Sora (Kingdom Hearts)

Sora (Japanese: ソラ) is a character and the main protagonist of Disney and Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts video game series. Introduced in the first Kingdom Hearts game in 2002, Sora is portrayed as a cheerful teenager who lives on the Destiny Islands and has been best friends with Riku and Kairi since childhood. While planning to leave on a journey to see other worlds, they are separated after creatures known as the Heartless destroy the Islands, with Sora obtaining a weapon called the Keyblade. Donald Duck and Goofy recruit him in their journey across various worlds in search of their king, Mickey Mouse, while Sora searches for his friends; along the way, the trio protects the worlds they visit from the Heartless and other villains. Sora was initially designed by Kingdom Hearts series director and character designer Tetsuya Nomura during a discussion between Disney and Square about who the series's protagonist should be. Wanting an original character, Nomura made various sketches of Sora until the design met the approval of Disney. Throughout the series, Sora has been voiced by Haley Joel Osment in English and Miyu Irino in Japanese. For his depiction as a child in the prequel Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Sora was voiced by Luke Manriquez and Takuto Yoshinaga in English and Japanese, respectively. Sora has made supporting appearances in other games from the series and reprised his role in manga and light novel adaptations of the games. Sora's character has received a generally positive critical response due to his warm personality and adventurous spirit. His personal and martial growth in the series has also received praise, especially in his appearance in Kingdom Hearts II. He was added to Nintendo's fighting video game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a downloadable fighter and revealed to be the most requested fighter to appear in the Super Smash Bros. series.