#akira himekawa manga

[zelda-the-sacred-realm]

Day 11 - Wander from the inktober 2023 calendar!

I dedicate this day to Four sword! I recently reread the manga and I always love how these four Links are different from each other, so I wanted to do a tribute to the manga with a style that recalls it!

They are wandering in the distorted part of the village, I absolutely loved this part of the story!

Also I love Vio, he's like the best in the whole manga 🥰

[ixtaek]

[cervideity]

Checking in for the night

[p2ii]

redraw of one of my favourite AB03 official arts

[hauntinghyrule]

I have been going through Akira Himekawa's Twitter, trying to salvage Four Swords -related content before the site completely collapses in on itself, and...

Guys.

Guys.

The original sketch of what would become the inside cover of the Legendary Edition was posted on the first day of Pride Month.

[fourswordsannotated]

akira himekawa are unbelievably cool.

soooo here's the thing. i was looking at akira himekawa's website on a whim and found a public blog, with posts that go all the way back to 2009. many hours of google translating later, and i've developed an even stronger admiration of these two women and their exceptional career as manga artists. they share so much in these posts about the creative process, their thoughts on social justice, their connections with nature, and their most major original story, gliding reki, which seems to have always been a passion project in the midst of commercial work.

from what i could gather, reki is unique in that they were determined to do it in full color. and they did it, because after reading about their career, it's clear to me that when these women set their mind to an idea, they make it happen. see also: they just recently produced and distributed their own art book, because no publishers were offering to do it in a way that pleased them.

their stated goals for reki were to make something more adult than their previous children's manga, taking place in a city, involving a lot of mechanical art, and featuring stronger romantic and self-described erotic subtext. good for them. before i get into the four swords-related stuff, i'm sharing what i could find on the internet about reki.

more under the cut, because there's quite a bit to discuss :)

not much that i could find on the blog specifically references four swords, but they have many fascinating insights about nintendo, the zelda fandom, and the franchise as a whole. i can't know for certain because this information was surmised from translated text, but it seems as if their manga with chibi link made them feel a little stifled, which is why they took a long break before returning to do twilight princess. it's not lost on me that even a work like four swords, which they may regard as not their favorite or best, still has inspired and brought together so many passionate, creative, and diverse people. this is especially sweet because it seems as if they met each other, and formed their creative partnership, because of a shared fandom interest of their own.

honda and nagano have shared their thoughts and feelings on this blog for more than a decade, and they have a lot of thoughts and feelings. throughout their entire career they've made commentary on work-life balance, their experiences as women in a male-dominated field, and their desire to create original art while simultaneously enjoying some commercial work as well. they are passionate about social justice, particularly re: women and indigenous people, and offer insights on aspects of culture and history and the state of the world that really could resonate with anyone. and they really seem to appreciate fans of their work, and emphasize repeatedly the care and thought they put into their manga in the hopes it will inspire and bring catharsis to readers. they love animals (especially wolves), being outside in nature, being nerds about art they enjoy, a certain subgenre of romantic manga that appealed to and empowered female readers in the 90's and 2000's, and traveling around the world to partake in activities like horse riding and falconry.

the coolest part is, they're still updating the blog to this day :) in fact they seem to have recently returned to it, reflecting that twitter is not their preferred manner of sharing things online. they seem very familiar with and fond of older-school blogging culture.

there's a lot more i could say here about my findings, some of which do pertain to... certain ships 💜🖤 . but i don't want my genuine appreciation for these authors to be overshadowed by that kind of conversation. in addition to a link to the blog itself, i'm including a few translated posts of interests, which you can interpret and incorporate into your perception of the media however you please. at the end of the day, it's a really cool gift that these artists have chosen to share so much over such a long period of time. by making their personalities, beliefs, and insights more visible to fans of their work, i hope it brings new context to the stories we already love.

a modern-day insight:

re: the zelda mangas. these are from several points throughout their career. please note that they have so many fond things to say about zelda as a franchise and their work on the mangas, especially regarding the way they've affected fans. i encourage you to look for yourself, on their blog and their other socials!

re: gliding reki

re: the creative process (and in the latter two, the fandom that seems to have inspired them!)

re: their two goofyass adorable tiny dogs that they dress up in outfits while also loving wolves like a lot, they love wolves (both domesticated and wild), they really love wolves

re: wolf day (every day is wolf day,)

re: indigenous rights

re: painting serious works on commission vs their manga. i can't know for sure exactly what it means, but it really does kinda hit

re: a fan and manga artist in training bringing them art and a note

and a moment from a twilight princess manga interview i found very sweet :)

okay. you've made it to the end. i know you're wondering. here you go. please remember that this is and always has been a public blog, and these posts are actually from 2009 and 2010. also please remember that the point of this post is not to cause or fuel fandom discourse, but to appreciate these authors and the things that they choose to express.

(also, this is the column they were referring to in image 1. it's FASCINATING. give it a read if you'd like!)

the dots are there. you're welcome to connect them.

thank you for your beautiful work and insights, honda and nagano. please never change.

[dweamofsweep]

it absolutely kills me that Akira Himekawa made a fan manga / doujin for Cyborg 009 many years ago… but it’s not available anywhere online 😭😭😭😭

I need it so bad. I adore AH in general but had no idea they were Cyborg 009 fans until literally yesterday?? And now I am just screaming internally wishing I could get my hands on this.

[shinyzango]

Why the fuck is region locking still an existing concept in 2024?

--Me, wanting to check out one of my oldest inspirations' newest manga on VIZ Manga and being told that the content "is not available in my location" 😑

[lucky-clover-gazette]

(light mode translation from google translate, dark mode is safari auto translate)

[mistress-light]

Feeling your spirit and warmth beside me. Brings me joy.

[tinyetoile]

Okay I was alseep for the past 12 hours. But

Echoes of Wisdom looks adorable and I'm so glad they're reusing the Link's Awakening remake style for it

I remember saying literally years ago that a game with Zelda as the protagonist should be more puzzle-focused instead of combat-focused AND APPARENTLY NINTENDO WAS TAPPIN MY WIRES WHEN I WAS SAYING THAT

Zelda's adventuring outfit is so goddamn cute good for you girl

The literal only complaint I have is WHY IS HER PRINCESS OUTFIT HER OCARINA OF TIME DESIGN

SHOULDN'T IT HE HER LTTP DESIGN?

[zelda-the-sacred-realm]

You say twilight and time aren't related, but everyone knows they're - I was wondering if you could explain why you chose that

Ok, first of all I apologize if there is a spoiler on the TP manga in this post

Who has read the perfect editions know that in the one dedicated to four swords there is an interview between the duo Akira Himekawa and Aonuma.

I want to focus on the interview because it revealed a very important detail, Akira Himekawa revealed that they wrote the manga stories in close contact with the Zelda team and Nintendo.

They therefore followed canonically the Zelda team's ideas and nothing that was not approved by Nintendo itself was made in the manga, therefore the manga is Canon.

Now let's get to our subject, I highlighted on the page the fact that Hero's shade tells Twilight that they are "not blood kin" but that he considers him as a son. I also read the manga in Italian and the meaning is the same.

These two are not related, I understood it from the way they spoke and from their speeches in the game. I know that the word ancestor was used in the official book, but I always had the thought that it referred to ancestor as hero, not as relative.

But I respect the fans' thoughts and I think it's nice to imagine that these two are related, but since my story is based on what I know of canon, I kept the two unrelated, but still Time feels Twilight like a son, just like in the manga ☺️

I hope I have explained everything well, and I apologize for the possible spoilers

Thank you for your question! 💖

[ixtaek]

I’m just sayin, if the Four Swords manga is canon, all of Akira Himekawa’s works should be. Because I want Time/Mask

To suffer

[glorious-chainsaw-method]

Linktober

Day 2 - Friend/Companion

[craniodedragao]

I don't like Astro Boy, WTF are you talking about?

[hauntinghyrule]

Preserving Four Swords art from Akira Himekawa's Twitter

Here's what I've managed to salvage so far. Anyone know of anything I might be missing?

2012-06-01 and 2015-10-06:

Original caption (left):

下描き整理中に発見。四剣のヴィオ＆シャドウだよ＊色付��しようと思ってそのままになってるイラストのラフです(^^)bこれから色塗って完成させてみようかな。

Original caption (right):

トライフォース三銃士を横から眺めるヴィオ君とそんな奴らイイから俺と遊ぼーぜ的なシャドウ君( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

—

2016-10-29, 2016-11-16 and 2020-07-28:

Interesting thing here: I'm mostly focused on preserving art that's on Twitter but not in the manga itself. This art, despite being a preview for the colored pages of the Legendary Edition, does not appear to be in the English version. I have not been able to find out if the Japanese version or any other edition has more color pages.

—

2018-11-02 and 2018-11-05:

Technically not new art, I just wanted to show you pictures of Akira Himekawa signing autographs under a huge poster of the inside cover.

There was also merch from the event - again technically not new art, but... familiar art in a new format?

—

2019-12-16:

I'm starting to run out of space for images, and this one is ambiguous, but... this looks like Blue, doesn't it?

—

2020-04-13:

Original captions:

オレ様だって洗ってるぜ #二次元でも手洗いうがい #手洗いうがい

ボクらだってやってるよ ❣️ #二次元でも手洗いうがい  #手洗いうがい

ボクらはしばらく合体できないね  (わかる人にはわかるハズ😊)  #二次元でも手洗いうがい  #SocialDistance #SocialDistancing