The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask - Legendary Edition by Akira Kimekawa review
Majora's Mask has been met with a reimagined creative fate
Released back in April 2000, Majora’s Mask had a huge expectation to meet due to the success of Ocarina of Time. To this day Zelda fans still debate which Nintendo 64 game was the best. Both games are clearly two of the best in the franchise, and will likely appear in the Switch’s upcoming Virtual Console. Akira Kimekawa (the pen name for two Japanese comic book writers and designers) have allowed Zelda fans to revisit Hyrule and Termina, while also giving a slight twist to the original stories.
Unlike most comic books and manga, Akira Kimekawa's Zelda adaptations do not focus heavily on the combat scenes, but more on the characters and stories. Majora’s Mask has one of the most unique range of characters and plot within the series, which lends itself perfectly to being adapted in this manner. Akira Kimekawa do a fantastic job of making the story their own, while also adding new and intriguing moments.
The story begins from the point of view of Skull Kid, who is interested in the Majora’s Mask and steals it from the Happy Mask Salesman. It doesn’t offer too much insight into the character, but it’s a nice introduction to the story. On the other hand, Link’s introduction is slightly strange. It begins with Link relaxing in Hyrule Field, but he then travels to see Master Osun (who trains people in combat skills). Nothing much comes of this, and it doesn’t really serve a purpose: nothing is revealed about Link and the story is paused after an exciting opening.
But after this the book picks up where the game begins, with Link being attacked by the mysterious Skull Kid who turns Link into a Deku Scrub. Yet from there Akira Kimekawa’s creativity comes into play and Link bumps into
Anju once he arrives in Clock Town, and she takes the little Deku Scrub to the Inn for safe-keeping. In the following pages we get to see a lot of Anju’s character, including her love for the soon-to-be husband Kafei. This was one of the best side quests of the game so it was nice to see it included so early within the book.
Obviously not all of the side quests can be included. In fact dungeons are pretty much excluded too. The boss fights are 1 or 2 page battles, with more time spent on the lead up to the battles, or the interaction with various characters. The book follows a fairly similar timeline as the game, but only includes the key moments. The battle scenes aren’t that tense or exciting, but each major character is given a compelling representation.
The Legendary version of this manga includes a stylish new cover and uses colour in the opening pages of the story. It’s a nice addition that we wish was continued throughout the book, despite Akira Kimekawa’s drawings being beautiful. But the coloured pages are very flimsy and literally fell out of the book after only the second time of reading. That definitely shouldn’t be happening in a Legendary version of a book…
Overall Akira Kimekawa have created a fun version of Majora’s Mask. It’s different enough of a story for veterans of the game to find something new, but mainly we’d say this manga is a nostalgia trip for Zelda fans. Certainly worth a read for anyone who enjoyed Majora’s Mask. If you’re looking for N64 nostalgia then the Nintendo 64 Anthology is a must read, which also includes a summary of Majora’s Mask and every other game on the N64.
