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.
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 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:
"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.
(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.)
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:
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...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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*
