A wonderful look into the past, and a bold step towards saving the present!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Akira Himekawa
Translation: John Werry
What They Say
Midna has been Link’s traveling companion and ally since the start of their journey, but will her ultimate goal of saving the Twilight Realm drive her away from Link? Link’s own quest to save Hyrule leads him to seek the advice of Princess Zelda—and learn that to defeat the ultimate evil plaguing the world they will need a particular weapon: the Master Sword!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The volume certainly opens on a tense scene, as we find Midna and Link face to face with Zant himself! And to make matters even worse, they’re unable to resist the villain at all as Link is stabbed in the head by a shard of evil, while Midna is exposed to excess light. This leaves Link trapped in wolf form, and Midna just barely hanging on to life! Desperate to find help for his friend, our hero sneaks into town and finds his way into the castle, seeking the aid of Princess Zelda. All this drama is solid enough, with Link paying pretty much no heed to his own predicament while wishing to heal Midna, and the same being true vice versa as well, which is a real neat little showing for both of our main characters. More than that, though, we get the backstory of how Midna and Zelda know one another, and it’s presented masterfully in a way that makes it seriously impactful when the princess sacrifices herself for her old friend.
Through Zelda’s actions Midna is saved, but that still leaves Link’s problem. Fortunately, though, they also now know the solution to that: find the Master Sword! The actual journey to get there feels a touch compact, which isn’t the best, but fortunately, the drawing of the blade is certainly well done. There’s some real flair to it, which makes for a nice marking of the midway point to Link’s journey. Plus as a fan of the series, it’s pretty neat seeing the blade really being treated with the respect it deserves.
With that all out of the way, the next task awaiting them is to head into the supposedly haunted Arbiter’s Grounds! Can even the power of the Master Sword deal with the vengeful spirits lying in wait?! And if so, will they find the Mirror of Shadow they’re looking for?
In Summary
This volume really digs into the character of Midna, as well as her relationship with both Link and Zelda. And fortunately, I’d say it does a truly wonderful job of that. It honestly feels like we come out of the book knowing each of these characters better, and more importantly, actually caring about what happens to them. On top of that, it does a really good job of capturing a key, iconic moment from the game in a way that’s sure to please fans of the series. Honestly, taken all together, it’s just a really good volume that’s definitely worthy of a read. Let’s just hope the series can keep it up in future volumes!
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: July 9th, 2019
MSRP: $9.99
