Kairi

**Kairi** (カイリ, *Kairi*), is both a fictional character and one of the main human protagonists from the *Kingdom Hearts* series. She is the original nobody persona of Naminé. Kairi was originally born in Radiant Garden and currently lives on Destiny Islands along with her two best friends, Sora and Riku.

Kairi is also a Princess of Heart, one of seven maidens whose hearts hold no darkness but only pure light, and is needed to open the Final Keyhole to Kingdom Hearts.

"*Don't ever forget. Wherever you go, I'm always with you.*"

—Kairi to Sora.

## Appearance & Biography

*Voice Actor*: Alyson Stoner (English), Risa Uchida (Japanese), Not Known (French), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (German), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Poland), Not Known (Serbian), Nit Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin Spanish)
*Voice Actor (Young)*: Ariel Winter (English), Sumire Moroboshi (Japanese), Not Known (French), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (German), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Poland), Not Known (Serbian), Nit Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin Spanish)

### Appearance

Kairi's appearance shows the most growth with aging of the trio of main characters. Typically Kairi is a beautiful young woman of average stature with brownish-auburn hair, crystal blue/indigo eyes, and pale skin complexion. She is alway seen sporting a necklace with a silver bead, which contains a protective spell on it placed by Aqua, but is only absent when she wears her school uniform. Kairi displays a fondness for pink, white, and purple, wearing it in all of her casual clothing.

### In the Young Days

As a child, her hair is a little longer than it is when she's 14; she wears a white apron-like shirt with blue flowers and a blue line across the chest, a pink skirt with a white line on it and large, white shoes with pink and purple lines on them.

### In Present Time

At age 14, she wears a white top with a black one underneath (the black one shows at her collarbone and at the hem) which slightly exposes her navel, purple biker shorts underneath a purple skirt with a blue belt, and white slip-on shoes with purple caps. She also features a black choker, a yellow wristband as well as a purple arm band on her left arm and a pair of bracelets on her right arm.

### Possible Future

Kairi is taller, her hair is longer and has become a darker shade of auburn, her bangs part to the opposite side, and her body has developed into that of a young woman.

She dons two outfits: her school uniform which features a white shirt of which she has rolled up the sleeves, a sky blue striped tie which she has slightly loosen up, a matching skirt with navy knee-high stockings and black shoes; and then her main outfit which mainly contains a pink strapless mini-dress made up of three zippers (two appear to be just decorative) as well as a white halter top underneath her mini-dress with a black hood. She also sports three bracelets on her left wrist, a black belt reminiscent of suspenders with a note book shaped bag attachment, and lilac sneakers with black laces.

* Hair Color: Auburn
* Skin Color: Not Known
* Eye Color: Crystal Blue/Indigo
* Age: Not Known
* Birthday: Not Known
* Height: Not Known
* Weight: Not Known

## Personality

Kairi is caring, kindhearted and brave. She is determined and courageous when someone she cares about is in danger, as she always puts herself in harm's way to help Sora when he's in trouble despite the dangers. Kairi's heart is said to be filled only with pure light and goodness, despite darkness and evil residing in almost every heart. Kairi's good heart filled with pure light helped lead Sora back to his true form when he was consumed by the Heartless, and led Sora and Riku back to Destiny Islands when they were trapped in the Realm of Darkness after their battle with Xemnas.

Kairi is also very charismatic, quickly befriending Hayner, Pence, and Olette in Twilight Town before being kidnapped by Axel. She's usually always very cheerful and upbeat. Although she has no ability to defend herself in combat like Sora and Riku, she is very brave and strong willed and will put herself in danger anyway to help her friends. Unfortunately, this sometimes results in her needing rescuing by Sora. Near the end, she finally obtains a Keyblade of her own given to her by Riku and helps Sora and Riku fight against the Organization. She is currently assigned under Master Yen Sid to begin training with her Keyblade.

In contrast to Sora and Riku, who were both bothered by not knowing about Kairi's hometown, she took it in stride and was able to look at the positives about living in the Destiny Islands. She is loyal, and she can be rather stubborn sometimes.

While the bond of friendship between Sora, Riku, and Kairi is very strong, Sora and Kairi seem to be particularly close to one another. This is evidenced by the fact that Kairi was proven to be the most special person in Sora's heart, and that their bond was strong enough for Kairi to recognize Sora in heartless form.

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* Sora
* Riku
* Wakka
* Tidus
* Selphie
* Lea
* Roxas
* Naminé
* Aqua
* Ansem the Wise
* Hayner
* Pence
* Olette
* numerous Disney characters
	+ King Mickey
	+ Donald Duck
	+ Goofy
	+ Pluto
	+ Yen Sid

### Enemies

* Organization XIII
	+ Saix
* Ansem, Seeker of Darkness
* Heartless
* Nobodies
* Unversed
* Xehanort

## Powers and Abilities

As a Princess of Heart, Kairi won't succumb to darkness so easily and her heart possesses none of such within it. If her heart is lost, her body will remain in a dormant state until the heart is returned, making her one of the few beings who cannot become a Heartless. Besides this primary trait, Kairi inherently possesses other abilities to some degree, such as being able to open the Final Keyhole when she and the other Princesses are gathered and the ability to sense darkness.

In combat, Kairi's abilities are limited. However, when she touched Aqua's Keyblade when she was younger, Kairi inherited the ability to wield the Keyblade. She demonstrates this in *Kingdom Hearts II* when Riku hands her a Keyblade of her own, allowing her to protect herself from the Heartless without any help. She is shown to be fairly competent with it, and is later brought into training with Master Yen Sid to become stronger for the impending batter with Master Xehanort.

## Etymology

Kairi's name is been derived from the Japanese word for "**sea**" (海, *Kai*), though however, her full name is more homophonous with the word for "**nautical mile**" (海里, *Kairi*).

## External links

* Kairi *Wikipedia*
* Kairi *Kingdom Hearts Wiki*
* Kairi *Kingdom Hearts Wiki, the Kingdom Hearts encyclopedia*

## Notes & Trivia

* Kairi is considered by many as the first Disney Princess to originate from a video game. She has been considered to be an unofficial Disney Princess, and she is an unofficial member of the Disney Princess franchise.
* The secret ending of *Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance* hints that Kairi will be a Guardian of Light (and with her doubling as a Guardian and a Princess, that would make 13 beings of light in total (the other 6 Princesses and the other 6 Guardian) which would be an even match against Master Xehanort's 13 darknesses). However, Nomura has stated that players will be surprised by who the lights are, meaning the revelation could be a double bluff.
* Kairi's English voice actress Hayden Panettiere has jokingly said that she wishes she had Kairi's body.
* Her four-year old self is voiced by Ariel Winter, who'd later voice another unoffical Disney Princess, Sofia the First.
* In Kingdom Hearts II, before Luxord's battle, in the cutscene you see Sora and the gang as well as Kairi running, you only see the four running then Kairi appears out of nowhere, which is just a simple glitch.