Is The Legend Of Zelda Manga Canon?

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• Which Games Do The Manga Cover?

• Is There Any Legend Of Zelda Manga That Is Completely Original?

• Is The Legend Of Zelda Manga Canon?

Most people have heard of The Legend of Zelda series. Having begun way back in 1986, it has since become of one Nintendo's flagpole franchises, with each game being enough to sell whole stores worth of consoles. They're pretty good games. Though no series becomes a franchise without some multimedia.

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There are many Legend of Zelda games that don't get as much love as Ocarina of Time or Breath of the Wild, but they are more than worth your time.

In the case of Zelda, a lot of that comes in its various manga adaptations. In fact, The Legend of Zelda having manga tie-ins is almost as old as the game's themselves with Nintendo cashing in on that immediately. So with decades of manga to choose from, you're probably wondering is any of it actually relevant to the games. Well we're here to answer that for you.

Which Games Do The Manga Cover?

For the most part, the majority of manga that exists for The Legend of Zelda are adaptations of the many games in the series. As such, they cover quite a few of the games seeing as these adaptations have been running since the origins of the series itself.

However, one specific manga duo make up the bulk of the Zelda adaptations and they have covered a more specific set of the games. Here's each of the Zelda manga penned by Akira Himekawa:

Manga

First Published In Japanese

First Published In English

Ocarina of Time

1998

2008

Majora's Mask

2000

2009

Oracle of Seasons And Ages

2001

2009

Four Swords

2004

2009

A Link To The Past

2005

2010

The Minish Cap

2006

2009

Phantom Hourglass

2009

2010

Skyward Sword

2011

2013

Twilight Princess

2016

2017

As you can see, it's a bit of an odd assortment, hitting the majority of the mainline games (though missing The Wind Waker), while also making some based off the spin-offs (including The wind Waker's sequel). That said, there are nine full manga sets adapting the games in the series by Akira Himekawa.

Various smaller manga also exist adapting other Zelda games, though these were much shorter and no longer in print.

Is There Any Legend Of Zelda Manga That Is Completely Original?

Based on the Akira Himekawa manga above, it would be safe to assume that the majority, if not all, of the Zelda manga are adaptations of the games and never original works, right? And for the most part, that is true. There is not a single Zelda manga that does not bear some relation to one of the games, though some exist as somewhat expanded versions of them.

There is a version of the original Legend of Zelda and the Adventure of Link by Yuu Mishouzaki, though these are still primarily adaptations. One of the more distinct adaptations would be the A Link To The Past manga by Shotaro Ishinomori. While it portrays much of the story similarly to the game, it gives Link a more defined personality as well as a more distinct backstory featuring his connections to the Knights of Hyrule.

Shotaro Ishinomori also created the Kamen Rider series, so it's a pretty prominent name to get for a small manga.

Outside of these, the most notable would be Link's Logbook, a liberal retelling of the events of Wind Waker. It is liberal in the sense that it is a gag manga, and essentially skips the majority of content that is deemed too cumbersome to cover. Suffice to say, it has a more lax feel than the game it's pulling from.

Is The Legend Of Zelda Manga Canon?

OK, so basically the entire collection of Zelda manga are adaptations or retellings of the games they're based off. So the obvious next question would be "Are they canon?" The answer to that is thankfully quite simple. The Legend of Zelda manga are in no way canon at all.

Even in adapting the stories of the games, many of the manga take quite a few creative liberties to make them work as a written work. For example, the Ocarina of Time manga makes mention of the Hyrulean civil war and why Link has his ears pierced. The Skyward Sword manga features a scene of Link locked up in a dungeon and being tortured. It's not quite the image Nintendo presents with the games.

For the most part, the manga don't actually break anything established in the games, they just seek to expand upon it. So while they might provide some extra details that are nice to see, they're not something you should rely upon to get answers to any vague questions. Instead, you should read them as an alternate version of the games themselves rather than a companion piece to complete them.

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