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Sunday, March 19, 2023

Official Zelda Artists: A Work in Progress

I'm trying to ID all of the official Zelda artists but I'm still working on this. Most of this is working speculation. If you have anything you can contribute, to help sort out who is who, please let me know on any of my socials or email: linktr.ee/historyofhyrule

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Yoshiaki Koizumi : 小泉 歓晃
Honestly, right now, I don't know if Koizumi did these all himself or what but I know he was kind of put in charge of the manual.
  


Yoichi Kotabe : 小田部 羊一 : Youichi Kotabe, Yaichi Kotabe, Yohichi Kotabe
I'm betting he did a lot of other stuff too but, honestly,  the way they talk about the art in interviews... it's a little confusing to know who did what. The watercolors are absolutely his though
 


Yasuhiro Sakai : 酒井 康裕

Tomoaki Kuroume : 黒梅 知明

Hideki Fujii : 藤井 英樹

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Matsunori Iwamoto : 岩本松徳

I'm confident saying these are his. The Manga is absolutely his:
   


Kenji Murata : 村田健司 , けんじ むらた
  1. Ultima Exodus Guide: Maps? (3 artists. Technical Maps | Cute Characters, Items, Map | More Serious Characters | Pastel Chalks) Technical Maps? or Pastels (can't be pastels, he is not in LA US Guide. Might be thicker looking illustrations in LA guide or those may also be by Matsunori Iwamoto)
  2. Zelda Handbook (LttP) 2 Overworld Maps? (it's either them or Yuji Honma)
  3. US Nintendo Guide (LttP)
  4. German Nintendo Guide (LttP) -There are world maps! or are those by Toshisada Nobuhara? These do look a little different though
  5. US Nintendo Guide (LA)
  6. Not in the German LA Guide
  7. Nintendo Player's Guide - NES Game Atlas (it has technical maps, horrible airbrush of link, that AoL Map, items)
  8. Nintendo Player's Guide- Game Boy 
Possibility: LA US Guide (Only 4 Artists) . Ultima Guide (only 3 artists)
 



Yuji Honma : 本間雑二


Makikazu Ohmori : まきかず おもり
Macki Ohmori
Confirmed: Nintendo Power
 



Katsuya Terada :


Hiroshi Aizawa : 愛沢ひろし
Hiroshi Auzawa

I think he may have done the item art for A Link to the Past
 


Shuji Imai :今井修司 
Syuji Imai
Howard and Nester Artist
Ah, could he have done the items too? Imai does darker corners. The palette is similar but also not as spot-on as the other guy's. Honestly I can't figure out what Imai would have done in the 2 LttP Player's Guides if not this either. The line work on that one concept piece of Link reaching for the sword... maybe he drew it and someone else colored it? https://archive.org/details/zelda_guide_lttp_nintendo_power_us/zelda_guide_lttp_nintendo_power_us/page/n110/mode/1up


Toshisada Nobuhara :
Tosashi Nobehara
Are the maps in the player's guides actually the same as this guide's maps? I need to check on that

Confirmed Art: 
 


Satoshi Yuzuriha :



Kazunori Aihara : 相原和典
  1. German Nintendo Guide (LA) New Simple Items? Simpler Maps? Really Cool Giant Map?
  2. Pokemon Book Artist Watercolor, so he probably did the big LA map
  3. Game Boy Player's Guide
Oddly I think he may have done some maps in the early Nintendo powers... but he would have been a MUCH less developed artist if I'm right. Because they are pretty rough in comparison.

Pretty confident on this one:
  


Kazuhiro Amachi :
Could be the simple maps, maybe the items as well? Kinda the same colors and styles. Maybe they did the items as well. They're in a very clean, graphic, style as well.
See if the LA items are credited in the LA guide. I do not believe they were. I think only Kotabe is mentioned as an illustrator in that.


Ken-show :
I can not figure out why this guy is in here unless he did the official items for Metroid II: Return of Samus. Which are in the Super Game Boy guide. Because then he could have done the new Zelda items in the German LttP guide: they only appear in that one guide. Like the 4 swords and 2 shields. The coloring on the tunics also look the same, though this tunic art is seen elsewhere with flatter colors. These bows and boomerangs have also been redone.

Check the golden bee. I believe that also appeared in a Nintendo Power, see if he is credited.

Probably not the simple items and maps from German LA because nothing like that is in the Metroid art in the Super Game Boy guide. But it's weird because the items for the German LA guide ARE in the Super Game Boy guide... argh..

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Not A Zelda artist but to help narrow it down:

Tetuo Hiroi :
Tetsuo Hiroi?
Doesn't really match the Ultima guide, but idk it says Tetsuo Hiroi, maybe he really upped his game! This is absolutely great art:



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Check these artists:

Yoshiki Oshima, Akio Nakamura, Makikazu Omori

Jackie Yoshida

Benimaru Itoh | Benimaru "Ashura" Itoh



Yu Minazuki - check the Japanese spelling- Yuu Mishouzaki, who did the stranger LoZ and AoL Zelda comics. So did they do comics for Wanpakku, which would mean they worked for Tokuma Shoten like some other Wanpakku comic artists, which makes me wonder if they were at Work House too? idk, style looks pretty different

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  • Makikazu Ohmori
  • KEN-SHOW
Has Metroid: Return of Samus Items
Zelda: 3 item artists from Zelda: has a detailed items from LA. Has a simple items from LttP for LA. Has newly added item from LA German guide: Mirror Shield, Bracelet x2, feather, for LA

  • Hideaki Ito
  • Kenji Murata
  • Kazunori Aihara
  • Makikazu Ohmori
  • Toshisada Nobuhara
  • Kazuhiro Amachi


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