Summary
TheLegend of Zelda: Twilight Princessmanga is based on the 2006 videogame, which recently got its first digital release since publication. The manga had originally only been available legally through physical print copies.
Not long after the digital release ofThe Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princessmanga created by mangaka duo Akira Himekawa, GameRant got the opportunity to sit down with Mike Montesa, Senior Editor at VIZ Media to hear his thoughts about the series, his work, and more.
RELATED:VIZ Media and Nintendo To Make The Legend of Zelda Manga Available Digitally For the First Time
Q: How did you first come to meet the authors, Akira Himekawa?
Montesa: The editors at VIZ Media actually do not have very much contact with the Japanese creators, except if they are guests at conventions. That’s where I first met the duo Akira Himekawa, I think at Anime Expo in 2016, then I saw them again at New York Comic Con in 2017, and then one more time at London Comic Con in 2019, just before the pandemic.
Q: You’ve been editor of some highly prolific titles, includingBlack LagoonandMy Hero Academia, to name a few. What draws you to the series you end up editing?
Montesa: Sometimes the series are assigned to us, and other times we are able to push for things we want. When we have our acquisitions meetings, sometimes we know what’s coming. They’ll ask if anyone is interested in doing this one or that one, and you can put your hand up for it(chuckles). In the case ofBlack Lagoon, that one was assigned to me when first started at VIZ, it was the very first series that I ever took from Volume 1. I didn’t know what I was getting when I got it, but I’m glad I did. It was, and still is one of my favourites. WithThe Legend of Zelda, I’d known about it for a long time and when that one came around, I was happy to work on it too. Sometimes we get to choose, and sometimes we get assigned, but I’m generally very happy with what I’m working on.
Q: So, is it safe to assume that you choseTwilight Princess?
Montesa: I think – I’m trying to remember(chuckles). Yeah, basically. I had done the firstLegend of Zeldaseries that we released from around 2008 or 2009, and that was a series of 10 volumes of stories based on differentLegend of Zeldagames, likeOcarina of Time. I can’t remember some of the others off the top of my head, but there were probably four or five different games that those particular volumes were based on. It wasn’t likeTwilight Princesswhere it was just one single series; but those were very interesting, I really liked working on those.
Q: The consensus seems to be thatTwilight Princessis considered to be one of the darker installments inThe Legend of Zeldagame franchise. Do you agree, and if so, why do you think that’s the case?
Montesa: I’ll be honest, I can’t speak to the tone of the game, but I can say that the manga; while it isn’t heavy or grim, it is a bit more serious and a little darker than some of the other older entries in the Zelda manga series. Speaking with the creators and hearing them talk about this sort of thing at conventions and such, basically, with eachZeldaproject they do, they look for what makes the story unique or different and attempt to bring that into their manga.
WithTwilight Princess, they did want to explore Link as a more mature character. In some of the earlier manga, Link was more boyish or a lot younger, while inTwilight Princess, Link is depicted as, perhaps not a full-on adult, but an older teenager certainly en route to maturity. Some of the themes explored in theTwilight Princessmanga were more mature and not quite just for kids – themes of morality and death, that sort of thing. Link was occasionally having more existential conversations with himself(chuckles). Overall, the tone ofTwilight Princesswas a bit darker than the previous ones.
Q: That leads us into the next question; what demographic, if any specific one at all, do you think would best resonate withTwilight Princess?
Montesa: Wow, that’s a little hard to answer. As we know,Zeldaas an intellectual property goes back decades. You could say that it would appeal to anybody – from anyone who was playing the game in the late 80s and early 90s all the way until now – and that’s three generations of fans. I remember it back in the day, and I’m certainly no spring chicken anymore! (chuckles)
Manga overall certainly appeals to a younger demographic, like middle schoolers; high schoolers, but I think real fans of manga stick with it into adulthood; past college and definitely into their later years. Currently, the main customer for this is going to be teens and so forth; but I think anybody who’s a fan ofLegend of Zelda, regardless of their age, will find something they enjoy if they pick up the manga; particularly if they read the older series and find one that’s based on a game they loved back when they were playing it.
Q: What aspect of the manga would you say is the number 1 thing you liked about theTwilight Princess?
Montesa: I think what I like about it is that it’s like a step beyond the game. It gives more depth to the story and characters. In a lot of theZeldagames, Link doesn’t speak, but inTwilight Princessthere’s a lot more dialogue going on, and there’s a lot more character development and focus on particular characters. You can get deeper into the character motivations, like Link has a number of existential conversations with himself which are quite interesting. Akira Himekawa’s art is fantastic, particularly in Twilight Princess where they went for a more realistic style that I really liked.
Q: You said that the previous installment was based on various games in the series. Do you think that some of the more recent videogame installments, likeBreath of the WildorTears of the Kingdom, are going to be privy to the same treatment by the authors?
Montesa: That is a common question!(laughs)I don’t have any inside information on whether they’re going to do something like that. It seems like a no-brainer to doBreath of the Wild,but it really depends on whether Akira Himekawa feel up for it. The Zelda has been the most successful work that they’ve done in the last 15, 16, approaching 20 years. It would not surprise me if they do come back to do another Zelda series, but you know artists want to explore other things, so they may have other projects, but never say never.
Q: Now, about you. What is your biggest inspiration?
Montesa: It’s hard to narrow that down(laughs). In life, my biggest inspiration is very specifically Japan. I lived there for a long time, I have a lot of friends and family there, and by extension, that has also encouraged me to really embrace travelling and meeting different people. Life is a collection of various experiences, and I’m trying to get as much of that as I can!
Q: You’ve done lots of translation work in your career. What’s the one project that you look back on with the most fondness?
Montesa: That’s also a hard one – “which child is your favourite?”, right?(chuckles)My top three favourites areSlam Dunk,Monsterby Naoki Urasawa andGolden Kamuyby Satoru Noda, which is a more recent one. Those are the ones I think are the best in terms of overall quality and the value they present, but if I were to have a pet favourite, it’d probably beBlack Lagoon. It was the first series that I started on right from Volume 1. When I started as an editor, I was given other series that were ongoing,Black Lagoonwas right from the start, so I was able to shape the look and feel of our release. That’s been running since 2008, so that’s 15 years (chuckles), it’s still ongoing and when I look at recent releases I see a lot of things that I wish I had known back then and make it better or different.
Mike Montesa is an editor at VIZ Media who has worked on a number of high-profile titles, includingDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba;Fist of the North Star,and more.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princessmanga is available on theVIZ website.
