Twilight Princess manga Volume Eleven review: The ending this series deserved

When a series has been superb at nearly every step of the way for six long years, the expectations are through the roof for an ending that does it justice. Anything short of pulling out all of the stops would feel like a disservice after how great the Twilight Princess manga has been across its previous ten volumes. Thankfully, the extremely talented artist duo of Akira Himekawa bring the same effort to Volume 11 that they brought to every prior book, finishing their run with a near perfect ending to this fan favorite adventure.

Read our review of Volumes One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten of the Twilight Princess manga.

SPOILER WARNING:
This review contains information about important story details and specific moments from Volume Eleven of the Twilight Princess manga. Read at your own discretion.

It also doesn’t hurt that they’re working with one of the most memorable finales of any Legend of Zelda game. After covering the assault on Hyrule Castle and the battles with both Puppet Zelda and Dark Beast Ganon, Himekawa has an entire volume at their disposal to adapt the final encounter with Ganondorf, and the ending sequences that close out the story. It emphatically proves that Himekawa refuses to let off the gas pedal even after years of hard work, putting together a full sized volume to adapt what is, in the grand scheme of things, a fairly small segment of the whole Twilight Princess story. Consider how the quest through Snowpeak took up only about half of Volume 6, or how Volume 4 adapted two dungeons worth of adventuring (Gorons Mines and Lakebed Temple). By comparison, Volume 11 is tackling two boss phases and a few cutscenes.

But if there was any fight in Twilight Princess that warranted more than half a book’s page count, it was always going to be Link’s and Zelda’s final encounter with Dark Lord Ganondorf in the heart of Hyrule Field. The battle between the heroes of legend and Hyrule’s greatest nemesis is the main event of Volume 11, comprising well over one hundred pages. It’s not just the best action sequence found in the Twilight Princess manga — it’s the best action sequence in any Legend of Zelda literature.

There is a special, raw intensity that comes from two swordsmen locked in single combat. Much like the video game did, the Twilight Princess manga foregoes acts of magic and divine phenomena when Link and Ganondorf cross blades in the climactic battle. Face to face, mere inches apart, the only factors at play are their ruthless wills to slay the other. It’s a gritty, savage affair as they vie to cut one another down, their exchanges often playing out across several pages at a time without a hint of dialogue.

What takes their duel to a whole other echelon of battles for Legend of Zelda manga is just how violent it becomes down the stretch. Even in the Twilight Princess adaptation, which has had no shortage of thrilling action sequences, it was common that Link would walk away from a fight unscathed. He might narrowly avoid an energy beam by a hair’s width, or block a heavy blow with his shield and get thrown back several feet, but it wasn’t often that he would sustain an injury.

That is not the case with his fight against Ganondorf. That is not the case at all. Link and Ganondorf absolutely batter one another in Volume 11’s bloody finale, with Link enduring more punishment in this one fight than he did from the rest of the series’ battles combined. He gets kicked square in the face, eats a vicious uppercut, is sliced open by a stab, nearly has his head taken off when Ganondorf slams a sword pommel into his temple, among other painful instances. Link gives it right back to Ganondorf, landing several grisly blows of his own that would surely kill any other man.

With Volume 11 devoting so much space to the battle with Ganondorf, Himekawa is able to expand upon it a bit and toss in some surprises that we didn’t see in the video game. A simple moment like Ilia racing through the war torn Hyrule Castle Town to free Epona is a great way to highlight her bravery and selflessness in the middle of catastrophe. It also creates a much more organic reunion between the horse and her rider, rather than Epona conveniently, inexplicably appearing when Link and Zelda return to confront Ganondorf after briefly meeting with the Light Spirits. Another moment is Zelda not simply immobilizing Ganondorf when she pegs him with an Arrow of Light, but completely severing his source of magic at the same time. It’s the perfect way to rationalize why Ganondorf’s supernatural powers go out the window for the final battle, turning it into the brutal, physical duel that eventually decides the fate of Hyrule.

Undoubtedly, the most notable inclusion is when the Hero’s Shade enters the fray to assist Link at one point in the fight. It’s not quite as exciting as his big save from back in Volume 6, and he leaves just as quickly as he appears, but his brief appearance is at least a fitting opportunity for the regret-filled warrior to finally find solace in his duty as a hero. His interaction with Zelda is also a very tender reprieve from the rest of the carnage that spills throughout the book.

There is so much packed into the final battle with Ganondorf that it might have ended up being a bit too much. Once the dust has settled, there aren’t nearly enough pages left to wrap things up for the entire supporting cast. Several characters from earlier in the adventure, like Renado, Luda, the Gorons, Ralis, and all of the Zora are absent from the closing scenes. Other characters, like Link’s pals from his original hometown, Ilia, Telma, Shad, Rusl, and the Ordon children each only get a page or two to tie up their loose ends. Of course, in the manga’s defense, it doesn’t have the luxury of featuring a ten minute credits sequence to show a montage of what every last NPC across Hyrule is up to in the wake of Ganondorf’s defeat.

Thankfully, Volume 11 gets the ending right when it counts the most. It does this by maintaining a perfect balance in honoring the somber, at times ambiguous conclusion from the video game, while adding some new twists that change the tone for the better.

Midna’s farewell is no less bittersweet than it was in the video game; if anything, it’s an even bigger tearjerker this time around after seeing Link be much more expressive in his adoration for Midna throughout the adventure. But then there’s the massive curveball that Legend of Zelda fans will gush over for years to come. The kiss that Midna plants on Link is an utter bombshell, a remarkably bold decision by Himekawa after Link has largely been kept away from romantic encounters for so much of the franchise’s history.

This isn’t like the ending to The Adventure of Link where a curtain falls and all we see are a bunch of hearts floating in the air, or the little peck on the cheek from Zelda as seen during the Linked Game’s ending for Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. It’s a long, passionate kiss that leaves no room to the imagination, and will have any diehard Link/Midna shipper screaming with joy. Given Nintendo’s track record involving explicit romance in the video games (notably, the lack of it), it’s honestly kind of amazing that Himekawa got the approval to illustrate this.

The other unique touch to the ending comes in the final few pages, where there is no dialogue, or even a narration to be read. The manga lets its images speak for themselves, and they finish the series with a truly moving scene where the Hero’s Shade, in his golden wolf form, wordlessly leads Link on a new adventure into the unknown. The mystery from the video game’s final shot of Link riding off into the wilderness atop Epona is still here in the manga. Where will Link’s travels take him? What will he find? When, if ever, will he return home to Ordon?

But the manga depicts Link’s uncertain future with a greater sense of optimism, the hero being confident with what awaits him, and eager to meet it. As he, Epona, and the golden wolf dash deeper into the forest, there is a glimmer of hope that, one day, maybe Link will reunite with Midna.

It is as beautiful and as stirring an ending that could have been conceived for the Twilight Princess story — the one that this manga deserved after taking readers on such a magnificent journey these past six years.