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Sayaka Kanda, the Japanese voice actress of Anna in Disney's Frozen and Kingdom Hearts III, has passed away today following a fall from the 14th floor of her hotel in Sapporo. She was initially unconscious after the fall but then passed away in a hospital. Japanese authorities are still investigating the cause of death. She was 35 years old at the time of her passing. Kanda was also known for her voice work as Kaede Akamatsu in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, Mana Nagase in Idoly Pride, and much more. Rest in peace, Sayaka Kanda, and your talented career will be forever remembered. Credit to KH13 community member DisneyXPixarfan95 for sharing this news with us. View full article

Actress and singer Sayaka Kanda who provides the Japanese voice of Anna from Disney's 2013 animated film Frozen, including it's 2019 sequel Frozen II and in the video game Kingdom Hearts III has passed away today at the age of 35. She was discovered lying on the 14th floor patio of a hotel in Sapporo at about 12:55 p.m. on Saturday. According to The Yomiuri Shimbun paper's source, she was taken unconscious to a hospital, and pronounced dead there at 9:40 p.m. She was 35 at the time of her passing. Sayaka Kanda was born on October 1, 1986 in Tokyo as the daughter of actor Masaki Kanda and singer Seiko Matsuda. She made her professional entertainment debut by appearing in a commercial in 2001. In addition of voicing Anna in various projects for Disney, Kanda also starred as Shioji in Air Bound, Mana Nagase in Idoly Pride, Teresa in Star Blazers 2202, and Yuna in Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale and Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld Part 2 Rest in peace Sayaka Kanda and thank you for providing the Japanese voice of Princess Anna of Arendelle.

Square Enix has announced on their site that the Japanese voice actor for Olaf, Pierre Taki, will be replaced in a future update for Kingdom Hearts III. Taki was recently arrested with using cocaine. Disney has already announced they are looking for a replacement for Olaf for the Japanese release of Frozen 2, which is set to release later this year. His replacement and a date for the update patch has yet to be announced. The patch will only be for the Japanese version of Kingdom Hearts III. View full article

The official Kingdom Hearts account has been releasing short 10-second videos for each Disney world in Kingdom Hearts III to promote the game in the last days before its international release. In the past three days, they have published promos for The Caribbean, Arendelle, and Toy Box, showcasing the worlds and their music. You can see each one below. Previously, they also published short promotional videos for Kingdom of Corona, San Fransokyo, Olympus, and Monstropolis. Kingdom Hearts III's international release has already started, with countries like Australia and New Zealand who have already crossed over to January 29! Less than 15 hours remain until it is available worldwide. Follow our master coverage of Kingdom Hearts III and stay up to date with the latest news via our Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Discord! Latest news: - With Kingdom Hearts III and Update 1.01 now pre-downloading on consoles, here’s how the release is going around the world - Memory Archive recap videos have been uploaded to Kingdom Hearts Youtube channel - Kingdom Hearts VR Experience Review View full article

The worlds of Pirates of the Caribbean, Frozen, and Tangled were recently previewed by IGN as a hands-off demo by the Kingdom Hearts III co-director Tai Yasue. Jonathon Dornbush has published his impressions on the preview of these worlds, giving insight into new gameplay elements from the worlds. Below are some highlights from his review; they do not include any story-related spoilers. The Caribbean Jonathon described The Caribbean (he calls it Port Royal in the article) as a "mini Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag" and "one of the most intriguing Kingdom Hearts levels yet" due to its impressive levels of exploration. He talks of the many explorable islands that provide an incredible treasure hunting experience, which extends to beneath the sea. All means of travel - on air, water, land - and transitions in the world has been described as seamless. Underwater travel is also more agile than past games in the series, and in air, you can jump from one Heartless to the next freely. Combat styles change from world to world. Goofy's special bombardier attack involves him being swallowed whole by a sandworm Heartless in this world, only to attack from within. Magic attacks such as Blizzard, Thunder, and Water behave differently underwater. The fish in the sea can be brought back to Remy in Scrooge McDuck's restaurant in Twilight Town. Arendelle Jonathon briefly described a boss battle in this world. You can read about it in the spoiler box below. Yasue said that the development team collaborated with the Frozen team to design enemies true to the style of the world. The Heartless in Arendelle, which behave differently in air and land, were described by Jonathon to have a similar scope of entertainment as boss battles. Yasue showed one of the first sledding experiences in Arendelle, which branched off to numerous paths and offered many treasures. Jonathon commented that it felt a bit too lengthy. Kingdom of Corona Rapunzel's character and personality have been blended into the gameplay of this world. Scenes involving Rapunzel's wonder for the outside world can be triggered by, for instance, casting Aero on surrounding dandelions. Following Rapunzel as she wanders off by herself to a nearby lake will also trigger an interaction. Yasue said that activating these triggers are part of building up Rapunzel's trust in Sora. Following Rapunzel will also lead to combat scenarios and finding treasures. Jonathon commented that Corona's fights become "a crazy ballet of oversized household items swiping through the air and Disney characters hurling themselves at baddies." Some enemies in this world had armor to break through first instead of HP, and others had human-like appearances, showing a great deal of variety to be expected in enemy design. Did you enjoy our highlights? Then you will enjoy Jonathon's full review of these demos even more! View full article

Today marks another day down on Kingdom Hearts III's countdown! Each day until January 25, director Tetsuya Nomura is making an announcement. Today, he said that this announcement was difficult but was eventually decided by the staff: a Kingdom Hearts III launch campaign will be held at Square Enix Cafe Tokyo and Osaka and ARTNIA! He accompanied this announcement with an animated short of Frozen, which you can view below. The background music sounds to be the field music for Arendelle. For screenshots from the short Frozen video, click here. The Kingdom Hearts III cafe release celebration campaigns will be divided into three periods: February 2 - February 24 February 25 - March 19 March 20 - April 12 During this time, the cafes' menus will be replaced with a Kingdom Hearts themes one! They are currently finalizing the menu. Exclusive merchandise will also be available for purchase. Diners will receive a themed luncheon mat as a gift, and if you order a drink, you can also receive a themed coaster; these are both parts of the overall Kingdom Hearts interior theme of the cafes. You can view the samples in the album below: Online reservations for the first phase of the campaign will start on January 26, 2019, at 12 PM JST. Square Enix Cafe Tokyo will accept reservations here; click here for the Osaka branch event page. ARTNIA will take reservations via a lottery system and will be available exclusively to Square Enix Members (free registration) from January 23, 2019. Reservations via the lottery will take place twice for the first phase, and once for the second and third phases each. They will begin at 12 PM on the lottery start days to 11:59 PM JST on the last days. The dates are as listed below: 1st phase (February 2 - February 8): lottery will take place between January 23 - January 27. Winners will be notified on January 31. 1st phase (February 9 - February 24): lottery will take place between January 23 - January 28. Winners will be notified on February 5. 2nd phase: lottery will take place between February 7 - February 12. Winners will be notified on February 20. 3rd phase: lottery will take place between March 1 - March 7. Winners will be notified on March 15. Back in 2017, a Kingdom Hearts 15th Anniversary campaign was held at the Square Enix Cafe Tokyo and Osaka and ARTNIA. Tetsuya Nomura, along with other members of the Kingdom Hearts III production team, were also present. For a blast from the past, take a look at it here! View full article

Welcome to KH13’s trailer analysis for the “Together” trailer. From the start this trailer is the most unique one released, as it forgoes the traditional format of Kingdom Hearts III trailers in favor of one more reminiscent of movie trailers, including: a voice over narrator, dramatic cuts, and sound effects specifically to dramatize the events shown. The sound effects from the official game can also be hear in this new trailer, a change from the previous trailer formats as well. Aside from the format change, this trailer mixes in a limited amount of new scenes along with mostly previously seen cutscenes. Very little gameplay was shown. Now that the uniqueness of the trailer has been stated, let’s dive in. The trailer starts with the Kingdom Hearts III rating provided by the ESRB: It is rated E10+ for alcohol reference and fantasy violence. The full description they released for their rating can be viewed here, but do be warned: it includes minor spoilers for some as far as what type of violence to expect. The trailer then opens with the narrator saying, “Our worlds are under attack” while showing several scenes of Sora in the Kingdom of Corona, a group of flying Heartless flying to multiple ships in the Pirates of the Caribbean world, then flaming Heartless, that seem to be Flame Cores from 0.2 Birth by Sleep - A fragmentary passage, destroying the Thebes in the Olympus Coliseum world. The narrator goes on to say, “Only you can stand against the darkness” while showing a big Heartless previously seen in other worlds, but this time in San Fransokyo Bridge going against Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Baymax. Then Hades appears ordering the the Titans to show their power but only the Rock Titan. It then shows it throwing down the boulder like the beginning of the Rock Titan demo that has been available at multiple conventions. The narrator says, “Now the battle between light and dark..” as Riku and Mickey appear in the Realm of Darkness beach, but then suddenly surrounded by Shadows. To then show Sora (in his KH2 attire), Donald, and Goofy, meeting Maleficent and Pete in Thebes as the narrator says, “to reach its epic conclusion.” Arendelle is shown. Donald and Goofy is shown fighting Soldier Heartless, then previously shown footage of Elsa defeating the new deer Heartless. New footage is then shown of Sora, Donald, and Goofy running somewhere in the Caribbean, where Jack Sparrow catches up to them while saying hi to them. Sora exclaims, “Jack Sparrow!” Jack stops running to correct them and to call him Captain Jack Sparrow. A brief Frozen cutscene is shown again. This time having our trio landing onto Goofy’s shield to do some sledding. New Tangled cutscenes appear. First showing Flynn Rider being chased by a small group of Heartless. Rapunzel runs up to Sora ready to fight with her hair wrapped like rope in her arms, declaring that she is not afraid to fight. Very briefly a limit is shown where Rapunzel and Flynn swinging Sora, Donald, and Goofy in Rapunzel’s hair onto a group of enemies where the three individually cause a decently sized ground pound explosion. Note: there is no command menu present and the trio glow as they are about to land and explode. The red flaming dinosaur Heartless then appears in front of the Toy Box gang, followed by the Aliens from Toy Story exclaiming, “Oh no” in a typical movie trailer style cut. Footage of the Black Pearl then Jack Sparrow appear, followed by Hiro from Big Hero 6 appearing with the his group and our heroes exclaiming that, “Together we’re unstoppable!” This is where most likely the title of the trailer came to be. Sora then is shown fighting against a previously seen Heartless from the bridge in San Fransokyo but this time in the city area. Monsters Inc. footage is shown having the gang running away from the destruction of the building they are in, followed by Randall, the villain from Monsters Inc. appearing. More Frozen footage showing Marshmallow getting angry at Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf. Olaf tells the two to run as he will provide the distraction. Note: Olaf’s body is stuck to a snow covered boulder, making Olaf appear as if he cannot move. Pirate Sora manning the Jack Sparrow’s ship, the Black Pearl in the Caribbean and firing cannons. Sora summoning Ralph in what seems like Kingdom of Corona. The narrator begins again saying, “For life... and light... together we fight.” as a rapid number of shots appear. Baymax and Sora flying in the San Fransokyo night, Flynn and Rapunzel with their lanterns along with a shot of all the lanterns in the Kingdom of Corona to the backdrop of that world’s castle, and Sora summoning Ariel in Arrendel. The Kingdom Hearts III logo appears followed by the scene of the new Organization 13 in the Keyblade Graveyard all together at first but then Master Xehanort is on top of a rising pillar, smiling down onto us, with mysterious music. Minus the mysterious music, this cutscene was first shown in the previous Winnie the Pooh trailer. Overall, this was an exciting trailer mostly due to the format change. The movie trailer format this takes is reminiscent of early 2000s trailers. If you have seen any trailers from those years, the formula is rather predictable, but in this case it is exciting. Hearing in-game sound effects was a welcome addition. The way the dialogue was cut was also interesting compared previous trailers. It was brief and felt more as it would in-game. Link to the trailer here! What are your thoughts on the new format this trailer used? Nomura has stated that more trailers are going to be released in December. Would you like them to use this format or the Don’t Think Twice style? Let us know and also tell us if we missed anything! For future trailer analysis stay tuned! View full article

The Kingdom Hearts Perfect Book that was released on December 28th features an interview with Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura. We are currently translating the book and will report once we have translated. An excerpt from the interview has been translated already by @aitaikimochii about Nomura's stance on the story. You can read it below. UPDATE [Dec 30, 2018]: The full interview is now available thanks to translations by NihonScribe, Solis, and Mio-chan. The interview features Japanese actress and idol Haru talking about her history as a fan of the series and her favorite aspects of it, as well as featuring Nomura talking about the future of the series, how Frozen was included in the game and even about the story beyond Kingdom Hearts III. You can also take a look at some scans from the Perfect Book towards the end of the article, thanks to KH13 use @Iarumas ! What do you think about the future of the Kingdom Hearts series? Let us know in the comments below! View full article

D23, the Official Disney Fan Club, have recently published the Winter 2018 issue of their Disney Twenty Three magazine. Therein is a special Kingdom Hearts III feature, including enlightening comments by director Tetsuya Nomura, as well as the Disney and Pixar representatives who have worked with Square Enix on the game! The magazine is exclusive to D23 Gold Members. Fansite Kingdom Hearts Destiny have published the feature in its entirety in French on their website. Thanks to this, we have paraphrased the interesting comments around the production of the new Disney and Pixar worlds in Kingdom Hearts III. You can read them below. Jason Katz, Story Supervisor at Pixar Animation Studios, had never played a Kingdom Hearts game when he was first approached to work with Square Enix on Kingdom Hearts III. It was Tasha Sounart (Associate Creative Director for Disney Theme Parks and now Kingdom Hearts III consultant) who introduced it to him. Katz didn't comprehend the popularity of the series when he first worked on it - this was until he saw the fans' extreme reactions of appreciation at KH3's D23 Expo 2017 presentation. The feature also recalled series director Tetsuya Nomura's comment about how it has been his heartfelt wish for a long time to have Pixar worlds in Kingdom Hearts. Katz said that the collaboration between Square Enix and Pixar went wonderfully and that Square Enix perfectly delivered Pixar's stories. He said that Pixar nudged them in the right direction and guided them where appropriate. Sounart said that Pixar were involved at every stage: scripts; storyboards, scenes, and character design. As the heart of Toy Story is nostalgia, Katz said that they were interested in the Square Enix development team sharing with them the memories of their childhood toys. In regards to the Infinity Badge Keyblade, this was also a collaboration between Pixar and Square Enix to capture the essence of the Toy Story movies. Sounart explained that they really wanted to reflect Buzz and Woody in the design, describing how items like the sheriff badge and rocket form a perfect design. One thing the Pixar team wanted from the beginning was the alien toy as the Keyring. The Pixar team thought meticulously about where the Kingdom Hearts III arc would canonically fit into the Toy Story timeline to ensure continuity. A question they had to answer to fans and to themselves was, "Why didn't any Toy Story characters mention meeting Sora in the movies?" Katz went as far as to have many exchanges where he stressed the importance of the two types of wallpaper you can see in Andy's Room in the series: the cloud wallpaper in his old house in the first movie, and the stars wallpaper in his new room after his family moves into their new home. As Kingdom Hearts III takes place between Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 while Andy is still young (although it was originally meant to take place right after the first movie before that idea was scrapped), Katz said the stars wallpaper in the game was non-negotiable: "It's nerdy, but still very important for us." Pixar is known to include many Easter Eggs in their movies, and Kingdom Hearts III is no exception. Sounart said, "Keep an eye out for the Pizza Planet truck!" In regards to Monsters, Inc., Sounart said that most monsters do not have a nose, so Sora in his monster design doesn't either. Sully is one of the few monsters to have a nose. There were many other details to consider, such as how would Sora, Donald, and Goofy's clothes be incorporated into the world. Their final designs was another perfect amalgamation between Kingdom Hearts and Monsters, Inc.. Unlike Toy Box with Galaxy Toys, the Kingdom Hearts III world of Monstropolis showcases a location from the movies, the Monsters, Inc. factory. Katz pointed out that in the movies, we really only see the scare floor, the door vault, and the main entrance. In Kingdom Hearts III, there will be an opportunity to see what the basement and the are behind where they store the doors look like, along with visiting the sets shown in the film. Peter Del Vecho, producer of Frozen, said that due to the movie's popularity and huge fanbase, it was only natural for it to meet Kingdom Hearts. Del Vecho said that Square Enix did not only want to make a great game, but they also wanted to make Disney proud. Square Enix was determined to adapt the Disney phenomenon that is Frozen into a Kingdom Hearts world from the very beginning. Del Vecho was impressed in their desire to get fully immersed in the process with overseeing animation, layout, and even some camera movements. Del Vecho's team was amazed at how closely they matched the animation. Del Vecho said that there are many Frozen fans that wanted to continue the adventure in the movies, and now they will have the opportunity to take it home with them. As Elsa interacts with Kingdom Hearts III characters that were not in the movie, Del Vecho would like fans to thus take part in a new storyline by playing Kingdom Hearts III. Katz said that the more he lives the world of Kingdom Hearts, the more he appreciates how fans have welcomed its characters. Because of this, he feels lucky to be able to create art for a living (and bring Kingdom Hearts III's art to life). He finds it incredible that he got to play a small role in a series that so many people have been playing their whole life. A similar feeling about Kingdom Hearts' longevity is shared by Nomura himself, who commented, "I do feel the love towards Kingdom Hearts from all the fans. But I also feel with the passing of time that there are more team members were fans of Kingdom Hearts even before joining the team. It is wonderful to know that we have people on the production side that love the series, as well." The feature concludes by remarking that as Kingdom Hearts' fan base is so important that even the creators are fans, it must be something special, and that, ultimately, that is the same message shared by the Disney stories; Nomura agrees, "I see a kindness in those Disney stories that resonates with everyone. " You can read more statements made by Tasha Sounart and Jason Katz on working on Kingdom Hearts III here. UPDATE [Dec 3, 2018]: Fan Edward Munoz has kindly provided us with scans from the whole Kingdom Hearts III feature in the magazine! You can read the scans in the album below. View full article

Who's your favorite Frozen character?

What's Your Favorite 'Frozen' Song?

What KH3 world looks the most fun so far? So far, I'm going Monsters Inc. I just live Sora's monster form!

Who’ll be the villains/bosses of the Frozen world?

Must...save...wallet

What, how, why? How dare you?

Winter is coming!

A brand new trailer for Kingdom Hearts III, has been released during Microsoft’s E3 presentation! After much anticipation after the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra - World Tour in Los Angeles last night, Microsoft was thrilled to announce that Kingdom Hearts would be coming to Xbox One for the first time before delivering the trailer. Kingdom Hearts III will release January 29th, 2019 in North America and Europe and January 25th, 2019 in Japan! As seen in the trailer above, Anna, Elsa, and friends were shown for the first time, revealing a Frozen themed world for the new game. The trailer also included a cast of characters including first time appearance of Simba who was previously a character and summon in both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II! This is also our first time getting a look at Larxene in the new Kingdom Hearts III engine, featuring in the Frozen world. This was one of many surprises, including an appearance of Aqua at the end of the trailer plagued with yellow Xehanort eyes! Are you excited for this fully-loaded trailer? Let us know in the comments below and don’t forget! Follow us at our coverage here, Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter! Click here to view the article