
Square Enix’s highly anticipated new game Kingdom Hearts III is set to release in America on January 29th. However, the game has already released in Japan, and numerous hardcore fans to fly to Japan just to buy the game a few days early. This influx of Kingdom Hearts diehards has led to Japan Airlines banning all passengers from carrying keyblades and Kingdom Hearts-related paraphernalia.
Japan Airlines President Akasaka Yuji explained to shareholders that although they understand a segment of their customer base will be upset by this new ban, the company is committed to the safety and comfort of all passages, regardless of keyblade warrior status. While Kingdom Hearts fans have been vocal about the potential issue Nobody and Heartless incidents on their flights, Japan Airlines is more concerned with the numerous flowmotion and drive-form related complaints they have received.
The ban and its surrounding complications are nothing new for Japan Airlines, who have been frequently criticized over the last decade and half for failing to control the high number of anime-based weaponry being carried by its passengers.
“This has been going on for a long time — from the great blitzball fiasco of 2002 to the ongoing harm caused by card game peripherals,” air safety expert Mujou Yujiro tells Anime Maru. “Shadowrealm-based insurance claims have been doubling year on year since the early 1990’s.”
Mujou says there is still more work to do, as things like gunblades are still completely unrestricted when traveling on a Japanese airline.
“Because it doesn’t qualify fully as a gun or a sword, being an amalgam of both, it gets through on a technicality.”
Why would anyone fly out to Japan to buy Kingdom Hearts III when everyone already knows that Sora seals Xehanort and dies after meeting Kairi?
Thanks! Now I don’t have to Go on a trip anymore? ;_;