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Summary
Some people are normal aboutKingdom Hearts.
Which is why Ive spent hours upon hours reading into its lore.
As it was recentlythe games 20th anniversary, its the perfect time to highlight this.
Specifically, the Japanese pronoun aitsu.
That person being Riku.
I dont want to come across as though Im dismissing Kairis importance to Sora.
Sora also forgets who Kairi is during CoM because of Namine meddling with his memory.
This is where things get a bit complex and the mistranslation of aitsu to her muddles things further.
What Does Aitsu Mean?
As I already mentioned, aitsu is a gender neutral, masculine-leaning pronoun.
Youcoulddo that, but not everyone will be comfortable with it.
For Namine and Kairi, who Sora does like, he generally uses ano ko - never aitsu.
The person Soradoesuse aitsu for is Riku.
Tetsuya Nomura may retire in a few years, but that doesn’t mean Kingdom Hearts needs to end.
We can therefore take what theyre saying as the truth from inside Soras heart.
Tidus and Selphie tease Sora about this aitsu figure.
Youre thinking about aitsu again, arent you?
Soras real obsessed with aitsu.
In English, aitsu in these lines was translated to her.
However, the ambiguity of the original Japanese leaves more room for interpretation.
The memory actually took place between Sora and aitsu.
In English, she tells him, She is your light.
Of course, the audience will immediately take this to mean Kairi.
Who else would it be?
However, in Japanese, she doesnt say she'.
Namine remains gender neutral still.
Instead of aitsu, though, even more nuance with pronouns is used thats lost in translation.
If he recalls this person, hell be able to recover memories deep in darkness.
So, She is your light would more accurately be translated as That person/they are your light.
However, she uses a different pronoun here - ano hito.
Even without the pronoun subtlety though, its clear that Namine is comparing two different situations.
Sora was able to transform the charm back into its true shape because he recalled Kairi.
