Kingdom Hearts II, Volumes 2 and 3, by Shiro Amano wonderfully continue the story from the first volume. These books are fantasy graphic novels/manga based on the popular video game series Kingdom Hearts. These volumes are set in a universe much different than ours. There are many different worlds, and they are all connected by different paths that can only be unlocked in very special scenarios. In these volumes, a large variety of worlds are explored, some of which are disney worlds, such as Beast's Castle, Agrabah, Atlantia, and the others are key story-line ones, Space Paranoids, Hollow Bastion, Twilight Town, and The World That Never Was. The main characters of these books are Sora, Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Riku, Xehanort (and his many forms), and Kairi. Sora, Riku, and Kairi all grew up together on Destiny Islands. Sora is a cheerful, out-going, brave kid. Riku is the solemn, analytical one, who struggles to fight the darkness within. Kairi is a sweetheart, who loves her two best friends dearly and wants nothing more than to be reuinited. Donald, Goofy, and Mickey are all very brave and cheerful characters, although Donald can be quite the grump. Xehanort, and his numerous forms, serves as the main antagonist of the series. In this particular game, Xemnas, his Nobody form, is the primary antagonist, as well as Young Xehanort, his past form. Xemnas created Organization XIII under the guise that he would restore everyone's hearts, however, the true purpose was to find 13 perfect vessels for Xehanort's soul.
Volume 2 picks up right after the first book, where Sora and his company are going on their adventure and chasing after Organization XIII and trying to thwart their plans to take over the world. They go along, visiting numerous Disney-themed worlds, defeating Heartless and Nobodies, thinking they're helping out everyone. In reality, they're being used as pawns to help complete Kingdom Hearts. Unbeknowst to the group, Kairi was kidnapped by Axel, a member of Organization XIII, during their adventure.. She was taken to the Organization's stronghold in The World That Never Was, and was intended to be used as bait for Sora. This is where Volume 3 begins. The group carries on, unaware of Kairi's situation, and they visit Hollow Bastion again. They end up discovering an old study. This study was thought to have belonged to Xehanort, but it was actually Ansem the Wise's study. After the group fiddled around with various things in this study, they found a secret doorway that opened up to a massive laboratory. This laboratory was what was originally used to study the Heartless. When the group came to a computer, they saw it talked about something called a Door to Darkness, and they were curious and wanted to know more. After some tampering, they managed to get themselves trapped in a computer world called Space Paranoids. They make their way through this world, and they help out a program named Tron and eventually gain access to the Door to Darkness, which reveals a great amount of information to the party. Unfortunately, after they get all of this figured out, Hollow Bastion is attacked by both the leader of the Heartless, Maleficient, and the leader of the Nobodies, Xemnas. This clash leads into something called The Battle of 1000 Heartless, where everyone is working together to fight off hoards upon hoards of Heartless. After the battle, within Sora, memories from another person are awakened due to intervention by Axel. Sora's Nobody, Roxas, is "waking up" within him. This is where Volume 3 ends.
I personally was not too fond of Volume 2, but I enjoyed Volume 3 quite a lot. Volume 2 had some pacing issues that made it a little annoying to read, and I dislike how rushed the progression through the Disney worlds was. I am glad that one of my favorite characters, Axel, was allowed a much larger part than he originally was supposed to have. As for Volume 3, I especially enjoyed how they played out having Kairi in The World That Never Was, because they added more comedy to it and made it more light-hearted and enjoyable. I also liked The Battle of 1000 Heartless, because they made sure to show everyone and continue to add key plot points throughout the scene. The target audience for these books is considered all ages, but I think that anyone from the age of 12 and up would be able to grasp the concepts handled in this series.