20 Crazy Things You Didn’t Know About Kairi From Kingdom Hearts
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Kairi from Kingdom Hearts has some dark secrets that fans of the series need to know. She’s got a lot more going on that most people know.
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Celebrating 15 years, Kingdom Hearts is a major IP in Square-Enix’s stable of franchises with more than 24 million units sold worldwide. With Kingdom Hearts III gearing up for next year, it’s only fair to say that the series has cemented itself in the video game industry. Not only is it addictive, but it also has every element of a classic Disney fairytale: humble heroes, damsels-in-distress, and evil baddies. Though we’re far from our days of Cinderella or Lion King bedtime stories (note to myself: being a “responsible” adult suck), the franchise is able to accommodate younger and grown up audiences as children seem to be charmed by the various Disney-themed worlds while adults seem to be pleased by his story and engaging gameplay.
Today, we’ll focus on Kairi, a vital character of the series. Despite her prominent role, we’re sure to surprise you with 20 crazy facts that you didn’t know about her. Kairi has a lot of dark secrets and hidden facts buried in her character that fans need to know. She’s not always as sweet and wholesome as Kingdom Hearts would have you believe. As always, let us know your impressions. For now, sit back and enjoy…. ‘Got It remembered?
20 Kairi Is Voiced by An All-Star Celebrity Cast.
The Kingdom Hearts series has been blessed by its all-star voice cast that’s been featured throughout its entries. From well-known celebrities like Haley Joel Osmond and Mark Hamill to the original-yet recognizable voices of the Disney franchise like Wayne Allwine (Mickey Mouse) & Kathryn Beaumont (Alice), these actors make us love, care and hate the different characters of the story as we progress through the game.
It is no different for Kairi, who has the luxury of being voiced by three celebrities. Country-drama sitcom Nashville’s main actress Hayden Panettiere provided her voice for Kingdom Hearts I, II, and Birth By Sleep. She’s currently voiced by ex-Disney actress and dancer Alyson Stoner. As for young Kairi, she is voiced by Ariel Winters who currently holds a primary role in ABC’s sitcom Modern Family. Needless to say, these women made an extraordinary job at bringing such emotion to our favorite Princess Of Heart.
19 Darth Kairi
“Princess of Heart” and “caring” are the two words we’d mostly associate Kairi with. As she initially doesn’t hold any darkness in her heart, Its only right to say that Kairi is an essential embodiment of a saintess. However, Kairi isn’t perfect and she hasn’t always been a good girl.
Further referenced in the Kingdom Hearts II manga, readers have experienced a more provocative and vulgar Kairi. When Axel attempts to rescue her from The Castle That Never Was, she angrily throws her food at him and berates him for not coming earlier. Furthermore, she calls Riku a “sour puss” after he saved her from Saix. It seems that out of all the Princesses of Heart, Kairi definitely seems to be the most ill-mannered. We sure hope Her Highness will change her ways in the next manga series.
18 She’s Grown A Tadbit Too Much Over The Course Of A Year
Whether our teen years were filled with pleasant or bad memories, we all went through this natural process. Although some features change more rapidly than others, it still takes a fair amount of time for a person to go pass this necessary process. However, It seems that Kairi’s biology is far above any regular human being.
If we recall her on the original Kingdom Hearts, she’s aged 14, but still, have the physique of a pre-teen. In Kingdom Hearts II, Kairi’s design is fully revamped. Although she mostly looks like a mature woman, she literally developed a bit too fast as her height nearly doubled and she now has more pronounced curves. Now don’t get me wrong, Kairi’s KHII design mostly fit her 15-year-old look. The only problem is that her original self looks like anything but a 14-year-old girl. Though Square-Enix is holding firm onto her updated look, we’re still wondering what kind of meal did she eat to grow faster!
17 She Can’t Become A Heartless
In the Kingdom Hearts universe, Heartless are the primary enemies of the series in which players must fight constantly. One mostly becomes a Heartless if his heart succumbs to darkness, get stolen by a certain entity (another Heartless or an evil lord) or gets taken by a keyblade. We can all remember this emotional scene when Sora became a Heartless after impaling himself with his keyblade in order to save Kairi.
What people often don’t know is that Kairi’s heart was lost when the Heartless attacked Destiny Island at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts. Although Sora became a vessel to her heart, she should ‘ve been turned into a Heartless. Instead, she became unconscious nearly throughout the whole game. It is later explained in the game that as a Princess of Heart, Kairi cannot become a Heartless because she doesn’t have a single ounce of darkness in her heart. Instead, she loses consciousness. Though we do agree with the concept, we don’t agree that Kairi should be exempt from being a Heartless. Just look at the previous entry and you’ll understand…
16 50% Hero / 50% Damsel-In-Distress
Throughout their respective world, most of the Princesses of Hearts are vulnerable and must be rescued by their love interest (with the exception of Alice). As such, they mostly represent the damsels-in-distress that needs to be saved for a happy ending. However, upon taking a look at Kairi’s path, we do see that she’s quite a unique Princess of Hearts.
If we look at her story in the chronological order, we first see Kairi being rescued by King Mickey and Aqua in Birth By Sleep. She then gets rescued by Sora in Kingdom Hearts. In Kingdom Hearts II, she gets kidnapped by Axel, a member of the Organisation XIII and then gets rescued by Riku. From this moment, her role change to that of a supportive cast as we see her assist Sora by fighting a few Heartless with her newly acquired Keyblade, Destiny’s Embrace. Lastly, Kairi is summoned by Yen Sid in order to start her training for wielding the keyblade, in the secret ending of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dreams Drop Distance. Honestly, I sure can’t wait to see how Kairi will demonstrate her fighting skills in Kingdom Hearts III.
15 Aqua Is The Reason Why She’s A Keyblade Wielder
One of the most confusing scenes in Kingdom Hearts II was when Kairi was able to use the keyblade to assist her friends in eliminating the Heartless. In a way, It downplayed the exclusiveness of the weapon as It made It seem that everybody could wield it. We basically had to wait until 2010’s Birth By Sleep to learn why.
One usually becomes a keyblade wielder If a KeyBlade Master allows a person to touch the weapon. Therefore, the person is designated as a successor and is able to use the weapon. Throughout Birth By Sleep, Unversed creatures attempt to attack Kairi. However, Keyblade Master Aqua & King Mickey comes to the rescue to save her. In a very subtle way, Kairi touches Aqua’s keyblade while standing behind her to protect herself. It is from this moment that she unlocked the ability to wield keyblades. Kingdom Hearts’ producer Tetsuya Nomura would later confirm it in the Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Ultimania guide. Although this mystery has been resolved, Square Enix still kept us in the limbo for nearly 5 years about it. Unforgivable!
14 Grandma Only
Although the heroes are trying to save the worlds from Darkness, there hasn’t been much dialogue from the protagonists’ family members. Throughout the series, players only hear Sora’s mom calling him for dinner in the original Kingdom Hearts, and Riku only mentions Sora’s dad once when he meets Terra in Birth By Sleep. It seems that Kairi’s the only one to be blessed by the love of family figures as players are able to see her closest family member to date: her grandmother.
She first appears in the original Kingdom Hearts as part of Kairi’s memories that Sora feels. Though she’s mute throughout the scene, she tells the light and darkness fairytale to her granddaughter. She also briefly appears in Birth By Sleep when she’s looking for Kairi. Though her appearance is brief, players can hear her recounting the light and darkness tell after she finds her. Also, it is later implied that the Destiny Island’s mayor adopted Kairi, following her sudden arrival.
13 Why Would You Save Me? I’m Your Enemy!!
A Princess of Heart may not have any darkness in her heart, but it doesn’t change the fact that they still have a functioning brain. In the midst of a dangerous situation, a normal human being usually produces adrenaline in order to adapt to the situation. However, that doesn’t always seem to be the case for Kairi.
In the Kingdom Hearts II manga, Kairi manages to escape by randomly communicating with two Nobodies. She then runs away from Organisation XIII’s Demyx who begs her to let herself captured by him so that he doesn’t get executed. He even promises her that she’ll release her after some time. We’d think the Princess would simply ignore Demyx’s request and keep resuming her escape….. Wrong.
12 Childhood Friends? No, MUCH more.
Throughout the numerous official characters entries, Kairi is always referred as “Sora & Riku’s childhood friends.” The trio is also introduced to the players as truly inseparable. Although they are now preparing themselves for a final showdown against Xehanort, It has been heavily implied that Kairi and Sora’s relationship is beyond friendship.
In Kingdom Hearts, Kairi chooses Sora as a vessel for her heart when the Heartless overruns Destiny Island. Also, when Sora later becomes a Heartless to save her, Kairi is able to specifically recognize him and save him. However, the strongest hint of their relationship is in the credits of Kingdom Hearts. Once Kairi returns on Destiny Island, she returns to the Secret Cave where she sees an earlier drawing of Sora sharing a paopu fruit with her. Kairi gets emotional and adds another paopu fruit to the drawing. The meaning behind it? Well according to the in-game legend, two peoples will always stay connected to each other if they share the same paopu fruit. Therefore, we could see this poignant scene as a teenage affair in which Kairi promptly answers “yes” to Sora’s dating request. Maybe Kingdom Hearts III will furthermore develop this candlelight love to flames of romance!
11 Seifer Almasy Have A Crush On Kairi
Though we’ve discussed Kairi and Sora’s special relationship, it seems that there is another character that has a crush on our Princess: Seifer Almasy. For those who don’t know, Seifer is one of the main antagonists in Final Fantasy VIII and Squall’s (Leon) rival. His only hinted relationship was with Squall’s love interest, Rinoa. In his Kingdom Hearts counterpart, Seifer’s the leader of the Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee (much like his FF VIII counterpart) and Hayner’s rival.
In the Kingdom Hearts II manga, Kairi lands on Twilight Town while escaping from Axel and meets Hayner and his friends. After a few moments, Seifer and his band notice her and he starts to flirt with her a bit. However, Seifer’s attempts are in vain. Nice try Seifer, but you definitely took a major L this time. Next time, maybe.
10 Kairi Is What You “Sea”
Ok, so this one promises to be interesting. Whenever we look at Kairi’s interaction, we can notice a strong collaboration with the water component. First, Kairi prepares to wander the sea with Sora & Riku in search of adventures. In Kingdom Hearts II, she tosses a bottle in the sea containing a letter for Sora. Then, Aqua (water in Latin) remains an influential character in Kairi’s life in Birth By Sleep as her spell makes her land on Destiny Islands after Radiant Gardens’ attack.
When we look at it, we can reflect on the fact that water almost seemed vital to bring life to Kairi’s character… but can we call It a coincidence? Probably not. When we look at Kairi’s name in Japanese, It actually means “nautical mile”. However, her individual kanjis means “sea” and “village”. After linking her name with these events, It’s only fair to say that Square-Enix and Disney did a great job at keeping Kairi’s concept theme.
9 When You Get Capture — But Spared!
Axel & Kairi are two of the top characters in the franchise. They both ranked 3rd in the Famitsu character poll of the series and both have very interesting stories in their own way.
They also both share a twisted relationship in which Axel kidnapped Kairi as part of a scheme to bring his best friend Roxas back. Shortly after his death, Axel reverts back to his human form, Lea and becomes a valued ally for the main cast. The twisted part is that Lea is also Kairi’s sparring Keyblade partner.
Although Kairi seemed uncomfortable training with her former captor-turned-ally, a canon story reading, performed at the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra suggested that Kairi quickly overcame her fear of Lea and became friends with him. We sure do hope to see these two Keyblade users in action. Who knows… maybe they’ll have some cool action commands like Sora & Riku!
8 She Inspired The Creation of Birth By Sleep’s Main Characters
According to series’ producer Tetsuya Nomura, the Kairi’s name provided a basis for Aqua’s name. Initially, the Birth By Sleep main characters’ name follows the same concept in which the trio are being named after elements. Although the original Kingdom Hearts trio names (Sora, Riku & Kairi) were romanized Japanese translations of elements, Birth By Sleep’s characters names (Ventus, Terra & Aqua) are Latin translated. The Birth By Sleep’s characters names bear a themed connection to their original cast names as Nomura wanted each character’s story to be linked to each other. As discussed in a previous entry, Aqua is ultimately responsible for Kairi’s journey. And Voila!
7 Add Tortured To Her Resumé
Though the Kingdom Hearts series has a very complex story, his environment settings are very much appealing to the children, greatly due to the Disney franchise. The series is usually rated E for Everyone in the ESRB ratings and even Kingdom Hearts producer claims he had to edit some features in order not to depict too much negativity in the game. However, this state of mind is less prevalent in the manga series.
In the Kingdom Hearts II manga, Kairi is held captive by the Organisation XIII. In an attempt to lure Sora, Saix summons two Berserker Nobodies and orders them to attack Kairi’s cell in order for her to yell for help to lure Sora. Though Kairi is visibly injured (she even bleeds a bit), she remains stoic throughout the short scene.
6 Kairi Is The GOAT Friend Everyone Should Have.
One of the Kingdom Hearts series’ main themes is friendship. Although Sora and Riku are the main embodiments of this concept, the real “Most Valuable Friend” award goes to Kairi.
For instance, Kairi is the only main character in the series to speak with minor character Selphie Tilmitt in Kingdom Hearts II. Further proof of her social skill is demonstrated in Kingdom Hearts II manga. When Kairi lands on Twilight Town. She is greeted by Hayner and his crew. While she casually engages with them, Organisation XIII member Vexen secretly stalks her and praises her ability to easily be friends with people she just met and even compares himself to her, saying he would have taken “5 years to get their trust.” We raise our glass to every Kairi that we know.
5 Don’t Mess With Kairi The Brawler
Long before SquareEnix and Disney collaboration, PlayStation veterans were playing the Square/Namco joint game, Ehrgeiz: God Bless The Ring. For any 2K babies reading this entry, this 3D fighting game pits two fighters against each other and mostly allows you to fight in a classic mano a mano. Though a few Final Fantasy 7 characters were featured in the game (notably Cloud and Sephiroth), we’d definitely ask Square to consider putting Kairi in a future sequel because she’s definitely the most versatile fighter of the whole Kingdom Hearts universe.
Kairi seems to inflict a fair amount of damage with her knuckles in the Kingdom Hearts II manga. On one occasion, she manages to punch a Dusk Nobody to which the creature seems to agonize a bit. However, her biggest victory seems to be against Organisation XIII’s Demyx. While attempting to recapture her with Nobodies, Kairi lands a punch in his face. Demyx responds by throwing the white flag and dismisses the Nobodies. Looking at it that way, It only took a single knuckle from Kairi to neutralize him while It took a fully armed Sora/Donald/Goofy trio to defeat him…. with five Game Overs included…
4 Destiny This, Destiny That
Whether we can call it faith or bad luck, Kairi hasn’t had the quietest life: she first got attacked by creatures at age 4, got her world destroyed at age 5, lost her heart at age 14, and got kidnapped at age 15. Quite an adventure. But when we link all of these events together, we can’t help but think that destiny is a key theme of Kairi.
First off, Kairi’s meeting with Aqua enabled her the use of using the Keyblade. Then she lands on the “Destiny” Islands to meet with Riku (who is also able to use a Keyblade). On top of it, her Keyblade’s name is Destiny’s Embrace. Traditionally, a Keyblade’s name and form seem to represent the main characteristic of its wielder. Therefore, destiny seems to be a big part of Kairi. We’ll see where her destiny leads her in Kingdom Hearts III.
3 Amnesic Kairi
No matter how unpleasant it may be, the wonderful thing about the act of forgetting is the fact that you can employ it as a credible-yet-predictable excuse to escape certain commitments. Though we all wish to have a Naminé that can change memories, we also have to own responsibilities when “drawing a blank” goes wrong.
So what happens when your favorite Princess forgets a simple information from the biggest memory holder of Kingdom Hearts? Brutal thoughts. If you recall Axel’s motto “Got It Memorized”, he mostly uses his signature line after saying a valuable information. When he opens himself to Kairi about best friend Roxas, she joyfully asks for his name, but Axel reminds her that he told her his name at the beginning of the conversation. The reader then sees Axel talking to himself in order to hold his mental composure. The worst thing is that Naminé was not involved in this little mind slippering…Oh, Kairi…
2 Xion Or Kairi?!
Though Xion is a vital character in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, she hasn’t been heavily featured in the subsequent games of the series. Despite that, she gained an enormous fan cult and is considered the second most popular female of the series, right before veteran character Kairi. Not only do they share the same voice actresses, but they also do look very similar.
It is explained later throughout Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days that Xion was created off Roxas’ artificial memory, by Vexen and Xemnas as part of the Replica Program. Because Roxas doesn’t have any memories of his own due to being a Nobody, her physical appearance is based off Sora’s strong memories of Kairi. Confusing, isn’t it? We don’t blame you at all!
1 Kairi’s As Dead As Fantasy
When Square-Enix and Disney first joined forces, we knew it would’ve been an instant success that would appeal mostly to the casual gamers…. but what if the series were to be coupled with one of the most respected 3D fighting franchise in video games? Then you’d get Dead Fantasy.
Born as a fan project from legendary American animator Monty Oum, Dead Fantasy pits many characters from the Dead or Alive series versus the Final Fantasy series. Although It mainly features the flagship characters of both series, Kairi manages to make a few appearances in the series. Needless to say, she makes a stronger impression than her original counterpart. She can fight with her signature weapon Destiny’s Embrace, but she’s also able to dual-wield Keyblades, as demonstrated in the second episode. Kairi can also change to Naminé in which she adopts Kairi and Penny Polendina ( a character from the RWBY anime series that Oum also created) fighting styles. Sadly, the series stopped following Oum’s death in 2015. Although the series has garnered a strong fanbase, we wish Oum was still alive to continue his chef-d’oeuvre….Rest In Peace.
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/crazy-things-you-didnt-know-about-kairi-from-kingdom-hearts/