Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Manga Review
Akiria Himekawa’s the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a revamp of the beloved game in Manga form. Himekawa’s series is non canon to the Legend of Zelda lore, meaning that they do not fit into the main Zelda timeline produced by Nintendo. These books are fun reimaginations’ of the stories from each Zelda game. Each one is filled with many familiar characters as well as new faces that are manga exclusive to the Zelda world. The Ocarina of Time dives deeper into the story of the Hero of Time and the world of Hyrule.
This book is divided into two main portions. Part One: The Ocarina of Time and Part Two: The Hero of Time. Both the Ocarina of Time and Hero of time tell the story from the Nintendo 64 video game, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Link must gather the Spiritual Stones in order to pull the Master Sword from the pedistal in the Temple of Time. After saving each one of the sages he learns what it means to be a true hero as he saves princess Zelda and defeats Ganondorf.
This book also includes Two bonus stories, The Skull Kid and the Mask and Rouru of the Waterra. The first story follows Link and Saria in the Lost Woods. Along their travels they come across and befriend a Skull Kid. Rouru of the Waterra tells the origin story of the Sage of Light Rouru, whose backstory was lacking in the game.
The manga was very similar to the game. Part one the Ocarina of Time was broken up into six chapters, while The Hero of Time has ten chapters. Many chapters in the book are trials or temples that Link must encounter in order to defeat Ganon. For example, in Ocarina of Time, Chapter 5: Inside Jabu-Jabu’s Belly” shows Link as he travels inside the giant fish and saves Ruto. This is very similar to the game except for some minor details, like defeating the sub bosses. They even include Link having to carry Princess Ruto around.
The manga and book did have similarities, but they have many differences as well. Both the game and book tell the same story except there are different side things going on. When Link visits Lon Lon Ranch as an adult Ingo has taken over the ranch wis is similar to the game. However, in the manga he is being brainwashed by Twinrova and kidnaps Malon. With help from the Gurudos they try to defeat Link. None of this happened in the book but it was a fun additional story.
There are a few other chapters that created new content that made the story grow deeper like “Chapter 3: An Old and Beloved Friend. This chapter covers Link as he defeats Volvagia and frees the Fire Sage, but it dives much deeper into the origins of Volvagia. Here we see that Link had purchased Volvagia from the shop seven years ago when he was visiting castle town. He had led the baby dragon go because Link did not like seeing him locked in the cage. Now seven years later Link must defeat the corrupt dragon that he helped rescue. Additional content like this makes the story grow as a whole and Himekawa did a great job when creating chapter like these.
One main thing that stuck out was a flaw in the Ocarina of Time Chapter 6: Link vs. Link and the presence of the Water temple. Here we see Link go to Kakoriko Village where he meets with Impa and trains. While training he is attacked by Dark Link, who is a dark replica of himself. He defeats the figure and heads out towards the Water Temple. In the game however, this does not happen. Link does not travel to Kakoriko to train with Impa. Link also does not fight Dark Link here. Dark Link appears in the Water Temple which this story completely breezes over. The Water Temple appears then is finished very quickly. Chapter 6 could have been taken out in place of an expanded Water Temple. It felt as if the writer forgot about that part of the game.
Overall, Akiria Himekawa’s the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is an amazing Manga. It tells a great story that stays strong to its source material. It adds side stories in the right places as well as expands many stories that were passed over in the game. The only thing that really holds this story down is that there is not a lot of focus on the sages and temples. There were some changes to the game that did not make a lot of sense and seemed out of place.
