![PEOPLE:
- Yoshiki Haruhana, age 46. Character designer and art lead for many Zelda games.
- Yusuke Nakano, age 47. Illustrator for many Zelda games.
QUOTE:
Haruhana: [Looking at Adventure of Link art, straight-faced] He’s got some nice hips.
All: [Laughter]
Nakano: Link’s appearance has always been a little bit androgynous, and he has some effeminate traits as well. One might say that those traits are his roots.
Perhaps the fact that in the Japanese A Link to the Past commercial featuring Scha Dara Parr’s Zelda rap, the person dressed up as Link was female was also symbolic of that.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreid7cswibuv7tug52savm2ipuax2zekydhwvnt5bca4e6uilyl4w6y)
PEOPLE: - Yoshiki Haruhana, age 46. Character designer and art lead for many Zelda games. - Yusuke Nakano, age 47. Illustrator for many Zelda games. QUOTE: Haruhana: [Looking at Adventure of Link art, straight-faced] He’s got some nice hips. All: [Laughter] Nakano: Link’s appearance has always been a little bit androgynous, and he has some effeminate traits as well. One might say that those traits are his roots. Perhaps the fact that in the Japanese A Link to the Past commercial featuring Scha Dara Parr’s Zelda rap, the person dressed up as Link was female was also symbolic of that.
#Linktober 19: Link
Haruhana & Nakano on androgynous Link character designs, 2017.
Source: Arts & Artifacts
#Zelda
#TheAdventureofLinkQuote, #ALinktothePastQuote
#HaruhanaQuote, #NakanoQuote
www.notion.so/06aaee32280f...
![PEOPLE:
- Yusuke Nakano, age 47. Twilight Princess Illustrator.
- Satoru Takizawa, age 44. Twilight Princess Art Director.
QUOTE:
"Nakano: The Link up till now [Twilight Princess] had been in his teens, but for this one we were talking about making him around 25... maybe even 30.
He would be well-built. A skinny man with a pretty face wouldn’t stand a chance against a large enemy, so we thought about making him quite sturdy. So the first illustrations were, in a way, pretty amazing.
Takizawa: ... There was even a square-jawed, burly-looking Link. [laughs]"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreickozz4vfcfp23dsf3ufckd3t3kew346sjkvrhy2zpe6p63uvxbtq)
![PEOPLE:
- Yusuke Nakano, age 47. Illustrator for all Zelda titles from Ocarina of Time to this interview.
QUOTE:
"Q: Taking a look at the main illustration [for the first Zelda], we see Link kneeling at the very center of the image, and the setting for his adventure serving as the backdrop. Does anyone happen to know who was behind this picture?
Nakano: This dates from before I joined the company, so I’m not one hundred percent certain, but I believe it was done by someone from an outside animation studio. During the NES and SNES eras, artwork was frequently outsourced for components like game packaging and manuals. Even within the company, I think that ‘send it to the pros’ was considered common sense when it came to illustration."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiejujrf3uke2od6rr73glhxyfeb3toycfdyd7ouho67zwt3l7traa)