I’ve had a lot of history with Vinland Saga, as it was the first series I collected in hardcover (not deluxe) when I first encountered a manga store in 2017 after being a fan of this medium since I was a teenager. I recalled reading this series briefly on those rough fan translation websites, Manga Stream, which weren’t good, but it was the only thing at the time. Anyhow, I just randomly stopped one day and never really thought about it until I saw it in this store. I adored the form factor, and with my limited money, I decided to buy it, and man, it was beautiful. Whenever I finished a volume and had money, I would go to that store and bulk buy a bunch. Then I recalled I think buying Omnibus 5-9 in one swoop. I remember already being a fan of Yukimura, because I adored the anime Planetes, but still the experience took me aback. The first arc was just incredible,, seeing Yukimura's transformation from weekly to monthly and how his art evolved with Askeladd in particular. The final volume of that arc is still to this day one of the best endings to an arc.

I was completely in the dark about the second arc, and man, I’m so grateful that ended up the case. There are certain books, stories, arcs or moments that can change a person, and that arc was exactly that. A masterpiece from beginning to end, one of the most enlightened experiences of reading to this day. It contained one of my favourite stories of all time, it’s minimum within my top 5 arcs of all time. It contains some of my favourite imagery, and the message it evoked came across so strong to me. I believe I reread the first arc at least 3-4 times and the second 5-9 times; it’s not an exaggeration. I didn’t have much money then, and my bookshelves were rather limited, so I would just reread it whenever I felt like it.

How do you follow up one of the greatest arcs of all time? Well, I think Yukimura initially delivered. While Vinland does have 4 overall arcs, the 3rd arc to me felt like two distinctive ones. The former you could call an interlude, dealing with the aftermath of Arc 2, the actions of Thorfinn's past have come to haunt him in interesting ways. It features a pretty great mini-arc which follows through nicely from what came before. The problem really arises once that section is over.

The idea of the Baltic Sea Arc isn’t misguided. It is the logical progression. It does make sense why it’s included, unfortunately, it’s just not great. From this point onwards, the series never truly recovers from its past glory. It’s never bad, it’s just, ‘Oh, this is a missed opportunity. Oh, that could have been executed better. I think at worst it just becomes average to above average. The Baltic Sea Arc still has some incredible moments and chapters, the one regarding Valhalla being a standout, but it doesn’t really stick as firmly. I’m more confused why the tone felt so inconsistent at times and why the comedy didn’t land because in the previous two arcs it was handled well, in Planetes it’s great, but here it just isn’t great. That said, I felt the ending was pretty strong, all things considered, and I was intrigued to see where it goes and even reread that arc after it finished to reaffirm my stance and why it’s better in volume form. It still didn’t fix its issues.

The last arc Vinland is the definition of fine. I don’t think it particularly butchers the past arcs; it didn’t go completely against the ideas Yukimura communicated earlier on, it’s just fine, and that’s a shame. Reading this Vinland arc monthly was a struggle; that said, the few chapters I felt were amazing were beautiful in a reread, and the ones I felt were fine had the same result. I do want to emphasise some chapters are beautiful, certain arcs – one in particular is beautiful, and certain homages to the second were fantastic… As I wanted to finish this series, and I started my reread of the final arc via volumes, I didn’t think it was bad. But it could have been so much more.

The lack of a Greece arc is one reason why this final arc was affected badly. From the source material, Thorfinn had his voyage to Greece to build his skills to eventually come to Vinland. It affected the arc from big to small ones. Certain characters remain static after 2 years and don’t really change at all, which is unrealistic, some characters felt they regressed, and the stories that they even alluded to all sounded quite interesting. The last is the lack of new and interesting characters. I don’t even care about the controversial Cordelia, it’s just all the new characters didn’t really have much depth from the Nords to the Native Americans. Some of the characters we were following since Arc 2 just felt rather static and one character in particular I just loathed. Then comes the ending which is once again just fine. It’s not bad, but definitely not memorable.

So overall, I don’t know how to feel exactly. You have 17 incredible volumes and 18-29 whose quality varies between great and fine. I still enjoyed my experience, I loved a lot of the journey, and I don’t regret starting or finishing this series. It was just a bit unfortunate, but I’m glad I decided to buckle down and finish it.