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Kite (Japanese: カイト, Hepburn: Kaito), also known as "Kite of the Azure Flame", is a fictional character from CyberConnect2's video game series .hack. Introduced in .hack//Infection (2002), Kite is player character avatar in a fictional massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) known as the "The World". Kite's whose school-friend Yasuhiko, who uses the alias Orca, introduces Kite to The World. When Orca is killed in combat by an unknown enemy, Yashuhiko falls into a coma. Kite forms a team in The World to investigate Orca's case alongside those of other players to whom the same fate befalls after similar encounters. Kite also appears in finale of the series' anime sequel .hack//Sign and in a manga adaptation of the games. Although the teenager behind Kite leaves The World in following games, his avatar was used to create characters who appear in sequels.

Kite was created by CyberConnect2 CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama and writer Kazunori Itō, who aimed to create a character who is immersed in an MMORPG alongside the player. He was designed by artist Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, who was inspired by the manga character Naruto Uzumaki from the manga Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto. Sadamoto aimed to make Kite look like a typical teenager with an interesting outfit. Kite was voiced by Sayaka Aida by in Japanese and Mona Marshall in English; both actors took a liking to the character though Marshall lamented not playing the games.

Critical reception to Kite was positive. Critics enjoyed his role in the story and his heroic traits he displays when trying to save Orca, which players would be able to connect with him. Critics also praised the character's design and abilities. He has been popular within the franchise, ranking highly in a character popularity poll.

Creation and design

CyberConnect2 CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama considered Kite as a relatable character when making the game and wanted the next game to feature a different version of the lead character for .hack//G.U. . CyberConnect2 said Kite had become a popular character following its release. In retrospect, Matsuyama found the original Kite had little personality and wanted to try out another character. Matsuyama described Kite as an enthusiastic hero, saying the main reason he became one was the fate of his friend Yasuhiko. Writer Kazunori Itō stated the concept for .hack was mainly focused on the actions of Kite and Black Rose in The World. As a result, in later projects related with the series, the writers and devlopers shifted the focus onto their personal lives; the staff found the shift challenging because there were more areas to explore. Itō said casting the player into the role of a subscriber to The World creates a unique story-telling situation that draws the player more deeply into the plot. Kite is a friendly character so Itō wanted to write a contrasting, antisocial character for the television series .hack//Sign. Matsuyama described a kind character with no individuality because the player was directly controlling him. As a result, the next character for .hack was Haseo, whose antisocial personality was meant to reflect shonen manga.

Kite is voiced by Sayaka Aida in Japanese and Mona Marshall in English. Aida enjoyed the character and thanked fans of the series for supporting her. When working on the first four games, Aida was intrigued by the appeal of the .hack games since her auditions for the part of Kite. She felt Kite was not the most popular character in the franchise, and that Haseo and Endrance are more appealing heroes. Marshall enjoyed her character, stating she "had lots of levels to play" because Kite displays both a strong and weak personality depending on the situation. She was sad she could not play .hack because she had neither a console nor the time needed to play the games she worked on.

While working for CyberConnect2 in the making of the .hack games, character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto used manga character Naruto Uzumaki as a model for Kite. Shortly afterwards, CyberConnect2 started developing the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja games although Sadamoto recalls he was unaware this fact. One of the most important areas of Kite's design was Kite's hat as Sadamoto aimed to make him unique through it. He also aimed the character look realistic, a trait Sadamoto thought when seeing Naruto. Multiple revisions were done until the artist was satisfied with the appearance of Kite. Sadamoto wanted the design of Kite to be a hint of a high school student controlling the PC, something he revised through his pants. Matsuyama oversaw the making of Kite's design.

Appearances

In .hack

Kite is a Twin blade and the main character of the .hack// series. In .hack//Infection, Kite's friend Orca invites him to play The World. In the first dungeon they visit, they encounter a girl in white, Aura, being chased by a humanoid monster. Aura tries to entrust Orca with an item called "the Book of Twilight", but the monster attacks him, crashing The World's servers. Kite's player discovers that Yasuhiko, Orca's player, has fallen comatose after the attack, and resolves to discover the cause. Soon after, Yasuhiko is placed in a coma by Skeith, and Kite receives the Twilight Bracelet (黄昏の腕輪, Tasogare no Udewa) from Aura, allowing him to Data Drain. Following leads set by Aura, Kite defeats the various Phases and Cubia, the alternate side of the bracelet, destroying the bracelet. Aura eventually gives him a new bracelet called the Dawn Bracelet. The Book of Twilight then activates, altering Kite's character data and giving him the Twilight Bracelet. He uses its Data Drain to correct the swordsman's code, allowing Balmung to kill it. Balmung accuses Kite of causing the viral infection spreading through the game, and leaves. Kite and BlackRose decide to cooperate to help the coma victims. After investigating a number of leads, Kite and BlackRose track down Skeith, the creature that put Orca into a coma. They defeat Skeith, but it transforms into a larger enemy called Cubia, from which they escape. In .hack//Mutation, Kite and BlackRose encounter system administrator Lios, who declares Kite's bracelet to be an illegal hack. He tries to delete Kite's character data, but fails due to Kite's data being encrypted by the Book of Twilight. Aanother Cursed Wave monster called Magus attacks them. They defeat it and return to the Root Town, where they discover that the computer virus has spread to The World's main servers and into the real world.

.hack//Quarantine sees the current server becoming increasingly unstable. To fix the problem, Helba replaces it with a copy of the Net Slum. Meanwhile, Cubia grows stronger, and Kite's team barely fends off its latest attack. In contrast, Operation Orca is a success as they destroy Tarvos, the next Wave monster. Kite seeks the advice of Harald Hoerwick, the creator of the game who survives beyond death through his AI incarnations. Aura appears and hints that Cubia is the "shadow" of Kite's Twilight Bracelet. n their final battle, Kite recalls Aura's hint and has BlackRose destroy the bracelet, causing Cubia to fade away. Without the bracelet, the final Wave member, Corbenik, ambushes the party in Net Slum Root Town. With the aid of the spirits of the coma victims, Kite penetrates Corbenik's barrier. Aura sacrifices herself to end the battle, restoring the network to normal and reviving all the coma victims.

Other appearances

Although not the protagonist, Kite returns in the final original video animation of Bee Train's anime .hack//Sign where he returns to the World to reunite with his friends. An alternate chibi Kite skin is used in the spinoff manga and anime .hack//Legend of the Twilight by the protagonist, a young boy named Shugo. The hack//4Koma manga features a series of omakes where Kite has a rivalry with Haseo regarding who is the best protagonist from the franchise.

In .hack//G.U., the new protagonist Haseo gets a message from BlackRose, indicating that she and Kite finally meet each other offline and that she has feelings for him. In this game, an alternate PC Kite was created under the name of Azure Kite, one of three AIs that Aura had created to destroy the AIDAs. In .hack//Link an artificial intelligence version of the character Kite tasks player Tokio hero and use a tower of the Akashic Records to save the Twilight Knights, a group of artificial intelligence versions of characters based on casts of previous entries in the .hack series. Kite protects Tokio from Flügel's attack, resulting Kite's PC to be frozen but not before he asked Tokio to save them. The developers were inspired by Haseo's Xth form from .hack//G.U. to include a new design for the character.

Outside these games, Kite has appeared in the fighting game .hack//Versus as a playable character as well as the crossovers Project X Zone and Project X Zone 2. He also appears as a bonus character in New World.

Reception

Critical reception to Kite's character has been positive with Meristation liking his premise in the .hack games following the dark date regarding his friend. Siliconera praised how the narrative makes the player connect with Kite who becomes concerned with Orca's comatose s″tate and thus both find a common goal in becoming stronger. This was noted to surpass people's expectations of the game as well as MMOs games in general. Kite not being the fictional character of the series but instead an avatar picked by a teenager was found interesting by GameSpy. Additionally, Kite being concerned by Orca/Yasuhiko was noted to be well writeen by the game's writers as reviewer felt attached to Kite when playing it. Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine agreed calling it "mind-bending premise" as Kite does interesting interaction inside and outside The World. While calling it as an interesting story like other writers, RPGFan stated that Kite's journey did not reach a major point in the first game, making the story lacking. RPGamer stated that while Kite's true form was "average" by storytelling tropes, he changes when his friends go to a coma and thus forms a team to search clues to recover him.

Other comments focused on different areas from Kite with IGN praising Kite's design to the point it was visual's strongest point when compared to the environment, while GameSpy had mixed opinions about Kite recruiting allies including anti-heroic Balmung who did not approve of his actions previous titles from his area. GameSpot noted that despite series lacking innovation across its four titles, Kite's weakened Data-Drain move would appeal to returning players. IGN agreed, commenting on both Kite's Data-Drain as well as how the narrative progressed furthermore in the fourth final installment from the series. RPGFan said that while at first Kite's Data Drain might look appealing, it fails to keep its aesthetics once done through in game graphics. RPGamer regarded the Data Drain as the most interesting moves in the entire game for the concept behind it and the result the player might enjoy.

Upon their addition to the crossover game Project X Zone, GamesRadar found Kite and BlackRose fitting for the game since rather than character archetypes, .hack wrote these pair as realistic teenager skilled at gaming. In early trailers for .hack//G.U. RPGFan believed Kite would return as a non-playable character based on footage shown although the character shown was Azure-Kite, who shared multiple similarities with Kite's design. In the first series' popularity poll, Kite took first place with 2,458 votes. In another poll made in commemoration of the .hack franchise's 10th anniversary Kita was voted as its second most popular character, behind Haseo. In 2017 he was third, behind Endrance and Haseo.

References

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v t e .hack (list of media)
Video games	.hack G.U. Link
Anime and manga	Sign episodes Liminality Legend of the Twilight episodes Roots .hack//G.U.+ Trilogy Quantum The Movie
Other	Characters Haseo Project X Zone Project X Zone 2
Related articles	CyberConnect2 Hiroshi Matsuyama Bandai Bandai Namco Entertainment
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