Scanned and uploaded by the Zelda fansite Kasuto, this beautiful manga following the original Legend of Zelda – Hyrule Fantasy storyline was drawn and written by Yuu Mishouzaki and published in 1989.
From Wikipedia:
In this manga adaption Link isn’t a traveller but an apprentice gardener living in Hyrule Castle. Other differences include Link’s ears being pointed due to his being a half-elf (in the AoL manual illustrations the ears of Impa’s tribe are also pointed), Impa is drastically younger (possibly because Zelda is stated to be of the same generation as Link), etc. These changes contribute to the manga’s drastic deviation from the canon.
The manga also has a sequel, the Adventure of Link Manga. In addition, be sure to check out Akira Himekawa’s Phantom Hourglass Manga.
Now if we gave Link his signature hat and took away the “connection” he has to Zelda, this would have made a much better story than that stupid cartoon.
Haha. Is it bad that “that Zelda cartoon” immediately makes me think of the CD-i games?
The manga doesn’t appear to be showing up. I think it’s broken?
Unfortunately, I lost the manga went my site went down in March. If you or anyone you know has backups of the translated pages, please email me at glitterberri.com@gmail.com!
You can find this manga at mangatraders.com!
So you can. And not only that, they’ve removed my translation credits from the front page. Thanks a lot for the tip!
Beautiful artwork in this one! Nintendo should make a Zelda game that follows the story of this manga, just for the hell of it.