The Legend of Zelda Manga is Hugely Popular! Manga Duo Akira Himekawa Go Global [2 of 2]

Akira Himekawa is a mangaka duo responsible for the manga series The Legend of Zelda that is hugely popular overseas. Recently, the duo has been becoming largely active on a global level.

This year, it was decided that duo’s work Gliding Reki, which was chosen as a judge-recommended work in the web manga category at the 2007 Japan Media Arts Festival, will be translated and published in Italian.

The duo’s work Gold Ring was their first to be translated into Arabic when it was released in Dubai in the summer of 2008. In February 2010, it won Sheikh Zayed's Book Award for Best Teen Literature, an award given to books from around the world that have been released in Arabic.

That same year in Germany, the duo won the Best Manga Award in the international manga category at the Sondermann Reader Awards. In the end, it seems that they were able to beat out the tremendously popular work Naruto for first place. This feat is testament to the high popularity of Akira Himekawa’s works overseas.

They aren’t just active overseas, but in Japan as well. The next work they plan to begin is a serialized manga for the My Little Pony series which is popular both in Japan and abroad. Anticipation for this is also high.

There are many cases of manga being translated and sold in other countries, but the amount of mangaka who leave Japan and become active on a global scale are still few in number. There are high hopes that Akira Himekawa will become trailblazers for other mangaka to also set up base overseas.

Akira Himekawa’s Official Site
Akira Himekawa’s TOM Portfolio Page