Books! But not really! But yes!
So... hurray. This is my second manga I've reviewed here, let's not
make a habit of this. Now, lets clear up something right up from the
get-go. Notice the Part 2. I know you hardcore Zelda-reading Cinema
Wonners are probably dying from my error of not picking up part 1.
Calm down. Get an asperin and go to your happy place. There are two
kinds of people who would buy this, fans of Manga, and fans of Zelda.
I am a fan of Zelda. If you are a fan of Zelda, it is implied you have
played Ocarina of Time, what I, like many other gamers, consider video
games' first true "masterpiece". If this is not true, go castrate
youself with the nearest available Master Sword replica immediately.
So I know exactly what is going on in the story, and as Part 2 is a
separate book, even if I did buy Part 1, it would get a separate
review.
Why does this exist? Nintendo has too much money. Don't believe me?
Well, then tell me more of how Nintendo hired a live symphony
orchestra to compose Skyward Sword's soundtrack (not that there's
anything wrong with that, I loved the CD that came packaged with the
game. Those are my tunes. Rockin' out to Zelda. Yeah, I should shut
up). Anyways, for each Zelda game, vizkids made a manga for it. Deal
with it.
As to be expected, the story when converted to manga form (to a
typical American reader, it reads like a fucked-up graphic novel,
reading from right to left to keep the original art looking... not
f*cked up.), the story isn't the greatest. This is due to the fact
that the writers had to fill in lots of holes in the story and add
dialogue where previous dialogue was not needed, for most of the game,
Link is pretty much speechless, and monologues have to be added where
a player would usually stop and try to figure out a puzzle, boss
battle, etc. They do a fine job filling in holes, except the pacing
seems way too fast, for places where a player would fail repeatedly to
figure out how to proceed are changed to having Link almost instantly
think of a solution. The Manga in short is basically a novelization of
a flawless run-through of Ocarina of Time, rather than an average one,
leading to the quick pacing.
There is no excuse for this. Akira Himekaya (the pseudonym for the two
woman responsible for... all the Zelda mangas, art and writing all)
had all the pages she needed, in fact she had surplus (there are two
bonus stories taking up nearly 70 pages), not that I don't like these
stories (they seem far more developed than the main story, as none of
those have filler for certain areas in a game), in fact as a Zelda fan
myself, I loved them. Still, with 70 extra pages at your disposal...
The art I like, not that my opinion matters in this area. My only
issue is the instances when the artist forgot to draw in Link's eye,
or other facial features. The rest is just stylized, but no matter
what culture you're in, I view this as lazy. Print it in black and
white, ok! Overexaggerate facial expressions for desired effects, ok!
But forget to draw a character's eye? There is no explanation to do
this other than strict deadlines, fatigue, or negligence.
After all this time analyzing it, my initial imoressions prove true.
This is a Manga for fans of Manga or fans of Zelda. Both will enjoy it
despite it's flaws. However, for you die-hard COD fan who just
randomly decide to be reading a Manga Book review on a Movie themed
Blog, this book is not for you. If you've played one Zelda game (and
it wasn't Ocarina of Time), after you're done castrating yourself with
your second-rate cosplay Master Sword for your unwise decision of not
playing Ocarina of Time, you may find a way to enjoy this Manga.
Results may very.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Part 2 gets 3 stars out of 6
make a habit of this. Now, lets clear up something right up from the
get-go. Notice the Part 2. I know you hardcore Zelda-reading Cinema
Wonners are probably dying from my error of not picking up part 1.
Calm down. Get an asperin and go to your happy place. There are two
kinds of people who would buy this, fans of Manga, and fans of Zelda.
I am a fan of Zelda. If you are a fan of Zelda, it is implied you have
played Ocarina of Time, what I, like many other gamers, consider video
games' first true "masterpiece". If this is not true, go castrate
youself with the nearest available Master Sword replica immediately.
So I know exactly what is going on in the story, and as Part 2 is a
separate book, even if I did buy Part 1, it would get a separate
review.
Why does this exist? Nintendo has too much money. Don't believe me?
Well, then tell me more of how Nintendo hired a live symphony
orchestra to compose Skyward Sword's soundtrack (not that there's
anything wrong with that, I loved the CD that came packaged with the
game. Those are my tunes. Rockin' out to Zelda. Yeah, I should shut
up). Anyways, for each Zelda game, vizkids made a manga for it. Deal
with it.
As to be expected, the story when converted to manga form (to a
typical American reader, it reads like a fucked-up graphic novel,
reading from right to left to keep the original art looking... not
f*cked up.), the story isn't the greatest. This is due to the fact
that the writers had to fill in lots of holes in the story and add
dialogue where previous dialogue was not needed, for most of the game,
Link is pretty much speechless, and monologues have to be added where
a player would usually stop and try to figure out a puzzle, boss
battle, etc. They do a fine job filling in holes, except the pacing
seems way too fast, for places where a player would fail repeatedly to
figure out how to proceed are changed to having Link almost instantly
think of a solution. The Manga in short is basically a novelization of
a flawless run-through of Ocarina of Time, rather than an average one,
leading to the quick pacing.
There is no excuse for this. Akira Himekaya (the pseudonym for the two
woman responsible for... all the Zelda mangas, art and writing all)
had all the pages she needed, in fact she had surplus (there are two
bonus stories taking up nearly 70 pages), not that I don't like these
stories (they seem far more developed than the main story, as none of
those have filler for certain areas in a game), in fact as a Zelda fan
myself, I loved them. Still, with 70 extra pages at your disposal...
The art I like, not that my opinion matters in this area. My only
issue is the instances when the artist forgot to draw in Link's eye,
or other facial features. The rest is just stylized, but no matter
what culture you're in, I view this as lazy. Print it in black and
white, ok! Overexaggerate facial expressions for desired effects, ok!
But forget to draw a character's eye? There is no explanation to do
this other than strict deadlines, fatigue, or negligence.
After all this time analyzing it, my initial imoressions prove true.
This is a Manga for fans of Manga or fans of Zelda. Both will enjoy it
despite it's flaws. However, for you die-hard COD fan who just
randomly decide to be reading a Manga Book review on a Movie themed
Blog, this book is not for you. If you've played one Zelda game (and
it wasn't Ocarina of Time), after you're done castrating yourself with
your second-rate cosplay Master Sword for your unwise decision of not
playing Ocarina of Time, you may find a way to enjoy this Manga.
Results may very.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Part 2 gets 3 stars out of 6
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