Unlike the manga adaptations for the other games, Kingdom Hearts is read from left-to-right, as per Western tradition.
This manga contains examples of:
- Adaptational Personality Change: Kairi's personality is changed to that of a Tsundere in the manga adaptation.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Donald still didn't allow Riku to come with them and argue with Sora about it. After Riku immediately disappears and Sora looks back sad, Donald looks guilty and tries to comfort Sora about it.
- Alien Non-Interference Clause: Donald and The Cheshire Cat get into a philosophical argument about this. Donald explains Mickey Crew’s original “Prime Directive” rule that said they shouldn’t interfere with other worlds. His argument is that because each world's Natural Law is different, introducing Truth from a different world, it could cause everything to disappear in a Puff of Logic. The Cheshire Cat rebuttals that he can see all Truth and sees no contradiction.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- Once Cerberus goes down, Hercules gives the reader an Aside Glance and tells them he'd already worn Cerberus down by the time Sora dropped by to help.note
- When Captain Hook and his crew are losing to the heroes, Smee pulls a Screw This, I'm Outta Here. He turns to the reader and says they'll understand why he's doing this.
- Butt-Monkey: Donald Duck. For instance, while Sora and Goofy eventually manage to fly after being sprinkled with fairy dust, Donald falls every time.
- The Cameo: Olympus Coliseum's tournaments don't get so much as a mention, but Hades fantasies about letting the Titans out of the Underworld using the Keyblade and they briefly appear during his Imagine Spot.
- Captain Crash: Sora's first time as pilot results in him ramming the Gummi Ship into a Meteor near Traverse Town. Donald is completely livid and forbids him from ever piloting it again. Sora does not listen to him...
- Chekhov's Gun: One of the "title screen" pages for Agrabah shows Sora wearing a turban (and it looks very nice on him). Guess what he wears when pretending to be a genie in the next game's manga adaption...
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Halloween Town makes no appearance at all in the manga, despite its massive popularitynote . Strangely however, some of Oogie Boogie's dialog from the Disney villain councils' introduction is kept anyway (his "you're no prize yourself!" quip).
- Early-Bird Cameo: Roxas makes a cameo appearance in the Final Mix translation's bonus chapter, which is based on "Another Side, Another Story".
- Establishing Character Moment: A Soldier Heartless attacking and stealing the heart of a woman in Traverse Town lets you in on their nature.
- Go for the Eye: Sora calls on Battle of the Bengal Tiger while fighting Darkside. This is a frequent tactic with giant enemies in the actual games.
- Happiness Is Mandatory: You gotta smile at all time, as it is the fuel for the Gummi Ship.
- Lampshade Hanging: The irony of having a hard time flying despite being a bird does not escape Donald.Donald: (while looking directly at the reader) Come on! I'm a duck!
- Mood-Swinger: In here, Sora is upset Riku left then happy he's okay and then back to being upset why he left.
- Oh Wait, This Is My Grocery List: Some of the volumes included a set of one-shot comic strips at the end of the volume, generally featuring an amusing twist on something that happened in the main story. One of the ones at the end of the original Volume 3 featured Aerith trying to decode Ansem's Xehanort's Report. "Ansem the Wise... what were you trying to do...? Pork, onion, carrot, potato, shiitake mushroom... Ansem... You like shiitake mushroom in your curry?!"
- Ship Tease: The front cover for chapter 31 ("A Storm, Love, and a New Beginning") ships Sora and Ariel together.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Riku-Ansem stabs Maleficent with the Keyblade created from the Princesses of Heart, but she dies rather than turn into her dragon form.
