So few weeks ago I got the chance to attend Anime North, one of the biggest cons to focus almost entirely on Japanese animation, comics and culture. Back in March I was musing about my love of conventions, and Anime North is one of my favorites. This con is fan-run, covers a variety of topics, is 2SLGBTQIA+ friendly and accommodating of various disabilities, and it’s just a great time regardless of how big an anime fan you are.
But here’s the thing about me and anime/manga. I’m definitely a fan… but I’m not a huge fan, at least not compared to some. Chances are if you ask me if I’ve seen a series, the answer is no. Attack on Titan? Nope. My Hero Academia? Nope. Jujutsu Kaisen? Watched the first couple of episodes but nothing else yet. It’s tricky when I’m talking to other anime fans who are so eager to gush about their favorites and I have very few points of reference.
Also I have yet to see a single Miyazaki film. Yes, I hang my head in shame.
So the Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom has been out for just over three months now, and at the time of writing this, I still haven’t beaten the thing. It’s a game of Gleeok1-sized proportions with so much to do and/or faff about with. I’m enjoying the heck out of it, and so is my fiancée, who doesn’t get that into games very often. I shouldn’t be surprised about that, though; we both got really into the game’s predecessor, Breath of the Wild. And I’ve been playing Zelda games since Ocarina of Time3, only skipping Spirit Tracks for mainline releases4. So, while I don’t know if I count as a super fan of the series, I’m at least at least a long-time player.
But this post is only partly about the games. What I want to discuss here is other media surrounding the series, which means I’m starting with a collection of manga. These mangas take the admittedly fairly basic stories of the Zelda games and imbue them and their characters with more personality, expand the lore behind the game, and, perhaps most importantly, give silent protagonist Link a personality and voice. So naturally, I’m going to start out of order and talk about The Four Swords, wherein Link gets split into four versions of himself by the titular sword, each with a different personality. This manga makes the story of one of the most remote Zelda games, Four Swords Adventures, accessible to more players. This game required every player to have their own Game Boy Advance and a link cable to connect it to the Gamecube, making the cost of entry pretty high, but it was an absolute blast if you had a group that met the requirements. It’s co-op but with a competitive aspect of who could collect the most force gems5. This aspect is explored in the manga, where Link’s clones aren’t necessarily always helpful in the quest to rescue Princess Zelda from the Sorcerer Vaati6. The villain alone makes this one worth checking out, as Vaati has only appeared in three Zelda games, and two of them required friends to play with7 while the other has only recently been released from Game Boy Advance prison to the Switch online expansion pass. Sadly, we can’t help you play the game, but we do have a good selection of games for newer consoles than the GBA.
