Nomura Fashion in Kingdom Hearts

Movies and other live action theatrical production most normally have a single person that is in charge of the Costume Design, but videogames and animation do not work the same way. Tetsuya Nomura who is the director of the Kingdom Hearts videogame series is also the creator of the series original characters and he designs their outfits too. In videogames and animation I feel that the costume is not something you put on a character, the costume itself is part of the character creation.

Although there are several characters that are original creation in the Kingdom Hearts series, I will spend this blog post discussing about the evolution of the main character, Sora. This character starts as a young boy in his early teens that resides in a tropical place called The Destiniy Islands.However , Sora ends as a hero of light that travels through worlds in order to fight the dark forces that are plotting to extinguish the light.

This is the evolution that Sora's outfit has gone through in the game installments. 

The first thing that you can appreciate is how as Sora seems to grow older, his costume changes. The clothes that Nomura has designed for his character help the players see how the character is growing not only in age, but also in strength. As Sora's travels and quests develop and grow from game to game, his outfit lets us see how much harder and intense the tasks ahead will be. The costume goes from being a simple beach outfit for a boy, to a complete battle ready adolescent outfit.

My favorite costume design is definitely the third one (Kingdom Hearts II). The design really portrays Sora's youth and playfulness while at the same time making him look older and more battle appropriate. Another important thing is that Sora's journey takes him through many worlds that are part of the Disney Universe. The bright colors and fit of the outfit allow him to look not so out of place in the different worlds he visits.

The last costume that will be featured in the yet to be released Kingdom Hearts III, also has the same evolution treatment, The design still has some bright colors but it is definitely a more sober young adult look to show again that Sora is getting older. However, it still gives him that ready for battle feeling. I like almost everything in this new outfit, except the gloves. Outfits in the past also feature gloves, but this is the first time we see gloves that are that long. Even though the gloves match well the rest of the ensemble, for some reason they look unfinished to me, Other pieces such as the neckline and the shoes look more detailed, which makes the gloves look out of place in my opinion.