Vinland Saga

This review contains spoilers!!!!!

When I first saw the trailer of Vinland saga I knew it is going to be good, I even predicted it would enter my top 10, but this anime exceeded all my expectations and ended up being one of the very few shows I consider to be a masterpiece. from the realistic and well thought setting the writer chose to tell the story, to the amazing development the characters went through, to the amount of emotions you can feel while watching this show, to that unbelievable climax this season had, Vinland saga will always be remembered as one of the most well written stories that ever came out.

Writing a review about Vinland saga is not an easy task as there is so much to talk but I will not be able to go in depth in every detail in order not to miss the purpose of a review. So to make it simple, I will cover the most interesting parts of an anime (of course in my opinion) : the story and plot, the characters and their development, the themes, the adaptation (visuals, Ost, voice acting...), my personal impression ( enjoyment, emotions, reaction...).

1. story and plot:

Vinland saga follows the life of Thorfin, a child from Iceland who saw his father getting killed by a certain mercenary called Askellad. At first sight, it seems like a usual revenge story, but this is only a small part of the what Vinland saga is about. This show is about a man (Thors) who, after years of killing people in battlefields, finally understood what a true warrior is, but failed to pass his experience to his son. It is about a young man (Thorfin) who wasted about 10 years of his life going after a revenge he will never achieve. It is about a man (Thorkell) who knows how to live only in battlefields, but still unable to find the meaning of a true warrior. It is about a prince (Canute) who never wanted to be born in the royal family, but whose destiny in life is to make of it a means to begin his rebellion against god. It is about a man (Askellad) who was tired of waiting the messiah and thus decided to create one himself. It is about a land called Vinland, where there is no war nor slavery, a place for those who have nowhere to belong, a place that still no one knows if it really exists or it’s only the result of people’s imagination to appease their suffering and escape from the cruel reality.

Vinland saga managed to connect all these stories and more in one single season also known as the prologue of the saga. this says a lot about the quality of the plot in this show as it is not easy to create such connections between all the characters in the first arc.

The first episodes established on one hand the peaceful life Thorfin and his family had in Iceland, and on the other hand the life of Vikings mercenary, plundering villages and killing without mercy. The cruelty of the world in that time led to the assassination of Thors, Thorfin’s father by the hands of Askellad, the leader of a mercenary group of Vikings. Thorfin, still young and naïve made the oath of killing Askellad in a duel in order to avenge his father, the man who taught him that he shouldn’t kill people as “a true warrior doesn’t need a sword”. The anime then shows how the Thorfin’s life drastically changed when he joined Askellad’s group in order to get a chance for his revenge, he becomes the very opposite of what his father wanted: a killer blinded by revenge and a slave to Askellad who knew how to use Torfin to the fullest. Years after, Denmark started a war to conquer England, and Askellad’s group were a part of the army. This is the point of the story where the true plot of this arc begins and when the focus is no longer on Thorfin as Askellad will be the “main character” till the end of the season. the appearance of Canute, seemingly a shy and useless prince, revived in Askellad the dream he always wanted to achieve, the dream of serving a good and true king and saving his homeland “Wales” from any harm. To make it simple, Askellad was kind of a double agent for Wales seemingly working for Denmark’s sake. With the use of strategy and tricks, he will be able to awake Canute’s potential of a king and will plan to take down King Sweyn from the throne.

One remarkable thing about Vinland saga’s plot is that it was thickening with every episode, taking advantage of the historical setting, and using politics, religion, culture and philosophy to tell the story that culminated in that amazing final episode, where Askellad killed king Sweyn and gave up on his life for the sake of Canute and Wales leaving Thorfin with one of the most impactful and emotional last words in anime history, words that Thorfin still doesnt understand for the moment as he was in total despair after seeing Askellad getting killed in front of him.

__2. the characters and their development:
__

The characters in Vinland saga are amazing as Yukimura (the original creator) is a master of character writing. Canute, Thors, Thorkell, Thorfin, the priest, king Sweyn, Bjorn…. Were all interesting characters, but Askellad was without a doubt the best character of the show, a contender for character of the decade and one of the most well written characters in the medium. He played the role of the villain in the first part of the story, then became kind of an anti-hero, and finally stole the title of the protagonist from Thorfin at the end and went out as hero and a legend. He was a unique character with no pair in any other anime or manga. He was ruthless and caring, cunning and tricky, strategist and tactical, a man of honor and a mercenary, a carefree and a dreamer, a despicable and a lovable person, in short he is a very complex character that really needs a separate breakdown to talk about him with details.

Another brilliant character that shined in this arc is prince Canute, although he was presented as a shy and weak person, that wasn’t his true nature as he was acting like that to avoid contact and problems with others and this point was one of the most important hints to his character development that a lot of people missed and thus failed to understand his personality change in ep 18. I’ve made a complete breakdown about Canute’s character development in MAL, so I’ll put the link if someone wants to check it out: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1844034

Although the story of Vinland saga is following the life Thorfin, he didn’t have an important character development in this first arc, as the whole point of his character in the prologue is to portray the consequences of being blind by revenge, he wasted 10 years trying to kill Askellad without learning anything useful in life. Thorfin was meant to be a miserable and annoying character as long as Askellad is alive and only now that Askellad is dead by the end of the season, we can hope to see some real development in his character. But one thing was important in this arc concerning the relationship between Thorfin and Askellad: despite the fact that Thorfin hates Askellad ,he also cared about him and saw him as a father figure, and Askellad did really care about thorfin as well. This subtle relationship was clear in the finale when Askellad was dying, those last words can only come out of the mouth of someone who truly cares about Thorfin.

The other characters were also interesting, Thors will always be a legend, he was an amazing character in the first 4 episodes, and he was present in the story after his death with his ideals of “a true warrior doesn't need a sword” and “no one has enemies”, he was always present in Thorfin’s subconscious, in Thorkel’s memory, and in Willibald’s philosophy.

The priest was a super interesting character, his philosophy gave a lot of depth to the story and had a lot of impact on Canute as a character, Willibald was such an underrated character.

Thorkel was cool and badass, he really gave another dimension to the show, Bjorn was the loyal servant who looked up to Askellad, and even though he didn’t have enough screen time, his death was emotional and played a role in Askellad’s development. And finally, King Sweyn was a tough opponent for the main characters, his idea about “the curse of the crown” was interesting and will be useful later in the manga.

3. the themes:

This is one of the best parts of Vinland saga and probably the part that makes it clear that this piece or art is a masterpiece. The amount of themes Vinland saga contains and their compatibility with how the story is written within the setting of the Vikings era are to be praised.

The most obvious themes in Vinland saga are violence, war and slavery. Throughout the whole arc the writer portrayed a world full of violence, killing and plundering, a world where warriors are considered as the top of society, a world where slaves are everywhere. But unlike other animes that use these themes for the sake of shock value, Vinland saga uses them in order to show the importance of a world without violence, a word of peace where there is no war nor slavery. The contrast between these themes is so obvious in most of the parts of the series: first, Thors is the incarnation of this contrast as he used to live a life of violence and war, but finally understood the importance of living peacefully without hurting others, his words : “a true warrior doesn’t need a sword” and “ no one has enemies” highlights this contrast. Second the idea of “Vinland” that warm and fertile land faraway in the west is constructed by opposition to a place where there is war and slavery.

Later, the theme of slavery took a bigger meaning, Askellad once said that “everyone is a slave to something”. It was in the context of his uncle whipping one of his slaves, but askellad’s words were general and could be applied to other characters : Thorfin is a slave to vengeance, king Sweyn is a slave to the crown, Askellad is a slave to the legend of Artorious, Canute is a slave to his paradise, and even Thors was a slave to his ideals.

As the story progresses, the writer discusses the themes of love, discrimination,and religion. The philosophical approach the show used to talk about love, which is a “generic” topic that a lot of animes take for granted, was just fascinating. What the priest was talking about is the unconditional love, the love that is given to everyone in opposition of the common idea of love which he defined as discrimination. this story of love is connected to the idea of a true warrior, and the parallel was obvious in the direction of ep 18 where they shifted between the priest’s speech about love and the talk between Thorfin and Thorkel about true warrior. Furthermore, this whole idea of unconditional love is inspired from Christianity which is another important theme that Vinland saga used to tell the story and develop some characters (Canute and the priest).

The idea of achieving peace raises the question the way to do it, and with this comes the theme of power and again the theme of war. Do you need power to be able to establish peace? Is peace the result of understanding or the end of a war? Vinland saga still doesn’t give the final answer to these questions, but we already have some buildup with the way Canute chose to create a paradise in earth, he believes it’s necessary to detain power to be able to reach a world of peace and he is already involved in the game of the crown and the path of blood. But as King Sweyn said, the crown curses and corrupts his bearer, so will Canute be able to overcome the curse of the crown?

The last theme I’ll discuss in this review is the theme of the fairy tale. The idea of Vinland being a land where there is no war nor slavery is so ideal that there is no proof it really exists. All we know is that Leaf Erikson has discovered a fertile land (America nowadays) and named it Vinland, we don’t know if it’s really a place of peace with no slaves and no potential conflicts, which make it seems like a fairy tale for the moment, a utopia people believe in to appease their suffering and escape reality, the same way Askellad believed in the return of Artorious to save his people until he finally realized that it was no more than fairytale.

4. the adaptation:

Announcing an anime adaptation of Vinland saga was a good surprise for the fans but with a lot of worries as the manga is so detailed and hard to adapt. People were afraid it will turn out like berserk 2016 or kingdom, but once the trailer was out it was obvious that wit studio didn’t pick up the manga to get the hate of people.

Before talking about the visuals, I would prefer to discuss the choices of Director Yabuta Shuuhei and the other staff in terms of rearranging some events and adding some original content. First, the studio chose to tell the story in the chronological order, and it is absolutely a good idea because the story felt more natural and Thors death was more impactful as in the manga this part was done in a flashback. Second, adding one episode and a half (ep 5 -6) of original content was also a fantastic idea as it showed clearly how Thorfin ended up in Askellad’s group and also how he evolved from a weak child to a teenager experienced in battlefields. Third, the adjustment near the end of the season where they switched the order of chapter 46-47 (ep 22) and chapters 48-49 (ep 21), and this was also a wise decision as it was more accurate and natural that Askellad will have no more missions for Thorfin after their last fight and after what he told him in the end of ep 22. Finally, there were some original content of Thorfin and Leif in ep 23, it wasn’t necessary to add them but at the same time it didn’t do any harm to the story.

Now talking about the visuals, the animation felt fluid for most of the parts, the big moments were animated perfectly such as Thors VS Askellad, Thorfin VS Thorkel , Thorfin VS Askellad… there were some ups and downs in the quality throughout the whole season, but overall, the animation was so good.

The backgrounds were gorgeous and overall better than the manga, the details were maintained and the colors made it feel more beautiful:

In terms of character design, young Thorfin is better in the anime:

But later he is better in the manga:

Askeallad’s design is better in the anime:

But in the end of the arc the anime and manga are even, maybe better in the manga because of the details.

Ylva and Helga are also slightly better in the anime:

Overall, the character design is better in the anime.

The details of the manga were present in most of the parst of the anime, but the manga remains better overall.

Some shots were way better in the manga:

Some shots were better in the anime:

Some shots in the anime were as good as in the manga:

The soundtrack of Vinland saga is amazing, Yuataka Yamada managed to create a unique atmosphere that fits the story, the piano tracks were powerful especially in the big moments.

The voice acting was great, Askellad’s Voice actor was the star of the show, Uchida Naoya was the perfect voice actor. The performance of Thorfin’s voice actor was also good, Ono Kensho did a great job as Canute’s voice actor, and Oostuka Akio just nailed the role of Thorkel.

The direction was overall consistent, the studio followed the manga in most of the parts, but what was brilliant is that they improved in the best parts of the series. The direction of ep 14 was perfect and made the episode superior to the manga, in ep 18 they create a beautiful parallel between the priest and the Canute on one hand and Thorfin and Thorkel on the other hand, which was absent in the manga. Askellad’s flashback was better in the anime and ep 21 was also better. The finale was as good as the manga.

So overall, the anime did a fantastic job adapting the manga, there were times when the manga was above and times where the anime was better, but overall, I can say that they were on the same level, and this was the best adaptation that can be made.

5. my personal impression:

Vinland saga managed to amaze me from the first episodes, the quality of the writing and the story telling left me speechless and I was always looking forward to next week to see the next episode. There was not a single episode that I felt was weak, every episode felt natural and well structured, I loved the slow burn of the first part, I loved the buildup before ep 17, and the climax in the end of the season just blew me away. I barely had any complains about the show, apart from Thorkel’s power being unrealistic sometimes, I didn’t find any problem or plot hole. This was easily anime of the year for me and deserved a spot I my top 3 anime of all times. This is how much I loved Vinland saga, I couldn’t stop myself from reading the manga and now I can’t wait to see the next arc animated.

Conclusion:

To finish this review, I would say that Vinland saga is simply a masterpiece, a piece of art that everyone should see, it had one of the greatest character development of the medium, one of the best characters ever written (Askellad), a story about life and human condition without any use of superpowers, a fantastic historical setting and real references, great visuals and OST, incredible moments including 4 major deaths with Askellad’s death being one of the greatest in anime/manga history, and finally it had one of the craziest and most memorable climaxes that will leave the watcher speechless.