Kingdom Hearts (2015 TV series)

Kingdom Hearts (キングダムハーツ Kingudamu Hātsu) is a Japanese-American anime television series based on the video game series of the same name by Square Enix. It was animated and produced by Madhouse and Marvel Animation with the partnership of Square Enix.

It was first broadcasted in the U.S. on April 5, 2015, by Disney Channel. Official English dubbed episodes can be found on Hulu, though only available within the United States thus far. Though initially a failure in Japan, the series became popular in the US.

The series took on more radical changes for the character designs ditching the style animation always used previously in favor of more traditional animation similar to Marvel Anime: Iron Man, Supernatural: The Anime Series or Heroman.

Also, according to this series' composer, Adam Berry, this series was to take in a wider age group and was aimed to also appeal to early teens and late teens aged 13 to 19 years. This is why the characters are much older (ranging from teenagers to young adult), the story is much darker.

Plot synopsis
In the year 2003, it is the last day of school before the summer break, Sora and his two best friends, Riku and Kairi seek to leave their homes to explore new worlds and have prepared a raft for this purpose. One night, the islands are attacked by darkness and shadow creatures. Sora seeks out his friends, finding Riku first; Riku disappears into darkness, curious about what it contains. Soon after, Sora obtains a mysterious weapon, the Keyblade, to defend himself. Using it to fend off the creatures, he heads for a secret cave, where he finds Kairi near a door. She turns to him, saying his name as the door behind her blows open. The ensuing blast of darkness sends Sora and Kairi both out of the cave. The islands are soon destroyed, and Sora is left adrift, Riku and Kairi's whereabouts unknown. Meanwhile, King Mickey has left his world to deal with the increasing power of darkness and left instructions for mage Donald Duck and knight Goofy to find the "key". Donald and Goofy use a Gummi Ship to travel to a parallel universe, where it happens Sora has also drifted to. Sora encounters the creatures again in Shibuya, Tokyo, and eventually meets Leon, a mysterious swordsman who explains they are Heartless, creatures that consume hearts, and that the Keyblade is the only weapon capable of defeating them and Tony Stark aka Iron Man, a CEO of Stark Industries who also explains a team called the Fusion Tenders about a rogue dragon called Naga was tempted and decided to take the red and blue core and 6 Infinity Stones to rule of both Vestroia and the Earth alongside with Hal G and Kurata Akihiro. The king of Leon's homeworld, a man named Ansem, is said to have studied the Heartless. Donald and Goofy are approached by Tony's assistant, Pepper Potts, who also tells them what they may be looking for. Soon after, Sora meets the Tenders, Donald and Goofy rather hastily, and they take down a large Heartless, members of A.I.M. and Dr. Drakken but he got away. From there, they decide to work together: the Tenders to find the Infinity Stones and the blue core in order to defeat Kurata and Naga, Donald and Goofy to find Mickey, and Sora to find Kairi and Riku.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy have been asleep for 3 years, regaining their memories. When Sora awakens, he eventually arrives in Twilight Town, the place where a mysterious boy, Roxas, lived before he suddenly left. Gaining new clothes and powers, Sora continues his quest by unlocking paths to new worlds, learning of Nobodies and fighting the Heartless, as well as facing the remaining members of the mysterious Organization XIII. Meanwhile, the mysterious disappearance of Tony Stark makes a 17-year old Theodore Detweiler put the Omnitrix back on, as well as forcing him to search and locate Tony. At the same time, he must enlist the help of the S.H.I.E.L.D. kids (children or grandchildren of retired S.H.I.E.L.D. which are commonly half human and half conduit), retired members of the Fusion Tenders and repel attacks from a new enemy, the Highbreed.

The Fusion Tenders

 * Ace (Sora)
 * Donald Duck
 * Goofy
 * Shadow (Riku)
 * King Mickey
 * Osmosis Jones (Marcus Simpson)
 * Dragonoid (Drago)
 * Kai (Thomas "Tom" Weasley)
 * Skyress
 * Tomoe (Corina Hikaru)
 * Dranzer (Theodore "T.J." Detweiler)
 * Vincenzo (Vincent "Vince" LaSalle)
 * Madame Fist (Ashley "Ash" Spinelli)
 * Tigrerra
 * Rescue (Gretchen Grundler)
 * Gorem
 * Nebulator (Gustav "Gus" Griswald)
 * Wade
 * Preyas
 * Angelo/Diablo
 * Snow Girl (Celia Yamamoto)
 * Sparrow (Jenny Nocturne)
 * Homura (Shahra)
 * Daichi (Ren Takachiho)
 * Iron Fist (Keith Lo)
 * Dexter Riley
 * Bridget Verdant
 * Joey Lee
 * Wavern
 * Mushu
 * Genie
 * Tinkerbell

Stark Industries/Supervisors

 * Iron Man (Tony Stark)
 * Pepper Potts
 * Commander Folsom
 * Zadavia
 * Merlin
 * Shego (temporarily, turn into good)
 * The Kingdom Rangers
 * Stan Lee

The Doom Beings/Organization XIII

 * Naga
 * Hal-G
 * Kurata Akihiro
 * Xehanort
 * Masquerade (formerly)
 * Hydranoid (formerly)
 * Maleficent
 * Pete

Cast
Some members from the original cast of Disney and Marvel Anime returned to reprise their roles; a name in italics indicates a returning actor.

Episodes
Main article: List of Kingdom Hearts episodes 

Changes in the American version
The English staffs had made changes to the episodes when it was aired internationally. The following are:
 * Localization of names such as Masaru Shinpuson to Marcus Simpson and Phoenix to Skyress, among others.


 * Replacing Japanese BGM (composed by Takayuki Negishi) with the English version
 * When the dubbed episodes 1-39 aired on Sundays, on Disney XD, they were edited and censored for blood, language, violence, and reference to death is removed until the airing on Hulu.

Trivia

 * The show has been moved to Hulu after the 39th episode.
 * The English version episode 40 onwards now stream uncut on Hulu.
 * This will be the first Anime collaboration between Square-Enix, Disney, and Marvel.
 * Like the game series, most US Disney voices have reprised their roles.
 * Most non-Disney characters have reprised for their roles with some exceptions (for example being both Haley Joel Osment and David Gallagher due to their busy schedules).
 * These series are rated: TV-G; later TV-PG-V
 * The show's animation is the same as Iron Man: Rise of Technovore.