"The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time- Legendary Edition" by Akira Himekawa

 

            This is a review of the Manga “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time- Legendary Edition” by Akira Himekawa and not a review of “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” video game.

            As the story begins, we find young Link, a boy living in the Kokiri Forest. The Kokiri are all children who don’t grow up any farther after they reach a certain age. This age is never disclosed in the whole Manga. So there are no adults. Every Kokiri has a fairy partner, except for Link. The Kokiri Forest is under the protection of the Great Deku Tree, who is called their father. The Kokiri are basically unaware of the world outside of the Kokiri Forest as they are told that the Kokiri would die if the left the safety of the Kokiri Forest. Link has a best friend named Saria. He often butts heads with the “boss” of the Kokiri, Mido, who is jealous of the attention Saria gives Link.

            A drama has to start somewhere, so one day, a parasite named Gohma takes residence in the Great Deku Tree. This basically gives him a death sentence. Link is given Navi as a fairy partner as Link and Mido enter into the Great Deku tree to slay Gohma. Link and Mido are successful, but it is too late and the damage is done. As the Great Deku Tree dies, he imparts with Link the Kokiri Emerald and tells Link that he is not really a Kokiri but a Hylian. The outside world is called Hyrule, and Link’s mother escaped and died in the Kokiri Forest. The Great Deku Tree tells Link that he must defeat the Gerudo pirate named Ganondorf who plans to use the Triforce to enslave Hyrule. The Triforce is a symbol left by the goddesses who created Hyrule and the person who touches the Triforce will have the world mold to their own image. If a good and just person touches the Triforce, the world will be good. If an evil person, however, touches the Triforce, Hyrule will turn into a living hell. The Great Deku Tree tells Link he must find a princess in Hyrule who will guide him on his path. With that, Link begins his adventure.

            Upon arriving at Hyrule Castle Town, he meets Zelda. The two feel they must enter the Sacred Realm to obtain the Triforce. To open the door to enter the Sacred Realm, they will need the Goron’s Ruby, the Zora’s Sapphire, and the Ocarina of Time.

            Link continues his journey and obtains the needed items to open the Sacred Realm. As Link returns to Hyrule Castle Town, he finds Ganondorf has taken over and destroyed it. Link sees Zelda and her protector Impa escape on horseback and tosses Link the sacred Ocarina of Time. Link enters the Temple of Time, the doorway to the Sacred Realm and plays the Ocarina of Time to enter. Link sees the legendary Master Sword and picks it up. He becomes the Hero of Time. However, he is too young to wield the Master Sword and is put in stasis for seven years until he reaches a proper age. Unfortunately, Ganondorf has obtained the Triforce and made Hyrule a living hell.

            Link’s new mission as Hero of Time is to awaken the Five Sages and seal away Ganondorf. Ganondorf has a servant named Sheik who is from the Sheikah Tribe. But he does not faithfully serve him and provides aid to Link on his journey.

            Now I will give my opinion on the Manga. I felt it was well written and drawn. The story was engaging to me, I read the whole book in one sitting, I just couldn’t put it down. On a scale of one to ten, one being the lowest, ten being the highest, I give the book an eight. I played the video game years ago, and there were important parts left out and also parts added that made the story a little cheesy. Link also only ages once in the Manga, while in the game Link does travel back and forth at some time where it is essential for Link to complete tasks while he is a child to reshape the past by the seven years as he places the Master Sword back in its pedestal. The dungeon locations of the Sages were also greatly shortened to prevent the story from taking unnecessarily lengthen the story into multiple volumes, which could have benefitted the story, yet the writers decided to contain it in one volume. My regular readers know I give an accessibility rating. This story requires no background knowledge of the video game series, pretty much anyone can pick up the story, except I must give a warning. While a Manga is a Japanese comic book, readers of other comic books must be informed the book is read from right to left. What most people would consider to be the back cover, to a Manga it’s actually the front cover, and the panels are read from the right side page from back of the page to the front. And Manga’s are traditionally black and white. If you’re used to comic books and never read a Manga before, it will take some practice to read properly. I had to work on it being a huge Marvel comics fan. All-in-all, I felt it was a good read, and if you are a fan of the video game and the series, you will likely enjoy the Manga, but again, die-hards may find several complaints like the ones I gave. It totally did not ruin my childhood impression of the game. Maybe consider giving it a try!