Thoughts on the KH Manga
On the difference between "the manga" (i.e., the original comic book that came before the anime/movie/etc.) and "the novelization that happens to be in manga-form".
It is perhaps my own failing that I can no longer take the KH manga as entirely canon. I really never meant to develop ideas that were in contradiction with it. I once scoffed at the idea of separating "manga canon" from "game canon". But I was really thinking only of the CoM manga, at the time; I've still never read the first game's manga, and CoM, well -- before Re:CoM, how could you have anything against ANY interpretation of the characters -- anything was better than a clump of pixels with an unchanging facial expression, few appearances, and no intonation. The manga wasn't "another" interpretation of canon -- it was really the ONLY interpretation, especially for people like me who hadn't even actually PLAYED the game and had only a GameFAQs script to go on.
Sure, the manga added in more funny things than had been there before, but no one could REALLY claim the Organization was serious business, right? Not with Demyx and Xigbar and so on? And it did make Sora a lot more emotive, adding tears and spazzes and other things that have NEVER made an appearance in ANY game -- but although that took a while to get used to, it was still, in its way, appreciated. (I would posit however that, often, manga!Sora seems to be a few years younger than game!Sora, mentally speaking.)
But the KH2 manga -- the KH2 manga covers a game I DID play, a game with more than enough content and characterization to give you very distinct impressions of its characters. And in places, I feel the manga is contradicting it, rather than adding to it...
First point: The manga has already been somewhat contradicted by Re:CoM. This is hardly the mangaka's fault, but it remains true. In the manga, Axel and Larxene seemed to participate in smirking banter; sometimes, Axel would say something that crossed a line and pissed off Larxene more than amusing her, but there was still a sense of camaraderie. I got the distinct impression, even then, that Axel was gritting his teeth some through their interactions, and the devilish smirk (pictured in icon) he wore when he betrayed her showed that he wasn't the least bit sorry to be responsible for her demise.
But the game takes a step back from that. Almost as if Nomura really wanted everyone to know Axel didn't like Larxene, playful banter has been entirely removed from the script. Larxene still engages in it, but Axel is about as responsive as a block of wood, and actively flinches away from her when she invades his personal space. Gone is the feeling that they've had sex in the past; he seems like he wouldn't be a lot of fun for her in bed.
Now, I've always figured, take the character interaction, and leave out some of the really goofy stuff. As an example, that part where the security system blasted the Organization members all over the place? I feel pretty comfortable saying that didn't really happen, because it was only put in there for its sheer physical comedy. But the character interactions are sometimes wrong, too. And that's a real shame, because if I didn't want those extra interactions, I probably wouldn't bother with the manga at all.
And because of this, I have come to the sad conclusion that it is a novelization -- only better than most fic because most fic is written by morons. Sometimes, Nomura seems to like the ideas here, but he usually takes things from the novels instead of from the manga. (That the manga was so right about Vexen is, I feel, less because Nomura borrowed from it than because the type of man Vexen was intended as was probably very clear to a Japanese person -- he is one of their primal stereotypical mad scientists. His very way of forming sentences in Japanese was probably all the help Amano needed to get him just right. And that Larxene does indeed seem to be a sadist, as the manga portrayed her -- well, that just involves paying attention to already-canonical things, such as her official profile in Jiminy's journal.)
And yes, in many ways the novels are more official: their story lines are approved, and probably edited, before they become finished novels.
So, having said all of that, here's a list of basic things I'm ignoring in the manga:
Japanese cultural invasion
1.) The repeated and confusing usage of yen as a currency. I know this is being done to help Japanese readers gauge how much money Roxas is actually spending, but come on.
2.) Sora's evident and senseless familiarity with chopsticks.
3.) The huge anime-style festival in Twilight Town.
4.) Sora's infrequent but still obnoxious Japanese pop culture references. If he doesn't know the ending to any Disney movies, I'm going to bet he doesn't know about obscure anime from the eighties, either.
Sight gags: too much of a good thing
1.) The chore wheel and the various Organization-brand foodstuffs. Cute, and I would totally include them in a fic if the mood felt right, but really, how much sense does it make that a supposedly secret organization has gone to this much trouble to copyright their own line of soda, chips, etc? (Alternatively, I suppose that if they're really cut off from the world, this may be their version of military rations, but it's still kind of silly.)
2.) The aforementioned explosions from the security system. Seriously -- why does it work on Nobodies? Ansem designed the thing, back before there were no Nobodies, and when Sora arrives, no one in Hollow Bastion has seen any before. This is just a plot hole. After all, although they wield the dark, Nobodies are beings of nonexistence, not beings of light or shadow.
Characterization gaffs
1.) Sora is a mite too spazy for me, most of the time. The guy is fifteen, and much of the time, seems pretty serious and mature. Some of his expressions in the manga make for great icons, but they show up way too often; he very rarely looks at all composed, and when he does, it's because someone just died, or some other such thing. Also, I find it sort of disappointing and cliche to turn Sora into the typical spastic, thick-skulled, loud-mouthed boy hero. (Contrarywise: Hayner, who has also become much louder, seems appropriate to me.)
And that's pretty much it. Although... I was also less than fond of what Amano did with Demyx. He expresses so much regret about Roxas's death, and sobs happy tears over his still being alive, that I seriously can't imagine he'll go up against Sora and need cue cards to remind him why he's there. In the game, when Demyx faces Sora, he isn't usually a humongous spaz: nervous of Sora's power, but when he says that the Organization picked the wrong guy, he has always sounded like he's rolling his eyes to me.
Put simply: I never had the impression that Demyx minded fighting Sora because he was so worried about Roxas. His call to come back, Roxas -- it sounded half-hearted. (Pardon the pun.) As if -- as would be APPROPRIATE for your typical Nobody -- he didn't really care.
There is a general trend in fandom that I don't especially like, which takes Demyx's fumbling and uses it to turn him into a giant fluffy kitty cat who would never hurt a soul. Yes, Demyx is cute and likable, and he isn't "very good" at fighting -- but until the manga I would have laughed at any claim that he cried himself to sleep over anyone's death. I can definitely see him missing people -- even Roxas, who would probably be one of the few Organization members not a huge dick to him -- but sobbing that way?
We saw this scene in Final Mix: Demyx expressed confidence that they could take Sora, manipulate him effectively; he boasted their strength so much that one of the others (I think Xaldin) gave him the first "approach Sora" assignment. (Much to Demyx's dismay.) He didn't sob dramatically over Roxas.
Essentially, I see Amano's mistake as being very easy. He's exaggerated a character trait into a whole personality. It is a path that billions of fangirls have been down before him. And I try to remember that Demyx's first reaction, of cluelessly not realizing Roxas had been absorbed into Sora, is probably as much the point of this scene as his dramatic shoujo tears. But it disappoints me so much.
It is perhaps my own failing that I can no longer take the KH manga as entirely canon. I really never meant to develop ideas that were in contradiction with it. I once scoffed at the idea of separating "manga canon" from "game canon". But I was really thinking only of the CoM manga, at the time; I've still never read the first game's manga, and CoM, well -- before Re:CoM, how could you have anything against ANY interpretation of the characters -- anything was better than a clump of pixels with an unchanging facial expression, few appearances, and no intonation. The manga wasn't "another" interpretation of canon -- it was really the ONLY interpretation, especially for people like me who hadn't even actually PLAYED the game and had only a GameFAQs script to go on.
Sure, the manga added in more funny things than had been there before, but no one could REALLY claim the Organization was serious business, right? Not with Demyx and Xigbar and so on? And it did make Sora a lot more emotive, adding tears and spazzes and other things that have NEVER made an appearance in ANY game -- but although that took a while to get used to, it was still, in its way, appreciated. (I would posit however that, often, manga!Sora seems to be a few years younger than game!Sora, mentally speaking.)
But the KH2 manga -- the KH2 manga covers a game I DID play, a game with more than enough content and characterization to give you very distinct impressions of its characters. And in places, I feel the manga is contradicting it, rather than adding to it...
First point: The manga has already been somewhat contradicted by Re:CoM. This is hardly the mangaka's fault, but it remains true. In the manga, Axel and Larxene seemed to participate in smirking banter; sometimes, Axel would say something that crossed a line and pissed off Larxene more than amusing her, but there was still a sense of camaraderie. I got the distinct impression, even then, that Axel was gritting his teeth some through their interactions, and the devilish smirk (pictured in icon) he wore when he betrayed her showed that he wasn't the least bit sorry to be responsible for her demise.
But the game takes a step back from that. Almost as if Nomura really wanted everyone to know Axel didn't like Larxene, playful banter has been entirely removed from the script. Larxene still engages in it, but Axel is about as responsive as a block of wood, and actively flinches away from her when she invades his personal space. Gone is the feeling that they've had sex in the past; he seems like he wouldn't be a lot of fun for her in bed.
Now, I've always figured, take the character interaction, and leave out some of the really goofy stuff. As an example, that part where the security system blasted the Organization members all over the place? I feel pretty comfortable saying that didn't really happen, because it was only put in there for its sheer physical comedy. But the character interactions are sometimes wrong, too. And that's a real shame, because if I didn't want those extra interactions, I probably wouldn't bother with the manga at all.
And because of this, I have come to the sad conclusion that it is a novelization -- only better than most fic because most fic is written by morons. Sometimes, Nomura seems to like the ideas here, but he usually takes things from the novels instead of from the manga. (That the manga was so right about Vexen is, I feel, less because Nomura borrowed from it than because the type of man Vexen was intended as was probably very clear to a Japanese person -- he is one of their primal stereotypical mad scientists. His very way of forming sentences in Japanese was probably all the help Amano needed to get him just right. And that Larxene does indeed seem to be a sadist, as the manga portrayed her -- well, that just involves paying attention to already-canonical things, such as her official profile in Jiminy's journal.)
And yes, in many ways the novels are more official: their story lines are approved, and probably edited, before they become finished novels.
So, having said all of that, here's a list of basic things I'm ignoring in the manga:
Japanese cultural invasion
1.) The repeated and confusing usage of yen as a currency. I know this is being done to help Japanese readers gauge how much money Roxas is actually spending, but come on.
2.) Sora's evident and senseless familiarity with chopsticks.
3.) The huge anime-style festival in Twilight Town.
4.) Sora's infrequent but still obnoxious Japanese pop culture references. If he doesn't know the ending to any Disney movies, I'm going to bet he doesn't know about obscure anime from the eighties, either.
Sight gags: too much of a good thing
1.) The chore wheel and the various Organization-brand foodstuffs. Cute, and I would totally include them in a fic if the mood felt right, but really, how much sense does it make that a supposedly secret organization has gone to this much trouble to copyright their own line of soda, chips, etc? (Alternatively, I suppose that if they're really cut off from the world, this may be their version of military rations, but it's still kind of silly.)
2.) The aforementioned explosions from the security system. Seriously -- why does it work on Nobodies? Ansem designed the thing, back before there were no Nobodies, and when Sora arrives, no one in Hollow Bastion has seen any before. This is just a plot hole. After all, although they wield the dark, Nobodies are beings of nonexistence, not beings of light or shadow.
Characterization gaffs
1.) Sora is a mite too spazy for me, most of the time. The guy is fifteen, and much of the time, seems pretty serious and mature. Some of his expressions in the manga make for great icons, but they show up way too often; he very rarely looks at all composed, and when he does, it's because someone just died, or some other such thing. Also, I find it sort of disappointing and cliche to turn Sora into the typical spastic, thick-skulled, loud-mouthed boy hero. (Contrarywise: Hayner, who has also become much louder, seems appropriate to me.)
And that's pretty much it. Although... I was also less than fond of what Amano did with Demyx. He expresses so much regret about Roxas's death, and sobs happy tears over his still being alive, that I seriously can't imagine he'll go up against Sora and need cue cards to remind him why he's there. In the game, when Demyx faces Sora, he isn't usually a humongous spaz: nervous of Sora's power, but when he says that the Organization picked the wrong guy, he has always sounded like he's rolling his eyes to me.
Put simply: I never had the impression that Demyx minded fighting Sora because he was so worried about Roxas. His call to come back, Roxas -- it sounded half-hearted. (Pardon the pun.) As if -- as would be APPROPRIATE for your typical Nobody -- he didn't really care.
There is a general trend in fandom that I don't especially like, which takes Demyx's fumbling and uses it to turn him into a giant fluffy kitty cat who would never hurt a soul. Yes, Demyx is cute and likable, and he isn't "very good" at fighting -- but until the manga I would have laughed at any claim that he cried himself to sleep over anyone's death. I can definitely see him missing people -- even Roxas, who would probably be one of the few Organization members not a huge dick to him -- but sobbing that way?
We saw this scene in Final Mix: Demyx expressed confidence that they could take Sora, manipulate him effectively; he boasted their strength so much that one of the others (I think Xaldin) gave him the first "approach Sora" assignment. (Much to Demyx's dismay.) He didn't sob dramatically over Roxas.
Essentially, I see Amano's mistake as being very easy. He's exaggerated a character trait into a whole personality. It is a path that billions of fangirls have been down before him. And I try to remember that Demyx's first reaction, of cluelessly not realizing Roxas had been absorbed into Sora, is probably as much the point of this scene as his dramatic shoujo tears. But it disappoints me so much.