I’ve become a recent fan of manga. I really got into manga because of My Hero Academia and One Piece, but I quickly found all of Akira Himekawa’s adaptations of The Legend of Zelda games. What I really liked about them was how they took the established stories and really fleshed them out by adding new characters, new settings, and even new plotlines. What fascinated me most was the story changes, for good and for bad.
It got me thinking about these adaptations. Why would Himekawa just do straight-up adaptations of the games instead of creating their own story, separate from the games? I began craving something like that. There is so much more to Hyrule than the story of Link and Zelda. And, thanks to another contributor for the site, I found something.
In December 1994, readers of Shounen Oh were treated to a brand new story set within the Zelda-verse that was completely different from the games. The Legend of Zelda: Oath of Riruto by Junya Furusawa and Jin Munesue was a bi-monthly manga that ran from December 1994 until April 1997. It was eventually collected into four volumes consisting of a few chapters for each book.
The story focuses on Riruto, a young boy who is studying to be a swordsman under Link. His best friend Kalin gets kidnapped by Ganon and his henchmen and Riruto makes a promise to save her. An oath, if you will. Link teaches Riruto about the Master Sword and tells him all about his history with Ganon. Thanks to Link’s tutelage, Riruto sets out on an adventure.
Unfortunately, Oath of Riruto released as a Japan-exclusive and there is no translated version of the story available. Most of the adventure seems to be about Riruto defeating Ganon’s henchmen and preventing them from uniting the Triforce. All of the henchmen have really rad names like Haggis and Hoody.
Overall, not a lot is known about this bizarre little piece of Zelda history, but I would love to see this translated at some point just so I can experience the whole story. The artwork is very much in the style of Dragon Ball author Akira Toriyama, so it’s really cute and yet also doesn’t hold back on the action.
The Zelda series is very well known for its off-the-wall and memorable side characters. It’s really cool to see one take center stage and be the focus of the property for a bit, even if it isn’t canon.
