Himekawa, Akira
About the Author:
Akira Himekawa is the pen name of two collaborating women, A. Honda and S. Nagano.
AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:
3.2 out of 5
(11 books)
TOP PICK:
The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time - Part 1
The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past
(Art by Akira Himekawa)
Book 9. A Manga adaptation of the iconic SNES game from 1992 in which Zelda is captured (of course) and Link must set out on a quest (of course) to free the Sages and defeat the evil Ganon.
Reading my way through the Zelda Manga stories, I was particularly excited to get to this one since the game is second only to 'Ocarina of Time' in my (admittedly limited) experience of the Zelda games. So much of that game was iconic that it not only changed the Zelda franchise forever, but influenced action RPGs forever after. I was therefore pretty devastated to find that this is the worst book of the series so far.
All of these Zelda stories have pretty similar set-up, villains and Link is, of course, ubiquitous but what gives each their unique strengths are the settings and individual quests. Perhaps because the game was the basis for all that came after, this book feels more samey than any of the others and the elements which could've made it stand out are rushed and poorly developed. The most egregious example of this is where all of Link's fetch quests are montaged-through in a summary lasting a couple of pages. Whilst those fetch quests could've felt a bit repetitive, that would've been better than them being hand-waved away as not worth bothering with.
Perhaps it was in part due to my expectations, but this book was a big disappointment for me.
2 out of 5
The Legend Of Zelda: Four Swords - Part 1
(Art by Akira Himekawa)
Book 6, an adaptation of a GameCube game from 2004. When a shadow version of himself kidnaps Princess Zelda, Link draws the legendary Four Sword to try to save her. However, the power of the sword splits him into four disparate parts of his persona; Green, Red, Blue and Violet. The four Links must learn to work together if they're to defeat Shadow Link and the wind mage Vaati.
Whilst this is another enjoyable adventure for Link (even if the continuity between these stories is ropey at best) this is the first book of this series that I've read where the game mechanics are too obvious and feel like the story had to be written around them. On top of that is the fact that one of the most important elements of this story, clearly derived from the game, is that the four (well, five) Links are multi-coloured. Why is that problematic? Because this book is illustrated in black and white. Although Himekawa endeavours to identify the different Links in several ways, including giving them distinct personalities, none of them ever really make it easy to tell which Link is which.
Despite all that, I did enjoy the concept of the different Links, including Shadow Link, and how one of them is lured from the side of good to the side of evil, showing that there is subtlety and complexity to Link, who could easily just be generically good and heroic.
3 out of 5
The Legend Of Zelda: Four Swords - Part 2
(Art by Akira Himekawa)
Book 7. Having been split up, the four Links (Green, Red, Blue and Violet) have to each find their own strength before they are reunited to fight Shadow Link, the demon Vaati and the Dark Lord Ganon.
This book benefits greatly from having had the first book to establish the setting, villains and natures of the four (well, five) Links. With the other Zelda Manga, some of them feel pretty rushed by having to fit all of the set-up, questing and final confrontation into a single volume. Here, however, the story has a bit more room to breathe and is much better for it.
Although the fact that the Links are colour-coded and this book is black and white is still a bit of a problem, by splitting them up for a good chunk of the book we get to know each of them as individual characters, which helps a great deal. It's interesting to see how each aspect of Link's character, including Shadow, deals with situations and I was particularly amused to see that Red is even a little bit gay for Blue.
When the four Links finally reunite to confront the villains it feels genuinely triumphant and the ending is an appropriately bittersweet conclusion to the quest.
4 out of 5
The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask
(Art by Akira Himekawa)
Book 3. The Manga adaptation of the N64 game of the same name, a sequel to 'Ocarina of Time'. When the trickster Skull Kid is possessed by the power of the titular cursed mask, Link is transported to a different dimension, where he has just three days to prevent the moon from crashing down and destroying Clock Town.
Unlike 'Ocarina of Time', I didn't actually play 'Majora's Mask' that much and didn't have as fond memories of it as I did the previous game. However, this book does a good job of capturing the darker tone of the game and the sense of impending doom created by the steadily descending moon (complete with scary, angry face). There's also a sense of melancholy and tragedy to the story here which is less endearing but feels much truer to Japanese mythology and folklore.
The biggest failing of this book is tied directly to it being a game adaptation, with Link's quests being very transparently separate missions within the game and are somewhat repetitive in nature.
3 out of 5
The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time - Part 1
(Art by Akira Himekawa)
Book 1. The first half of a Manga adaptation of the story of the classic N64 computer game. In the Kokiri Forest the young boy Link is tasked with seeking out Princess Zelda in attempt to defeat the evil Lord Ganondorf. His adventures will lead him to the fiery land of the Gorons and the watery world of the Zoras before he confronts his destiny as the Hero of Time.
Now, I'll freely admit that a large part of my enjoyment of this book is down to the fact that 'Ocarina of Time' is one of my favourite computer games of all time. I ploughed countless joyous hours into the game as a teenager and it will always hold a place in my heart. This book does a great job of capturing the important story beats of the game, faithfully recreating the settings and characters in such a way that it very much pushed my nostalgia buttons.
It's hard to say if someone unfamiliar with the game will get as much out of this book as I did, but the core elements of the story are very strong. It's a classic tale of a young person leaving the sheltered world of their childhood, going out into a much wider world and embarking on an epic quest. All that said, the 'go there, collect that' mechanic of the game is still present here and makes some parts of the book a bit predictable and repetitive.
4 out of 5
The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time - Part 2
(Art by Akira Himekawa)
Book 2. The conclusion of the story which sees Link gather the Seven Sages and confront the Dark Lord Ganondorf. Also included are a standalone story set amid the adult timeframe of 'Ocarina of Time' and a prequel story which features the Skull Kid and acts as a link to 'Majora's Mask'.
I have to say that this book was a bit of a step down from the first volume. Here things feel pretty rushed and, at times, a little confusing. It's as if, having done some wonderful scene-setting, in the first book, the writers felt that they didn't need any in this book, but that completely ignores the fact that the 'future' setting in the game had some really interesting darker takes on the places featured in the 'past' era. The quest for the Sage of Water, for example takes up about two pages and doesn't bother to explore the fact that the watery land of the Zoras is now shrouded in ice. It gets a mention, sure, but not much more than that.
The two bonus stories are perfectly fine, in fact it's nice to see a link (pun intended) to the next story in the series through the mask-loving Skull Kid, but they are just fairly short sidequests and not much more.
This is in no way a bad book, but it doesn't have the same charm and immersiveness of the first book, instead just feeling like a hurried rush to briefly touch on the major story beats and wrap everything up. I do want to show some appreciation for Zelda's role in this, however. It's nice to see her refusing to just be the damsel in distress, a trope all too common in similar stories (the Zelda and Mario games among them).
3 out of 5
The Legend Of Zelda: Oracle Of Ages
(Art by Akira Himekawa)
Book 5 and the sequel to 'Oracle of Seasons'. The adaptation of a Game Boy Colour computer game, this story sees Link sent to protect Nayru, the Oracle of Ages. However, when Nayru is possessed by the evil sorceress Veran, Link must follow them into the past and stop Veran from irrevocably changing the future.
This book isn't quite as enjoyable as 'Oracle of Seasons' for two main reasons, the first of which is simply that due to the nature of the two games (whose stories could be played in either order or independently of each other) this second book feels overly similar in a lot of aspects to the first. The other big problem is time travel. Time travel is always a challenging narrative device to get right but it managed to work perfectly in 'Ocarina of Time'. Here, however, it doesn't work half so well and is filled with plot holes regarding causality. Now, as a Doctor Who fan, I'm used to fudging temporal logic a little bit but how it works in this book is too broken to be forgivable.
Nevertheless, this is still a fun little adventure for Link who ends the book as a Hylian Knight ready for his next adventure.
3 out of 5
The Legend Of Zelda: Oracle Of Seasons
(Art by Akira Himekawa)
Book 4. A Manga adaptation of the titular computer game for the Game Boy Colour and Game Boy Advanced. Young farm hand Link travels to Hyrule Castle to train as a knight but instead finds himself transported to the land of Holodrum. There he sets out on a quest to rescue Din, the beautiful Oracle of Seasons, from the villainous General Onox.
I've never played the game this was based on (nor it's companion 'Oracle of Ages') so I can't tell you whether or not this book is a good adaptation, but it is an enjoyable adventure. Once you get your head around the fact that, despite being book four of the series, this story shares no continuity with the other books (Link didn't grow up as a Kokiri, Impa is a fat maid instead of a fearsome warrior etcetera) you can enjoy this book as simply a story of an unsure hero finding his courage and self-belief, making friends and allies, before defeating the villain and rescuing the girl.
The 'friends and allies' aspect of this book gives it its best and worst elements. The best element was the prickly and manipulative young witch Maple, who becomes a dedicated friend almost despite herself. The worst element is that two of Link's companions are talking animals; a chick which falls in love with him (no, really) and a boxing glove-wearing kangaroo called Ricky (no, really). They're not actually bad characters but specifically what they each are ruins the tone of the story.
3 out of 5
The Legend Of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
(Art by Akira Himekawa)
Book 10. Based on the DS game from 2007, this story sees Link adopting the life of a pirate adventuring on the high seas. When his friend Tetra is captured by a ghost ship, Link has to set out to free the Ocean King and defeat the monster Bellum.
This is definitely one of the lighter and more kid-friendly books of this series (not that they're not all kid-friendly, this one is just more so) but it's still a perfectly fun adventure for Link and the oceanic setting brings something a bit fresh to the 'Link has to complete quest to rescue so-and-so...' formula.
There's not much more to say except to raise an eyebrow (and maybe a 'Yikes!') at the fact that Tetra is briefly referenced as really being someone else in disguise despite that character definitely being white and Tetra seeming to be a person of colour (at least she is on the cover). Is 'insert-person-you've-probably-guessed-here' doing blackface? If so, not cool.
3 out of 5
The Legend Of Zelda: The Minish Cap
(Art by Akira Himekawa)
Book 8, adapting a 2005 Game Boy Advance game. When the mysterious mage Vaati turns Princess Zelda to stone, young Link must shrink down to enter the world of the Picori to reforge a powerful sword and defeat the villain.
Despite being Book 8 of this series, this book has the least continuity with the rest of the books of any of them so far (and that's saying something). Even Vaati, who was a wind demon in the last book (Four Swords - Part 2) is a totally different character here. The overall look and tone of the book is also geared more to younger readers too, feeling more like a fairytale than a fantasy adventure. So, best to think of this as a standalone adventure aimed at a younger audience, rather than part of the larger Legend of Zelda series (not that there's much continuity anyway).
Since it's lighter in tone and more kid-friendly in style than the other Manga books in this series, I definitely enjoyed it less than I have done the others. But that's not to say that it's bad really. This is still a perfectly enjoyable Hyrule-based adventure, just a different flavour.
All that said, I do have to raise a bit of a 'Yikes' at the scene where tiny shrunken Link uses the opportunity to look up a woman's skirt. Not cool dude, not cool.
3 out of 5
The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Volume 1
(Art by Akira Himekawa)
Beginning a new Zelda series, telling a single story rather than eight individual ones, this book opens with Link working as a farmhand in an idyllic village, hiding from a dark secret in his past. Soon, however, the village is attacked by demons from the Twilight Realm and Link must once again take up a sword to defend the villagers who have taken him in.
Immediately with this book you realise that not only has the art advanced significantly, but the plot and designs have also matured considerably too. This story is therefore aimed at an older target audience than any of the ten original Zelda Manga volumes and, frankly, is much better as a result. Without the burden of being kid-friendly, Himekawa is able to create some genuinely emotionally complex story beats, as well as some truly horrific monsters that fit right into Japanese folklore.
The fact that this is the beginning of a much longer story tells too, allowing for time to be spent establishing characters and settings in a way that Himekawa wasn't able to before, at least not to this degree. The disruption of Link's peaceful life in the village actually carries much more emotional weight thanks to us having spent fully half of the book with him and the villagers enjoying said peaceful life.
Whilst I've never been a fan of a cliffhanger ending, I'm very happy with how this series is getting started.
4 out of 5
Read more...
Zelda (here)