The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has sparked many creative fan projects since it was released and the latest one that's caught the attention of many fans online is a Studio Ghibli-inspired poster by the illustrator and Twitter user, @BigSkyCastle.
As you can see, it's a simple but stunning image of Princess Zelda and Link recreated in the style of Hayao Miyazaki's iconic animated films. If you like the look of this poster, you can order a print of it on inprnt.

This isn't the first time we've seen something like this, either. In 2016, an animator by the name of Matt Vince uploaded a Zelda x Studio Ghibli animated movie trailer - giving fans an idea of what a proper Zelda series could potentially look like. Some concept posters were even created.
Would you like to see Zelda one day turned into a full-on anime movie or series? What do you think of the above fan-made poster? Leave a comment down below.
[source dualshockers.com]
Comments 78
Link looks very skinny, like very Bishojo style. 😆
I'm not going to say I can do better, but it's a shame Link's proportions seem to be a bit off. It's decent otherwise, although I don't think it says much about what kind of plot we can expect.
Those characters don't look like Ghibli designs to me. At all.
Zelda looks fine but Link looks all kinds of wrong there!
Sorry to be blunt but NL - you’ve got to be kidding! Ghibli inspired this may be, but worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence as them it isn’t.
Some way short of the Ghibli mark, in all honesty, "inspired by" or not.
The characters look closer to mid-80s Hanna-Barbera. You could drop that Link into the Dungeons & Dragons animated series and he would fit right in.
I guess the illustrator hasn't watched many Ghibli movies
Makes sense Sunday would be a slow news day..
While this definitely isn't bad by any means, I don't understand why you would compare this to Studio Ghibli. I guess because the artist mentioned it?
Never heard of Ghibli but this reminds me most of all of certain older 80's/90's cartoons for some reason.
@SuperKMx I was trying to think what Link looked like and you nailed it!
Link's pose is very weird. It sort of looks like he is punching himself in the head.
Link kinda looks more like someone out of Dragon’s Lair but Zelda nails the Ghibli look, specifically in her face. I dunno why artists have to constantly compare themselves to other artists though, find your own style and convince people that it’s great. It’s not like you get people on Twitter painting apples and peaches and saying to people that they’ve nailed the Cezanne look.
Yeah I don't see it. Also Link's hand up by his head looks backwards..
This looks bad, I think I can make a better drawing. And I don't draw.
Very nice art, but it doesn’t scream GHIBLI! to me either. Miyazaki’s characters have a very distinct look you’ll see throughout his projects. Zelda and Link here don’t seem to fit that style.
Subject matter is different, but I think this person nails it:
https://pararium.com/wp-content/uploads/imgs/5/1/51bf92fa.jpg
It's nice, but as others have said it's not very Ghibli (well, Miyazaki at least). I feel like the in-game models bear a closer resemblance to Ghibli than this image. On the plus side the landscape is about right, I think.
Link looking skinny makes sense with all the 200 hours of running and climbing he's done in my game
Link looks very twiggy! xD Just not right, he is too tall and skinny.
Also it's been awhile getting zelda news, all l been seeing lately was ACNH ACNH ACNH junk news. So this zelda news is interesting.
@Spoony_Tech So funny reading these comments because it's so true! xD
Yeah, I like those other posters you linked to better. Link’s not supposed to have the body of Manute Bol.
@TJM Get over yourself.
@nessisonett Because it's not as simple as you think it is. People don't find their own style by just going "oh I'm going to do things this way now" a person's art style is formed by their influences throughout life and art alike as well as other places.
People and artists keep comparing to other artists because sometimes the influences are very visible, or in this case, it was done deliberately in homage to a certain celebrated style even if it isn't completely accurate. That isn't the point.
The point is to get as close as they could possibly muster and that's what they did.
@MegaVel91 Yeah, as someone who studied art then of course you don’t just ‘find your style’. The problem is that this type of art isn’t particularly creative or inventive. I’ve seen plenty fan art that is done in a distinctive style or a new take, just look at the God of War art guy they put on this site every two weeks. It’s all well and good trying to recreate someone else’s style for your own benefit but dear lord, don’t just attempt to copy it stroke for stroke and show it off to the public. When I did my dissertation on Oskar Schlemmer’s ballets, part of that was to recreate his style in order to understand the processes so I get that influences are a big part of art but at the end of the day, you’ll never be taken seriously until you have your own artistic style.
@nessisonett -and exactly how high is that bar for "own artistic style"? Where is it set? Who decides that? Who decides at what point someone is worth taking seriously? When their style is entirely their own with no visible influences? When they take something seen before and draw it differently and do other things that way? When they are capable of doing anything from a rock to a space station in a unique way?
Do you understand why I just asked you these questions? This isn't simply for contrarianism here, I am asking you these questions because you and every other person I see who talks like this seems to have this idea that there is some distinct, palpable goal point that every artist should strive for that defines when they are worth taking a look at, when reality has informed me differently, pretty much everywhere.
So I challenge you to answer those questions and give me reasonable answers to any that you can.
Although I kinda like it, I do feel, like many others, that the disproportionate Link is massively ruining the picture.
It's almost as if the artist was inspired by those Breath of the Wild mods, one of which actually does feature a crazy elongated Link figure...
@MegaVel91 The minute that they don’t visibly advertise that their artwork is ‘Ghibli inspired’. When their artwork is interesting on its own merits and not solely because it is trying to emulate one of the greats. If this fan art wasn’t specifically advertised as being inspired by Miyazaki, do you really think it would have made NLife’s front page? To imitate is in no ways inherently wrong, the great masters all took elements of their predecessors that worked and incorporated them into their own works. Cezanne himself painted multiple ‘copy paintings’ for reference, he wove those elements into his own paintings but he never took a single artist’s style wholesale and then sold that work as a Cezanne. Can you really stand on your own two feet if you’re so indebted to a particular artist?
@nessisonett ...Well done. I know it sounds pompous, arrogant and pretentious to say this: you have my respect.
Hahaha lol, link really needs someone who can make some real food. All that stalfoss eyeball made him lose alot of weight lol ,🤣
@Yosher Never heard of Ghibli? You are missing out.
If you have the time, start with Spirited Away.
@Yosher @Elvie And then follow that up with Princess Mononoke. Anime gold, if you ask me. Definitely one of the all-time greatest animated movies.
I want this movie (or series), and I want it now
Oh my God I didn't know how much i needed this.
@Yosher IF you have hbo max you can watch them all in order.
@ThanosReXXX @Yosher @Elvie My vote goes towards My Neighbour Totoro. To me, it’s them at their best in terms of marrying the ordinary and the magical. Howl’s Moving Castle is great too, although I prefer the book. Grave of the Fireflies is a movie I could only ever watch once, but I’d recommend it.
@nessisonett Most, if not all Studio Ghibli movies are good, but Princess Mononoke remains my personal favorite. Great, great story, VERY thought-provoking, and great voice cast, regardless of whether you're watching the dubbed or the subbed version.
Yep that's a lie.
This looks nothing like Ghibli
@ThanosReXXX Deep, nostalgic exhale Ah, I'll never forget the first time I ever watched Princess Mononoke. A local theater screened it, one night only. I live in a rural town, so it wasn't like the biggest cineplex our small community (which boasts a colossal number of... four auditoriums, with wildly varying sizes) fought tooth and nail to screen it. No. Where it was screened was in one of the oldest stage theat*re*s in my state (Mark Twain attended there, it seems), and said theatre is not made to serve as a modern movie auditorium.
Yet, they made it happen. They had Princess Mononoke, they had a film projector, and they assembled a serviceable screen that was charmingly shabby, or shabbily charming. I mean, it practically screamed, "Shucks, fellas, let's put on a show!"
And they did. It was the English dub, but I would watch the original Japanese version the nanosecond I got it on DVD, later. Funnily enough, before I ever watched a single frame of the film, I was thoroughly introduced to it because I got Joe Hisaishi's score music (on CD) beforehand. The music was my introduction. To make a long story short ("Too late!"), I listened to the score repeatedly and thought, "If the story and animation are anywhere near as good as its music, then Princess Mononoke must be gold!"
To summarize, yeah. Yep. I love it. Very much. One of my top favorite films--inside or out of the "animated" category. Most of my closest pals are big fans, too, and we've made silly running gags or inside jokes about the movie. I once imitated the Ape Tribe but made their voices sound like they going door-to-door to sell useless junk.
AHEM Hi, I'm here. Now I will speak of the poster. I'm preaching to the choir; while I don't care for Link's design, I really do like the background.
@Elvie @Yosher @ThanosReXXX @nessisonett I would expect a more enthusiastic recommendation for Grave of the Fireflies, considering that it is obviously Ghibli's finest work (and Takahata wasn't a ðł¢{ so you can feel proud to support him), is probably the finest animated feature, and might very well be the finest war film ever made, animated or otherwise. So yeah, it's worth watching.
@Razer What the hell are you high on?
@JimmySpades I would never watch it again due to subject matter. I honestly couldn’t put myself through that again but it is an incredible movie.
too bad for such harsh comments, the artist is 17 and was pretty stoked to have an article written for their art. but i guess a bigger spotlight means more critical eyes. as someone who casually draws i dont think enough credit is given to the brushes, colors, and composition of it all
their twitter:
"my.. if i knew people were gonna give it this much attention i wouldve worked on it a little longer ppl keep bullying me for making link 2 lanky 😭"
@boxyguy They’re talented for 17. If they keep this stuff up and cultivate their talent then the sky’s the limit.
@nessisonett mmhm i agree, so much to learn from that piece myself. its just a double edged sword with an article like this. they're getting more attention but are also getting a lot of harsh comments on a drawing they probably didnt think much on
@boxyguy @nessisonett he's fine and should keep it up if he enjoys it. But copywork is copywork, the colours etc are already in game. Not dissing the kid but anyone with a little time on their hands, a pen tablet and willingness to watch a few how to videos could do this. Pen tablets/software/artists are like instamodels these days.
But links dimensions are awful. That is the difference between a graft and talent. A talented artist would have not been satisfied until dimensions were correct and he clearly didn't notice.
But as I say, be enjoys it he should take the constructive criticism and develop from it like all artists do. It is the nature of the subject.
@RPGamer a ton of people worked so hard to have their art get the same level of exposure and didn't make it. That's not how it works. Just because you work hard on something doesn't mean you immediately deserve nothing but praise.
Making games involves a lot of hard work and people (including video game journalists) can ***** on it.
Let's not forget being able to receive both praise AND negative criticism is in itself something to be grateful for. A lot of people can't get neither.
Also btw this is not News this is Random.
We all know that we cant reach this level of art that's why they salty.
it looks okay.
@sanderev good luck with that.
@boxyguy Its sad really pp can be so mean.
@JimmySpades I'm going to have to agree with @nessisonett. It is a great movie, but not the first one that comes to mind when I have to consider recommending a Ghibli movie, or any anime movie for that matter, to anyone, when the subject matter is so heavy.
Princess Mononoke's story is also heavy in some ways, but because it's basically a fairy tale, it's still light-hearted and entertaining enough in general.
@MagicEmperor I can definitely relate to that story, save for the bad screen...
I also watched Princess Mononoke for the first time in a small cinema. Good times and a great memory.
@liveswired i dont think the colors being in the game is a criticism, using refs and inkdrops are very common in digital art lol. and again, i dont know if you draw or not but i dont think youre giving enough credit to the skill, even sanderev up there gets cocky thinking he can do a better job with no experience. listen, if you have no experience drawing you will have a ridiculously stressed time trying to replicate this just trying to learn the art software alone, even if you attempted just tracing the whole thing. and this is probably something they drew causally cause yknow, they have experience.
youre expecting too much from a piece of art that someone didnt even expect to get picked up by the news. they even said on their twitter that they wouldve drawn it better if they knew it was gonna get so much attention. i dont think you should speak for artists like that, its puts down people that think every art they post has to be some absolute perfect masterpiece when it really doesnt
@JimmySpades I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't watched Grave Of The Fireflies. It's something I need to get around to doing.
@ThanosReXXX I recommended Spirited Away since it always seemed like a popular pick but my personal favorites would be My Neighbor Totoro and Castle In The Sky.
Although, I do like Spirited Away very much, something that probably extends to almost any Studio Ghibli film.
@Snatcher lmfao do you think Ghibli done this?
It looks like it was drawn by a talented 12 year old.
Get your eyes checked 😂
@Anti-Matter that's because these characters are too tall. They don't capture it. Too bad
@Yosher Ghibli is an anime company famous for there work on movies like Totoro!
This isn't the same company that made Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro, two of my favorite movies. This doesn't deserve to be in the same breath as them!
@Yosher
Dude, watch Spirited Away. You won't be disappointed, I promise 🙂
@skrax
I...don't know what to say.
@boxyguy
I can't draw to save my life, only thing I'm good at is Tom Nook (no, I don't know why either lol). It doesn't look the best, but I KNOW I can't do better. I just can't.
@RPGamer yeah, it does look nice. The problem is, they tried putting in the same vein as Studio Ghibli, and that's not what it is. At all.
@RPGamer go look at the second comment.
@RPGamer
I actually wasn't talking about the background, but now that I look at it again, you are correct. It's a nice piece of artwork, but to me, it doesn't scream "Hey, look, I look like Studio Ghibli!"
@RPGamer I think they are saying that they do not think they can do better, but they do not like it. Each to their own, I suppose.
@RPGamer I said it's decent. I never said it's rubbish.
Now what were you saying about everyone dragging it down?
Oops, forgot the random tag - the article has been updated now!
@RPGamer
Definitely. I bet if this wasn't written in as a Studio Ghibli piece, everyone would enjoy it a lot more. But those are the breaks, I suppose.
@Elvie Oh, don't get me wrong: my comment wasn't a slight against your suggestion, I just saw you making the recommendation, and I simply figured I'd add my own as well, and Princess Mononoke actually is a true classic, both in anime and in general, so I could blindly recommend it to anyone, not just to anime fans.
Although I'd probably suggest the dubbed version to those who are not part of the anime in-crowd...
@Snatcher I'm just saying. I'm not the biggest anime-fan. I've seen almost all Studio Ghibli movies. And they are all high quality. You can watch one of their movies of 30 years ago and it still looks better than a generic anime movie from this or last year.
This trash should not be anywhere NEAR the Studio Ghibli name.
This is closer to a pre-Ghibli production that one of the founders worked on rather than Ghibli itself imo.
@Razer you should get your eyes check't I cant see you going better.
@ThanosReXXX Oh, no problem. It always a pleasure to hear people talk about Studio Ghibli movies except when they talk about Tales Of Earthsea (understandably negative opinions).
I feel bad for the artist. It is a pretty good piece, Please don't compare it to such a ridiculously high standard such as Studio Ghibli. Please, if you the artist and are reading this, do not feel discouraged by the comments. This is really good!
Some people seem to not understand the meaning of inspiration.
@GX_64 Like really.
@Elvie Haha, I wouldn't be able to say anything sensible about that one, seeing as I haven't seen that one.
@ThanosReXXX Story is that Hayao Miyazaki's son, Goro, was brought on to direct by producers against Hayao's will due to his inexperience and potential allegations of nepotism. It also didn't help that Hayao spent years acquiring the film rights to the book (the author feared that a film adaptation would turn out bad), only to get caught up in another project before he could adapt it.
This caused some rift between the two and some believe Goro changed the story from the book to reflect their relationship.
All this combined made for a rather mediocre film, something which is almost unheard of for Studio Ghibli.
The good thing is that I believe they had made up and Goro redeemed himself by directing From Up On Poppy Hill.
@Elvie Aha, I see. Well, I may eventually take a peek at it then, because now I'm curious, but for now, it's on the back burner. Got other stuff to take care off.
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