Kingdom Hearts (2015 TV series)

Kingdom Hearts (キングダムハーツ Kingudamu Hātsu) is a Japanese-American animated television series based on the video game series of the same name by Square Enix. It was animated and produced in Japan by Madhouse with the partnership of Square Enix. It was first broadcasted in the U.S. on April 1, 2015, by Disney XD. The finale aired on June 28, 2017. Though initially a failure in Japan, the series became popular in the US.

The anime first aired on March 3, 2016, in popular evening slots in Japan on TV Tokyo.

It is succeeded by season two, retitled Kingdom Hearts: Next Generations, which debuted on March 11, 2018.

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 or Heroman.

Also, according to this series' composer, Ryota Yamaguchi, this series was to take in a wider age group and was aimed to also appeal to mid and late teens aged 14 to 19 years. This is why the characters are much older (ranging from early teen to adult, the story is much darker and it is the first season of the anime series.

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 an 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 element gems 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 element gems and the blue core in order to defeat Kurata and Naga, Donald and Goofy to find Mickey, and Sora to find Kairi and Riku.

The Fusion Tenders

 * Mirage (Sora)
 * Donald Duck
 * Goofy
 * Osmosis Jones (Marcus Simpson)
 * Dragonoid (Drago)
 * Kai (Thomas "Tom" Weasley)
 * Skyress
 * Zakuro (Corina Hikaru)
 * Dranzer (Theodore "T.J." Detweiler)
 * Vincenzo (Vincent "Vince" LaSalle)
 * Fetch (Ashley "Ash" Spinelli)
 * Tigrerra
 * Iron Girl (Gretchen Grundler)
 * Gorem
 * El Diablo (Gustav "Gus" Griswald)
 * Wade
 * Preyas
 * Angelo/Diablo
 * Snow Girl (Celia Yamamoto)
 * Ester (Jenny Nocturne)
 * Homura (Shahra)
 * Daichi (Ren Crier)
 * Iron Fist (Keith Lo)
 * Bridget Verdant
 * Joey Lee
 * Wavern
 * Mushu
 * Genie
 * Tinkerbell

Stark Industries

 * Iron Man (Tony Stark)
 * Pepper Potts
 * Commander Cruger
 * Mimi Honjo
 * Megan Yanagida
 * Squall "Leon" Leonhart
 * Yuffie Kisaragi
 * Cid Highwind
 * Merlin
 * Shego (temporarily, turn into good)
 * Lawrence Finnegan "Finn" Whitman
 * Charlene Turner
 * Terry "Donnie" Maybeck
 * Dell Philby
 * Isabella Angelo
 * Dexter Riley
 * Amanda Lockhart
 * Jessica Lockhart
 * Zuko Basco
 * Stan Lee

Antagonists

 * Naga
 * Naga's Gatekeepers
 * Hal-G
 * Kurata Akihiro
 * Bio-Hybrids
 * Masquerade (formerly)
 * Hydranoid (formerly)
 * Ansem, Seeker of Darkness
 * Shadow/Riku (formerly)
 * Omni
 * Orion (Viktor Uvarov)
 * S-Squad Rangers
 * Broodwing
 * Boris Ravencroft
 * Maleficent
 * Jafar
 * Hades
 * Captain Hook
 * Oogie Boogie
 * Ursula
 * Dr. Drakken (Drew Theodore P. Lipsky)
 * A.I.M.

Changes in 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 1-46 aired on Wednesdays, 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 was cancelled on Disney XD after the 46th episode.
 * The English version episodes 47 onward now stream uncut on Hulu.
 * The series began airing in Japan on March 3, 2016.
 * This will be the first Anime collaboration between Square-Enix, Disney and Madhouse.
 * 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-PG-V & TV-PG-LV