Nomura actually very rarely speaks about Kairi in interviews. The few times he has, it's never been to confirm something between her and Sora. It's always reemphasizing Kairi's fear of change(that continues throughout the series until MoM), and the feelings of growing apart from childhood friends. In KH3, the Disney worlds served to teach Sora two very important lessons 1)The Power of True Love's Sacrifice (Olympus, Tangled, Frozen) and 2)Accepting the Pain of Separation (Monsters Inc, PotC, BH6, Pooh). The first lesson culminated in Riku's Sacrifice, an event that is canonically the very reason Sora was able to break time in order to save everyone (this fact was obscured by the Eng localization team). The second lesson is what the paopu scene was intended to represent; it was not Kairi and Sora establishing a romantic relationship, but rather attempting to strengthen the bond between them that had weakened over the course of the series so that even when they're apart they weren't alone (this is paralleled through the Winnie the Pooh storyline), and it was even further affirmed in the final scene when Sora fades away. Sora knew he was fading, that he and Kairi would be separated, and he had to accept that. You know who aren't separated anymore? Sora and Riku. RIKU is the one in Quadratum to save Sora, not Kairi. Kairi has her own path to follow now, and at the moment it is NOT the one that Sora is on. Contrary to popular belief, Nomura is not just making this up as he goes along, he's just following a different literary template than most adventure stories that we're used to. The journey that Sora and Riku have been on has been very deliberate, and I think you'll be surprised to find that Nomura has more intentions for them in the future of this series. I know that growing up as a queer person in this day and age makes us cynical, and very wary of hope for change, but I really, truly believe at this point that Sora and Riku are the intended endgame.

Just an heads-up since another commenter mentioned this and you weren't sure, but interviews multiple times from the main devs actually said the opposite. The main core of the series are Riku and Sora and how they grow up, among other things.

I know this video is older but if you look up Tenelle Flowers' Soriku essay (6 hours long lmao) it goes over all the evidence for soriku, mostly covering Riku's development, but there's definitely segments that cover how Sora might feel and comp-het stuff. There's been a LOT of hinting in the later games that he's figuring out how he feels about love, (or y'know, sexuality more likely) and it really wouldn't make much sense for them to hint so strongly at him discovering that part of himself if he was just a straight guy and ends up with Kairi. Tldr: Tenelle Flowers' video goes over a lot of points for soriku, and even debunks a few points that seem in favor of sokai. If you have doubts, or generally want to look more into all the hinting towards soriku and their development, I highly recommend that video. Buut if you don't have the time or patience to watch a 6 hour long video (or segments of it) I can go over some of their bigger points if you want.

@baloneyoffical

Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much I watched it And it inspired me to make another video kzread.info/dash/bejne/dI15scqiYsa4j9o.html

I dunno if you'll see this, but I do recommend looking up the differences between the English localization and the original Japanese. It may give a new perspective on the games, especially any usage of the word "taisetsu" and how lines between Sora and Kairi are translated. I feel like Kairi's character and her and Sora's relationship (and Sora and Riku's, by extension) were hurt by some of the english translation. I love soriku lots and I never thought it would be canon, but weirdly enough KH3/remind actually gave me more hope for them. I enjoyed listening to your perspective!

I know that this video is old but just to clarify for viewers: Sora's Japanese VA went on an interview to clarify that the paopu scene between Sora and Kairi was not romantic. He even revealed that Nomura initially didn't even want the paopu scene to happen because it would've made "people get the wrong idea" and had Sora's VA voice two scenarios: a sharing scene and a not sharing scene. The series producer of KH was on an interview about KH3 and stated that the series was about Sora and Riku. Nomura was also on an interview for KH4 and expressed that KH4 would focus on Sora's disappearance and was surprised that people even wanted to see characters return other than Sora and Riku. He promised that he'd think about having other characters make an appearance-- implying that pretty much every non-Disney character from the mainline games except Sora and Riku (+Xigbar ofc) would be dropped from the series after KH3. It's also been said in interviews that Melody of Memory was never supposed to be a game about Kairi but everyone assumed it was because she was the narrator which is hilarious.

And then Melody of Memory happened where (spoiler warning in advance) Riku literally was able to dream where Sora was in the afterlife and Kairi didn’t seem to give enough of a shit to try and look for him herself unless Riku took her along PLUS the Fairy Godmother confirming that both of them are 2 of the 3 “keys” necessary to bring him back, AND now Kingdom Hearts 4 is being made,,, bi disaster 10000% but I’m sorry to say I don’t think it’s over yet, man (Not to mention that whole speech at the end of 3 was bastardized by the localization team and sounded way more romantic than it did in the Japanese version, we can probably thank the Big Mouse for that)

"nomura has always said that sora and kairi are the basis of the entire story" OH...... OH. OH FRIEND. oh my dear friend, (god i cant wait for the rest of these)

Good evening. I'm a new subscriber. Can you tell me when Nomura actually said that Sora and Kairi are the two main focus of the series ? The only thing I know about Kairi's role is that she doesn't want things to change.

@baloneyoffical

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for subscribing! I’m sorry to say I don’t have a direct source, I remembered hearing about it a long time ago. But it might have been a fan misinterpreting an interview or lying to make a point. The closest thing I could find was an ign interview, where Nomura was vague about what it’s all about. The consensus seems to be that Kairi is less of a Character and more of a tool. She’s a plot device used to give sora motivation. I wish I had more, but if you want to know more about nomuras thoughts on the seires. Here’s some links I found while searching. www.ign.com/articles/2018/06/14/e3-2018-tetsuya-nomura-on-if-kingdom-hearts-3-is-the-end-of-soras-story gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/718920-kingdom-hearts-iii/76757449 www.reddit.com/r/KingdomHearts/comments/8r4y62/kh3_nomura_on_sora_riku_and_kairis_friendship_and/? www.khinsider.com/forums/index.php?threads/nomura-had-plans-for-kairi-before-the-series.225367/ www.resetera.com/threads/lets-talk-about-nomura-and-women-spoilers-duh.100200/ www.reddit.com/r/KingdomHearts/comments/ambpoq/kh3_does_nomura_not_like_kairi/?

@CampingforCool41

Жыл бұрын

He never said that, neither did any of the other devs. On the other hand, Shinji Hashimoto said in an E3 interview regarding kh3: “The fact is that the main focus of the series is Sora and Riku; how their friendship develops, but also how they grow up," he says. "After so many years, the players’ personal growth is closely tied to the game’s story at this point, so that’s the most important thing about the series and what we want to put into the game.” Nomura himself has also stated that Sora and Riku represent the main theme of the series.