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About
キングダムハーツ
|| › Kingdom Hearts ‹ ||
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¤The; Añt¡-Hëro•‹
Name: Riku
Age: 16
Location: Destiny Islands
Hair Colour: Silvery Blue
Eye Colour: Emerald Green
Best Friends: Sora & Kairi
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Name: Riku
Age: 16
Location: Destiny Islands
Hair Colour: Silvery Blue
Eye Colour: Emerald Green
Best Friends: Sora & Kairi
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¤Updates•‹
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ONCE UPON A TIME.
Riku is a character in the video game series Kingdom Hearts. He is the main character's (Sora) best friend, but as one soon learns in the first game, he's not exactly on the same side. Alas, he is not the big bad villian. An antagonist for some time, perhaps, but most definitely not the main one. He uses a variety of weapons, but his main choice ends up being a sword called Soul Eater. His element is usually darkness, though eventually he ends up using light as well. By the end of Kingdom Hearts II, he loses all of his dark powers, and is left with only light. He's currently slated to return in the next title.
THE SIMPLEST BREAKDOWN.
Name: Riku
Age: 15 (KH), 16 (KHII)
Element: Dark/light
Eyes: Greenish blue
Hair: Bluish silver
Race: Human
Official Blurbs
Kingdom Hearts: "Riku is Sora's best friend. He may seem cool and collected for his age, but he is far from the quiet type. Always curious about the unknown, he begins to question the small, closed world in which he lives."
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories: "A fifteen-year-old boy who is best friends with Sora and Kairi. Mature for his age, Riku is cool and collected. To save the world, he chose to remain in the realm of darkness."
Kingdom Hearts II: No information is given.
HIS BODY.
Let's start at the top! His hair is a gorgeous bluish silver, and he's got it perfectly spiked down. It's exact shade tends to vary from FMV to concept art to 3D renders. He has piercing blue eyes behind those shiny locks of hair. Moving on down, he's well-built, as if you couldn't tell from the biceps. Overall he has a thin, healthy figure (read: muscles, baby) with really good posture.
CLOSET - TAKE ME APART.
Riku has gone through a grand total of seven outfits to date (two of which are pseudo, but shh). His earliest one is shown in flashbacks of his childhood. He has a yellow sleeveless shirt with blue borders and a small zipper, complete with a pimp collar. Showing off muscles before he even has any. What a kid, I tell ya. He's also got two wristbands with the same color scheme. It seems his active lifestyle is deeply rooted in him. Alas, here come the amazingly trendy yet questionable black shorts. They go way past his knees, which makes us happy because boys wearing "short shorts" is slightly less than pleasing to the eyes. Yet he chose black. Boy, what were you thinking? You live on tropical islands where it's sunny practically every day! Ouch. The final thing he's got is a pair of blue and white shoes that have black soles and blue tags on the back. Makes you wonder if they were meant to be sneakers and the artists were just too lazy to render that kind of detail.
Here comes the regular outfit for the first game. Riku really upgraded his attire from back in the day. He's still sporting that yellow sleeveless shirt with a collar, but he has black borders with thin white inner borders. Oh my, we're getting complicated already. He has a vertical white stripe down the middle, but it's partially covered by two criss-crossing black pieces that have more white borders and a button on each end. And as if that isn't enough for one piece of his outfit, the entire back of his shirt is black, save for the mirrored criss-crossing pieces. He has two black wristbands, and two black gloves with white borders. Now get ready for a bumpy ride, because his pants are still a mystery to me. It's unclear whether he's wearing dark blue shorts or pants underneath those billowing bright blue (uh.. we'll just go with pants for now) pants, but I believe they're shorts, and you'll soon see why. He has a black belt, which presumably is attached to the white-bordered black pieces that connect to his pants. They have vertical black stripes down each leg, and they're held down tightly by two black belts on each ankle. His sneakers are now almost-real sneakers, with the reversed base colors of blue and white, black and grey soles, and yellow string-like things on the sides that connect to the two black straps. I don't think it's a matter of Riku being able to tie his shoes or not, it's definitely far more convenient to just slap on two pieces of velcro than to worry about tripping over laces and retying them. Wow. Makes you wonder if he got the whole thing specially tailored.
The next outfit arrives when Riku gets sucked into the darkness. All traces of the happy yellow color are gone, woe. He now wears a black & blue skin-tight full-body suit with a scale-like texture, which fades into red at his hands and brandishes a heartless logo on his chest. It also covers his entire neck. Collars are fine, but are they trying to choke him now? Geez. Moving on, his fingers and palms are covered by bright blue gloves. He also has three blue belts, two of which are criss-crossed to hold together what appears to be an off-white withering-wing-like frontless skirt. We assure you that Riku is not himself at this time, and that the one to blame for this strange addition to his wardrobe is none other than the game's creator. As we move along down, we can see two blue knee guards that meet up with the black & blue knee-high boots. ...Poor Riku.
Here come the two pseudo outfits I mentioned. They're just the previous two outfits in pixel form, for that lovely little game called Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Riku normally wears the regular outfit, but the magical appearance of dress spheres allows him to sport his dark outfit while in Dark Mode.
At the end of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Riku decides he wants to steal a cool black hooded trenchcoat. And so he walks out of Castle Oblivion wearing this zippered cloak. It's difficult to see all the details, but there's a chain-like apparatus across the neck, and two silver things hanging at the ends of each hood string. This thing is full-sleeved, and equipped with matching black gloves and shoes. They're rarely seen, but he's actually wearing black pants. He also adds a black blindfold to the set. It's certain, though, that he isn't wearing a shirt underneath. Oh my.
As Riku pulls out another invisible dress sphere, and his shirtless cloak combo from above magically transforms into another complicated outfit. His first layer is a black vest with silver borders along the zipper, which he leaves slightly unzipped on the top and bottom. The second layer is a white vest which is completely unzipped, and folds over to reveal a yellow interior, two slits, and several buttons. It also has a yellow border on the bottom, followed by an inner blue border. There are light lined patterns throughout as well. He has a white arm warmer on his left hand. Then comes the blingin' black and silver belt. Riku is back to being the king of fashion, ladies. Below, he wears baggy blue pants with two huge light pockets. And on his feet, he's finally got some normal gray and white sneakers, complete with black stripes and yellow laces.
SACRIFCE - RISK IT ALL.
Riku first appears to us as cool, calm, and collected. From the first encounter, not including the opening sequence, we can deduce that he gets his work done on time. He's not one to slack off, unlike his other buddies. He's definitely a hard worker, but that doesn't mean he doesn't know how to have fun. He's always up for a fight or a race. Half the time he's the one doing the challenging because he loves to tease others.
Riku loves exploring unknown and possibly dangerous places. His curiousity is boundless, and is further amplified when Kairi arrives on the Destiny Islands from another world. He begins to ponder what lies beyond the world they live in. Though he may be pensive, he's far from the cold, distant type. As mentioned earlier, he pokes fun at his friends, especially Sora, to show that he cares about them.
Riku is the quite likely the most selfless person in the game. In the first installment, he lets himself be consumed by darkness in order to save Kairi. In the next major one, he gives up his physical form so he can continue using dark powers, all in an effort to help Sora. If risking eternal solitude in darkness doesn't qualify you for being selfless, I don't know what does. As long as his friends are safe, he doesn't care what happens to himself. He's the type of person that would die without any regrets to save a loved one.
A PAOPU AWAY.
As you can probably tell just by looking at him, Riku is in very good physical shape. He tones his muscles by lifting around logs and other heavy objects, as Sora and Kairi are the resident bums of the island and are therefore far too lazy to help out. Riku also spars with Sora, and we can assume that he probably spars with the other trio (Wakka, Tidus, and Selphie) as well. He goes for the occasional run down the beach, with his friends sometimes joining in. According to just about everyone there, Riku is the toughest guy, and he's got a pretty long winning streak with those fights. Alas, the effort of hard work does pay off. ...Or maybe it's just his raw natural talent.
Now we know how he gets his exercise, but one knows that health also comprises of nutrition. Due to the fact that he lives on an island surrounded by water, we can assume he has fish in his diet. Fish are very healthy for you, and supposedly they increase your brainpower. Either Sora doesn't eat fish or his head is so dense they've got effect on him. Along with that I'd say he eats a plentiful amount of fruits from all those trees. With a healthy diet and lots of exercise, it's no wonder that he's in such great shape.
MUSIC TO MY EARS.
In the Japanese version of the games, Riku is voiced by Miyano Mamoru. In the North American version, he is voiced by David Gallagher.
Name: Miyano Mamoru
Birthdate: June 8, 1983
Hometown: Saitama, Japan
Other Notable Voice Roles: Kiba (Wolf's Rain), Tamaki (Ouran Koukou Host Club), Raito (Death Note)
Name: David Gallagher
Birthdate: February 9, 1985
Hometown: Queens, New York City
Other Notable Voice Roles: Seiji (Mimi wo Sumaseba)
WAVES CRASHING - A PLACE TO RETURN TO.
Riku lives on the Destiny Islands, a group of tropical islands in an unknown ocean. We're not sure exactly where his house is, but it's probably one of the many little ones that dot the other island. The regular island — the one where all the cool kids hang out — is where you can usually find him. His favorite spot happens to be on this palm tree that's curved in such a way that it's practically horizontal. From there he likes to gaze out at the sea and ponder the meaning of life. Alright, maybe not that last part, but he does do a lot of thinking there.
When Riku leaves the islands, he stays in Hollow Bastion. There, he has his own bedroom, courtesy of the neighborhood witch Maleficent. In Reverse/Rebirth, we can catch a glimpse of what was in this room. It's confirmed to contain a wooden desk, chair, and a shelf, which stores numerous books. Whether Riku actually reads them is a mystery. Now it's not visible, but I think we can all safely assume that there actually is some type of bed in the room.
For some time in Kingdom Hearts II, he stays with Ansem the Wise in the Basement of Twilight Town's Old Mansion. However, since he has completely immersed himself in darkness by that point, he can warp in and out as he pleases. Therefore, we generally have no idea where he stays throughout that game.
MYSTERY WE CAN ALL IMAGINE.
Sadly, we know close to nothing about Riku's family. The only thing we can assume is that he at least has parents. He mentioned them very briefly in the first game when he said, "Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back." Judging from the fact that he wasn't been home in about two years, he probably wasn't very close with his family. Hopefully Square-Enix will go into this further with the upcoming titles. You know you're wondering where he got those genes from.
THE LAND - WHERE DISASTER REIGNS.
Riku, in Japanese, means land/shore or agony of separation. Let's take the first meaning. Riku loves sitting by the shore and looking out to the sea. Imagine the water coming up onto the sand. The water can easily alter the shape of the sand, similar to the way Maleficent and Ansem manipulated Riku. This may be stretching it, but the water also makes the sand on the shore darker, which relates to the darkness in Riku's heart.
Agony of separation is simple enough to understand. Riku goes through tremendous pain to try and save Kairi. He sacrifices himself to the darkness. In the end, he is separated from her once again. Although it could just be his separation from his friends, both Sora and Kairi.
HIKARI - PERSONIFICATION GALORE.
REALTIONSHIPS - RIVALRY FOR THE THRONE.
When Sora first realizes he is on the beach, he sees Riku standing in shallow water, looking out to the horizon. Before he can call out to him, Sora sees the water receding, and a wave forming in front of Riku. Riku senses that Sora is there, so he tilts his head down and to the side, pauses briefly, then proceeds to turn around and face him. He extends his hand towards Sora, as if asking him to go with him. Sora is more concerned with the wave that is about to fall on Riku, and immediately begins running towards him. He reaches out to him, but Riku disappears. Sora is now tumbling underwater. When he looks up he sees Riku "standing" there looking back at him. Riku holds out his hand once more, and Sora struggles to fight against the torrents so he can reach him, but he ends up flowing back with them.
Now let's take a deeper look. The events that occur in Sora's dream parallel those that occur later in the game. First off, we know that Riku wants to travel to other worlds out there, and he constantly looks out to the horizon for that reason. When the Destiny Islands world is flooded with heartless, Sora is wary of leaving, but Riku wants to go. He says is not afraid of the darkness, and asks Sora to come with him. This relates to the part in Sora's dream when Riku first extends his hand. Sora goes after him, meaning he travels out to the other worlds. Riku's disappearance in the dream signifies his separation from Sora. Both have no idea where the other is.
Sora's underwater tumble represents his journey through the other worlds. Riku's presence signifies that the two have encountered each other in a few of those worlds. Again, Riku asks Sora to join him, and although Sora wants to get his friend back, the torrent, representing light, prevents him from doing so. Riku is in the hands of evil, and Sora realizes that, so the water pushes him away until Riku is no longer in his sight.
ANYTHING FOR THE PRINCESS.
Kairi is one of Riku's closest friends. They first met when she came to the islands at a young age. She is the reason that Riku started thinking about other worlds. His curiosity arose from the fact that she came from a different place, one that no one had seen before. He even thanks her in the first game, saying that he never would have thought about leaving if it weren't for her.
They are most definitely friends, but they have different feelings towards each other. Although Kairi wants him to return in the second game, she knows that Riku can take care of himself. Riku, on the other hand, worried for her so much in the first game that he went and sacrificed himself to the darkness to get her back. That might just be in his nature though. In any case, it's certain that they remain to be close friends. In the second game, Riku allows her take off his hood to reveal his secret — that he has taken on the appearance of Ansem. Later on, she stops him from leaving, and tells Sora who he really is. Had it not been for her interference, the trio might not have been truly reunited at all.
There's certainly a bit of symbolism behind these two. If we take Kairi to represent the sea, and Riku to represent the land, then Kairi & Riku are actually closer than either are to Sora, the sky. It's kind of ironic how those two are always the ones looking after Sora, but Sora is the sky that watches over them. I guess their shared bond would be that they're both the hero's backup crew. If Sora needs help, they go and aid him as much as they can, just like the scene in Kingdom Hearts II where Kairi uses a Keyblade to fight off Heartless alongside Riku.
When Sora first realizes he is on the beach, he sees Riku standing in shallow water, looking out to the horizon. Before he can call out to him, Sora sees the water receding, and a wave forming in front of Riku. Riku senses that Sora is there, so he tilts his head down and to the side, pauses briefly, then proceeds to turn around and face him. He extends his hand towards Sora, as if asking him to go with him. Sora is more concerned with the wave that is about to fall on Riku, and immediately begins running towards him. He reaches out to him, but Riku disappears. Sora is now tumbling underwater. When he looks up he sees Riku "standing" there looking back at him. Riku holds out his hand once more, and Sora struggles to fight against the torrents so he can reach him, but he ends up flowing back with them.
Now let's take a deeper look. The events that occur in Sora's dream parallel those that occur later in the game. First off, we know that Riku wants to travel to other worlds out there, and he constantly looks out to the horizon for that reason. When the Destiny Islands world is flooded with heartless, Sora is wary of leaving, but Riku wants to go. He says is not afraid of the darkness, and asks Sora to come with him. This relates to the part in Sora's dream when Riku first extends his hand. Sora goes after him, meaning he travels out to the other worlds. Riku's disappearance in the dream signifies his separation from Sora. Both have no idea where the other is.
Sora's underwater tumble represents his journey through the other worlds. Riku's presence signifies that the two have encountered each other in a few of those worlds. Again, Riku asks Sora to join him, and although Sora wants to get his friend back, the torrent, representing light, prevents him from doing so. Riku is in the hands of evil, and Sora realizes that, so the water pushes him away until Riku is no longer in his sight.
COPY - YOU CAN'T DO WHAT I CAN DO.
Riku and his Replica do not get along very well. The Replica insists that he is better than the real Riku because he isn't afraid of anything. At first he denies being a fake, but later he admits it and blames it on Riku. His goal is to kill the real one in order to become more "original." In the end, he is defeated by Riku, and he fades away
WITCH - THE ONLY LEAD.
From the beginning, it's very obvious that Riku does not trust Maleficent at all. He knows she has some ulterior motive for helping him out, but because he can see no other way to rescue Kairi, he cooperates with her. Using her manipulative ways, she tempts him with dark powers, and he accepts them because he thinks they will help him bring Kairi back. His only purpose is to save Kairi; he cares for nothing else. He is using Maleficent just as she is using him. In the end, after Maleficent is defeated by Sora & Co., Riku-Ansem stabs her with his Keyblade, turning her into a dragon. She is defeated once again by Sora & Co., and that is the end of her... or so we think.
She returns in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories as part of both Sora's and Riku's memories. She tries her hand at tempting Riku again, but he defeats her. Then in Kingdom Hearts II, she unexpectedly returns with a new accomplice at her side — Pete. However, she no longer has any interest in Riku, so they don't interact much at all.
CONNECTIONS - IT'S GOOD TO KNOW ROYALITY.
Riku first encounters our beloved mouse King at the end of Kingdom Hearts, when both are stuck in the realm of darkness. All we know about their interaction at that point is that together they helped seal the door. In the next game, the two get separated, and Riku ends up in the basement of Castle Oblivion. While going through his memories, Riku encounters Ansem once again. The evil menace continually tries to convince him that darkness is the way to go, but Mickey comes to the rescue several times. Although the King only projected an image of himself there until he found Castle Oblivion, he was able to chime in words of encouragement that made it possible for Riku to successfully resist the darkness and Ansem. At the end the King admits that he's curious about Riku's powers since they include both light and darkness. With that, they walk onwards side by side.
In Kingdom Hearts II, Riku leaves Mickey's side because he needed to deal with the Ansem in his heart on his own. They meet again after Riku has immersed himself in darkness and taken on the appearance of Ansem. Riku makes Mickey promise him that he won't tell Sora & Co. about what has happened to him. Later, Riku does some rescuing for a change and prevents Mickey from rushing over to the self-destructing cannon of doom that Ansem the Wise created and blew up with. At the end, the two enjoy a joyous reunion on the Destiny Islands.
DESTORY - ANYTHING IN YOUR WAY.
His first weapon in the game is.. *drum rolls* a wooden sword! Yes, both he and Sora had one of those back on Destiny Islands. It was a simple wooden sword, so there's not much to be said, except that Riku totally pwned Sora.
In Kingdom Hearts, Riku was supposed to be the Keyblade master. Since his heart fell to darkness, he did not have the chance to wield the keyblade except for a brief segment of the game. Instead he became accustomed to the nameless artificial Keyblade that was created using the hearts of the seven Princesses. It has the power to unlock a person's heart. It's black & red, and the edge forms the shape of a heart. Needless to say, it symbolizes darkness. This keyblade is destroyed when Sora uses it on himself to free the hearts of the seven Princesses.
Henceforth, Riku's main weapon of choice is the Soul Eater, a sword whose blade is curiously shaped like a dark wing. There is also what appears to be a blue eyeball near the hilt. The wing's colors are red and blue, which I believe to be symbolic. Blue may represent the sky & the sea, meaning Sora & Kairi if you pick out the references in their names. Red may symbolize love, as in the love for his friends. Therefore the wing is what Riku desires -- to be with his friends. Yet it is but a wing, and Riku knows not how to fly. He may have been an angel at one point, but all that remains is a single dark wing. He simply keeps his friends in mind to continue fighting. Symbolically they are by his side all the time, even if he is all alone now. As for the blue eye, it seems to be sort of evil eye. Perhaps it represents that Riku is always being watched by darkness, or rather, Ansem himself.
Way to the Dawn is the name of Riku's keyblade, which he acquires later on in Kingdom Hearts II, after he has banished his dark powers for good. The name may sound familiar since his last words in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories were "The road to dawn." Now this makes his weapon's name significant. It refers to his path, which lies inbetween the darkness and the light. Also, since the term "dawn" is used, we see a reference to the sky — Sora. Sora, in turn, represents light, as that is the element of his powers. Therefore Riku's keyblade is the way to the light. This makes sense because at the time that he gets his keyblade, he has abandoned all of his dark powers, and is left with only light. As for its appearance, it looks exactly like Soul Eater except for a few additions. The Heartless emblem makes up the key chain at the end, symbolizing his connection to Ansem, the seeker of darkness. The dark wing and light wing each make up half of the side handles. Lastly, a white wing is added towards the tip of the blade. Now again with the symbolism. The new light wing now balances out the dark wing, giving Riku a complete set. Physically the keyblade portrays light and darkness, both of which Riku was able to wield.
FIGHT - WITH ALL YOU'VE GOT.
In the awesome pixelated game that is Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, there exists a part in which you can play as Riku. In battle, he can go into Dark Mode to use his dark powers. Certain combos can be performed during this time:
Dark Break - Jump up and slash downwards 5 times.
Dark Firaga - Homing fireball.
Dark Aura - Teleport around & attack, followed by explosions. Yes folks, this is the same attack he used on Sora in Kingdom Hearts.
Last but certainly not the least, Riku can call upon the help of his good friend the King to perform:
MM Miracle - Restores HP & stuns/damages all enemies
SILVER TONGUE - oh the wittiness.
Kingdom Hearts
"I've always wondered why we're here on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one? And suppose there are other worlds... Then ours is just a little piece of something much greater. So we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?"
"I'm not afraid of the darkness!"
"It's up to me. Only the Keyblade master can open the secret door and change the world."
"Take care of her." (to Sora)
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
"I turned to darkness because my heart was weak. I hate that weakness. It's like I'm my own enemy."
"What happened to you? You're all...fuzzy." (to Mickey)
"Sorry, riddles aren't my thing. Try making some sense." (to Vexen)
"I never thought I'd miss the island winds so much... Funny — there was a time I couldn't wait to get off this rock. And now I'm acting all relieved."
"What's with you guys? I don't think I've EVER seen the three of you so quiet." (to Wakka, Tidus, & Selphie)
Kingdom Hearts II
"It's best he doesn't know the truth." (about Roxas)
"I've waited, and now I want to know. What is it that you want?" (to DiZ)
"I'm no one — just a castaway from the darkness."
"I didn't want you to find me." (to Sora)
"Once we go through, there's no turning back. It's victory... or oblivion."
"If the world is made of light and darkness... We'll be the darkness."
"At least the waves sound the same."
"I wished I could live life the way you do. Just following my heart." (to Sora)
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