearts Iceberg meme - DECONSTRUCTED
So whenever I have way too much time in my hands (or I’m too bored to do stuff I seriously ought to be doing) I google “[insert fandom here] iceberg” and then compile on a list all the entries from all the icebergs I can find on said fandom with the thought that I may make the ultimate iceberg one day.
That never happens.
So anyway, I decided “screw it!” and now I present you the full, NUMBERED list of all the Kingdom Hearts Iceberg meme entries I could find plus some, in no particular order to speak of! I don’t actually know what maybe 30-40% of them are, and there may be duplicates or I may have grossly misunderstood some stuff, but that’s fine! I don’t care! Let’s GET TO IT.
EDIT: I added more
Black Box
Elevator Pitch
Robed Ansem
Cactuar
XIII
Lady and the Trump fountain
FF figures
Following Dalmation
Kurt Ziza
Tidus in Traverse Town
"Master Synthesist?"
"This place is kinda different"
Elemental connections
Agrabah peddler
Prophetic cave paintings
Volcanic crater
Sora's weight
"Paintings are great"
Nobodies and Heartless in DDD
OG Hollow Bastion in KH2
V-Cast games
"You've seen me before?"
Tarzan rights
CAT
Einhander ships
"This place looks familiar"
Hidden Seifer fight
International censorship
Cover art locations
Mickey was the protagonist
Donald was the protagonist
Warrior's Journey
Disney Castle in KH1
Handwritten notes
Mickey's letter to Rabbit
Jungle Book in BBS
Who Am I?
Dog Street
Crumbling Island
Sora's original design
Kairi's panties
Nomura was drunk when he came up with Re:Coded
Verum Rex is FF Versus XIII
Luxord is the Verum Rex version of Cor Leonis
Luxord's real name is Lodur and he's connected to Dark Road
Pinocchio in 358/2 Days
Fragmented Keys
Woody and Buzz summons in KH1 and KH2
Deep Jungle in CoM
Treasure Planet in DDD
Bahamut Summons
Zidane is Sora
Sora has to play the Reapers' Game
Arrendelle got censored
Sora created Naminé
Nomura planned Sora's fate from the beginning
Xehanort = Another / No Heart
Xehanort and Riku are related
"All in Sora's head" theory
Everyone is Sora, everybody else is Xehanort
Kingdom Hearts is Light
Secret Bosses
7 Wonders
Got Norted
Edge of Ultima
Mrs. Pots and Chip in Deep Jungle
Detective Shield
Mickey Boss assist
Donald Healing
Detection Saber
Staff of Detection
SquareSoft
7
Another Side, Another Story
Traverse Town scale
Vincent Valentine
Duplicate bedrooms in Twilight Town
Agrabah NPCs
Xigbar's crosshair and crossbow
Donald freezing himself
PS4 port glitches
Rikku in KH1
Atlantica Mushroom
Mickey's shirt
Xemnas forms
Dabbing
Chest details
Atlantica combat in KH2
Hydra's green blood
Luxord's dollar bills
Xemnas anagram
Pride Lands in KH1
2001 trailer
Alternate cutscenes
Early Donald and Goofy outfits
Hidden rooms
E3 2004
Two Kairi glitch
Riku on the Big Ben
Eraqus = Square
Big Ben doors
Commit it to memory
Nomura and cats
April Fools
Nomura signature in KH2
Cavern of Remembrance skip
Marluxia was a woman
Terra's Keyblade covers Aqua's back
Keyblade in Disney Infinity
Axel on fire
Der Freischütz
Keyblade letters/symbols
Pushing buttons/flipping switches
Monsters INC and Fantasia in KH2
Aerosmith in DDD files
KH fragmented keys
Nomura fried chicken
Disney's secret headquarters
Madoca Magica in DDD files
Red Trinity in Halloween Town
Laguna in BBS Mirage Arena
Aqua is a magical girl
Larxene reading Marquis de Sade
Mushroom Kingdom Hearts
The Bouncer concepts reused for KH
KH Demo Disc
BBS on the PS2
Kingdom Hearts cartoon
The Simpsons game
Eyes to Eyes
Jane's panties
KH end credit misspellings
Sora's mom
Sanctuary reversed
Reincarnation theory
It's Disney Land
The assassination of Strelitzia
Sora's dinner
Phoenix Games' Peter Pan
Something Dark
Cheat codes
Somebodies
Lost source code
Logo predicts protagonist
Destati is cursed
Goofy is god
BHK
From sitting to walking
Lingering Will
Xemnas in KH1
Young Xehanort in BBS
Beta logo
Adult Roxas in 358/2 Days promo art
Dissidia NT in Toy Box
Sora's outfit inspired by Mickey
"We have to save Sora!"
Unused Keyblades
Revenge value
DM skip
KH was inspired by Mario 64
Final Form Firaga
Immune Keyholes
GBA Organization XIII voice actors
Halloween Town mob skip
Labyrinth of ice is Elsa's palace
KH3 Out of Bounds
"There can't be two Keyblade Masters"
Italian Xehanort
Edgar Rice Burroughs family dispute
Out of character Axel dialogue in CoM
The 13th floors bells in CoM GBA
Stitch's spaceship in KH2
Glide is canon
Dissidia was a KH game
Sora mascot in Disneyland
KH3 Anti-piracy message
End of the World true location
The Chasers
jb_62a.bcd
GBA CoM cutscene assets in KH2
Dive to the Heart is a world
KH1 beta trailer assets in KH2
How Beast got into Hollow Bastion in KH1
Mysterious Voice identity
Yen Sid = Disney
Joe Williams
Bon Jovi
Many-Worlds interpretation
Nomura had it all planned from the beginning
Human identity of every Heartless and Nobody
World Order transformation process
KH1 plot was a scrapped Walt Disney movie
"The story is really confusing"
Yoko Shimomura is underappreciated
Press X to win
Terra-Xehanort is the strongest character in the story
Critical Mode runs
Final Hallway before Data Org in KH2FM
KH is Nomura's fanfic
"Floaty" combat
Frozen World in KH3 feels rushed due to movie changes
"Okay I believe you"
Sora forgot he went to Deep Jungle
Organization XIII members have corresponding enemy types
Tokyo team vs Osaka team games
"You don't look like half the hero the others were."
"Roxas that's a stick."
1st release Japanese versions of the games
KH1 has the best level design
Demyx is the Master of Masters
Jack Sparrow can wield a Keyblade
"Riku's a sexy guy."
Critical Mode Level 1 runs
Xemnas in the Chamber of Repose is talking to Aqua in 0.2
Organization XIII members are based on Final Fantasy job classes
KH2FM vs KH3 Remind discussion for best KH gameplay
Cosmology of the KH universe
Sora bequeathed a Keyblade by Xehanort
Do Max and PJ exist in the KH universe?
Sora in Scala Ad Caelum Library in KH3 private showcase
Master of Masters standing on top of the Square Enix building
Vibes of the Secret Endings vs the actual games they come from
Worlds and new looks
"The World of Fiction"
All crossover fanfictions of other franchises are technically canon
Donald is canonically the most powerful Square Enix mage
Human experimentation
BBS novel
Vanitas novel section
Kairi's accidental bequeathing
The gathering
Aqua is BBS's main character
Multiplayer Mirage Arena
KH2FM Secret Ending
KH1 reference in Land of Departure
Aqua's hair is darker in 2.5 remix
Enemy color swaps in Final Mix versions
Dismiss and Keyblade Graveyard Horizons made for 2.5
"Episode Zero"
Wayfinder Trio's themes based off "Fate of the Unknown"
KH1 and KH2 Keyblades in Keyblade Graveyard
Kingdom Key D in BBS
Ventus is the reason Sora is upbeat
Beta Ventus used Roxas' face mold
Aqua bakes cakes
BBS Volume 2
Ventus in 358/2 Days
Xehanort's Guardian Heartless is Terra
Added cape scene in BBSFM
Aqua fails
High resolution PS2 Aqua model
Full-sized Ventus in Castle of Dreams
Command Board invented by Nomura when he was in elementary school
BBS and Star Wars comparisons
Designs of the Unversed are based off different emotions
Beta Aqua design with uncovered back
Aqua and Terra are Sora and Kairi grown up
Fates of the Wayfinder Trio are bad versions of the fates of the KH1 Destiny Trio
Aqua absent from Jump Festa 2008 trailer
Sora is reincarnated Ventus
Aqua is Sora's mom
Xion/Aqua hairstyle connection
Terra is Sora's dad
Terra in KH1
Marluxia can sense Ventus in Sora
Xemnas is Terra's Nobody
Roxas dies
Sora was originally BBS's main character
Xemnas can hear Aqua's voice
Sora was originally the chosen one
Destiny Island boulder breaks through glitch
Sora is the most important character in all of Square and Disney
Master of Masters is evil
The Traverse Town lady was a prostitute
Selphie's panties
Twilight Thorn is the Nobody of a Darkside
Chernabog was working with Ansem
Monsters INC doors open to other worlds
Frollo was considered for the New Organization XIII
Gargoyles world was proposed
Xigbar being Luxu was foreshadowed
The KH mangas
The Unchained Masters are time travelers
KH ads rarely played
Neverland and Deep Jungle have different versions of Europe
Disney Town IS Toon Town (the MMO)
Sora Xehanort clone theory
Timeline cross theory
Ansem was right
Tidus from Destiny Islands is different from the Tidus Aaron remembers
Kingdom Hearts is a door to the Fourth Wall
Kairi is Subject X
Basic Nobodies have feelings too
Time does not exist in KH
Yozora is Noctis's Nobody
Ragnarok Parallels
Pluto knows more than he lets on
Kairi's grandmother knew Master Xehanort
Master of Masters is adult Sora
Sora's mom has a major role in the story
The Master of Masters was foreshadowed in KH1
Terra is Eraqus' son
Ansem is still in Riku's heart
KH is Meta-Fiction
Aqua's feet will bring Sora back
FF games have their own worlds
Disney sci ops operation / Capitalism Supposition
Organization XIII members hidden among swarms of Rapid Thrusters
VA's are carefully chosen
The worlds are canon to the movies
The Master of Masters is Nomura
Sora is an allusion to communism
Mickey Mouse side game turned into Fragmentary Passage
Yozora IS Zack Martin / The Mosby Heartless Theorem
The Sceptre and the Kingdom is canon
Mickey dictator connotations
Xehanort VA death curse
World's appearance change in the world space depending on where you plan to land
Secret Reports
Nomura interviews
BradyGames strategy guides
OOB glitches in KH3
Mysterious Tower removed from KH3
Disney's Secret Labs commercials
Concert-exclusive lore
Clothes designs stolen by Hot Topic
Behemoths and Wyverns in 1K Heartless fight
Riku fight in Hollow Bastion was originally planned for End of the World
DDD demo files left in BBSFM
Source code leftovers in KH1
Scrapped Disney Channel animated series
Homecoming "jump glitch"
HDD installation menu
Playing as Donald and Goofy in KH1
PS1 versions
"El Cetro y El Reino"
BBS Great Maw
2.5 PS3 Drive loads
Fragmented Keys was real
TOMY Trading Card Game
Type C Save Points
KHIII PS2 Beta
358/2 Days altered color palette for NTSC-U and PAL
Re:Chain of Memories debug menu
How Rinzler remembered Sora
Mass graves underneath Heartless Manufactory
"That's right, Sora. Your body, your soul, your whole existence… they're all going to disappear!"
Hunter X lag reduction strats
Re:CoM PS4 door warp
Mysterious Figure pre-nerf
Command deck KH3 build
Nothingness really is eternal
There's no real distinction between fiction and reality
Super Smash Bros Ultimate is canon
KHIII is canon to Toy Story
The Nameless Star is Stella Nox Fleuret
The giant reaper Nobody that Marluxia summons in CoM is Strelitzia
Demyx Time
Subject X is Skuld or Ava
Leon's presence is connected to the FFVIII "Squal is dead" theory
Versus XIII was planned to be connected to KH from the get-go
Lea (and Isa) bequeathed by Skuld
Cloud is a Nobody and his Heartless is Sephiroth
Nomura seriously considered making Verum Rex for real
Inclusion of Sora in Smash was delayed because of Nomura, not Disney
Riku’s new hairdo in KH3 was the result of a glitch
Leon in front of the Dalmatians’ house
Different Riku in Monstro cutscenes if you skip Monstro for Hollow Bastion
Eraqus is descended from Brain
The white hat guy from the Missing Link trailer is Luxord
Sora was a Heartless for the entirety of CoM and 358/2 Days
Double sided Keyblade concept in KH2
FF characters were in KH1 because Nomura didn’t want to create OCs for minor roles
Sea Salt ice cream actually exists
If i missed anything feel free to inform me. I’d be GLAD to add it.
#kingdom hearts#kh#spoilers#iceberg meme except not#I removed some of the reall obvious shit I found (like the ream of darkness or FFxDisney crossover thing#this is most definitely A List#I have a think for lists#I seriously have no idea what 30% of these are about#and I can't make head or tails of some of the entries#some of this stuff I found in fanfics#I swear the Yozora is Nocti's Nobody is an actual serious theory and not yet another Nomura is trying to recreate Versus XIII in KH joke#unfortunately I can't find the source for that one I found a YouTube comment that discusses it#too many mispellings int ags#see what I mean#read this at your own risk#again SPOILERS#long post#original post
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twt locked for a week cos i told ro to khs again :/ twitter has cottoned onto my censorship methods
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Kingdom Hearts TNG - Coded
Instead of the first journal, the second journal (that documented Roxas’ journey) is manipulated and the Disney Castle Crew (DCC) need to figure out what’s up.
Re:Coded is my favorite KH game (though a movie at this point).
I’m not going through the entirety of Coded, just some key details that would need to be changed. I just need to get this out before I start on KH3.
Twilight Town is the first world we visit in the datascape. Here, we meet a Data-Roxas. He helps the DCC decipher the message left in the second journal. “Their pain will end, when you amend.” (Not of the censorship. This is real life, bro.)
Data-Sora is the embodiment of the journal. Since Jiminy mostly wrote about Sora as a kid, Data-Sora looks a lot like Sora back when the first journal was written. (Data-Sora in canon, but with the Organization coat.)
It was Xatlyn that out the bugs in the journal and the datascape in the first place. She still had some of Sora’s memories and didn’t like the pain she found in them. She left the message in the journal to let everyone know about the pain that Sora kept inside of himself.
A Data-Xatlyn tells Data-Roxas about what else she had found in Sora’s memories and he lets Mickey know.
Xatlyn also relays that since Ansem; the Seeker of Darkness has been defeated some time ago, that Apprentice Xehanort would return soon if he hadn’t already.
Sora and Roxas in the outside world needed to do everything in their power to save their friends, conquer darkness, and defeat Xehanort.
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BREAKING OVERNIGHT: The 2nd Season of 'Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro' drops a New Trailer at the Crunchyroll Expo 2022
KANAGAWA, JAPAN -- Anime romantic comedy starts with a new production of Oriental Light and Magic Inc. (OLM) from the makers of Pokémon: The SERIES and Komi Can't Communicate in Tokyo as Crunchyroll Expo 2022 officially drops a new trailer at the McEnery Convention Center (MCC) in San Jose, California, United States of America (U.S.A.) last Saturday afternoon (August 6th, 2022 -- Pacific local time).
This was after the 1st season ended with Telecom Animation Film (TAF) and it will be transitioned thru OLM.
Social Media Producer of Crunchyroll named Lauren Moore reveals an official synopsis during Crunchyroll Industry Panel, which is now classified as a 2nd Attack: "A high school girl in the lower grade just made me cry. One day, Naoto Hachiouji (Senpai) visits the library after school and becomes a target of a super sadistic junior. The name of the girl who teases torment and tantalizes Naoto is Hayase Nagatoro. She's annoying, yet adorable, it's painful, but you still wanna be by her side. This is her story about an extremely sadistic and temperamental girl and you feel something awaken inside you in Kazehaya High School (KHS)".
youtube
It was based from a Japanese web manga series written and illustrated by "Nanashi", who was bought its rights from the makers of Tokyo Mew Mew (to name a few) known as Kodansha after it was serialized with the Magazine Pocket. The manga began in November 2017 and has 13 tankoubon volumes as of April 2022.
Before the actual anime in Season 1, s*x and r*ci*l issues have gone dumpster fire with the toxicity of excessive hate trolls (excluding almost for a manga), according to a new study from Anime Motivation. Cancel culture is a contagious territory and to break its relationship for good without any explanation or reason per internet politics of epidemic censorship.
Hayase Nagatoro's voice actress named Uesaka Sumire has a special message to acknowledge all the Crunchyroll fans, "Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro; popular on Crunchyroll is getting a 2nd season starting in January 2023! I'm already excited. You'll see my voice as Nagatoro, Naoto (Senpai), their friends and more, including the club president (Sana Sunomiya). It's going to be a big crowd. Please look forward for it!".
Previous character designer (Misaki Suzuki), series composer and scriptwriter (Taku Kishimoto), and music composer of Busted Rose named Gin are reprising their roles. Shinji Ushiro is the only director of this anime for Nagatoro in Season 2.
Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro: Season 2 is slated to premiere starting in January 2023.
Crunchyroll is a parent media partner and a broadcast firm on this Internet TV station of OneNETtv Channel & OneNETnews.
SCREENGRAB COURTESY: King Amusement Creatives & Crunchyroll Collection via YouTube
SOURCE:
*https://player.vimeo.com/video/733758513 [Crunchyroll Industry Panel via CRX 2022's VoD]
*https://anitrendz.net/news/2022/08/06/dont-toy-with-me-miss-nagatoro-2nd-attack-drops-1st-trailer/ [Referenced News Article #1 from AniTrendz]
*https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2022/08/06/dont-toy-with-me-miss-nagatoro-2nd-attack-tv-anime-strikes-back-in-new-trailer [Referenced News Article #2 from Crunchyroll News]
*https://twitter.com/Crunchyroll/status/1548658609990647811
*https://animemotivation.com/anime-cancel-culture/ [Referenced News Article #3 from Anime Motivation]
and
*https://animemotivation.com/nagatoro-dub-voice-actor-crunchyroll-racism/ [Referenced News Article #4f from Anime Motivation]
-- OneNETnews Team
#entertainment news#san jose#california#breaking news#Kanagawa#Japan#don't toy with me#miss nagatoro#長瀞さん#anime#CRX 2022#crunchyroll expo#crunchyroll#breaking#expo#convention#OneNETnews
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I'm gonna be real with you guys since the news Disney is paying to support that anti gay bill I don't really want to touch anything new Disney makes
#rant#disney is a megalith so i am unlikely to avoid its older stuff. and kh is something im nostalgically going thru so ultimately also that#and i know disney has been shit forever. from goofys voice actor way back when striking for#ordinary workers rights. to current disney employees treated awful. etc#i just. i just want their company to fail. idk how but if only#i just want more workplaces with decent worker treatment#and then just. the anti gay bill like#1 goddamn in 2022 usa shouldnt be trying to criminalize being gay again im infuriated and beyond#but also 2 its in part directly mainstream medias fault for a swing back Toward censorship#because in 1990s to 2000s a LOT of companies were risking adding queer narratives explicitly#knoeing theyd be taking huge market risks. then they succeeded and proved it was possible to make queer stories mainstream#and then queer stories Became mainstream in many shows and movies#then fucking megaliths like disney. kept acting like it was A Risk again and refusing to include diversity#and since they own so much and fund so much. they started dragging diversity backwards to LESS in the overall movie industry#thank fuck shows are made by more companies. so theres still a forward movement in diversify in shows#but like. disney being bigoted is a huge reason for the cultural backslide in 'diversity being uncontroversial' and then them#supporting laws to criminalize diversity discussion? fucked up. but expected#and i hate them for it. how can anyone make a meaningful project under disney now?#when the huge company itself is funding destruction of tolerance?#if disney funds a show with queer characters? it means nothinf if they want to make queer people illegal#and honestly i think that extends to more than queer people. i think disneys fairly racist as a major company as well#and im just. infuriated. its one thing to be a shit greedy company#funding some projects that do somr good things. but to be actively funding laws and destruction of rights?#then any 'good' projects are distractions. like the person who uses slave labor from a prison#but argues they manufacture in the usa so theyre worthy of applaud
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I really curious how much censorship is actually in KH localization now, I already knew about translations
After discovering that DDD scene where Riku talks about him slapping Sora to wake him up is censored to a different thing entirely, it seems they edit some visual things too, I even made a post about it
And I really want to see if there any more differences
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اور کتنے غدار باقی ہیں دوست ؟
پولیو کیسز دو ہزار سترہ میں دو اور دو ہزار اٹھارہ میں آٹھ تھے۔ دو ہزار انیس میں سو سے تجاوز کر چکے ہیں اور ابھی سال ختم ہونے میں پانچ ہفتے باقی ہیں۔ مگر پولیو سے اگلی نسل کو بھلے خطرہ ہو لیکن قومی سلامتی کو فی الحال کوئی خطرہ نہیں۔ اب تو ٹائیفائڈ کی سرکاری ویکسینیشن بھی محال ہو چکی ہے۔ چنانچہ اس مہم کو موثر بنانے کے لیے سرکردہ ڈاکٹروں کو وڈیوز میں اپنے بچوں اور پوتے نواسیوں کو ساتھ بٹھا کے اپیلیں کرنا پڑ رہی ہیں کہ پندرہ برس تک کے بچوں کی ویکسینیشن کروائیے یہ محفوظ ہے۔ پر وہ جو پشتو میں کہتے ہیں کہ جب تک سچ پہنچتا ہے تب تک جھوٹ گاؤں اجاڑ چکا ہوتا ہے۔ بھلے کوئی ایک افواہ ہزاروں بچوں کی صحت کے لیے کیسی ہی خطرناک ہو مگر یہ معاملہ قومی سلامتی یا قومی مسقبل سے غداری کے دائرے میں ہرگز ہرگز نہیں آتا۔
وبائی انداز میں پھیلتی بے روزگاری، روپے کی قدر میں کمی، نظامِ انصاف کا مسلسل زوال، عدم کارکردگی کو چھپانے کے لیے مسلسل اڑنے والی سرکاری الزامیہ دھول، اوپر سے نیچے تک منہ کے ہیضے کے بے تحاشا پھیلاؤ اور خارجہ پالیسی کے میدان میں بلا مقصد خوخیاتی ٹپوسیوں سے ملکی مفاد یا قومی سلامتی کو ہرگز خطرہ نہیں۔ قومی سلامتی کو اگر خطرہ ہے تو ہر اس حرف سے جو بلا اجازت لکھا، بولا یا پڑھا جاوے۔ اس دائرے میں سندھ یونیورسٹی کے طلبا کی صاف پانی کی غدارانہ مانگ سے لے کر فیض میلے میں ’سرفروشی کی تمنا اب ہمارے دل میں ہے‘ گنگنانے تک ہر وہ مصرعہ و نثر پارہ و خبر و تبصرہ شامل ہے جس کا این او سی نہ لیا گیا ہو۔ ہزاروں برس پہلے جب اس خطے میں حرف پر برہمن کی اجارہ داری تھی۔ کوئی غیر برہمن مقدس اشلوک سنتا، پڑھتا یا لکھتا پایا جاتا تو اس کے کانوں میں پگھلا سیسہ ڈال دیا جاتا۔
اب بس اتنا فرق آیا ہے کہ سوالات و جوابات کی منظور شدہ فہرست سے باہر کا کوئی بھی سوال کلاس روم سے لے کر نیوز روم تک پوچھنا یا جواب کھوجنا حرف کے مالک برہمنوں کی سیادت کو چیلنج کرنا ہے۔ اور چیلنج کا مطلب غداری ہے۔
بات اب ہما شما سے اٹھ کر ایم ضیا الدین جیسے جئید صحافیوں کی دہلیز تک پہنچ گئی ہے۔ محبِ وطن ایوب خان سے لے کر محبِ وطن عمران خان تک ایم ضیا الدین نے سوائے پروفیشنل انداز میں صحافت کے کچھ نہ کیا۔ سینکڑوں صحافیوں نے ان کے تجربے اور نصیحت کو زادِ سفر بنایا۔ مگر آج وہ بھی مشکوک ہیں۔ گذشتہ روز جب ضیا صاحب نے اسلام آباد کے نیشنل پریس کلب میں اپنے تھنکنگ فورم کا اجلاس منعقد کرنے کی کوشش کی تو پولیس نے کلب کو گھیر لیا۔ عہدیداروں پر دباؤ ڈالا گیا کہ وہ یہ اجلاس نہ ہونے دیں۔
عہدیداروں نے کلب کو ہی تالا لگا دیا کیونکہ ایم ضیا الدین نے بطور مہمان منظور پشتین کو مدعو کیا تھا۔ چنانچہ اس فورم کا اجلاس پریس کلب کے سامنے کے میدان میں گھاس پر ہوا۔ واضح رہے کہ منظور پشتین فی الحال زبانی غدار ہے اور اس پر غداری کی فردِ جرم باقاعدہ لگنا اور مقدمہ چلنا اور سزا پانا باقی ہے۔ مگر کل کے بعد ایم ضیا الدین بھی سوشل میڈیا کے ٹرول بریگیڈ کی مرتب کردہ غداروں کی نامکمل فہرست میں شامل ہو گئے۔ روزنامہ ڈان کے ایڈیٹر ظفر عباس نے تین دن پہلے نیویارک میں موقر عالمی صحافتی تنظیم سی پی جے کا آزادیِ صحافت ایوارڈ وصول کرتے ہوئے اپنے خطاب میں کہا کہ اس وقت ریاستی ادارے آزادیِ اظہار کو دبانے کے لیے قومی مفاد اور حب الوطنی کو بطور عذر استعمال کر رہے ہیں۔ جو بھی سوال اٹھاتا ہے اس پر ملک دشمنی کا ٹھپہ لگا دیا جاتا ہے۔
بقول ظفر عباس زیادہ تر میڈیائی ادارے کہتے ہیں کہ ہم معاشی طور پر زندہ رہنے کے لیے ریاستی احکامات کی بجا آوری پر مجبور ہیں۔ وہ مجھے بھی مشورہ دیتے ہیں کہ کل لڑنے کے لیے آج زندہ رہنا ضروری ہے۔ مگر بات بہت سادہ ہے۔ ہتھیار ڈالنا صحافت نہیں سچائی بیان کرنا صحافت ہے۔ خوش قسمتی سے ظفر عباس اور ان کا ادارہ پچھلے تین برس سے منظور شدہ ریاستی نظریے سے انحراف کے سبب پہلے ہی غیر محبِ وطن ہے (یہ الگ بات ہے کہ ڈان کی پیشانی پر آج بھی بانیِ اخبار کا نام قائدِ اعظم محمد علی جناح لکھا جاتا ہے۔ مگر قائد کا نام تو فاطمہ جناح کو بھی غداری کے ٹھپے سے نہ بچا سکا)۔ مگر زمین جس تیزی سے تنگ ہو رہی ہے اس سے لگ رہا ہے کہ آنے والے دنوں میں جس جس پر قومی مفاد سے غداری کا ٹھپہ نہیں لگے گا عوام کی نظر میں شاید اسی کی حب الوطنی مشکوک ٹھہرے۔
وسعت اللہ خان
بشکریہ بی بی سی اردو
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Queering KH Part 4: Hearts in Tune
Actually KH Finally lol
Pictured: Riku humming Sora’s name in a soft, adoring, wistful voice the way a swooning straight person sighs the name of their beloved of the opposite gender.
Kingdom Hearts gives off so many subtextual signals of queer coding that it genuinely BAFFLES me how people can really believe it is straight. You may be wondering what makes me so confident in that when there has not been anything in the games to explicitly prove any of the characters are not straight, and I will be happy to tell you. It is because in order to believe Kingdom Hearts is straight, you have to ignore WAY too much subtext. To truly believe that Sora is in love with Kairi and only coded to be interested in Kairi, you have to ignore his questioning of what love is. You have to ignore the combined keyblade he shares with Riku. You have to ignore how much the narrative is driving him to understand that Riku is his most important, cherished person. This all goes doubly for Riku who has a coming out story not unlike Elsa’s metaphorical one, in which his love for Sora is his greatest source of strength. You have to pretend the necklace gifting plot point is entirely straight and cannot possibly mean anything homoromantic. You have to ignore the way Sora cries while clutching Riku’s hand compared to his subdued and non-emotional reunion with Kairi- that’s just too much “accidental subtext” for me to confidently ignore lol. Intentional or not, KH is Gay~
Here’s how we’re gonna do this.
So where the hell do I even begin with coding KH? Well- I can’t possibly queer the whole of KH text in 1 summer, so what I plan to do is this:
Give you the tools to understand KH’s coding so that you can code it yourself~
Queer a few major KH scenes so that everyone can see that the proof is in the pudding.
I’m gonna try to break down various scenes to decode them and queer them so you can see what’s at play in KH. Originally when this meta was a single doc, I was only gonna cover 4 scenes. But since I’m breaking it into parts to update at my leisure, I’m gonna just add scenes and meta as I go~
Now without further ado:
How the Hearts in Tune scene is Gay Coded
This shouldn’t be too hard at all.~
This scene is almost too easy.
The scene opens with Sora bringing Mickey the sound idea he found but as it turns out, one sound idea is not enough. Sora tells us not to worry because he has a friend who is always picking up the slack for him. Likewise, on Riku’s end, he brings his sound idea to Mickey and is surprised to see that Sora’s sound idea is necessary to complete the song.
Once the sound ideas meet, this beautiful visual plays out in which the 2 sound ideas swirl around each other and the soundtrack title “Dearly Beloved” plays.
Now, there are several things I want to note about this sequence- heck this visual alone before we move on.
Recall earlier when I discussed Shiki’s point that blue and pink (likewise blue and red) “go together”, romantically.
I will let the visual of Sora’s sheet music being pink while Riku’s is blue speak for itself. But I will also add how this ties into the yin and yang themes I’m about to discuss:
Yin and Yang
This concept gets its own section because it’s such an influential concept in so many aspects of various cultures around the globe.
Yin and Yang is an eastern philosophy which illustrates the concept of dualism. In short, it is the concept that 2 opposite halves are complements to a whole. The original term in fact translates to dark-bright.
I am neither a philosophy professor or student so I will keep this as brief as I can and simply encourage you to study up on Yin and Yang at your own leisure. I will however paste this section from wikipedia because I think it is extremely helpful information to have for studying eastern media in general.
Yin and Yang: husbanded opposing forces. Dark-Light, Moon-Sun, Chaos-Order, Winter-Summer, Negative-Positive.
Female (Yin)-Male (Yang): Yes this is often used in a heteronormative heterosexual context because people are homophobic and believe in gender binaries, unfortunately, but I implore you to consider the concept in more figurative, spiritual, aesthetic themes, especially since Yin and Yang is a much grander philosophy than mere sexuality discourse; it’s about complementary forces creating a whole.
For shipping purposes, think opposites attract. Think concepts that are traditionally associated with femininity meshing with concepts that are traditionally associated with masculinity. Queer media has a wonderful way of subverting heteronormative Yin and Yang tropes by showing that cis-hetero standards can be hypocritically non-compliant with the complementary concept.
Rather than thinking of this, 2 heteros in love based on being just- the same person with opposite genders:
Think of this, same gendered couples with complementary personalities:
Think about how an aloof scrappy butchy vampire queen attracts an uptight calculating femme princess.
Think about how this goody-goody dumb jock with a martyring hero complex attracts this naughty cunning jock with a self-loathing villaness complex.
And now think about how badly we need more canonical mlm couples in children’s media lol. Oops my finger slipped. But I’m getting ahead of myself lol.
The concepts of interconnected opposite forces are so important and prominent in literature throughout the world, but yin and yang is ESPECIALLY important in Kingdom Hearts because it is a story that explicitly explores Light and Dark forces. It explores how they both oppose one another in catastrophic ways,
and how they complement each other in harmonious ways.
Getting ahead of myself again… But hey speaking of harmony, back to the matter at hand.
Hearts in Tune.
This scene shows a number of romantic symbols. As I was saying before the yin and yang tangent, pink and blue (nee red and blue) are already symbols of romantic suggestion. And in the case of them representing 2 parts of a whole song, these song pieces act as complementary halves, adding another layer of dualism to the scene. Furthermore, the music sheets swirl around each other in a yin and yang fashion. Harmony has been achieved. This lets us know these forces belong together. These forces representing Sora and Riku. They are husbanded together. These 2 hearts in question are part of each other. In fact, Mickey even says so:
Perhaps most damning, however, is that the song in question is “Dearly Beloved”, arguably the theme song for Kingdom Hearts as far as the score goes. I’m sure it goes without say that “Dearly Beloved” is not only in itself a romantic sounding phrase but it is also the phrase specifically said by officiators of weddings to the congregation before the wedding vows are exchanged. “Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today…”
I will also mention that Riku’s dream eater symbol visible in the shot is specifically designed based on a bleeding heart flower, a symbol of passionate love. Credit to Steam for pointing this out here, please follow them and read their posts they are magically delicious:
So almost everything about this scene is aesthetically romantically coded, and I didn’t even mention the fact that Dream Drop Distance’s whole color palette is themed with rainbows, which as I said earlier is absolutely still a gay symbol in Japan. Note the rainbow of colors animating from the sheet music.
So in terms of the atmosphere of the scene, its already incredibly homoromantic in every way I can think of. But what about the dialogue?
Well lets talk about the dialogue. Dialogue should always been read with care when you’re trying to queer a text. Often a lot of queer messaging in a text is subtextual. This means the text itself may actually say something gay, but you have to read further into it. This is an old method of queer writing designed to protect the writer from getting in trouble for their gay crimes.
Historical aside on this: If you’ve ever read Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, you may have note that Lord Henry can never just simply say that he is gay, lest Oscar Wilde be charged for homosexuality in 19th century England. Instead, Lord Henry simply tells us he is married to a woman, but makes it clear throughout the text that this marriage is mostly performative and he is not emotionally invested in it whatsoever, going against the puritanical, heternormative ideals of Victorian prudery. Lord Henry is by contrast MUCH more invested in following the life and times of his very close friend Dorian Gray, with whom he shares a hedonistic philosophy in the name of Fin de siècle. Not to be a downer but for the sake of understanding how real this subject of oppressed gay censorship is, despite keeping the homosexual themes as purely subtext, Oscar Wilde was tried and convicted of homosexuality and this book was used against him in court.
What we are privileged to have today with KH is a cutscene and not just a script. Meaning we have visuals, animation, voice acting, musical cues, etc etc to follow along with to enhance our subtext.
On Sora’s end of the conversation, Mickey points out that the song is incomplete with just his sound idea alone, and Sora tells him not to worry, as Riku is his dependable friend who will fill in where he fails. The text in the official English translation is:
Mickey: That's strange... Is one Sound Idea not enough?
Sora: Don't worry. I've got a friend out there who will help. He's always
picking up the slack for me.
This on its own sounds platonic. But note just how affectionate Sora’s voice acting is when he says it. Not only that, he clutches his heart to let us know how close he is to Riku and how much his connection with Riku matters to him. How much confidence he has in this friend he cares so much about. He then closes his eyes after saying it, smiling up in the air blissfully while he waits for their hearts to make their connection and finish the song.
Once it is finished, Mickey remarks that their sounds joined together to make something more powerful. Sora then says looking thoughtful, “Yeah. Two forces are better than one. Right, Riku?”
Following this, Sora leaves to fight the boss.
On Riku’s side, Mickey questions what happened, and Riku looks up thoughtfully, and says tenderly, “Sora.”
Mickey comments “Sora? Funny... Just hearing that name kinda makes me wanna smile.” and Riku tells him warmly, “Yeah. That's how he is.”
Mickey then goes on to say some really shippy stuff:
“Whaddaya know... Riku and Sora. The Sound Ideas you two set free joined together. And when they did, they made a great and powerful harmony.”
Riku then nods and tells Mickey brightly that “Sora can find the brightest part of anything, and pull off miracles like there's nothing to it. It's pretty hard not to smile around him.”
And I would like to pause to look at that line. “It’s pretty hard not to smile around him.” Although Mickey says the same thing, that just hearing Sora’s name invokes a smile, we sense a somewhat deeper meaning in Riku saying it. Why is that? Well, for one thing this game is entirely about Riku protecting Sora and exploring how much Sora actually means to him. This game is continuing Riku’s redemption arc from KH2, but it is also doing something perhaps even more important: it is providing him a journey of self discovery. This test resets Sora and Riku to level 1 so to speak, not just in their powers but even their models revert to variations of their KH1 selves. This helps to underscore Riku re-examining himself and his feelings.
And then guess what? Mickey makes some even SHIPPIER commentary. He exclaims “Wow! No wonder the music sounded like so much fun. But I bet he's got you to thank for that. Having such a good friend means he could really enjoy it.”
Riku is taken aback by this comment. “Huh?”
Mickey continues, expressing some extremely yin and yang themed sentiments,
“It's like each of you is holding on to a little part of the other. Your hearts are always in tune, so they're free to sing. Gosh, I hope I can be part of the team someday.”
Mickey did us a wonderful favor and expressed to us explicitly, for those who didn’t understand the romantic coding of the scene already, that Sora and Riku are a good match. Mickey tells Riku that the music sounded like fun in English, that it was a happy, pleasurable time, and tells him that Sora has Riku for a friend which is what must have made it so enjoyable.
So from this dialogue we get assurance that Sora and Riku are two very close friends, whose hearts are connected, and they are 2 powerful forces that merge into an even greater one. Their hearts are in tune.
Now if this were a scene about a boy and a girl, I doubt anyone would question whether it was romantic. Why should we be asked to look at it platonically just because it is 2 boys? The romantic imagery is clear.
And let me ask you this while we’re still on the subject of Dream Drop Distance:
According to Riku’s character files, he had previously thought of Sora as a little brother, and tried to be a cool older brother to him.
He then tells us that this has changed. What did it change to?
The surface level, heteronormative answer would say it changed to them being merely friends.
But isn’t that an odd regression? After all, found family is a thing, and that’s a bit weird for him to question since there is no reason for those feelings to change on that notion. If Sora loved him like a brother, that clearly hasn’t changed. Riku clearly loves Sora as deeply, so that didn’t change. The other problem with this phenomenon Riku is dealing with is that there is no reason for him to feel this strange sense of repression we keep seeing over this change. He is constantly holding back on some feelings for Sora but platonic and brotherly feelings are entirely acceptable. What is it that he is hiding? What sort of feelings for Sora would be hidden?
From the Kh2 Novel:
He really did want to see Sora and talk. But that was impossible with this appearance. The things that mattered the most were what he couldn’t tell Sora. It had always been that way.
What sort of feelings might be systemically oppressed?
This scene is pretty much EXACTLY what I would do to say as explicitly as possible that Riku is gay without being able to say it outright due to censorship.
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In response to your KH/Jojo - "Metal Gear". Starts out as a quirky spy thriller clearly inspired from Holywood movies through the lens of a Japanese creator, takes a hard turn into discussing the societal ramifications of the unseen hand of political censorship, the futility of war due to the combatants simply being people, a century old man who can photosynthesize, misogyny that gets worse as time goes on, overusingthe word "memes", & an openly hostile creator, both towards creation and fans.
Yeah
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Let's imagine an alternate universe where Isa/Saix is female, but otherwise she's written exactly the same. How do you think audiences would react differently from the male version? Would she be more popular or less?
I think Saix would have been very popular in a similar way to Larxene. People are longing for female characters that aren’t stereotypically nice and feminine. Saix was cold and sociopathic, and I can see a female version being popular in a similar way to Azula from ATLA. If we were just going by KH2 and Days, I think a female Saix would have been more popular.
BBS, now that’s a bit different. Isa was already a very feminine pretty boy in that game. He is described as shy and only comes out of his shell for Lea. There was nothing creepy about him; he was very cute design-wise. He was sarcastic, so he might have been seen as slightly tomboyish if he had been female. Either way, Isa steps outside the gender stereotype box. I think he/she would have been equally popular either way.
I think really, the main thing Isa needed was a proper backstory and character development to explore his/her friendship with Lea. If he/she received that, then he/she would have been a very popular character. Isa never got that, though. If he had been a girl, I think it would have been FAR more easy for people to see the intended romantic hints between her and Axel/Lea, especially in the novels. I think the only reason people couldn’t see it was because Axel and Saix were both guys.
One of the creators of The Legend of Korra made a comment about watching with a hetero lens. Well, that’s exactly how I feel about Axel and Saix. They were intended to be a gay couple that would kinda slip under the radar due to it being so subtle. But for some reason, Square changed their minds and became terrified of LeaIsa/AkuSai by the time KH3 came out. I definitely think it was more than just Nomura changing his mind on a whim. It was self-censorship. They needed to focus on a girl so they didn’t seem too gay.
I think if Saix were a girl, people would have been a LOT more critical of her relationship with Lea and what it was reduced to in KH3. Saix’s relationship with Axel/Lea was handled in such a dismissive and hands-off way in KH3. Saix, even after he admitted he was jealous, simply grumbled that Lea wouldn’t get it out of him a second time. That was their heart-warming reconciliation. Without a doubt, it came across as extremely homophobic to me. But homophobia is normal in society, so many people didn’t really see the problem. Saix and Axel were just normal dudes being bros. And bros don’t get all touchy-feely with each other, right?
If Saix had been female, people would have been extremely confused about why the story was so quick to resolve her relationship with Lea, and why it was so insistent on focusing on Subject X instead. Why would a female Saix be so obsessed with a girl she barely knew and completely destroy her relationship with Axel over it? On top of that, almost ALL the focus went to the Sea-Salt trio’s reunion. Perhaps that was because that trio was less controversial. There was no potential homoerotic undertones with them. They were deemed as “safe” to depict. LeaIsa? Nope. Too risky.
If Saix had been a girl, I think her bond with Axel would have been given waaaaaay more focus. I definitely don’t think the game would have been so terrified to show their closeness and intimacy, like it was in KH3. That was solely the result of them being two men. KH3 went running and screaming in the opposite direction at the idea of two men expressing that type of intimacy.
Kairi
Kairi, who was a tomboy in KHI, became a little bit more mature in KHII. She changed a lot outwardly since at that age girls grow a lot faster than boys, but her lively personality didn’t fundamentally change. Enough that ‘with Riku and Sora gone, right now Kairi is the strongest person on Destiny Islands’ is an actual premise. I like the scene in KHI, when she watches the sunset with Sora, and tells him not to change. I thought it showed very well her anxiety and loneliness over how as we get older we find a distance growing between us and our close friends. –Nomura
If Isa had been a girl, I think a LOT more people would have been able to notice that her story line was unfinished. One of the main recurring themes in KH is the idea that things change as we grow older. We grow apart from our closest friends.
“Kingdom Hearts is not too realistic, but I do want my players to grasp a sense of reality from it as well,” Nomura said. “For example, I’m sure you had friends when you were young, a good group of friends, but as you grow older things change and it doesn’t always stay the same. I think all I can say is please play to the very end and see what happens. But I think Kingdom Hearts 3 does depict how each character feels about each other in this new storyline.”
This idea was carried on even in KH3. For better or worse, it influenced the ending.
RoxasA lot of thought was put into this character. Based on the premise that he was ‘an expression of the reverse, hidden inside Sora’, I gave him pretty much the exact same face as Sora, just with slightly narrower eyes. And then, I made white the basis for his clothes, in contrast to KHII Sora. The black and white checkered pattern, ‘neither darkness nor light’, was to be a hint. My absolute favourite scene of his has to be the one at the end of the opening of KHII, when he says 'looks like my summer vacation is over’. I put a lot of feeling into creating that, as I intended it to feel, for a moment, like the end.–Nomura
Roxas had the same issue to deal with in KH2. He was growing up and things weren’t going to stay the same between him and his friends. The end of Roxas’s summer vacation was an iconic scene.
This was also one of the main themes of Roxas and Xion’s tragic relationship. When Xion stood up slowly, the shot was extremely similar to the one where Kairi slowly stood up in KH1, with Sora just watching. Then they were watching the sunset and Kairi told him to never change. Xion literally changed—into Sora.
IMO, Roxas and Xion’s romance was a further exploration of Kairi’s relationship with Sora. Only the roles were reversed. Xion was even based on the KH1 tomboyish Kairi. The day Xion disappears is called “Tears” and Roxas cries. Afterwards, that’s when Axel discovers the WINNER stick that Roxas left him.
Talking to Roxas and Xion always brings back memories of my human life, back when I was a kid. It’s a weird sensation. I ought to be able to share all this with Saïx, but I just don’t feel like it anymore. It’s strange, but I’m content with just missing what’s gone. I’m not the one who changed. You did.
Axel was dealing with the exact same thing. After a while, there was a distance growing between him, Roxas, and Xion. Not to mention the fact that Axel wasn’t growing up. He was already grown, which presented a unique hurdle. And at the same time he was growing apart from Roxas and Xion, he was remembering how Isa had changed. This was something that needed to be resolved. Clearly, this was something that caused Axel a tremendous amount of pain. Did his relationship with Roxas and Xion need to be resolved? Of course it did. But I’d argue that his relationship with Isa caused Lea more pain than any other. Yet, it got comparatively little focus.
“Yeah. As long as we remember one another, we’ll never be apart. Got it memorized?” Roxas grinned.
A wish that they could always be together—was longing for the impossible. But at least they could always remember one another.
Saix stood up very slowly in their clock tower scene in KH3, like Kairi and Xion did. He also got a WINNER stick, which I’m sure had a lot to did with the backstory of Axel’s tear marks and him being a “crybaby”. All very deliberate. If Saix had been female, I don’t think anyone would have had trouble seeing that Axel was thinking about Saix all the time in Days. He wasn’t just the friendly “dad” of the sea salt trio. He was NOT happy in Days. He was watching Roxas and Xion grow more intimate, and remembering how he and Isa used to be the same way. He was miserable the entire game.
Axel cared about Roxas and Xion, but he didn’t really want to be a dad to them. At least not from what I could see. He wanted to protect them from experiencing the pain that he felt. And he also wanted to relive his lost innocence through them. I think if Saix had been a girl, people would have cared more about her relationship with Axel getting an actual resolution in KH3.
I wanted us to stay together. All I wanted was to hold on to our happiness as a trio in the Organization. But I told myself to grow up and stop wishing for the impossible. Well, I’m done with that. That’s not the answer I want.
If Saix had been a girl, people wouldn’t have treated Axel’s relationship with Roxas and Xion as SO much more important than his relationship with Saix. There would have been no mystery about the origin of his tear marks. They were due to Lea wanting to be together forever with Isa, and crying over thinking that would be impossible. Lea couldn’t bear to lose Isa. If Saix had been a girl, Axel would have been able to cry for her without shame, the way a Roxas was able to cry for Xion.
If Saix had been a girl, I don’t think anyone would have been okay with their relationship suddenly revolving around some random new girl that was never mentioned by either of them before. That wouldn’t be something exciting that players are meant to look forward to. People would have been wondering: what happened to their bond with each other? If Saix had been female, I think waaaaay more people would have been confused about why Axel and Saix weren’t a couple at the end of KH3, the way Roxas/Xion or Sora/Kairi were.
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