The Legend of Zelda (Cagiva)

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA (CAGIVA)

Ah, now this is more like it. If you ever want just a quick fun read with good characters and story, Cagiva Ataru's adaptations of A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening are the manga for you. While they're not quite the quality of the Himekawa manga that we'll talk about later, these are still a really good time. It ran starting in 1995, generally following the plot of both games, though with a few key differences.

Cagiva's A Link to the Past adaptation follows a trio of companions as they fight against the forces of Ganon and Agahnim, venturing into the Dark World to save Zelda and the land of Hyrule. These three are Link, his best friend and martial artist Raska, and Captain Arjuna, leader of the royal guard and Kakashi-esque mentor to the two of them. Link is pretty standard, training in using a sword and shield and all the other tools of the game, while Raska uses more physical martial arts moves, including a palm thrust, knee attack, jab, two-palm strike, a shield thrust, and throwing spikes used as projectiles. Captain Arjuna, while constantly fighting alongside the boys, never seems to get any clear focus on any of his attacks outside of basic sword strikes, the artwork instead preferring to show what the boys are doing. Luckily, though, he is the leader of the Hylian Soldiers, and we might be able to do something with that.

We have a few other supporting characters here, such as Princess Zelda herself, a damsel in distress for most of the plot; Link's Uncle, who straight up died in this version of the story; Kanika, a scientist and researcher trapped in the dark world who becomes a companion and almost traitor to our heroes at one point. Sadly, he is a very distinctly inactive character, so not much there. And we have Tou, Raska's father, who taught him everything he knows and thus knows all of it too. From there, we have Agahnim and Ganon as the villains, but they're pretty standard to the game.

Cagiva's version of Link's Awakening sticks much closer to the source, with barely any original characters. We see Link decide to leave home for a while, leaving Raska and Arjuna behind, and set out to sea. He ends up on Koholint Island and develops a rather sweet romance with Marin, making him struggle with the choice to wake the Wind Fish or not. There is a couple of new characters, like Felicia the fairy, and Master Drona, who punches and throws his sword, but that's about it.

Anyway, that's about it. Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Manga Link: slingshot, sword, shield, bow, boomerang, bombs, magic wand, Watto, become a fairy, healing magic, thunder, fly on shield, raft, Link to the Past-related stuff

Zelda: club, rope, sword, flute, spells, transform, sea monster, magic

Biri: sword, torches, pitchforks, battering rams

Raska: palm thrust, knee, jab, two-palm strike, shield thrust, throwing spikes

Captain Arjuna: Hylian Soldier moveset

Marin

Link's Uncle: sword

Kanika

Tou: same as Raska

Couscous: spells, claw, bite

Birina

Gump: trained Link, sword, training staff, flip

Shemlon: forge, enchant swords, sword, reflect

Ganon/Ganon's Minion: burn, magic blast, disappear, fly, shock, storm, teleport, shapeshift, Ganon's hand

Agahnim

Stages:

Ganon's Statue

Thanks for reading! Next up, the most consistent mangaka of the bunch, the works of Himekawa Akira!