Riku

is a fictional character from Square Enix's franchise Kingdom Hearts, debuting in the original 2002 Kingdom Hearts game. Riku is introduced as a teenager who wishes to visit other worlds with his friends Sora and Kairi. After a way to other worlds is opened, Riku meets the evil fairy Maleficent who pits him against Sora, leading to Riku falling to darkness and ultimately being possessed by Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. Riku is freed thanks to Sora and returns as a protagonist in following games. Riku was created and designed by Tetsuya Nomura who wanted him to be a foil for Sora's character and wanted his character arc represent the series' main theme of being able to choose light or darkness. His design and story are in parallel to Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep character Terra. He is voiced by Mamoru Miyano and Eiji Shima in Japanese, while David Gallagher and Ty Panitz voice him in English. Critical response to Riku has been generally positive. David Gallagher's performance of Riku was also praised by the media. Creation and design Kingdom Hearts creator Tetsuya Nomura has stated that Riku's name can be interpreted as "land" (but also means Shore and Continent), since the on'yomi pronunciation of Japanese word for "land" is , similar to how Sora's name is identical to the Japanese word for "sky", . Riku's character represents one of the series' main themes, "the light and the dark sides of hearts," alongside Sora.