Review of Vinland Saga

Back in 2019 I remember starting two big titles within the medium at the same time. I began watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes and reading Vinland Saga and switch between them two whenever I didn’t find one of them fun, so after some point in the “second season” of LOGH I would focus entirely on the prologue of the manga because of how fun it was, before I dropped it for three years after I reached that divisive Farmland arc.

Anyways, since I clearly liked that first arc of the manga I had to watch the anime, which begins with an extended beginning of the protagonist Thorfinn as a kid thanks to its own original material. Those first three episodes are fairly dull to watch if I’m being honest but help in making clear what type of story you are getting into. Despite being labeled as a simple fighting shounen by some, Vinland Saga is to its core a pacifist coming of age anti-war and anti-slavery story, that’s why the slavers are depicted as cruel as they are in the series, without coming off as the one dimensional assholes you can expect from other series, and that’s why Thorfinn’s family is ruined because of an incident regarding a slave. Likewise, that’s why Thors tells Thorfinn that they have no enemies even if he was a warrior in the past, something that many that were disappointed with its second arc apparently didn’t catch the first time.

Look at Thorfinn himself, he sees Vikings as cool as a child, he wants to become strong, grow to become a warrior and go fight in the war, and his family and whole life is ruined as he keeps on seeking revenge and running from his close ones, he becomes a puppet in a larger scheme of the very same person that took everything away from him, and also a murderer, gets seriously injured while fighting against stronger and more experienced opponents, and yet, since he is a kid and is out for revenge, he doesn’t grow up and learn, he refuses to let go because of that code of honor and Viking spirit he grew to aspire to, even when he admits and call other Vikings madmen as he grows later on.

The other important character is Askeladd, who goes from being a cool and cunning antagonist to the most and best fleshed out character in the whole season. Despite being aware of his hatred for him, he becomes a mentor of sorts for Thorfinn, as he is basically an adult version of him, given that his own life was ruined because of the war, and instead of pursuing revenge like his young impulsive counterpart, he slowly polished himself, up to the point where he could make a profit out of the very same thing he hates the most, and planned a political plot behind his initial simple presentation to strike directly that thing he hated the most in the long run, even giving himself up for it.

There is another relevant character in Canute, but he is not as well handled in this season at least, since he is just a quiet and pampered guy who doesn’t know jack when he appears, and his development into a masterful tactician, politician and even philosopher is cool, but also rushed to the point of not being convincing.

The rest of the cast may not be as important in the plot nor have as many dimensions as these three, but they serve the theme exploration just fine, the Vikings like Thorfell are all crazy, they like war so much and became such warmongers they are basically sociopaths, which is something that, for example, Hellsing Ultimate attempted to show in the past, but did it in a way that felt like it was trying to have a cake and eat it too, since it was presenting those characters as cool while doing it so. Not Vinland, these characters are demented and come off as horrifying…when the directing allows it, but we’ll come back to that later.

Besides the main focus, there is also a succession war going on which the characters either take an active part on their own or get dragged by it, and some of the best and most memorable moments and developments as well as character dynamics in this particular season are related to that specific plot point.

The pacing is good ever since the beginning, since every moment is dedicated to either the theme exploration, the plot progression, or the characterization, and in fact it was actually enriched by the adaptation thanks to its original material. The anime combined the retro approach of adding stuff to the original that could make it better, and still kept the modern pacing, and yet some people complained about it because of some CGI horses or something, can you believe it?

The finale, although obviously not conclusive in the sense that there is a lot of more story to come, is perfect for this one season, and atypical too, since the protagonist ends up having the exact opposite of his goals being accomplished. In a way, it is similar to the ending of the first season of Kaiji, since both protagonists could have stopped ruining their lives further, but because of their own stubbornness and thirst for revenge, they ended up having it worse, look at how much Thorfinn’s life was destroyed at the end of this arc partially because of his own fault, and people say this is just another fighting shounen that glorifies violence.

With all that said, Vinland Saga is not the masterpiece it’s made out to be for different reasons of varied importance.

First of all, it’s not that well animated. The overall artwork is fine, the character designs and models are great, the backgrounds are usually good, but sometimes the action scenes are poorly choreographed or animated, and there is some questionable CGI here and there, especially for water and horses, which damage the otherwise very good special effects. The directing is a mixed bag as well, sometimes an episode can be among the best presented in the medium, sometimes there can be interesting action scenes done with first person perspectives or dynamic camera movements, but other times they look poor and are presented even more poorly, an infamous example was a certain episode with completely different paneling than the manga, which didn’t manage to convey its point as much, which was Thorkell being a horrifying crazy warmonger, and let’s not talk about the scene where he chops down some dudes as he is running, that was seriously pathetically animated and directed.

The audio department has some similar issues though not to the same extent. The voice acting and the sound effects are superb, the sound directing is awesome, especially on that one episode where Canute and Askellad are walking towards the king, really conveying all that tension. The music is otherwise pretty forgettable or misused, and that includes most of the openings and endings as well, which I never understood why they became so popular in the first place. They sort of fit THE RAAAGE of the main character but they otherwise don’t fit the story, setting and time in history that the series take place in that well. The only song I liked was Torches by Aimer, the first ending, since it reflects the saddening tone of the series well, but even then I liked it mostly because I like the artist herself more than anything else.

If you want accuracy on your historical fiction then you will have a problem with this series for a few reasons.

First of all, the events and characters themselves, which were modified for the sake of the story. This is something the mangaka himself admitted to do in some of the early chapters of the manga, and if you happen to read a fansub of it, those always include some notes of their own where they detail the changes in events when they translate historical works.

Then there is of course the fact that this is, DUH, a manga and anime, thus you will have the characters talking and at times acting in ways that don’t fit the time and place of the story, and that can be immersion breaking for some viewers.

Related to that point is the comedy, for some reason most anime and manga like to include that awful comedy even in some of its most serious titles. Yes, it makes them not as tedious to consume but the changes in tone can be so different that they can be immersion breaking for some, myself included, thankfully here is not thrown in during serious moments and thus they don’t result in serious mood whiplashes.

And then there is the rule of cool. Sometimes you would have Thorfiinn jumping a laughable amount of meters in the air to land an attack or aboard a ship or fortress where he continues to do acrobatics and cut people down, or again, you could have Thorkell cutting down people in half for the sake of spectacle, or that one scene where these motherfuckers are running down a mountain, I think, while carrying the boats? Rule of cool can make something more exciting and more enjoyable to watch alright, and manly men doing manly things in manly ways is always fun, especially at a time when the medium is full of pussies, but on an anti-war historical drama, the action scenes can be way too over the top for some people.

But in the end, the most important criticisms are the ones I already talked about, how the story is not over, how Thorfinn doesn’t mature, and how Canute changed completely on one or two episodes, thankfully both characters get a lot more focus on the second season.

Despite those rather minor issues, I consider the prologue of Vinland Saga a great historical and political war drama and the second best anime to come out in the last decade, only behind Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, at least until I watch something better (though I don’t see it happening), and I’m glad something like this got all the attention and positive reception as it deserved for once.

Kinda similar stuff

Vikings (tv series)

The Last Kingdom (tv series, in turned based on The Saxon Stories book series)

The Northman (Movie adaptation of the real story that inspired all revenge plots and this franchise).

Berserk (Similar political plots and protagonists).

Hidamari no Ki (One of the main characters is a warrior that fights against bandits and refuses to change and also faces a bittersweet ending, while the other tries to get him to live a peaceful life, kinda like Thorfinn and Leif).


8/10