This review was originally posted on Camryn DaytonaThe Twilight Princess Manga is a multiple volume manga that fleshes out the story of the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess video game that was originally released on the Wii.

The Game

I played the game on my Wii when it first came out, but my TV at the time was pretty crappy, and couldn't manage the darker colors. It wasn't until the game was remastered for Wii U that I was finally able to play it and enjoy it.

I liked the game well enough, unlike many Zelda fans, it's not my favorite of the Zelda games, but this one I did like enough.

The Manga

But recently, they started decided to turn the Twilight Princess game into a manga, except they expanded it out into a multi-volume set.

But there is one important difference between the Manga and the game: LINK ACTUALLY SPEAKS.

If you're not familiar with the Zelda games, one of the running gags in the series is that Link, the main character, has virtually no spoken lines. But in the manga, he speaks frequently, which is one of the strangest things and most difficult to get used to.

The art-style is your typical manga: black and white, highly detailed, and read from back to front (since that's how Japanese is read). Manga isn't my favorite art style - well, I love Manga, but I don't love anything black and white.

The Author/Artist

I thought that the author/artist, Akira Himekawa, was one person, but boy was I wrong!!!

Akira Himekawa is the collaboration of two women, A. Honda and S. Nagano. Together they have greated ten manga adventures featuring Link and the popular video game world of The Legend of Zelda. Their most recent workd, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, is zerialized digitally on Shogakukan's MangaONE app in Japan.

Personally, I think it's super cool that it was written by two women. Video games have long been dominated by men, so to see that the Zelda Manga was entrusted to women delights me to no end.

The Story

Book one, as I said previously, is "A video game's boring prologue in book form."

You know when you're playing a video game and there's that tutorial section at the beginning where they teach you how to play? Well, for some reason, the author decided to take the tutorial section from the game and turn it into an ENTIRE BOOK.

This book covers the origin of the Twilight Realm, Link's past (which deviates from the game) and the destruction of Hyrule (a bit).

The interesting part about it covering the Twilight Realm is that it reveals something that was a big twist in the game, and saved for almost the end. In the game,

it's strongly hinted throughout that Zelda is the "twilight princess" right up until the end where we learn that it's actually Midna. However, this manga starts out with Midna talking to Zant, in her true form (another huge reveal that was saved for much later in the game) and he refers to her as the Twilight Princess.

Outside of that, there's Link's past. We learn that he's new to Ordon Village (which we knew in the game) but we also learn where he's from. It's revealed that he came from a village on the border of Hyrule, which was destroyed after Link pulled a sword from a stone (no, it's not The Master Sword and no, Link isn't King Arthur). As far as I can recall, the game never once touched on Link's origins, outside of saying that he was new to Ordon Village.

Overall

I love this Manga. It's so much better than the game (even though I did eventually end up liking the game).

I'd recommend this to anyone who likes Zelda, but even if you don't play the games, this is a very fun read.