Zelda Manga: Scanlations of The Adventure of Link by Yuu Mishouzaki

After all these years the translation is finally complete! Find them here

These were translated by Jamie/Soupdragon90 and I've attached an image of their credits and translation notes to help explain more. (Flickr won't let me upload text files)

Title: The Adventure of Link

Artist: Yuu Mishouzaki

Publisher & ISBN Info: ISBN4-7966-0191-0 by JICC

First Published Date: 1991/9/15

Approx Length: 203 pages

This was started by Glitterberri for her site

Vol 1, LoZ: www.glitterberri.com/the-legend-of-zelda/mishouzaki-manga

Vol 2, AoL: www.glitterberri.com/adventure-of-link/mishouzaki-sequel

Go there to read volume 1 for the original Legend of Zelda

The first volume was scanned by Kasuto: www.kasuto.net

The second was scanned by me: historyofhyrule.com

I've posted the full volume here simply to make it easier to read. I held off for a long time because I really wanted people to go to Glitterberri's site to the part she was able to finish but it's been a few years, and Jamie did a ton of work to make all the pages match, so I thought it would probably be okay.

Zelda Manga: 600dpi scans of all 3 Volumes of Adventure of Link Game Guide Manga

There's no translation for these yet! That's such a bummer! If you can help out with that please let me know, melorasworld@gmail.com

This is a really fun manga because it pulls of being both a story and a literal game guide. Because of that it offers some really great illustrations for the places and environments in the Adventure of Link. I do think the first volume by Daisuke Shigoto is a bit more inspired than the last 2 by Yuu Minazuki but they did do a pretty good job of picking up where someone else left off. I have no idea for the change, I just know these were in the monthly magazine series Wanpakku comics around  1997-1988. They were collected into volumes but don't even have ISBN numbers.

Volume 1 scans at 600dpi

Volume 2 scans at 600dpi

Volume 3 scans at 600dpi

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link manga Volume 1 by Daisuke Shigoto

Published by Wanpakku Comics

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link manga Volume 2 by Yuu Minazuki

Published by One Pack Comics

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link manga Volume 3 by Yuu Minazuki

Published by One Pack Comics

 

Zelda Manga: 600 dpi Scans of all 3 Volumes of Ataru Cagiva's Link to the Past manga

It feels so good to have good scans of these on the web after all these years! We didn't do it at first because we were worried they would be re-published but that never happened. 

I can't wait to have the old translations on the new pages so they're as beautiful as they can be! I want everyone to love these and that should really help encourage people to want to read them. By the way, if you have really nice editing skills and would like to do that please just let me know so a bunch of people aren't doing the same work all at once!

Volume 1 scans at 600dpi and here are the English translations

Volume 2 scans at 600dpi and here are the English translations

Volume 3 scans at 600dpi and here are the English translations

ゼルダの伝説, 神々のトライフォース 1
Zeruda no Densetsu: Kamigami no Triforce 1
The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods Volume 1
Author: かぢば あたる Ataru Cagiva
Publisher: Square Enix スクウェア・エニックス
Publication date: June 27, 1995
Language: Japanese
Page count: 192 pages
ISBN: ‎ 4-87025-541-8

 

ゼルダの伝説, 神々のトライフォース 2

Zeruda no Densetsu: Kamigami no Triforce 2

The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods Volume 2

Author: かぢば あたる Ataru Cagiva

Publisher: Square Enix スクウェア・エニックス

Publication date: December 27, 1995

Language: Japanese

Page count: 191 pages

ISBN: ‎ 4-87025-522-9

ゼルダの伝説, 神々のトライフォース 3

Zeruda no Densetsu: Kamigami no Triforce 3

The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods Volume 3

Author: かぢば あたる Ataru Cagiva

Publisher: Square Enix スクウェア・エニックス

Publication date: May 27, 1996

Language: Japanese

Page count: 191 pages

ISBN: ‎ 4-87025-559-6

I've spent 20 years being told the manga doesn't matter and I'm over it:

I always hear "Why isn't this manga more well known"... "this is such obscure material, that's why no one ever talked about it" etc.

Oh man guys... I really tried and it really shouldn't be.

Cool little fun things like this shouldn't be new to you either. We should have been having so much fun exploring all of this stuff for years now.

So a little backstory here: People who would link to my site on most of the big Zelda forums, back around 2002-2006, wanting to discuss some of the really cool and relevant topics found in the manga or gamebooks, would get their posts deleted and told not to bring it up again. "Zelda manga isn't a real Zelda topic," "Don't link to her site, it's not a real Zelda site and not relevant to Zelda discussion" they said... as they would discuss the Valiant Comics and cartoons. My site and this subject matter was effectively banned from being posted about or linked to on many of the major Zelda sites and Zelda forums. It was serious gatekeeping. When people would recommend my site be nominated for awards, they were told it wasn't allowed. Back in the early days Zelda Wiki wouldn't allow links to it or info from it, saying it wasn't really relevant content and that I hosted material still in print (I did not. In fact I worked hard to get it brought out officially in other languages.  No, really, here is Himekawa talking about it recently) while the site linked to other sites that continued to host other still-in-print works or US comics. It was weird times. I have a lot of webmaster friends that will vouch for how bizzare it was and how accurate this tale is. Anyway. Because of this continued gatekeeping we have absolutely missed out on so much. It was all kind of hushed away, a collective "we don't talk about this seriously in regards to the series," mood settled over much of the community.

I am so tired of pretending it doesn't matter simply because, historically, some people have been so loud and hostile towards anything they don't personally like.

Look, maybe you just don't like the manga. That's fine! Oddly, I'm not a giant manga fan either. I'm an art fan. I've just come to realize, in my 30 year long obsessive quest to find rare Zelda art material, that it's absolutely incredibly interesting in the context of the series. It's actually important. Maybe you would feel this way too if you spent some time on it. But why should you, you ask?

Why should we consider manga relevant to the creative development of the Zelda games? Especially if you don't really like it? 

Because someone likes manga. A lot. Enough that that's what he left art school wanting to do. Let's look at who that is:

Why is how he feels important?

It's not like his love of exploration as a child affected the course of the series or anything either...

I can't imagine why a guy who obviously REALLY likes manga, and grew up in a culture that is surrounded by comics to a vastly greater extent than most of the rest of the world, would check out manga based on his games, especially after he had only made 1-2 Zelda games... Come on! Seriously? I mean, everyone always wonders why Link has hot pink hair in LttP. It's a question that's gotten asked non-stop for decades. Everyone ends up saying Link had pink hair because it needed to share the exact pink with the rabbit, which by the way doesn't even share the same pink, but you know... it could never be because there were 2 years of really good monthly Zelda manga magazines on the shelves where Link had hot pink hair: in 1986-1988, well before LttP was released. So... why isn't that a consideration for you on that topic? Because... manga is just that invalid to you (or those before you) as a creative source of inspiration? Should it be?

Seriously: the burden of proof should be on the people who claim there is no way it could matter. Go to and art school and ask all the people there how they feel about that claim. Or a game dev studio and do the same. If you don't know anyone with extensive knowledge of both, feel free to ask me though and I can get you a shit-ton of responses for you. But I don't really even need to and neither do you because:

Let's look at whom else may have read some Zelda manga and had it create everlasting waves in the Zelda series...

"This guy? If I don't like manga then why would what influences him be important either," a great number of people have apparently muttered.

Well, let's see what he has to say... From this source I uploaded in 2005 

-----

Eiji Aonuma: In Ocarina of Time, as in most Zelda, we have created a large number of tribes, like the Goron who live in the mountains or the Zoras, people from the water. For the episode "The Wind Waker”, when we chose to situate the action in the middle of the ocean, we immediately felt the need to create a race that can move through the air. During long trips offshore, we needed faster characters capable of transmitting information to Link. It was at that moment that I remembered Watatara clan, you had invented for the adaptation of "Ocarina of Time." In short, I digress a bit about the initials but we are inspired by your work to give birth to Rito Race, creatures that are half-man half-bird that can move very quickly with their wings.

-----

Nagano (Himekawa): Frankly, we would be so happy if the creative Nintendo could learn from our manga to realize their games! To participate in the development of a Zelda, even indirectly, we would be mad with joy.

Eiji Aonuma: Well I can tell you, you’re already a great help! I've seen guys in my team who for a little help from mental exertion were taking their break by reading manga Akira Himekawa (laughs)! You have a knack for telling wonderful stories to us that is very useful. I, for example, I love your adaptation of the title "Four Swords Adventures". Yet, the content has so much more to do with then the original. In the original, four Link’s have the same expressions and the same reactions. Once they are passed in your hand, one will be impressed by how you came to give so many different personalities to each Link. You really did a good job on this subject, which is undeniable. The pages are yet in black and white but you can easily divide each Link by their given personality.

-----

Well. Huh. ...maybe... hop on this train because it's obviously fun and relevant. Or, at least... Stop gatekeeping? You don't have to enjoy manga or gamebooks but you're preventing people from discussing and discovering the history and context of the series by continuously dismissing it.

-----

A special shoutout to Mike Damiani, TSA, The Silent Assassin, for being "that guy" and to the massive numbers of people in the community who continued to support him even after these shows of extremely toxic behavior directed specifically towards women and "non-canon" content. You absolutely gave him the power to create an incredibly hostile environment. He posted so many rants like this on his Zelda page, ZHQ2/The Hylia:

(Context for what he's saying here: He was mad at me for refusing to remove an image of 2 adult men kissing from my site (he equated being gay to being a pedophile. I do not know why he thought he had the right to dictate what I had posted on my site but he got very serious about it and sent dozens of messages trying to explain it. Which I should still have catalogued on my first forum's backup. Hey, what can I say, I'm an archivist at heart) and for pointing out that the gallery "he scanned" was actually just my scans. He was stealing from, and then bashing, some of these other sites too and had been called out. He ended up doing this kind of thing to a lot of people in the Zelda community. until I guess he finally just burned all his bridges. But sadly people chose to support him as one of the biggest community leaders for years rather than draw a line at his clear and upfront damaging behavior.)

Though 80% of the people pictured here are awesome.

When I went away due to the gatekeeping, my health, and Mike's barrage of attacks, the site was down for a bit and when I put it back online (while still very disabled) it was not indexed well for newer search engines. For years the community had been discouraged from linking to these works, shouted down and shamed for talking about it because of stuff like that, so this content just became obscured. It's that easy. 

This has been your intro into the early history of Zelda fandom and why you probably don't know about content that's been online for 20 years.

-----

Anyway, with all that bullshit out of the way, as very clear tale about why I'm not going to just meekly pretend I'm not be excited about this stuff anymore like I use to, I'll probably start making short posts showing some of the fun ideas that first appeared in the various volumes of Japanese manga, gamebooks, and novels and I'm fucking psyched about it!!

Like as teasers: this amazing point Mak brings up one about the Imprisoning War and the split timelines, this incomplete one of mine about a lot of the firsts in the Ran Maru manga, and this little thing from the LttP manga that reminds me of Fi.

The manga, gamebooks, and novels are clearly a part of the history of Hyrule. If you have hang-ups about why you feel otherwise, question those. To start: all you need to do is look at what traditionally inspires creative minds working in the industry.

Edit: *cough* Miyamoto was probably never creatively influenced by manga *cough*

Artbook: My page by page look at The Akira Himekawa: Original Drawings artbook (2021)

Here's a quick video since I won't be making scans of this for a long time. (It's still technically for sale and I wait a while afterwards to respect the artists and publishers)

Akira Himekawa: Original Drawings -A Look Back at the Manga "The Legend of Zelda-" 2021

This is a page by page look into Akira Himekawa's Legend of Zelda exhibit artbook. This is currently only for sale at the Kyoto International Manga Museum while their show runs; which, as of this posting, is from September 8, 2021 until December 26, 2021. I hope they are able to do a full international release eventually. It's just over 10x7 inches in size and the paper quality is amazing

This features promotional art not found in their comics, some of their best cover and character art, a few of their official art pieces like the stained glass windows from The Wind Waker, as well as their Ocarina of Time promotional manga that was originally only released on the web in Chinese. It has now been translated to Japanese. 

It features art for the games: Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time, Oracle of Seasons, Oracle of Ages, Majora's Mask, The Wind Waker, Four Swords, A Link to the Past, Minish Cap, Phantom Hourglass, and Skyward Sword.

High-Res Scans of The Hyrule Fantasy Manga by Ran Maru

These have actually been posted for a while but someone let me know that I had gotten 4 of the pages mixed up in order, and scanned one of the pages twice, so basically a whole page was missing from the previous download. I'm not surprised I messed up, this is the first thing I scanned with the pages removed. I fixed the files today. So if you downloaded the large files before November 26, 2021, you'll want to download them again.

Find the 600dpi scans here

I quickly edited these just so I could get them posted for people. Eventually I will straighten all of the pages and do a better job with the levels.

A full English translation can be found here: hhistoryofhyrule.blogspot.com/2021/09/after-35-years
My original scans and info were here: historyofhyrule.com/publications/manga_loz_en

This is also part 1 of 4, it continues in the Adventure of Link volume 1, volume 2, and volume 3.

Some keywords: The Legend of Zelda, Zelda, LoZ, tLoZ, ゼルダの伝説, ゼルダ, The Hyrule Fantasy, 600dpi, 600ppi, RAW, RAWS, scan, scans, book, high res, high rez, resolution, manga, comic
 

High-Res Scans of The Hyrule Fantasy Manga by Kobayashi Susumu

The 600dpi scans are here. 

The Hyrule Fantasy: The Legend of Zelda manga by Kobayashi Susumu
Published by One Pack Comics

Honestly I don't have a lot more info to add on this. It was originally in their monthly magazine and then collected into this volume, but there's not even an ISBN.

This most likely all happened in 1986-1987. This one could have been so amazing but Link's character design is just... an odd choice. Zelda is adorable though! Anyway, it's still totally worth checking out because this is not just a manga with some great enemy and world design illustrations, it's a functional strategy guide!

I quickly edited these just so I could get them posted for people. Eventually I will straighten all of the pages and do a better job with the levels and then add the original raws, with no cropping or adjustments, to a downloadable zip too.

My original scans and info were here: historyofhyrule.com/publications/manga_loz_wan

Some keywords: The Legend of Zelda, Zelda, LoZ, tLoZ, ゼルダの伝説, ゼルダ, The Hyrule Fantasy, 600dpi, 600ppi, RAW, RAWS, scan, scans, book, high res, high rez, resolution, manga, comic

Firsts in the Zelda series from the 1986-1988 Ran Maru manga

Okay, it's obvious I really love this manga series. I can't get enough of it. And I could be wrong on these, I'm just quickly going off the top of my head without spending much time on it, but I just wanted to start a little list. And keep in mind: this is just for my own fun and for conversation, please don't take it too seriously. But do let me know if I got something wrong or missed something! :3

Major spoilers ahead:

• Slingshot as a starter weapon and inventory weapon
• Zelda speaking with, and visually manifesting, telepathically with Link
• Zelda speaking with Link through a crystal necklace (which is also a Star Wars reference here)
• Fairies reviving Link from death, not just restoring low health
• Ganon having a human form doppelganger and/or evil wizard that acts as his headman
• Link's sword growing in power as he advances, not just because he finds better swords
• The Triforce on his shield instead of a Christian cross (even though it's literally THE Triforce in this and not just decorative designs)
• Flying on a beloved bird companion, especially into battle
• Bat-wing Ganon
• Vaguely: Link having a flying companion that gives him advice. Not quite a fairy *meh* they function really similarly
• A Ganon paired with a trident.. though this is a huge stretch because it's Link's sword that turns into one to kill Ganon, not Ganon's weapon. I just have to admit the first time I read it I thought he took the trident off Ganon ;p
• Zelda locked in a magical stasis spell which is also where she was communicating telepathically with Link from
• Link being the absolutely most adorable thing ever
• Spin attack
• Hot pink hair
• His boat being struck by lightning and him washing ashore
• Link being lured towards a dungeon boss by a an enemy being disguised as a maiden he knows
• The Goddess and Zelda resembling each other: hinting at being linked together
• Zelda transforming into a man to foil Ganon's minions
• Multiple magical Links fighting together (though this is an illusion spell, not a splitting spell. They're not all actually Link)

I'll be back to add more later! There is actually more

Volume1, for LoZ: https://www.flickr.com/photos/historyofhyrule/7211430740/in/album-72157629760736528/

Volume 2, AoL vol1: https://www.flickr.com/photos/historyofhyrule/7211430456/in/album-72157629760736528/

Volume 3, AoL vol2: https://www.flickr.com/photos/historyofhyrule/7211430518/in/album-72157629760736528/

Volume 4, AoL vol3: https://www.flickr.com/photos/historyofhyrule/7211430792/in/album-72157629760736528/

Publication's List: Help me make it accurate for all of us!

I've been needing to update the info and works that are still missing from the publication's section of the site. Problem is: there's a lot to add. So I'm making albums on flickr to more quickly organize the information. I'm also doing this so it's easier for all of you to help me figure out this mass of information. These will contain everything I know about:

• Zelda Manga Flickr Album
• Zelda 4koma Manga Flickr Album
• Zelda Non-Japanese Comics: Coming Soon
• Zelda Books Flickr Album
• Zelda Sticker/Coloring/How-To-Draw Books: Coming Soon
• Zelda Strategy Guides Flickr Album
• Zelda Manuals and Booklets: Coming Soon
• Zelda US Magazines: Coming Soon
• Zelda Japan Magazines: Coming Soon
• Zelda Other International Magazines: Coming Soon

Good news is that Mases of Zelda dungeon is doing most of the work on the guides. He's making scans of his whole collection and is working on at least adding covers and info until he can get to everything that massive task entails. 

• Here's a link list of his currently added guides, by title
• Here's a visual list of his current added guides, by game

So what can I use help with? Any one of you can probably help with something here:

• The thing I need the most help with is, if you know Japanese, help me make sure I have the correct titles, author's and illustrator's names, publishers, etc, in both Japanese and English characters.
• Double check my info against what's written in the volumes (I'm dyslexic, I make a lot of type-based mistakes)
• Help me find links to the best scans and info online*
• Help me find auction links to things I'm missing. If it's guides or merch I can get them to my friends who collect that and will get us scans. If it's manga, Japanese books, or artbooks, I'll probably buy them.
  
• (More to come, I'm out of time today to keep writing)

*An FYI: I'm not going to publicly post links to free downloads of anything still in print, (just links to sales pages.) If you can't afford to purchase the volumes, etc, I totally understand, this isn't judgement on that. But, the way I use this platform, is for promoting purchasing any still available & only the scans for things that are not. Especially for manga; I really want a BotW series and good sales make that more likely.

I'm doing this, in large part, because my end goal is to try to have every piece of official and semi-official Zelda art online. But it's too hard to do if you don't check things off a list as you go and if you're dealing with bad scans only to get good scans after you've already done a ton of editing work. So this is the leg work to creating an awesome gallery. The added benefit is, obviously, we should have a great resource and merchandise catalog when we're done that also helps up properly credit the people behind the series we love.

Absolutely stunning Russian scanlations of the Ran Maru manga

Look at these! I mean it, even if you don't speak Russian: I am in awe of what a beautiful job they've done on chapter 1. Susanin (Сусанин) Susan1n, the person in charge of making this happen, sent these to me to post. They'll be continuing with the other chapters and if you'd like to check out their blog and other work, which is mainly for the Slayers series, you can find that here. 

Ah, I'm in love:

Here's a little bit from them about this project:

«Я являюсь давним фанатом серии «The Legend of Zelda». Но вот про эту мангу я узнал не так давно. В 2019 году на ютубе вышел видеоролик Василия Русяева, в котором он рассказывал о том, что недавно приобрел оригинальный томик манги « The Legend of Zelda: The Hyrule Fantasy» 1986 года. Перевода на английский или русский на тот момент он не нашел и предложил своим подписчикам, знающим японский перевести мангу. Мне она показалась интересной и два года я ждал, что кто нибудь сделает перевод этой манги. Но как говорится, если что-то хочешь, то сделай это сам. Поэтому я решил взять это дело в свои руки. Нашел переводчика с японского, который согласился мне помочь, и мы приступили к работе. Ну, как-то так…
P.S. А ещё мы переводим на русский мангу «Slayers: Knight of Aqualord», можете глянуть и её)))»

And if you would like an English translation for this work, we have that posted here.

Why did Link have Hot Pink Hair in A Link to the Past?

The world may never know. ...Unless we look at several years of monthly manga magazine covers from just a 3 years earlier, from early 1986 until late 1988. I don't know though, I've never heard of game developers who also like comics... and certainly not ones about the game they made. It's not like Miyamoto was trying to be a manga artist before he joined Nintendo or anything ...and I really doubt any of them would like one of the best comics ever made for the series. And thus it will forever remain a mystery ♡

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, in One Pack Comics, by Ran Maru

ゼルダの伝説, わんぱっくコミックス,  乱丸

Find the English translation for the Hyrule Fantasy, the first volume this story starts in, here.

And here are the English translations for Adventure of Link volume 1, volume 2, and volume 3.

There's also some other other magazine art that's kind of fun. The first 2 are a hot pink haired female Link from Shonen Captain (Monthly Magazine) May 18, 1986. 3rd image unknown but it comes from this video. EDIT: I have found, and made, 2400dpi scans of this art of her.

Anyway, just a guess. Maybe we could agree that hot pink is just a great color too. #plink

Edit: There was a giant fanart challenge thanks to @Aeyga_X based on my scans and she was dubbed "Linka" by fans

Also, I saw this said a lot: "16-bit" is about the processor, it doesn't mean 16 colors. Though, yes! Some of the modes for the SNES topped out at 16 colors per sprite/tile, and LttP is an example of the use of one of those, so I could see how people could get confused. Source 1. Source 2. But, no, it wasn't pink because the bunny was pink and it "needed to be the same color for technical reasons" ...because, even if (?) that were true for some reason, the rabbit's color of pink wasn't even the same as his hair. (Thank you to whomever made this graphic, I couldn't find the source to credit) 

Update: Just to keep all of the Pink Haired Link images in one place, here's a cool feature from a Famitsu issue from 1992

I've had that manga online for ages, on the old main site, (the better scans on archive.org are new,) but so many fans and other sites in the early days would blow off the manga (and my scanning work and site*) as "not real Zelda content" -so it's just been overlooked for 35 years when this question would get asked. Which is a huge shame. Wanpakku, Naughty Comics, sometimes translated as One Pack, was a  division of Tokuma Shoten: the publisher Nintendo always officially used back then. And Wanpakku did the Japanese version of Tips and Tactics that Nintendo translated and released officially in the US

Edit 2: Okay, guys, turns out pink haired female Link from 1986 (May 25, 1986 and May 18, 1986) is as official as the Itoh art from Tips and Tactics because she IS in the Japanese version of Tips and Tactics. This kind of changes the way I'm thinking about her, I no longer thing she was just a mistake made by a comic magazine's walkthrough artist like I originally did.

Tips and Tactics was released by Nintendo of America in 1987 and calls itself the "US edition" "Translation of HISSYOU HINTBON Originally published in 1986 by Tokuma Shoten"

Both publishing companies, Wanpakku (the maker of this guide) and Shonen Captain, where she appeared, were owned by the publisher Tokuma Shoten: and Nintendo worked with them a LOT back then.

Here are the 2 manga pages with pink-haired Link and a fairy that were left out, along with some of the Itoh art, of the US edition: 

Edit 3: Slightly different but here's a cute pink-haired Princess Zelda from a Famicom magazine "ファミコン決定版(1986-07-20)"

Ran Maru's Adventure of Link Character List

This is a simple overview of the characters who appear over the course of the story.

It was written by Kaialone for History of Hyrule and based on their translations for Hyrule Fantasy 1 and The Adventure of Link 1, 2, 3.

This is NOT spoiler free!

(A note from Melora: I'm going to be working on adding pictures and links to each of these over the next fee days)

Wampa (ワンパ)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 8

First Named: Volume 2, Page 9

Zelda's only named attendant in this story. Seems to be the head attendant.

Her name seems to be derived from "Impa", whom she replaces, and possibly "Wanpakku Comics", as a little in-joke?

Billy (ビリー)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 9

First Named: Volume 1, Page 32

Returning character from Hyrule Fantasy. He's a bit older now, and has seemingly become part of Zelda's royal guard.

Talks in a more formal way now, but will slip back into his old informal style at certain points.

Princess Zelda (ゼルダ姫)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 9

First Named: Volume 1, Page 16

Returning character from Hyrule Fantasy. The princess of Hyrule, still ruling over the land.

She initially stays behind when Link sets out, but eventually joins him on his journey for a while.

Sir Watt (ワット卿)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 10

First Named: Volume 1, Page 10

Returning character from Hyrule Fantasy. Link's materialistic parrot companion, he stayed behind at the castle while Link went on another journey.

Seemingly holds some position of power in the castle now, having gained the title of "Sir", but it's unclear what his actual role is. Notably, Link does not appear to have a title like that now.

Has also since gotten married and had three kids.

Link (リンク)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 11 (flashback)  Volume 1, Page 13 (actual)

First Named: Volume 1, Page 11 

Returning character from Hyrule Fantasy. The main character, naturally.

Left on a journey some time after the events of the previous story, but returns when the mysterious mark appears on his hand.

Going by the game's lore, he should be 16 now, but this manga never specifies it - outside of the fact that he's underage.

Princess Zelda I (初代ゼルダ姫)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 22 (sleeping); Volume 3, Chapter 6, Page 164 (awake)

First Named: Volume 1, Page 24; Volume 1, Page 30 (identified as the first)

The sleeping Zelda from the legend. Link sets out to wake her with the power of the complete Triforce.

The Prince (王子)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 26 (flashback)

Older brother of Princess Zelda I. 

Originally a prince of Hyrule, became the new king after his father's death.

Naturally, he is deceased by the time of the story, but seemingly appears to Link in a dream.

Apparently, Link looks just like him, but the story leaves it up to interpretation what this means.

The Magician (魔術師)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 27 (flashback)

The magician who cast the sleeping spell on Princess Zelda I.

He disappeared forever after casting the curse (or did he?!)

Old Master (老師さま)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 36 (flashback); Volume 3, Chapter 4, Page 211 (actual)

First Named: Volume 1, Page 34

Returning character from Hyrule Fantasy. He is the old man who gave Link his first sword, the character who says "It's dangerous to go alone" in the game.

Also the old man who's celebrating with everyone else at the end of Hyrule Fantasy.

He passed away some time between the two stories, but still left behind some words of wisdom for Link.

Cuscus (クスクス)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 35

First Named: Volume 1, Page 35

A possum-like beast person who trained under the Old Master as a pupil to learn magic.

Wants to become human.

Possibly named for the cuscus possum species, which he slightly resembles.

His Japanese name can also be literally romanized as "Kusukusu" which is also an onomatopoeia for snickering, so one could localize his name as "Snickers", if one so chooses.

I figured "Cuscus" sounded more like something that an English Zelda localization would go for, usually.

Gicolot (ジコロット) & Masheita (マシータ)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 41

First Named: Volume 1, Page 41

Gicolot is the younger sister of the Old Lady from the Hyrule Fantasy story. Masheita is presumably Gicolot's granddaughter. (She calls Gicolot "grandma" but it's not specified if she is literally related.)

They run a potion shop in Western Hyrule in the Old Lady's stead.

I tried romanizing their names in a way that felt close to the typical English Zelda localization style without outright changing them.

Mazura (マズラ)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 47

Not actually named in this story, but per the game and guidebooks his name is Mazura.

Guardian of Parapa Palace.

Originally he was called "Horsehead" in English, but Hyrule Encyclopedia went and gave him his Japanese name "Mazura" back, so I went with that.

Urabe (ウラベ)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 63

First Named: Volume 1, Page 63

Billina's grandmother.

Used to be a priestess in Ruto.

Fell into a despondent state after the Trophy/Goddess Statue was stolen from the town.

Billina (ビリーナ)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 63

First Named: Volume 1, Page 77

Urabe's granddaughter.

Guides Link and Watt to Midoro Palace, as she knows her way around the swamp.

I'm guessing she was intentionally given a similar name to Billy as she fulfills a similar role to him in the first story.

"Billina" is not that common as a feminine variant for "Billy", but it is the name of a character in the Oz series, and that character's name is spelled the same as hers in Japanese.

That's why I decided to romanize her name as "Billina" just like the Oz character.

Ibis (イビス)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 71

First Named: Volume 1, Page 69

The mage of Ruto Town.

Link first learns magic from him.

It's not explicitly mentioned, but the magic Link learns from him should be the Jump Magic.

Jermafenser (ジャーマフェンサ)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 86

Not actually named in this story, but per the game and guidebooks his name is Jermafenser.

Guardian of Midoro Palace.

Originally he was called "Helmethead" in English, but Hyrule Encyclopedia went and gave him his Japanese name "Jermafenser" back, so I went with that.

Very similar to Mazura in that sense.

Bagu (バグ)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 97

First Named: Volume 1, Page 98

A lumberjack living around the general Moruge Forest/Moruge Swamp/Midoro Swamp area.

Serves about the same role as in the game, giving Link a note for the River Man.

His name is actually supposed to be "Bug", to match with the character "Error", but was mistranslated in English as "Bagu".

However, since Error himself doesn't show up in the manga, I thought going with "Bagu" was still alright here.

Old Man of Saria

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 102

Not actually named in the story.

Teaches Link the Life Magic (Revitalization Art).

River Man (ワタシバノオトコ)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 104

Not named in the story.

Though this character's appearance seems to take from Error, from his role we know he is the same as the River Man in the game.

Let's Link cross the river by Saria Town after seeing the note from Bagu.

Masked Man

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 109

First Named: Volume 3, Chapter 6, Page 167

A mysterious masked man who resides at Death Mountain, and is seemingly the driving force behind the monsters' efforts to resurrect Ganon.

Despite appearing human, the monsters follow his commands.

SPOILERS: highlight to read

It is eventually revealed that his name is Ganon.

He is Ganon's original human self, and the monstrous Ganon whom we've come to know is a part of himself that split from him and became independent, possibly similar in nature to Link's Shadow.

Ganon is also several centuries old, and is in fact the very magician who cursed Princess Zelda I.

Old Man of Mido

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 128

Not actually named in the story.

Teaches Link the Fairy Magic (Fairy Art).

Gump (ガンプ)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 133

First Named: Volume 1, Page 134

A wolf-like beast person, whom Link met during his travels.

He taught Link sword fighting for a while, and Link greatly respects him.

He fulfills the role of teaching Link the Down Thrust like in the game, though there's quite an expansion in story content there, of course.

He desires to be the greatest swordsman in the world, seeking to become stronger for that purpose.

His name could also be romanized as "Gamp", but I preferred "Gump". Makes the pronunciation more obvious in English, too.

Rebonack (レボナック)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 144

Not actually named in this story, but per the game and guidebooks his name is Rebonack. (Also sometimes called Iron Knuckle)

Guardian of the Island Palace.

Patt, Pico, and Pott (パット,ピコ,ポット)

First Appearance: Volume 1, Page 181

First Named: Volume 1, Page 182

Watt's children.

Patt looks the most like Watt, but he does have his mother's eyes, and doesn't wear a bag, so that's usually how you can tell them apart.

Pico's name is a bit of an odd one out in the family, though it's a bit less so in Japanese (compare literal romanizations: Watto, Torotto, Patto, Piko, Potto), but still a bit off.

You could romanize her name as something closer to "Peec" or the like to make her name sound less different from the others in English, but that'd be kinda stretching it. I just stuck with "Pico" because her name doesn't perfectly fit the family pattern in any case.

Pott ends up having the biggest role of the three, tagging along with Link for a short while.

Lady Trott (トロット嬢)

First Appearance: Volume 2, Page 13

First Named: Volume 1, Page 182

Watt's wife.

Watt met her sometime between the events of Hyrule Fantasy and the time when Link went off on his journey.

Watt and Zelda (and Link) saved the forest where Trott lived from monsters, and his actions then endeared him to her.

They got married some time after Link set out on his journey.

Ganon (ガノン)

First Appearance: Volume 2, Page 6 (flashback); Volume 2, Page 142 (actual)

First Named: Volume 1, Page 8

Returning character from Hyrule Fantasy.

Like in the game, the monsters are aiming to revive him.

However, in this story they actually end up succeeding (sort of), and thus Ganon plays a larger role in the latter third of the tale again.

Monster Leader

First Appearance: Volume 2, Page 18

Not actually named in the story.

A reptilian monster, possibly a Geru or Daira, who leads a group of monsters that built a fortress in the forest where Trott came from.

They were apparently hoping to revive Ganon, but it's unclear if they're affiliated with the Masked Man at all.

They were all defeated by the efforts of Zelda, Watt, Trott, and Link.

Old Lady (お婆さん)

First Appearance: Volume 2, Page 54

First Named: Volume 2, Page 54

Returning character from Hyrule Fantasy.

Gicolot's older sister, she is the old lady who previously ran the potion shop with the help of the fairy fountain.

Link and Billy encounter her again in Eastern Hyrule, where she has been stuck for a little while.

Old Man of Nabooru

First Appearance: Volume 2, Page 55

Not actually named in the story.

Teaches Link the Fire Magic (Fire Art).

Wizard (ウィズザール)

First Appearance: Volume 2, Page 64

A Wizard enemy whom Link encounters in the Maze Palace, who also actually speaks to him.

The Wizard reprimands Link for entering the palace without obtaining Reflect, and falling for a trap that had been laid by the monsters.

Hank (ハンク)

First Appearance: Volume 2, Page 73

First Named: Volume 2, Page 78

Shamon's son.

Fulfills the role of the kidnapped child from the game, being held at Maze Island.

Shamon (シャモン)

First Appearance: Volume 2, Page 77

First Named: Volume 2, Page 79

A swordsman and also the mage of Darunia.

Teaches Link the "Reflect Magic" and helps him forge a new sword.

Carock (カロック)

First Appearance: Volume 2, Page 116

Not actually named in this story, but per the game and guidebooks his name is Carock.

Guardian of the Maze Island Palace.

The Flute-loving Monster

First Appearance: Volume 2, Page 128

A monster that lived in the river on the way to Kasuto.

It loves the sound of the Flute, and isn't actually on Ganon's side.

It fulfills the role of the River Devil from the games, though it does more as a character, too.

The idea of the River Devil being driven away by the sound of the Flute is reinterpreted as the monster enjoying it and helping out Link and friends in return.

It seems particularly attached to Zelda, for showing it kindness.

Tick (チック) & Tock (タック)

First Appearance: Volume 2, Page 158

First Named: Volume 2, Page 160

Two fairies Link encounters in this story after Zelda's death.

Their names could be romanized in many ways, but since they're a duo, I thought this made the most sense.

Elder of Kasuto

First Appearance: Volume 2, Page 163

Not actually named in the story.

The elder of Old Kasuto.

Eventually teaches Link the Thunder Magic (Thunder Art).

Chic (チック) 

First Appearance: Volume 2, Page 171

First Named: Volume 2, Page 173

A boy from New Kasuto.

For some reason, he has the same name as the fairy Tick in Japanese - might be a goof on Mr. Ran Maru's part. (see Translation Notes)

Bente (ベンテ)

First Appearance: Volume 2, Page 176

First Named: Volume 2, Page 175

The mage of New Kasuto.

Teaches Link the Spell Magic (Spell Art).

Volvagia/Barba (ヴァルバジア/バルバジア)

First Appearance: Volume 3, Chapter 1, Page 220

Not actually named in this story, but per the game and guidebooks its name is Volvagia/Barba.

(In Adventure of Link its English localized name was "Barba", but in Ocarina of Time it was localized as "Volvagia" instead - in Japanese those bosses have the same name.)

Guardian of the Three-Eye Rock Palace.

Doesn't get any dialogue, poor fella.

Boruba (ボルバ)

First Appearance: Volume 3, Chapter 4, Page 191

First Named: Volume 3, Chapter 4, Page 194

Guardian of the Great Palace.

In all English media, this boss was called "Thunderbird", but his Japanese name is just "Boruba".

I went with the Japanese name because "Thunderbird" doesn't seem to fit this manga's interpretation of him especially.

This boss was never supposed to be any thunder-related bird after all, the English localizers just named him that - presumably to make his weakness easier to guess?

Link's Shadow 

First Appearance: Volume 3, Chapter 4, Page 213

The evil in Link's heart manifested.