The True Meaning of Kingdom Hearts.

Kingdom Hearts is a game series with a reputation for being emotionally riveting, but what is it actually about?

The first Kingdom Hearts is probably just a bit more than a story about light against darkness.  It’s a story about what these things are in the human heart, and what people are already saying about them.

Let’s take time period into context, shall we?

2002, the year of the first Kingdom Hearts’ release date, was in development during 2000 and 2001, which was when a series of socio-political controversies were on the rise, particularly ones related to Japanese nationalism.  As Kingdom Hearts was probably primarily in development around 2000 and 2001, these were probably fresh in Nomura’s mind as he worked on the game.

Around 2000 and 2001, the Tsukuru-kai were on the rise, pushing for textbook reform to include a more nationalistic narrative denying Nanking.

What does this have to do with Kingdom Hearts?

How about “everything”?

Let’s start with the Hearts: In Japanese, “heart” is something that means “inner spirit”, and to have this corrupted would be to live as a monster.  The Heartless are not merely malevolent, but live a zombie-like existence of constant assimilation, similar to the authoritarian ideology of the Tsukuru-kai.  To be Heartless is to be without free will.

Even the name “Ansem” sounds a bit like a Japanese mispronounciation of “anthem”, which neatly fits this story about how authoritarian ideologies are used to push people in dangerous directions.

“Darkness is the heart’s true essence” is Ansem’s argument, and it’s a common argument used by authoritarian philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes to justify totalitarian rule, the argument often being that humanity is so irredeemably evil that it needs a total rule, or that it’s acceptable when a ruler does evil things because that’s just what all people are supposed to be like.

Sora, however, counters this, saying that all hearts have a tiny bit of a light that “never goes out”.  Basically, this is to suggest that Sora believes that it's not pointless to think freely and live independently.

It’s probably no coincidence that it seemingly learns more from Pinocchio than really almost any other Disney movie; the Heartless were people, many of them likely children, turned into abominations by giving into their primal darknesses, just as the Pleasure Island victims were boys turned into donkeys after giving into their ids.  They are thus rendered in a hyperemotional state that makes them far more easy to control from vile forces such as Ansem.  Dr. Jordan Peterson even emphasizes, in his lectures on Pinocchio, that tyrants like to keep people in emotionally juvenile states, because it makes them easier to control, one thinks of the high emphasis on excessively negative emotions in Nazi Germany.

Then, after KH II, the Kingdom Hearts games became everyday psychological thrillers.

Then, after Birth by Sleep, it because “friendship lessons”.

But hey, even these "friendship lessons" became filled with good material!