JRPG Kingdom Hearts set for world concert tour

Long-running Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) franchise Kingdom Hearts will embark on its first live concert tour in 2017, the series’ developer, Square Enix, has announced.

Kingdom Hearts games feature a mixture of Disney and Square Enix (primarily Final Fantasy) characters and follow protagonists Sora, Goofy and Donald (yes, that Goofy and Donald) as they adventure across Disney-themed worlds and battle enemies including Snow White’s Maleficent, Scrooge McDuck and The Lion King’s Scar. Its music, mostly composed by Yoko Shimomura, has been praised by both video game and music critics.

The Kingdom Hearts Concert world tour will see various local orchestras, including the Tokyo Philharmonic in Japan and the Royal Philharmonic in London, perform music from the series while HD game footage, supervised by Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy game art designer Testuya Nomura, plays behind them. It will premiere at the 5,012-seat Tokyo International Forum Hall A on 10 March 2017 with a concert featuring over 70 musicians.

The show will be produced by Paris-based Wild Faery (La Fée Sauvage), which specialises in concerts of video game, anime and film music, in association with Disney Concerts/The Walt Disney Company (Japan) Ltd. It will also visit venues in Paris, London, Singapore, Shanghai, Los Angeles and New York.

Listen to Shimomura’s ‘Dearly Beloved’, from Kingdom Hearts II, below: