Danica Davidson
May 21, 2024 
2002 saw the release of “Simple and Clean,” the English theme song for Kingdom Hearts. Now, in 2024, it’s been re-recorded by singer/songwriter and producer Hikaru Utada. It was co-produced by A.G. Cook.
The song is launching on the same day that Square Enix announced that Kingdom Hearts will be premiering on Steam in less than a month, on June 13. Soon you can get Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX (Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded), Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue (Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD, Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-, Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover), Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind DLC, and Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece (which is all the aforementioned games bundled together). A trailer was dropped for this news, and in it you can hear the new version of “Simple and Clean.”
Since Utada wrote and produced theme songs for the games in the Kingdom Hearts franchise, it seems appropriate this would be the singer to bring back for the re-recording. Utada was also behind the theme song “One Last Kiss” for EVANGELION:3.0+1.0 THRICE UPON A TIME.
Square Enix Games gave this description of Kingdom Hearts:
Surely everyone’s heard of KINGDOM HEARTS – it’s been around since 2002. Well, just in case…
Imagine if you took some of the most popular Disney and Pixar characters of all time, and some of the most popular FINAL FANTASY characters of all time and smashed them together, like a kid playing with action figures.
Then add in amazing original characters, a sprawling story and a generous sprinkle of Tetsuya Nomura magic, and what you get is an incredible action-RPG series that’s quite unlike any other series out there.
That’s KINGDOM HEARTS.
Source: Press release, Square Enix
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
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