The Legend of Zelda series has a lot of funky titles — Twilight Princess, A Link Between Worlds, The Wind Waker, and the list goes on, filled with names that just sound cool. But perhaps the coolest of the bunch is Majora’s Mask. It’s so full of mystery. What does it mean? Where did it come from?
For a good few years now, we believed that the title (at least, the Japanese “Mujura’s Mask” one) was born out of a mash-up between the surname of the game’s art director, Takaya Imamura, and the 1995 Robin Williams movie Jumanji. That was the story according to series producer Eiji Aonuma, but it turns out that Imamura remembers things slightly differently (thanks, VGC).
In a recent interview with VGC, the legendary Nintendo character designer explained that the Mujura title in fact came from a combination of his surname and his love of a different film, Jurassic Park:
Yes, that was originally based on my name. I wanted to use the ‘Jura’ part because I’m a big fan of Jurassic Park. ‘Ima-Jura’… that’s where the name came from.
This version of the story certainly holds together a little better — the “Jura” of Jurassic Park is definitely closer to the title than the “Juma” of Jumanji — but be it Robin Williams or Sam Neill (though we all know that Goldblum is the real star there), it is clear that the art director was closely involved in the title’s creation.
Also in the interview, Imamura confessed that he hoped to work on one more Zelda game before his retirement in 2021, though the opportunity never came about. The art for this one would have been “more unique, with a little twist” on the modern-day style, bringing things back to the darker tone of Majora’s Mask — now just picture that…
Be sure to check out the full interview on VGC for all of Imamura’s answers.
The Legend of Zelda series has a lot of funky titles — Twilight Princess, A Link Between Worlds, The Wind Waker, and the list goes on, filled with names that just sound cool. But perhaps the coolest of the bunch is Majora’s Mask. It’s so full of mystery. What does it mean? Where did it come from?
For a good few years now, we believed that the title (at least, the Japanese “Mujura’s Mask” one) was born out of a mash-up between the surname of the game’s art director, Takaya Imamura, and the 1995 Robin Williams movie Jumanji. That was the story according to series producer Eiji Aonuma, but it turns out that Imamura remembers things slightly differently (thanks, VGC).
In a recent interview with VGC, the legendary Nintendo character designer explained that the Mujura title in fact came from a combination of his surname and his love of a different film, Jurassic Park:
Yes, that was originally based on my name. I wanted to use the ‘Jura’ part because I’m a big fan of Jurassic Park. ‘Ima-Jura’… that’s where the name came from.
This version of the story certainly holds together a little better — the “Jura” of Jurassic Park is definitely closer to the title than the “Juma” of Jumanji — but be it Robin Williams or Sam Neill (though we all know that Goldblum is the real star there), it is clear that the art director was closely involved in the title’s creation.
Also in the interview, Imamura confessed that he hoped to work on one more Zelda game before his retirement in 2021, though the opportunity never came about. The art for this one would have been “more unique, with a little twist” on the modern-day style, bringing things back to the darker tone of Majora’s Mask — now just picture that…
Be sure to check out the full interview on VGC for all of Imamura’s answers.
