Zelda no Densetsu

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Both of the Ranmaru Zelda mangas are very obscure - less than 500 people have them in their lists total as of writing this, and you don't see much discussion online either. This is no doubt mostly due to the inaccessibility of them. The physical Japanese volumes nowadays cost like $150 or more on ebay, they were never officially translated, and fan scans and translations are quite hard to find. This is a shame, however, because The Legend of Zelda by Ranmaru is about as good as an 80s manga adaptation of a video game can get.

The story is basically an expanded story of the ... video game. It touches on all the major beats, which in the first Zelda game consisted of a simple loop - exploration of the overworld, discovery of a temple, exploration of the temple, beating the boss at the end and then moving on. It condenses a great deal of the journey, as not all of the dungeons are shown in full. Instead, the story is padded a bit by addition of characters, villages and storylines that were not present in the original, due to the simple nature of the game. It adds a bit more character to the land of Hyrule, and makes the whole journey a bit more personal. At some points it does give little hints for the gameplay, just like a game manual might, but it was more cheeky than anything, integrated in the dialogue, and didn't feel at all forced.

The manga makes a choice of adding the first ever companion to Link, a talking parrot named Watt. It's there so Link is not just silent all the time, and has someone to bounce off of. Both of them serve as pretty good protagonists. Link is more serious and stoic (though not too serious, this IS a manga for children after all), and Watt is his silly and unserious foil. Talking animal companions in kids' manga can get pretty annoying, but Watt never overstays his welcome.

The art is a highlight of this manga. The cartoony style is perfect for a game such as Zelda 1, and the monsters are like straight out of the game manual. All the locations are faithful to the game, but done in a level of detail and care that really brings the world to life. It depicts the temples and creatures pretty much how a child may imagine when they are playing the game.

Overall it's a very charming manga that deserves more recognition, not only if you're a fan of Zelda.

8/10