The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Himekawa)



The Minish Cap Manga is a manga by Akira Himekawa loosely based on The Minish Cap. It was released in Japan in 2005 and made available in English through Viz Media in December 2009.

Characters
Link: Link is the main protagonist of the Minish Cap. He is portrayed as a boy learning the art of swordsmanship under a sword guru, the Tesshin Dojo. He is bright, but somewhat impatient at first.

Zelda: Zelda is the young, bouncy princess of Hyrule. She is somewhat naīve and ditsy, possibly due to her being portrayed as a young girl. When the Picori Festival comes, she wants nothing more than to have Link accompany her.

Vaati: Vaati, a ruthless sorcerer determined to find a mysterious "Force" (referred to as the "Light Force" in the video game), is the main antagonist in the manga. He used to be one of the Minish, a race of small creatures described as being the size of a human's thumb.

Ezlo: The strange, bird-beaked hat that Link finds while searching for the Picori (Hylian term for the Minish). He accompanies Link on his journey to save the princess.

Link and Vaati
The legend of the Picori is told as Link and his grandfather are forging a sword. Link then leaves to attend his swordsmanship class and is denied entry into the Picori festival tournament. Link then goes into the forest and takes out his anger on a tree branch. Vaati suddenly appears and in an act of boastfulness, takes out all the trees in the general radius around them and leaves. Zelda arrives and invites Link to the festival, which he declines. Zelda then begins to cry and upon changing his mind, the duo set off into the castle town where the celebrations take place. While exploring the different attractions, Zelda wins a lottery and chooses a shield as her prize which she promptly gives to Link as a gift. They then go to watch the dueling tournament where Link discusses the history of Hyrule and how the Picori helped a warrior defend the land from evil. He then recognizes Vaati as the mage steps into the ring and quickly becomes the champion of the tournament. As he is receiving his award, Vaati uses the opportunity to release the spirits from the chest bound by the Picori Sword. Vaati then turns Zelda to stone after seeing her deflect the evil spirits. Vaati then leaves after realizing the chest did not contain "light force". With the evil spirits' seal now broken, the king of Hyrule suggests they have the Picori to reforge the sword, which Link volunteers to carry out. With his grandfather's sword in hand, Link sets out for the Minish Forest, where he finds an odd looking bird being attacked by a pair of Octoroks.

Shrunken Link
After defending Ezlo, the two introduce themselves. With the inability to defend himself, Ezlo takes advantage of Links interest in the Picori and attaches himself to Link's head. He then guides Link to a Minish Portal, and the two set off to find the Picori. After being chased by the Octoroks from before (now much larger than before), they find a Picori spying on them from behind the grass. The two follow him all the way to an entire village of Picori. They are greeted by Festari who guides them to a cask and feeds them a Jabber Nut. They then go and visit the elder Picori and are told they need the four elements in order for the sword to regain its full power. Festari then takes them to the Deepwood Shrine where it is said they'll find the Earth Element. After being chased by a group of Sluggula, and Puffstools, Link is rendered unconscious by the toxic fumes of the Puffstool's spore. Festari and a pair of Picori arrive and take the Gust Jar from the temple walls which they give to Link. After clearing the air of the Puffstool's spores, Link is presented with the Earth Element. After thanking Festari and the other Picori for their help, they are taken back to the village where they learn Festari's obsession with Hyruleans. Gentari informs Link that the next element is on Mount Crenel, and to seek a Picori known as Melari.

Link and the Mountain Minish
After flying across the land on the back of a bird, Link arrives at Mount Crenel where he saves a Picori from a bee. The Picori introduces himself as Chiruta and takes Link to see Melari. Link learns that Melari has given up being a sword-smith out of grief over his wife's death. He then states that there is not enough charcoal to reforge the sword anyway. Ezlo comes up with the idea of using the Fire Element to get iron ore rather than charcoal to reforge the sword. With that idea in mind, Link and Chiruta set off inside the Cave of Flames to find the Fire Element. After nearly falling into a pool of magma, Chiruta quickly identifies the Cane of Pacci and instructs Link on how to use it. They are then attacked by Gleerok, which Link cleverly defeats, allowing it to be restored to its true form. It then kisses Link on the cheek and grants him the Element of Fire as thanks. They return to the village and present Melari with the iron ore which relieves him of his grief and inspires him to reforge the Picori Sword. Link and Ezlo depart, and Ezlo informs Link that Gentari had a twin brother who might know the whereabouts of the last two Elements.