Disney and Japan’s relationship thanks to Kingdom Hearts

As one of the most beloved games of all time, Kingdom Hearts is a perfect crossover between Disney’s characters and Squaresoft’s Final Fantasy series. As a crossover between the two, the series serves as a blend of American and Japanese culture. The complementary nature of these distinct cultures becomes a factor in the game’s characters and storytelling, as well as how they affected their fanbase. 

During its initial development, Squaresoft approached Disney with the idea in order to compete with the recent release of Mario 64. The initial plan was to make a heroic character who could serve an iconic status such as Mario, so the plan was to make Mickey Mouse or even Donald Duck the protagonist. The companies couldn’t agree on who the protagonist should be, so it was up to Tetsuya Nomura, lead director of the series, to step in and design a brand new character with Disney elements in mind. After many redesigns, the protagonist, Sora, was made. After much more work, the first game in the series was released in 2002 for Playstation. The game met critical acclaim and financial success. In the following decades, the series spawned many sequels, merchandise, light novels and spinoffs, however the creation of the game wasn’t so simple. Because of cultural differences between America and Japan, there were challenges in translation; the game needed to appeal to both demographics. Translation issues came from getting the licensing to both the English and Japanese voice actors for all the Disney characters. Some of the issues came “in-game.” For example, when Sora arrives in Tarzan's world, Jane is surprised to see Sora can speak English. However, this wouldn't make sense in Japan since everyone speaks Japanese, so a simple change was made. 

There was also symbolism from the perspective of the audience between both countries. In America, when kids see Sora and his friends on the secluded island they lived in, they witness the paradise of island life and growing up with friends. This perspective is here since we mostly live on a large landmass. However, for a Japanese kid that lives on a set of islands, they would relate more to Sora and his friends' desire to leave the island.
Although the initial idea of combining Disney with Final Fantasy seemed weird, it worked out in their favor. Disney already had a worldwide audience, so reaching out to Japan wasn’t hard. Final Fantasy was a Japanese game that was already popular overseas, but Kingdom Hearts definitely helped introduce more American fans to the series.