—— Link as the “Magical Girl”: The Precious Childhood
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, released in 1998, was the fifth release of The Legend of Zelda series (Zelda Wiki 2022). It was the first release for the Nintendo 64 consoles and the first 3D game in The Legend of Zelda series and was widely regarded as one of the greatest games of all time (Zelda Wiki 2022).
The legendary game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, was the prime producer of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. No doubt he imbued the Zelda series with fascinating Japanese elements, such as Shintoism which was well-discussed by Good Blood in their video essay (2019). Good Blood also provided an in-depth analysis of how conflicts in Ocarina of Time emerged as the conflict between childhood and adulthood (2019). This essay will further Good Blood’s analysis of childhood versus adulthood and specifically examine this conflict within the context of the Japanese magical girl genre in the late 1990s.
In her 2014 essay “Magic, Shōjo, and metamorphosis: Magical girl anime and the challenges of changing gender identities in Japanese society”, Saitō Kumiko defined and examined three periods of the magical girl genre: 1960s-70s, 1980s, and 1990s-2000s. Saitō’s analysis will serve as our primary framework to understand Ocarina of Time as a magical boy story.
The Mahō shōjo or the magical girl genre refers to “anime programs in which a nine-to fourteen-year-old ordinary girl accidentally acquires supernatural power” (Saitō 2014). Another variation, the majokko or the magical princess, is the alternative setting where the girl’s magic “derives from her pedigree as a princess of a magical kingdom or a similar scenario” (Saitō 2014). In Ocarina of Time, the child Link is a combination of both. He is an ordinary kid in the Kokiri Forest who gets teased for not having a fairy but also a reincarnation of the hero Link from the past Zelda series.
Saitō summarized the “classic magical girl’s dilemma” in the 1960s-70s and 1980s stage as a temporary escapism from female domestic duties through powerful, liberating magic, where the magical girl eventually has to quit the shōjo stage, give up her power, and accept her adulthood (2014). The magical girl transformation in this period often featured the protagonist growing up physically, signifying that only by taking a temporary adult form, the girl can become powerful enough to yield magic and fight evil forces (Saitō 2014). This is reminiscent of Link’s seven years of long sleep in Ocarina of Time, where the game explicitly says that as a child, he does not have the power to defeat the evil Ganondorf and has to become his adult form (Saitō 2014). Good Blood’s analysis of Ocarina of Time also highlighted the coming-of-age characteristic of Link’s journey: Link is often called a boy or a kid in his child form but appraised for his manhood in his adult form; the spatial design is similar to children’s playground in Link’s kid time while more obsolete in his adult time (2019).
The 1990s-2000s magical girls, however, found the empowerment of the magical girl not in her temporary growth into an adult, but in her “youth and cuteness” as the shōjo (Saitō 2014). The 1990s era saw the celebration of childhood and cuteness as a direct opposing force to the heavy burden of adulthood. Saitō suggested that the collapse Japanese bubble economy in the same period could be a direct influence (2014). Under the “failing image of male adulthood”, power and hope were re-envisioned in the youthfulness and cuteness and started to blanket “both genders’ perspectives,” as supported by an increasing amount of gender-crossing work (especially males turning into magical girls) and high popularity of magical girl anime among Japanese men in this era (Saitō 2014). Such a conflict between the cute youthful childhood and adulthood is evident in the character design of Ocarina of Time: Link, Zelda, and other allied characters are mostly teenagers and have more feminine looks(Link is a typical beautiful boy), whereas Ganondorf is a hyper-masculine adult. As Good Blood pointed out, the sword, the only weapon Link could use to fight Ganondorf, the evil adult, was the composition of essence from his childhood (2019). Zelda’s final decision to send Link back in time further highlights the importance of childhood. If the heroic act of growing up and defeating Ganondorf is the most important task, why bother sending Link back? It is apparent that Zelda values childhood and regrets that Link has lost his childhood in order to take responsibility as a hero and save the world. Such a sentiment was echoed by Miyamoto, who thought that every adult has a child side buried within them and aimed to capture and fulfill the childish aspirations in his games (Good Blood 2019).
Good Blood. (2019, January 12). OCARINA OF TIME – A Masterclass In Subtext. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyUcwsjyd8Q
Saitō, K. (2014). Magic, Shōjo, and Metamorphosis: Magical girl anime and the challenges of changing gender identities in Japanese society. The Journal of Asian Studies, 73(1), 143–164. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021911813001708
Zelda Wiki. (2022). Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://zelda.fandom.com/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Ocarina_of_Time
