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[khanimatedadaptationau]

Season 1: Episode 3: Olympus Coliseum

After Jiminy recaps the previous episode, we get a somewhat hilarious scene of Sora literally freezing the Highwind’s console while practicing his new Blizzard magic. Donald scolds him, while Sora argues that he has to keep his skills sharp for the next time they fight the Heartless. Goofy suggests that they find a place to train, instead of firing off powerful magic in an enclosed space. Goofy then radios Chip and Dale, who alert them to a tournament at a place called “Olympus Coliseum”, where they should be able to hone their skills. Donald uses a weak fire spell to thaw out the controls, and they blast off for Olympus. Cue theme song!

Olympus Coliseum’s courtyard is filled with a ton of people training for the tournament, with Sora, Donald, and Goofy sticking out like a sore thumb.  When they step into the vestibule though, it’s pretty much lifted straight from the game, except Sora’s facial expressions while trying to push the stone block are hilarious. They do actually convince Phil to let Sora train until the tournament starts. The training montage is pretty cool, with Sora, Donald, and Goofy smashing barrels, and Donald teaching Sora how to use Thunder magic. Of course, they’re kicked out shortly before the tournament, with Phil laughing off Sora wanting to enter since he’s not a hero. Sora storms out as all the training heroes pour in, and we have grumpy Sora. As in, one or two lines, but still, hearing him grumble about how he saved Traverse Town and still doesn’t get any respect is kinda funny. Regardless, Hades then pops in and gives Sora, Donald, and Goofy passes for the Tournament, which Sora then immediately presents to Phil, allowing the trio to register.

Eerily enough, instead of any the heroes we saw training, the trios first opponents are some Heartless. Namely, Power Wilds and Bouncy Wilds. Sadly, none of them really get much of a chance to shine since all the Heartless are taken care of in a montage (though Goofy slipping on a banana peel and sliding into Donald is hilarious), which is also a bit of a disappointment when we get the debut of the Blue Rhapsodies and Yellow Operas. That said, we can see some audience reactions, including a man in a black coat, who doesn’t really visibly emote even as the crowd around him cheers. After the montage, Phil wishes that Hercules was there to see these Prelims, but he’s already qualified for the games and so he doesn’t need to compete in the Prelims and instead decided to visit his father, Zeus. Phil then notes that Sora’s next opponent is a man named Cloud Strife.

Cloud, meanwhile, is receiving his orders from Hades, to send the Keyblade Wielder to the Underworld. Oh... Never Say Die is in affect in this series... Well...

*ahem*

Anyway, Cloud argues that he was only supposed to “Send Hercules to the Underworld” (oh my word this dialogue is clunky), but Hades urges Cloud to send Sora to the Underworld as well. And I’m sorry but why not just use “eliminate”? Gets the same point across without using the k word and is faster to say. Back on topic, Hades remarks that Cloud will never be able to defeat “his shadow” and find his light, unless he uses the powers of darkness, and in order to master those powers he’ll have to get rid of Sora. “By sending Keyboy over there to the Underworld.” You already used a different euphemism for death, that was completely pointless. Kinda interesting how we can have a man get eaten alive as he screams in pain in the first episode, yet we still can’t say “kill”. Regardless, right as Cloud heads into the arena, Hades remarks that he should prepare plan beta just to be safe. We see six red eyes open in the darkness right as we cut to commercial.

After the commercial break, we have the final battle of Sora, Donald, and Goofy versus Cloud Strife. The battle is incredibly short but tense as Cloud dodges all of the bolts of lightning, toughs through the fire, shatters the ice, deflects Goofy’s shield (disarming him) before literally knocking him out by sending him flying out of the arena (complete with a “Goofy holler” and crash), and knocking Donald out by sending him flying into a pillar while he was busy healing Sora. And oh yeah, when it’s down to just those two, we get Hades orders echoing in Cloud’s head, right as he charges Sora. To his credit, Sora actually does put up a pretty good fight. He stays on the defensive until backed into a corner, where he then blocks Cloud’s attack, dodges behind him and hits him in the head. When Cloud knocks him away and takes flight, Sora notices that he just has that one wing, while dodging out of the way of Omnislash of course. So he interrupts Cloud’s attack by STUNNING HIM WITH THUNDER AND FREEZING HIS WING WITH BLIZZARD! Okay, clearly the team was saving their energy for this fight because now the tables are turned and Cloud’s the one on defensive, until he gets backed into a corner and uses Sonic Blade. However, when Sora’s on the ground but not quite unconscious, Cloud closes in and readies to make the killing blow, but stops just short when the image of a young Aerith crosses his mind. And the way this is handled is pretty creative as everything disappears except for Cloud as Aerith appears behind him. And when he looks at his shadow, it morphs into Sephiroth’s shape. Realizing just what he’s doing, he sheaths his sword and walks away, just in time to for Cerberus to step on him. Cerberus moves to bite the still downed Sora, but is stopped by none other than Herculese! Wow, he is barely in this episode. Sora picks up Donald and flees, along with all the spectators. Save for that guy in the black coat, who the camera lingers on before the scene change.

Donald heals himself, Sora, and Goofy after coming to. Sora suggests that they should help Herc, but Phil insists that Hercules can handle himself. Maybe. Also, you can hear Hercules fighting Cerberus while this is going on. Regardless, Phil relents, and SDG charge into the arena. Herc and Cerberus both look kinda worn out, so Hercules does appreciate the help when Sora, Donald, and Goofy hop in to help.

The battle is actually pretty good. Cerberus shrugs off all of Donald’s spells, relegating him to healing duty, while Sora and Goofy attack the heads. Sora is able to hurt him with magic by hitting him in the eyes, at which point Donald drops back into the fray. The battle ends when Hercules tries to throw Sora behind Cerberus to get him out of the way of an attack, but Sora is, through the power of anime logic, able to redirect his course and hit the base of Cerberus’ middle neck, knocking the creature out.

While the trio (and Hercules) are celebrating, however, Hades poofs in and asks “Why won’t you die?” Sora recognizes him and realizes that he was playing him. Hades then decides to officially introduce himself as “Hades, Lord of the Dead”, which makes me wonder what was up with all the euphemisms earlier. Regardless, we then get several Heartless warping in and we finally get a full on Heartless battle as Herculese charges in to fight Hades as Cloud finally comes to, and gets ushered out by Phil.

This battle shows how much synergy our trio has formed in such a short time, Sora takes out the Red Nocturnes with Blizzard while Donald takes out the Blue Rhapsodies with Fire. When they try to use Thunder magic to take out the Power Wilds, however, Yellow Operas swoop in to absorb the lightning and get supercharged as a result. Oops. However, while Sora and Donald are being hoist by their own petards, Goofy swoops in and knocks the Power and Bouncy Wilds into the Yellow Operas, causing all of them to absorb the electric charge from the Operas. Sora then copies Cloud, utilizing Sonic Blade to take out the stunned Heartless, and throws his Keyblade at the Yellow Operas. It bounces off of the first three, but hilariously enough misses the fourth. A frustrated Sora then simply jumps into the air and slices it in two as it charges it’s next attack, getting a bit of a shock in the process. Right as that happens, Herc flies right into the wall, worn out from his battle with Cerberus. Hades then smirks and throws another blast of fire at Herc in an attempt to take him out. Goofy blocks it with his shield, and Sora and Donald counter with Blizzard. Hades encases himself in a whirlwind of flame to bock the ice, and teleports behind Sora. Sora gets blasted with fire and sent sliding. When Sora gets back up Hades again materializes behind him. This gets him hit in the midsection, forcing him to teleport away again. Then he lobs a fireball at Sora from a distance, and Goofy blocks it with his shield. It then becomes a duel between Hades and Goofy, with Hades lunging at Goofy and trying to burn him with blazing fists while Goofy dodges and blocks his blows, sometimes jabbing him with his shield. Eventually Hades gets a hit on Goofy, and then encased in a block of ice. Turns out Goofy was only distracting Hades so Donald could heal Sora, and the two of them took advantage of the opening to hit Hades while his guard was down. Donald then heals Goofy, and the ice already starts to melt, with Hades himself starting to move. Goofy throws his shield, hitting Hades in the neck and sending him flying. Donald then heals Hercules, and Hades gets back up, lunging at the quartet with murder in his eyes and red-hot flames in his hands. Hercules, meanwhile, starts to glow with a golden aura, and uppercuts Hades so hard he becomes a speck in the sky, falling over the horizon. A sheet of paper falls to the ground, and Sora picks it up. The man in the coat, meanwhile, is revealed to have been watching this whole battle, and comments that he’ll have to keep an eye on the Keyblade’s chosen one, before vanishing into the Darkness.

Phil then names Sora, Donald, and Goofy Junior Heroes (much to Donald’s consternation), noting that while they have the will, they have a long way to go.  Hercules then states that he can’t budge the stone block, even at full strength. Sora then offers to give it a try, asking for Donald and Goofy to help him out. The three of them manage to move the block, revealing a keyhole. The Keyblade then materializes in Sora’s hand and locks it, prompting Sora to wonder what’s going on. The three bid Phil and Hercules farewell and head on out.

However, the episode isn’t over quite yet as Cloud is brooding outside. Sora decides to see what’s bothering him. He had made his deal with Hades so he could use the powers of darkness, thinking it would help him on his quest, since he was looking for someone. When Sora asks who, Cloud vaguely replies with “My light”. Sora admits that he’s also looking for someone, and Cloud wishes him luck, before giving him a Gummi Block, Goofy recognizes it as such, and Cloud passes up Sora’s offer to have a rematch at some point in the future. As soon as the trio departs, however, Cloud has only one thing to say: “You can come out now”, and Sephiroth makes his Disney Channel Debut. Sephiroth comments that there’s darkness in Cloud’s heart now, and that they’ve always been two sides of the same coin, before telling Cloud to join him. Cloud refuses, stating that he’ll never let himself be like Sephiroth ever again, and that he will find his light and rid himself of Sephiroth and the darkness. The two then clash, and the episode ends.

...

Not gonna lie, this one was kinda lackluster. While seeing an Organization member appear this early was unexpected, this episode felt incredibly directionless, not helped by the fact that Sora and co don’t have a goal outside of “find their friends” and that Sephiroth and Cloud never appear again this season. But the fight scenes, when they were allowed to have them, were suitably epic, and Goofy really shined in his toe-to-toe match-up with Hades. But next episode is when the plot starts to get real, and our heroes have a more quantifiable goal.

[khanimatedadaptationau]

Season 1: Episode 2: Wonderland

The episode opens in the Gummi Ship, with Jiminy Cricket recapping the events of the previous episode, with the recap being text over a still image (like in the theater mode of the games). At the end of the recap, he closes the Journal and notes that Sora has been butting heads with Donald, with the former wanting to stop at multiple worlds (including a brief, lawyer-friendly cameo of Deep Jungle, the Pride Lands, the Land of Dragons, and what appears to be Shibuya from “The World Ends with You”) in order to look for Riku and Kairi, while Donald shuts him down with “The King would never go there”, with Sora getting increasingly frustrated. Having Goofy play the mediator between the two is also pretty nice, and Sora’s other reason for wanting to go out when he sees a star blink out and argues that that might happen to the worlds they’re skipping out on, while Donald’s insisting that they can’t save every world in the universe with how far the Heartless have spread, so they should stay focused on finding the King and Ansem’s Report. They both have pretty valid points in their debate, as this episode will go on to show.

After the opening sequence, the trio (or would it be quartet?) finally disembark in Wonderland, and Sora is naturally eager to finally be exploring a new world. Plus, Goofy trying to talk Sora out of chasing random talking rabbits he doesn’t know is also pretty funny, and appreciated since he doesn’t actually do much this episode. Yeah, the episode is mostly focused on the conflict between Sora and Donald, so the comparatively mellow Goofy is kinda overshadowed, which is understandable because Goofy isn’t really that confrontational. But back on topic, after the trio gets startled by the Doorknob, Goofy actually questions the wisdom of drinking out of strange bottles, with Donald arguing they should get back on the Gummi Ship since they have no way of moving forward, right as Sora drinks out of the “Drink Me” bottle. The exasperation on their faces as Sora shrinks is hilarious. As is Sora’s look of exasperation when the Doorknob falls asleep again. But then he notices that there’s an opening behind the bed and asks Donald and Goofy if they can move it. Donald oddly enough argues that they ought to be more careful while Goofy accidentally flattens the bed against the wall just by touching it. And again, the fact that Goofy just rolls with it while Donald has a look of “I give up on logic” on his face is funny in it’s own way. Goofy and a considerably more reluctant Donald shrink down, and the group heads on through the opening, where the Queen of Hearts is holding a trial.

This scene is more or less lifted from the game, but now with the Queen of Hearts giving Sora a deadline (until the sun sets) to find evidence of Alice’s innocence, or else it’s off with all their heads. Cue commercial.

After the break, we have Donald telling Sora off for breaching the World Order, with Sora arguing that he couldn’t just not help Alice, feeling that since he has the Keyblade, that he should use it to help as many people as possible. Donald points out that they can’t exactly go and meddle in other people’s affairs, and then the Cheshire Cat pops in. He’s as cryptic and morally ambiguous as ever, speaking in riddles, and also says that he can point them to evidence. When Sora asks how, he summons a horde of Heartless (now including Red Nocturnes and a Large Body, on top of the Soldiers and Shadows seen last episode). The resulting battle has a lot of high points, with Sora demonstrating some magical skills he picked up from Donald by blasting several of the Heartless with fire. Which unfortunately backfires when he hits a Red Nocturne with that same spell, causing it to absorb the flames, then produce a truly massive ball of fire it then shoots at the trio, pretty much covering them with ash to the point that only their eyes are visible. Donald heals the group, then gets hit by a smaller fireball, causing him to run around with his tail on fire, until he lands in a pond, and uses lightning to take them out. The Large Body, meanwhile, deflects all of Sora’s and Goofy’s attempts to injure it from the front, until finally it charges them. Sora hops over it, while Goofy tries to guard against it’s assault with his shield, only to get flattened against a tree. Sora pops the Large Body from behind with his Keyblade (as in, it bursts like a balloon), and Goofy pops back into “3D” (but not really because the animation is 2D), and soon all that’s left is a single Soldier, whom Sora tackles and holds in his arms, arguing that they can use this Heartless as evidence of Alice’s innocence, since they know Alice probably can’t steal hearts, but the Heartless can. Goofy questions the wisdom of this, but Donald figures that anything’s better than beheading, and the trio head back with the poor Soldier struggling against Sora’s grasp. But things go awry when they present the Soldier as evidence, and it tries to steal the Queen’s heart. Sora very quickly destroys it with Fire, but the damage has been done, and the Queen orders her Cards to arrest them.

Alice is carried off in a bird-cage, and the Queen orders the Cards to keep Sora away from the Guard Tower. And this battle isn’t quite as interesting as the Heartless battle, since it pretty much follows the formula of “The Card Soldiers chase Sora, Donald, and Goofy around the courtyard until Donald gets Goofy to spin around real fast and knock them all aside while Sora smashes the tower and frees Alice”. Except Alice isn’t there, and the Cheshire Cat materializes just to say that she was taken by the shadows, while Sora, Donald, and Goofy tiptoe away in the background.

Sora wonders what happened to Alice, and Donald wonders if she really was in league with the Heartless. Sora points out that she’s literally a child, even by his standards, and Goofy suggests that she was kidnapped instead. The Cheshire Cat returns, confirms Goofy’s suspicions, then turns on the lights and summons the Trickmaster. This battle is far more interesting than the one with the Card Soldiers, since we once again have our heroes accidentally making a Heartless stronger, since when Sora and Donald use Fire on it, it blocks both with it’s batons, and then proceeds to start shooting fireballs at them since said batons are now on fire. The trio eventually scatter, and hide, and Sora winds up getting Blizzard from the Cheshire Cat. Sora freezes one of the batons, then Donald realizes that ice is it’s weakness, the Cheshire Cat then teaches Donald the spell, and he eats a cookie off of the table with the “Drink Me” bottle to grow back to his normal size, then uses a single Blizzard spell to completely freeze the Heartless. Goofy then bounces Sora into the air, and Sora shatters the Heartless with his Keyblade. The Doorknob wakes up while the trio is celebrating, and Sora locks the Keyhole, collecting a Gummi Block the Doorknob coughs up. Goofy recognizes it as a Gummi Block and the Cheshire Cat announces that Alice is long gone.

Meanwhile, Jafar seems to be concerned that Sora found one of the Keyholes, while Maleficent states that they have nothing to worry about, since the Princesses are falling into their hands one by one, right as a shadowy figure pushes Alice into the light.

While the trio is leaving Wonderland behind, Sora admits that he probably should have listened to Donald, since they really didn’t accomplish anything in Wonderland. Donald does concede that Sora technically had a bit of a point, since he has no clue what worlds the King may or may not have stopped on, so they may as well fight the Heartless wherever they appear. The two of them reconcile and the trio blasts off to the next world.

We cut back to Maleficent’s lair one last time, where Hades is watching the trio’s progress on the table, all on his lonesome. He then remarks that they seem to be heading right for his turf, meaning that he might be able to take care of this problem in short order.

Cue credits.

[khanimatedadaptationau]

Season 1: Episode 1: Destiny Islands

Okay, so this pilot episode is kinda bizarre. It uses the good old “Simple and Clean, Planit B Mix” as the theme song piece, and from the looks of things Chernabog is gonna show up at some point. Although as someone who’s played the games it is severely spoilerous, even showing Sora and Riku fighting, with the latter wearing his dark-mode outfit, which makes the mystery of what happens to him considerably less tense.

Ahem, on to the episode itself, it opens with Sora in the Dive to the Heart sequence, granted it’s even more bizarre since it skips over all the tutorial stuff from the game and keeps all the criptic language, with the white text warning Sora that darkness is approaching, that the day he will open the door is both very near and far off, and that the closer to the light he gets the greater his shadow becomes. And oh yeah, instead of fighting the Darkside, he simply dodges one punch from it and sinks into the resulting pool of darkness, at which point he awakens only to get jumpscared by Kairi.

Anyway, this is kinda dull since it’s pretty much word for word from the game, except they shook the screen and added a cartoon sound-affect over the scene where Riku tosses that log onto Sora.

After that though, things get pretty amusing, especially since Sora is very quickly distracted by everyone-else’s antics, getting into a sparring match with Tidus for the blanket they need to use for the sail. Of course, the match is less of a battle and more of a game to see who can disarm the other first.

Sora wins, and Tidus very quickly hits the Riku button, mentioning how Kairi can always count on him. I like how Sora just pauses right there, right before we cut to Riku, who has the other two logs that the player had to collect in the game, while Kairi has the rope. So him saying he had to do all the work really makes sense in this continuity. And then there’s how Sora runs up and immediately challenges Riku. And that smirk on Riku’s face, it helps set up how confident he is while also making the viewer really route for Sora. Then there’s Wakka’s role here, serving as a referee of sorts and setting the ground-rules: first one to knock the other off the island with the bent tree and into the water wins. And the battle between Sora and Riku really is quite the sight to see, whereas Sora’s giving it his all, Riku’s spending most of the battle on the defensive, dodging out of the way of Sora’s strikes, blocking what few would hit, and then stepping behind and pushing him off the edge and into the water with very little effort. And he goes right back to bringing the supplies back without breaking a sweat, even chatting with Kairi while she seems suitably impressed. Plus, the sight of a disgruntled Sora covered in seaweed is hilarious in and of itself.

After this we get the scene of the three watching the sunset, with Riku crediting Kairi with giving him the idea to try and escape Destiny Islands. That and teasing Sora with the Paopu, expositing about it’s rumored power.

Meanwhile, in Disney Castle Donald sees the King’s Letter and wakes Goofy up by zapping him with Lightning, except this time it’s “Cartoon X-Ray Lightning”, so more cartoon hi-jinx. Other than that it’s more or less exactly like the game, so let’s move on.

After a commercial break, we get Day 2 of Destiny Islands, with Selphie again expositing about the legendary power of the Paopu fruit. Then we get the race between Sora and Riku to decide who gets to name the raft and who gets to be captain, with Riku again throwing in that bit about “Winner gets to share a Paopu with Kairi” to get under Sora’s skin. And it is incredibly clear that Sora is very much against betting Kairi on a race. He still loses, but Riku very quickly brushes it off as a joke upon seeing how upset Sora is. And this does an excellent job of setting up another difference between Sora and Riku, Sora respects Kairi, while Riku doesn’t seem to.

After that, Kairi sends Sora to collect mushrooms, decides to get water herself (since whenever she sends one of the boys to do it they get water from the sea), and Riku to go and collect everything else, which helps set up why Sora hasn’t admitted his feelings to Kairi yet: he thinks she trusts Riku more than she trusts him.

When he goes to the Secret Place to collect mushrooms (after telling Wakka and Tidus to buzz off), he pauses by the drawings he and Kairi doodled of eachother, and decides to add the Paopu to the drawing. When the robed figure (now voiced by Richard Epcar) pops in, Sora tries to cover it up while his face turns red, and other than that his conversation with the robed figure is pretty much the same as in the game, except, much like in the Manga, Kairi waltzes in and gets hastily pushed out right after he leaves. The conversation between Sora and Kairi, and the scene where Kairi works on the Oathkeeper charm are combined into one scene.

Then we cut back to Disney Castle, where Mickey’s letter is actually narrated by Mickey Mouse, and other than that it’s pretty much the same as in the game, with Minnie introducing Donald and Goofy to Jiminy, and Donald asking Daisy to keep care of the Queen. Then there’s the virtually unchanged Gummi Ship scene, and we cut back to Destiny Islands, where Sora hurries over to the Play Island, misses Dinner, and gets jumped by the Heartless. Oh yeah, we also get to see some Neoshadows attack a guy right as he tries to get into his house, complete with his outstretched hand fading away as he screams.

Sora is, naturally, very concerned when his sword goes right through the Shadows who attack him on the beach, but then he spots Riku and immediately decides to tough it out and avoid them to try and get to him before the Heartless do.

Riku’s scene is virtually unchanged, accept after the screen fades to black, the flash of light is changed. The light flies in from the upper left corner, bounces off of the point where Riku would be, flies to where Sora should be, then covers the entire screen. Then Sora gets up, with the Keyblade in his hands, and turns the tables on the Heartless and fight his way to the Secret Place to protect Kairi. But then the door flies open and blasts a sickly Kairi (who looks incredibly pale and even has bags under her eyes) directly into Sora.

Then there’s the battle with the Darkside. The resulting battle is horribly skewed against Sora, with the Darkside keeping the upper hand, summoning Shadows to fight Sora, up until Sora scales up the Darkside’s arm and hits it in the head. The Darkside replies by grabbing Sora with it’s other hand and slamming him into the ground. At that point, the wind picks up, the little patch of land starts to crumble, and the Darkside gets sucked up into the vortex as Sora hangs on to the plank of wood for dear life, only to get sucked near the black hole and gets flung into space. Cue commercial!

The scene where Donald and Goofy land in Traverse Town and split off from Pluto is pretty much unchanged, up until Sora arrives at Cid’s shop. Cid still offers to let Sora stay with him if he can’t find his friends, but Sora heads out regardless. And then we get Cid talking to a shadowy figure.

The scene where the Heartless steal the mans heart is a tad bit more violent, as we get to see the soldier tear it from the man’s chest. There’s no blood, obviously, but it’s considerably more brutal. The Keyblade reappears in Sora’s hands right as the Heartless turn their sights on him. Sora’s instinct isn’t to fight, he tries to run back into the first district only for more Heartless to pop in behind him. Sora then makes a mad dash for the hotel, slashing through any Heartless who get in his way, until he finally reaches the hotel, at which point Donald and Goofy enter the second district.

Sora continues to battle the Heartless inside the hotel, and bursts straight throw the other entrance right by the cash register (with the guy behind the desk actually screaming when the Heartless pop up, with his silhouette diving out of sight), and Sora takes out about a fourth of them. The Heartless force Sora out, then disappear, right as Donald and Goofy pop in.

Sora continues his fight with the Heartless, taking a few out, and reaching the Gizmo Shop, at which point Donald and Goofy leave the hotel.

Sora continues to fight them through the still running gizmo shop, and actual takes out a Soldier by knocking it into the gears, and cuts a Shadow in two, and leaves right as Donald and Goofy get in.

When Sora exits, he takes out all the Heartless but one, which then dives under the door to the Dalmatian house. Sora gives chase, and Donald and Goofy leave the Gizmo Shop.

Sora then treads carefully around the puppies, who keep trying to go after him, and there’s a really comedic moment where the Shadow emerges from the ground to attack a puppy, only to pause when it sees Sora glaring at it while Pongo and Peridita growl at it, then sink right back into the ground and scurry off. Sora then chases it out the back door and into the Third District, where he finishes it off, just in time to be confronted by Leon. He gives the same speech he did in the game, and the two clash, with Sora doing pretty well until Leon blasts him with a fireball, at which point the boy gets sent flying into a wall and falls to the ground, unconscious. Yuffie arrives and teases Leon, who says things are worse than expected, and we cut back to Donald and Goofy, with the former getting startled by Aerith. Meanwhile, Riku wakes up, and is found by Maleficent after calling for Sora and Kairi (actually voiced in this continuity). Cue commercial.

When we get back from the commercial, Sora’s waking up, and mistakes Yuffie for Kairi. And the exchange is pretty much identical to how it was in the games, just better animated (the fact that the animation is pretty similar to the animation from Avatar might be part of the reason). Granted, they actually have Ansem’s first report, narrated by Corey Burton, which is always a plus. After that’s all sorted out, a Soldier Attacks, and Sora and Leon head out to fight the Heartless. And the following action scene is pretty cool as Sora once again fights through the Second District, but this time he’s carving a path through the Heartless alongside Leon and Yuffie, until they both get held off by a larger group of Heartless right as Sora enters the Third District.

Sora doesn’t realize that he’s been separated from the group until he’s surrounded by Heartless, at which point he looks significantly less brave. This is followed by a gag lifted straight from the games, with the Heartless blasting Donald and Goofy clear off the building and right onto Sora, actually startling the Heartless that were closing in on him. Right as they get up, the Heartless pounce, and suddenly, Donald and Goofy are awesome.  Goofy bashes a Heartless into the air and Sora takes it down. Donald heals Sora, as well as blasts Heartless with fire and lightning. Once they all go down, the Guard Armor crashes in. Sora, Donald, and Goofy take out the Hammer Legs and Gauntlets, with them shattering, and then Sora takes it out by knocking the helmet into the torso, and slicing through both, and then the Guard Armor explodes and releases it’s heart, right as Leon and Yuffie arrive, with Yuffie remarking that it looks like they don’t have anything to worry about.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy officially introduce each other, and Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, and Cid give them supplies for their journey, while Jiminy Cricket vows to record all of it in his Journal. Meanwhile, Maleficent and her cabal of villains take a look at them, and Maleficent decides that they should stick around and watch for now.

Cue credits.

[khanimatedadaptationau]

Coming Soon: KH Animated Adaptation AU

On this blog, I shall be providing overviews of a Kingdom Hearts animated series from an alternate universe, where Disney released an animated series for KH after Kingdom Hearts 3 was announced in order to keep up hype for the series and to recap everyone.

As it stands, season 1 seems to adapt Kingdom Hearts I and Chain of Memories, with an hour-long pilot episode that adapts the plots of Destiny Islands and the first Traverse Town Visit. See you then.