Utada’s Kingdom Hearts Music Videos Getting 4K Restoration

Oliver Brandt
·2 min read
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Kingdom Hearts opening Riku

The Kingdom Hearts series is as well known for its music as it is for its off-the-wall storytelling and strange crossover properties, but despite Yoko Shimomura’s heavy lifting as the series’ lead composer, there is one other musician responsible for Kingdom Hearts’ signature sound: Utada Hikaru, often known as just Utada.

Utada – who uses both they/them and she/her pronouns – is responsible for the opening themes for the entire Kingdom Hearts series, with Simple and Clean being the theme for Kingdom Hearts and many of its side games and Sanctuary in Kingdom Hearts 2 and a handful more side games. They also contributed both the opening theme, Face My Fears, and the closing theme, Don’t Think Twice, to Kingdom Hearts 3.

Of course, Utada is a fantastic musician in their own right, and lately their music videos have been getting remastered in 4K, and two iconic Kingdom Hearts songs are next on the list. The first of these videos is for Hikari, the Japanese version of Simple and Clean. The song will premiere on YouTube on March 24, although depending on your time zone, it may be on March 23 instead. We’ve embedded the premiere link below.

The second video to be remastered is Passion, the Japanese version of Sanctuary. It’s due to be released on March 30, 2024, although again it’s worth noting that depending on your time zone, that may be March 29 instead. Once again, we’ve embedded the premiere link below.

The remastered videos are all part of the leadup to the release of Science Fiction, a compilation album of Utada’s greatest hits, all of which have been re-recorded specifically for the album. The videos use the original audio, but their 4K remastering has been very good, as seen with the video for Addicted To You. Like other 4K restorations and remasters in recent years, these remasters seem to have been scanned from the original film used to shoot the videos, and then re-edited to match the original.

Science Fiction will be released on April 10, 2024.

Related: 10 Disney Worlds We’d Love To See In Kingdom Hearts 4