Kingdom Hearts

I bought this shirt on my first trip to Japan. I had been searching for a shirt like this for a really long time.
Every time that I've been to Japan it has been with my good friend Moke. We went scouring all over character goods, apparel and video game shops. The search spanned from Akihabara to Den-Den town. While walking though one of many many shops I spotted this shirt on a hangar way on the top of a bookcase. It didn't look like it was really for sale or if it even had a price tag on it but I asked -in poor Japanese- how much it was and if they could get it down for me. They didn't know what I was talking about so I had to go over to it and point and they got a ladder to get it down and told me it was about $30 US -  ¥2500 . Truthfully, I was ready to spend up to about $50-60 on it and was glad to get it for as much as I did.
I love Square Enix shirts. Especially Japanese designed ones -the US ones are kind of shitty because it feels like they have strict licencing restrictions-. They're rare, very patiently designed and usually expensive, a winning combination. This one was a home run, white on black, a Japanese large, and from one of my favorite video games. My only problem with the quality is the ink: since the lines are so thin and small it is breaking quickly. I feel like the pigment has a limited number of uses/washes left on it before it starts looking really crappy. Because of this effect I try to only wear it in special situations.
The front is very subtle; all it has is the Kingdom crown above the words "Kingdom Hearts", the entire layout is only about an inch and a half by half an inch. The design is based on the game Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories which was originally released on the Game Boy Advance and was so popular it got ported to the PlayStation 2. Instead of a real time combat system this iteration of the game uses cards to determine your physical attacks and magic. These cards are featured on the back with the characters: Sora, King Mickey, Goofy, Donald, Riku, and Kairi. Behind the cards it has the quote:

"Thinking of you, wherever you are.
We pray for our sorrows to end,
and hope that our hearts will blend.
Now I will step forward to realize this wish.
And who knows:
starting a new journey may not so hard
or maybe it has already begun.
There are many worlds,
but they share the same sky-
one sky, one destiny."

 As I said, I only like to get this out on auspicious occasions. A Kingdom Hearts launch party, meeting someone special who is really into Kingdom Hearts, I think I even wore this in Japan -though in hindsight that doesn't make much sense since it wouldn't even be that rare there-. I choose to wear this among fans because it can be better appreciated with an educated audience. It is a rare piece of Kingdom Hearts merchandise and people who know the franchise probably have sought out apparel and have never seen this particular shirt. I suppose I'm just trying to make myself feel better by making them envious.

I once wore this shirt to an interview. So to start off, I totally didn't get the job, and this could have been part of the reason why, lol. It was an interview for a game tester position at Atlus in Irvine. They're a Japanese game company and their US offices publish their titles stateside. To be fair, I did wear this with a snazzy blazer. So, buttoned up it was just a black shirt and you could see the little crown and the words "Kingdom Hearts". I figured that they would appreciate the reference, even if it was for a competing company... I had almost the same interview and game test at Square Enix and got that job so I don't know, maybe it was just a  bad wardrobe issue.