There's so much info below but first: I want everyone to make a really big push to see all of these localized in other languages by the publishers. I led that same kind of push for years, from History of Hyrule back in the early 2000's, to make that happen with Akira Himekawa's manga, and then over a decade later, when we got word Nintendo was finally going to be doing a real artbook, I worked so hard, and led an even bigger fan effort, to get the hype and interest going to get that localized in the US and other languages as well. They did and it ended up topping the best selling charts on Amazon and the New York Times. (It even beat out Twilight for a while.) Job well done, everyone!
And here's the reason: if these do well then other companies that produced a lot of old Zelda manga, like Enix, will hopefully be encouraged to do ebook releases of their out of print content too. We need to make that happen! If these do well publishers might even pay more artists to do more Zelda works. So let's get hyped about it again guys and when these drop let's hit the ground running.
To do this let's do what my friends and I did for the Himekawa manga and Hyrule Historia. Let's get some translations done so we can all read along with the books when they come out, then write all the companies like Nintendo, Viz, and Darkhorse about getting the rights, start campaigns, and when those Japanese ebook sales jump up because we pound that "buy it" button: I will bet you they'll do it.
This also means I need help finding translators. I have 600dpi scans made specifically for translation, they are not for distribution though and are not posted publicly right now. I have generally only hosted pages on the site that are large enough to comprehend but not big enough to discourage people from wanting actual copies if they become available for sale. More on that needed translation help below.
Example of the scans for translations
Now, back to the meat of it: One Pack Comics, also known as "Wanpakku Comics" or わんぱっくコミック, was a serialized monthly manga magazine that I believe ran from 1985 to 1989. As far as I know, in it's history, it produced 3 different Zelda series for Hyrule Fantasy, (the original Legend of Zelda,) and the Adventure of Link. I'll post info on them below. They were collected into 7 volumes, with the 8th and last volume of Ran Maru's Adventure of Link manga never officially being turned into a book because the publisher closed right after the artist finished. Those last 7 issues, that would have been the final volume, can only be found online because someone Xeroxed the pages from the final year of the magazine to make extra copies. And thank goodness they did even though they're not great. Someone else later scanned them. If you've seen the popular GTV Japan YouTube video, it's using those same scanned Xeroxs that I've had on my site for around a decade. (By the way, I love his videos. I do technically disagree with how he interpreted the ending though, we had a nice conversation about it, but you know how fans will have different takes: I just think SPOILER it's clear Zelda comes back to life at the end and that it's part of the main story, not tacked on. The Salamander that dies in the same place her body falls into, comes back at the end, with the same flute that fell in too, and then we see a female with Zelda's stature come out of that same lake .Link threw the Triforces into it as well. It seems very clear to me what happens)
I have been trying to track down those 7 magazine issues for around a decade now. Here's the covers and info on them. (I do still want them.) The ever-awesome Zelda collector, Ikhana, was helping me find them, (she actually found April's issue for me and I was able to buy it, it's being shipped as we speak. She's so good at this!) but in the process she found a press release from August 12, 2021 that stated Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd. (株式会社徳間書店, Kabushiki gaisha Tokuma Shoten), One Pack's parent company, was going to be re-release all of the manga at a rate of roughly 5 issues a month (mid month) starting on August 16th. Which was just a few days ago. You will be able to purchase these ebook volumes on these platforms:
- Kindleストア(Amazon)
- 楽天Kobo電子書籍ストア
- BOOK☆WALKER
- honto
- ブックライブ
- コミックシーモア
- ebookjapan
- Renta！（パピレス）
- DMMブックス
The first 5 volumes have been released, as promised, but they are not for the Legend of Zelda, they're just some of the many other works One Pack supported. But I am happy to see it's really happening. I'm not sure when they'll get to the Zelda ones, but it's promising to see that they're already rapidly releasing things. Again, they will release 5 volumes in the middle of every month.
Out of those stores I'm only familiar with Amazon.jp. To find the ebook releases you'll want the keyword わんぱっくコミック (One Pack's name in Japanese) or just use this link.
Now, what are the 3 Legend of Zelda series to expect, the 8 volumes:
My all-time-favorite Zelda manga is in this batch. A total of 4 volumes it was created by Ran Maru and ran from 1986 to 1988. It starts with one volume for Hyrule Fantasy/The Original Legend of Zelda and continues on with 3 volumes for the Adventure of Link. (The last one was the one I was talking about that was not collected into a book though.) One of the reasons I love it is for how the personalities of Link and Zelda are portrayed. They remind me of what I actually want from the games. The 2nd reasons is for all the firsts in this series: It's the first time we see things that appear in later games. A few small examples would be: Link with hot pink hair, Link riding into battle on a giant bird, his spin attack, and we even see Zelda using magic to transform into a male character in the intent to fool Ganon's minions to buy time while Link is missing in action. And the series is dark. It's actually very very dark.
Now for the other 4 volumes:
This is a pretty amazing work. While it has some original elements it's acts as a game guide for the Adventure of Link. It's really worth checking out.
This is one volume that covers the whole first game and even acts as a complete game guide. The art in this is actually really good, this artist also did work that appeared in official Nintendo publications.
Again, I would like to try to find a translator for each volume if possible, to get these done quickly. I do have 600dpi scans to help you read them and we just need to make a script so people can read along with the eventual ebooks. Contact me if you have actual experience translating from Japanese to English.
And after this: We have around 35 other volumes of Zelda manga, 4koma, and novels that still need to be translated! I'm not kidding! There's so many no one has ever done.
And I'll be on a backpacking trip on Monday-Wednesday so forgive me if I can't respond until then.
