Zelda manga: Ocarina of Time

Akira Himekawa's Ocarina of Time is a two volume manga, Viz series volumes 1 and 2 of 2008, at 9781421523279 and 9781421523286. The first volume tells the child Link half of the game: Kokiri Forest, the Great Deku Tree, and the gathering of the Spiritual Stones. The second carries the seven year leap and the adult Link campaign through the temples to Ganon's Castle, compressing a long game into a fast, emotional two book arc.

The Japanese originals are Shogakukan Tentomushi Comics Special volumes beginning at 9784091496010, published in 2000. That date matters to the bibliography: Himekawa's Zelda manga began in Japanese a decade before Viz's English run, so the English editions are translations of established books, not tie ins produced for the Western market.

The current standard English form is the Legendary Edition: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Legendary Edition, 9781421589596, published November 1, 2016, which collects both original volumes in one larger tome. It is also included in the Legendary Edition Box Set, 9781974718191. The Japanese kanzenban counterpart of the Legendary Edition form is recorded at 9784091421463.

Choosing between forms is the collector's decision this page exists to inform. The two 2008 singles are the first English printings and the run's opening volumes; the Legendary Edition is the better reading object and the matching form if the other four Legendary Editions are the shelf's plan. Both are complete tellings; neither contains material the other lacks at story level.

Himekawa's Ocarina remains the most read Zelda manga in English and the reference point for the team's style: expressive, lightly romanticised, and willing to give Link a spoken personality the games of its era withheld.