A Link to the Past, by Shotaro Ishinomori. Only a cult author could bring Link's adventures to paper

Adventure, fantasy, manga and humor. The legendary Shotaro Ishinomoria well-deserved cult author, brought the SNES video game Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past to paper with a markedly youthful tone, giving readers and fans of the Nintendo saga a fun adaptation with its many licenses and its still greatest hits. And while Ishinomori didn’t live to see the debut of Ocarina of Time, it’s fascinating how many elements of his work were perpetuated in the N64 game and all that followed.

Don’t get me wrong: the manga of Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past by Ishinomori is a work that does not seek to integrate into the canon of the series or be faithful to it. It would be almost, almost a crime to ask the author of Cyborg 009 o Came Riders to limit himself to embodying what is shown in The Brain of the Beast at the cost of his creativity and, in the process, limiting his style and tone when these should be a claim in itself.

Even when, technically, this manga premiered where his own name and works weren’t widely known: in the magazine Nintendo Power of the United States.

Instead of opening in Japan, the manga Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past by Shotaro Ishinomori began to be published by chapters and on a monthly basis in the magazine Nintendo Power between the January and December 1992 issues, so Japanese readers won’t know about it until a year later. An expectation that, in the case of Europe and a good part of Europe, until no less than 2016. Revalidating its successes and its timelessness as a work: much of what was originally shown in it ended up integrated in one way or another in the saga.

And beware, Ishinomori made an extra effort in the face of this adaptation, since both the drawing and the reading were done to be read from left to right (as in the West) instead of how manga are read in Japan. Which brings us to the first of the issues to be discussed: is it an addition to a youth magazine or a more ambitious work?

Or put another way: to what extent is it possible to see the Nintendo video game reflected on each page of Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past?

From the outset, the structure of the adventure itself runs more or less similar, but the portrait of Link, the Kingdom of Hyrule and even the World of Darkness itself are a genuine extension of the work of Shotaro Ishinomori.

Enriching and enlivening the reading and, in the process, making each chapter enjoyable in a very special way for fans of the Zelda saga.

The Hero of Hyrule drawn through the brushes of Shotaro Ishinomori

It is said that about 400 years agothe powerful Ganon it was sealed in the World of Darkness thanks to the will of the seven sages of the Kingdom of Hyrule. During all this time, his evil spread little by little and corrupted the world, encouraged by Ganon’s will to free himself from his doom. Especially now that the Master Sword it is not a threat to him.

The legendary sword feared by Ganon has become a forgotten legend in Hyrule, and even if someone manages to find it, they should be worthy of wielding it. An adventurer brave, powerful and wise enough to unleash his true power. However, the last descendant of the great lineage of heroes has just been eliminated, so he only needs to make seven sacrifices to return from exile.

Princess Zeldathe legitimate heir to the Kingdom of Hyrule, will complete the sacrificial ritual orchestrated by the evil sorcerer I know But there is still one last glimmer of hope in Hyrule: the young Link he wakes up to Zelda’s desperate call, and without thinking too much about it, he decides to face the unknown. But, What can a simple farmer do in the face of such a powerful threat?

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past by Shotaro Ishinomori takes in a very arbitrary way the events, characters, events and settings of the video game of the same name and puts them at the complete service of his brushes, so that fantasy, moments of humor and great sequences of action and emotion are approached through through a Link has its own personality but, at the same time, discovers everything that happens page by page with the reader himself.

In fact, it cannot be blamed for being an adapt ation of the video game with its own licenses. Among other reasons, because it’s a very different medium

so that you must find your own language to strengthen the essence of A Link to the Past and, in the process, knowing how to select what to add, what to remove and what to change. Because there are a lot of changes and they are all widely forgivable.

An example of this, not to offer too many details, is Link gets trapped in the World of Darkness and can’t resume his adventure in Hyrule, which makes sense since in a comic or manga going around and coming back makes the reader wonder. easily disorient or lead you nowhere. And, in this sense, in this world instead of being exposed to a transformation without the Moonstone, it is enough to control his emotions.

But in the end everything ends up fitting wonderfully facing a story created to be published monthly, divided into 12 chapters and that knows how to preserve all the essentials of the video game. From trips to obtain relics to confrontations against final bosses and even a curious walk through dungeons and temples. A set of elements very well spun and in which there is room for comedy, without the adventure or action giving up their space and importance.

As for the style of drawing, and as we have already commented, Shotaro Ishinomori’s highly recognizable brushes inherit what he has learned during his long career (Guinness record holder) preserving the best of that line of classic Japanese from before the 80s and, at the same time, assimilating the context and essence of the game without being limited to the way in which the same ideas are presented to console gamers. And that has double merit.

In fact, Ishinomori puts in a lot, a lot of his harvestincluding characters created for the occasion such as a rival to the hero Roam or a fairy named Epheremelda who, coincidentally or not, was six years ahead of Navi’s existence in The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. And, to be honest, it wasn’t the only thing we first saw in the manga of Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and then we will end up discovering in video games.

A masterful sequel to Ocarina of Time (and everything that came after) released in 1992

It’s awesome to read Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, not only after having played the video game of the same name, but any of the titles in the Zelda saga that came later. After all, we had to wait until 2015 to see it in Europe, and a year later for it to be translated into Spanish, which means that Breath of The Wild will still be a long year away.

And yet, in its pages we not only see reflected that adventure for the Brain of the Beast, but we can even find references or ideas that will return in practically each and every one of the games of the main saga that will arrive during the following years. . Starting with the aforementioned Epheremelda and how she will officially get ahead of Navi, being Link’s first accompanying fairy and guide on an adventure of The Legend of Zelda.

Elements that go from the transformation of Ganondorf into Ganon, which was originally referred to in the SNES video game, but was not fully developed until Ocarina of Time, the concept of the guardian birds that in the future will become the pelicaros of Skyward Sword and, although technically the events of Majora’s Mask take place in a parallel timeline to A Link to the Past, even the concept of Link’s masks was first explored.

As a result of all of the above, and as long as we are very clear about the youthful tone of the group, we find ourselves with 12 terribly enjoyable and entertaining chapters that marry wonderfully with all the games released after A Link to the Past

. That, without being tied to the official Nintendo chronology, assimilates it and presents it in a very pleasant and entertaining way without derailing too much from the original vision of its creators, which seem to have welcomed it very well very specific elements of Ishinomori’s pages.

At this point it is time to talk about the edition that Norma Comics has published in Europe, and it is a true treasure: the first edition arrived on October 29, 2016, offering the12 chapters comprehensively in a single volume Hardcover, with 196 full color pages, whose size (20.6 x 27.6 cm) is slightly smaller than the large volumes of Hyrule Historia, but produced with the same care.

In this regard, Shotaro Ishinomori was not the only one to adapt The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past to the manga format. Ataru Cagiva made his own version of it in 1995 and Akira Himekawa’s will arrive in 2005 and will even be released in Europe by Norma Editorial itself.

Although, of course, it must be recognized that, despite its markedly youthful tone, Ishinomori’s manga is much more appreciated for those who do not know the saga and brings something special to those who are deeply involved in it: despite its defects, a feeling of timelessness which only appears in truly exceptional works.

iGamesNews’s opinion

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, by Shotaro Ishinomori is a manga as curious as it is exceptional. Despite being drawn for Nintendo Power magazine, it displays the author’s talent on each page and his identity both with the brushes and when it comes to offering a fun, entertaining and youthful adventure. That addresses the essence of Zelda from its roots and, from there, amplifies Ishinomori’s talent and successes as a cartoonist and screenwriter.

Humanizing Link in the relaxed scenes, but also making him the rightful wielder of the Master Sword retaining the iconography of the saga.

Ishinomori does not aspire to offer the most faithful adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but to something even greater: to adapt it to the general public and to all the readers eager to enjoy a story in which there are heroes, fantasy and a lot of adventure. That it takes a little while to read, but like the video game on which it is based, it is a pleasure to start from scratch every once in a while.

Especially when you discover among its pages some new detail that, by chance or not, ended up appearing many years later. in some later adventure of the hero of Hyrule.

And, in the process, A Link to the Past by Ishinomori becomes a must-read for any fan of the Nintendo saga and a true treasure for lovers of Link’s adventures. With its defects, with its licenses and also with pleasant successes that overlap the above. Moreover, we do not rule out that in the next video games of The Legend of Zelda let us continue to find ideas that appeared in some way among its pages. Like that hot air balloon from Tears of the Kingdom.

Excuses, after all, to give a new reading to those Link adventures drawn with such grace by the legendary Shotaro Ishinomori.