Vinland Saga

Tales of Vikings pillaging and plundering have always been exciting in my eyes, so the setting of Vinland Saga really grasped my attention. An anime produced by Wit Studio featuring a more historical take on the adventures of Vikings? What could possibly go wrong? A lot apparently. While it started off really promising, Vinland Saga got increasingly worse as it went along. And just like the serene land of England that the Vikings damaged and maimed, the Vikings did the same to the quality of this anime. Though it was primarily one Viking in particular.

Frickin Thorfinn

This dude is apparently the protagonist of the story, ... but he does absolutely nothing to deserve this title. No wait, he runs like Naruto and is OP for some inexplicable reason after receiving absolutely no adequate training throughout his young life, so I guess he does check off most of the boxes for "generic anime protagonist." Unfortunately, he has zero semblance of development until the very end of the anime. And his personality throughout the entire show is as stale as expired bread. Now I don't care if he evolves much more as a person in the much longer source material. I'm basing everything off of what I see in the anime, and what I see is a poorly written character whose total stagnancy is astounding. Also, Vinland Saga is considered to be a historical anime and boasts a more realistic take on Vikings. Now no one, least of all me, expected this anime to be entirely realistic. I mean come on, it's an anime after all. But when Thorfinn can accomplish feats like casually charging through hundreds of arrows shot at his head, leaping 12 feet in the air over a moat, sprinting up the side of a vertical castle wall, and running through dozens of trained soldiers in armor while making abrupt slashing motions with his knives that decapitate all of them with one slice, then I start to have a problem with the "realism" factor. Moments like these had deleterious effects on the quality of the anime in my eyes, and Thorfinn's inexplicable demigod-like feats of strength and skill when compared to the generally normal capabilities of the majority of the rest of the cast caused a disconnect with the historical direction that the anime seemed to be aiming for.

Of course that loud, mountain of a man Thorkell is somehow worse when it comes to absolutely shattering any sense of realism that Vinland Saga was aiming for, but I don't even want to attempt to talk about that horrendously written character.

Yes, I believe Thorfinn failed spectacularly as a protagonist. But thankfully, there's Askeladd. He's honestly much more of a main character than Thorfinn, and is actually quite compelling and given a believable reason for his actions. He's clearly the deepest character and most entertaining part of the show, and despite my issues with many aspects of the anime *cough* Thorfinn *cough* he kept things interesting. He's the type of character that you initially want to hate but then grow to appreciate as time goes on, and I have to commend Vinland Saga for writing him in such a compelling way. But even Askeladd couldn't save Vinland Saga from falling into mediocrity. And that's thanks to the inclusion of another certain character.

Frickin Canute

Canute is a Norse princess waifu...but he's a dude. The entire arc surrounding Canute can be summarized as Askeladd's vikings with Canute in tow march through all of England in fear of Thorkell's vikings who are in pursuit. It's terribly boring and is worsened by Canute constantly whining to his cone-headed adviser until even Askeladd gets annoyed by his character and tries to make a man out of him. Canute remains stagnant for many episodes until he has this incredibly pathetic and laughable epiphany about love that doesn't really make any sense and his character suddenly does a complete 180. His voice proceeds to drop an octave and his eyes get smaller and sharper to visually imply that yes, Canute's balls have finally dropped. His character transformation is so abrupt and nonsensical that I can only describe it as a monumental failure when it comes to development. This is especially sad because I know that the author of Vinland Saga has the ability to write quality characters. He did it with Askeladd after all. It just feels like he sort of gave up on trying to realistically develop Canute over a proper period of time and was just like "Screw it, he's a badass now!" Which is honestly quite unfortunate.

I also find the narrative to be quite weak and lazily written. Sure, it shows on multiple occasions how harsh and cruel Vikings can be, but in reality it just depicts a bunch of dudes traveling around accomplishing not much of anything for like 20 episodes with a few "dark" moments sprinkled in to remind viewers that they're watching a medieval fantasy. I honestly couldn't find much depth or intrigue in this anime at all. It's just not interesting to me whatsoever and feels like a ginormous waste of time. And the whole revenge plot surrounding Thorfinn and Askeladd had about as much substance as the awful revenge plot featured in Masamune-Kun's Revenge. Which is to say that there's practically zero substance, as it never feels like Thofinn makes any progress whatsoever at getting back at Askeladd. Now this would be fine if the anime took the route of trying to develop their bond and bring them closer over the years, but it doesn't feel like that either. That is of course until the anime force feeds us that angle at the end in a last ditch attempt to derive some emotional impact...sorry, it didn't work. The whole show is just Thorfinn being perpetually angry at Askeladd and Askeladd being sort of indifferent to Thorfinn, which was quite disappointing for me. It made the whole anime feel sort of pointless. And when I can draw parallels to frickin Masamune-Kun's Revenge, which is in my opinion one of the poorest produced anime of the 2010s, you just know that Vinland Saga done goofed up somewhere along the line.

Despite my harsh criticism of Vinland Saga, I don't actually hate the show or anything. It does have some solid visual and sound work (bar the jarring CGI), courtesy of Wit Studio. And there are some fun fight sequences included. I'm just disappointed that the anime squandered so much potential. While it admittedly starts strong with Thors and finishes strong with Askeladd, the rest...unfortunately isn't the best.

Every. Damn. Time.

You hear a ton of hype for a series, assume it must be good, check it out - and it’s a “transitional” middlebrow shlock. Meaning, a series that 15 y.o. think is really smart and mature because its themes are more complex and nuanced than the kid's shows they’ve experienced so far, yet at the same time is familiar (read: cliched and primitive) enough to not alienate its target audience. Which in the end makes it the same juvenile cheese-fest anyway. Here is a bunch of its massive flaws:

1. The title would make you think this is a story about vikings. Yeah, sure, ... it technically is - the same way Marvel’s Thor is about vikings. In truth, it’s a dime-a-dozen battle shounen featuring an edgy teenage boy that shouts a lot, and also superpowers. No, not like My Hero Academia, where superpowers are incorporated into the story, no, sir, that wouldn’t be dumb, and we can’t allow that. It’s just the supposedly normal people in a supposedly historical setting doing nonsensical shit that that fits a 15 y.o’s idea of “cool” and anyone else's idea of “cringe.” Now, I know what the counterargument here is - “it doesn’t have to be realistic.” Which is true, a story doesn’t have to be realistic - it has to make sense within its own established rules. Let’s use another series, Berserk, for contrast - because that’s a series that Vinland Saga has absolutely nothing in common with. In Berserk’s chapter 1 we see Guts cut a dude in half with his BFS. It’s not realistic at all - “that thing was too big to be called a sword...” etc. But it is believable - if someone is strong enough to swing that (which Guts is for plot reasons), it totally would cut a dude in half. And it actually looks cool, thus passing under the Rule of Cool. Meanwhile, here in Zombieland Saga we have Axe Guy, a regular human who cuts four people and a mast with a single axe swing. Four people standing in a square formation 2 meters away from each other and the mast in the middle of the square - with a single swing of a regularly-sized woodcutter’s axe. Which does NOT make sense. Unless it’s a magical 4-dimensional axe that cuts through space-time continuum. Which wasn’t established at any point. Which makes it cringy bullshit. I know, I know - “just turn your brain off...” No.

2. The so-called “vikings” are blatantly 21st century Japanese culture-wise. Quoting Sun Tzu, doing ninja moves, Naruto-running - it’s surprising they aren’t eating yakisoba with chopsticks, that would fit right in. This is actually an example from quite a bit further in the story, but at one point a character says “I like playing on hard mode.” Yes, these are the actual words. For anyone not seeing a problem - videogames with difficulty modes weren’t a thing in 900 A. D.

3. The “if you kill your enemies you’re just like them”-level moral preaching. I’m not even going to dignify it with refuting. There is one of the main characters, let’s call him DIO (you’ll get it soon) who preaches this sort of 21st century first world pacifism, despite it being literally insane in his cultural context. Same deal, the problem isn’t that a character having insane morals isn’t realistic - the problem is that it isn’t believable. If a character acquires morals that contradict his environment (contradict not being dead in his environment), there is gotta be adequate development showing how this would happen. Of which there is jack shit. No, the “tell, don’t show” exposition that even knows itself that it’s a damage control attempt does not count as an adequate development.

4. Godawful, I-threw-up-in-my-mouth, CLANG-level CGI. It’s not bad looking in the same technical way as CLANG 2016, it’s just on the same level of incompetence. Just to rub it in, we’re treated to this eye-rape from the very first scene of the series - you know, the scene that is supposed to be literally the best looking part of the show to entice the audience. There we meet DIO and Axe Dude who casually slaughters two (historically inaccurate) longboats worth of people. DIO is DIO because he uses ZA WARUDO - i.e. 20 people stay frozen in time while he moves between them, cutting people vertically in half with movements that have so little weight behind them, realistically he wouldn’t cut paper. Like, completely frozen in time - that is, they are non-animated 2D stills slapped right in the middle of a 3D background that is doing all sorts of dynamic camera movements. The result is so jarring, the dudes look like they were photoshopped in after the fact, with zero effort put into making it look seamless. It’s literally a textbook example of how not to animate. Yes, literally, they teach this in animation courses. Axe Lad somehow got it even worse - he moves. That is, his 2D still moves through 3DCG, the result looking pretty close to poorly done paper cutout animation. Also 3D environment is what makes his hyperdimensional slash stand out in such a bad way, cause you clearly see distances between objects and how geometry-defying his superpower is. I could continue, I just really don’t want to.

1/10 for “lowest common denominator schlock.”

The following will be more of a critique, rather than a review, so expect a lot of spoilers.

As a foreword I'd like to say that, while I do realise that the historical tag doesn't contain within itself a "realistic" tag, the events that play out in Vinland Saga are an absolute farce, given the time period and historical background. Even the suspension of disbelief made out of titanuim would eventually crumble and collapse under the amount of stupidity this show contains.

With that out of the way, let's begin.

-Characters

Thors The Troll (aka Thorfinn's dad) - he is the most ridiculous character in Vinland Saga, as his ... background, decisions and moral stance make him seem simply insane in the world he inhabits. Thors is the former commander of the Jomsvikings, who, after the life full of war and bloodshed, decides to do a complete 180 after holding the hand of his newborn daughter. No meaningful setup, no explanation, no nothing. A man whose entire existance revolved around warfare, turns into a pacifistic buddha in less than a minute
at the snap of the fingers. If you think that's acceptable, there's nothing I can say. Thors also shows his excellent decision making skills as early as the first episode, where he buys a runaway slave at a death's door. The payment? 8 sheep. Yes, a man that lives in Iceland of all places, during the winter, who also has a family, trades 8 sheep for a man that's about to die. If that's not a stunning display of stupidity, I don't know what is. He is also the strong proponent of childish morals on the level of: "If you kill your enemies, you're no better than them". Truly insipiring coming from a man who lives in 11-th century and who also happens to be a former leader of what is essentially a warband. Thors' death is yet again brought about by his inability to make well-thought out and weighted decisions, as he thinks that pirates(!) will honor his request, only to end up being shot down by a squad of archers. He also dies standing tall and proud, because of course he does. I also forgot to mention, that his ridiculous morals are further reinforced with the fact that he always fights unarmed and manages to defeat entire groups of fighters armed with swords, axes, shields and etc., as if he was Kenshiro from Hokuto no Ken.

Thorfinn - a non-character that is defined by a singular trait and nothing else: a vendetta against Askellad, cause in his twisted logic - it's Askellad who is responsible for his father's death, and not his (Thors') stupidity. There's really nothing to say about Thorfinn, even if I wanted to. He's moody and edgy, talks primarily by barking out the same phrase over and over, or using edgy one-liners. Whenever someone mentions his dad he simple flies into a blind rage. As for his abilities as a fighter, he, for whatever reason, has an acrobatic fighting style with dual-wielded daggers (sometimes he weilds even 3 daggers, holding the third one in his mouth, as if he was Roronoa from One Piece), and, like a character that we'll get to soon, seems to be able to use shukuchi, as there's no other explanation for his sudden teleportations during fights.

Askellad - a character that is hailed by fans as someone who is on par (depth and development wise) with such characters as Guts, Spike Spiegel, The Laughing Man, Shinji and etc., you get the idea. That is however, a blatant lie, though I will concur that Askellad is a lot better than the rest. He's a bastard son of Olaf, a local hero and greatest warrior of some city in Denmark, who once upon a time made "love" with a slave girl from Wales, which resulted in Askellad being born. This awful circumstances result in Askellad having one definitive trait and burning passion. The trait - hatred towards danes. The passion - to kill all said danes, or the very least subjugate them. Taking Askellad seriously was not too hard, until the flashback of his childhood occured in episode 22 or 23, where an 11 year old, who did nothing his entire life except clean the stables, clean the snow and taking out ash from the furnaces and fireplaces (that's where his name comes from, by the way), managed to hold his own in a duel against his father and local war hero Olaf. How was he able to go toe to toe with someone like that (eve if it was for no longer than 40 seconds) is never explained and the audience is just expect to accept it. Sorry, but that's not happening.
Another thing he's known for is his "genius" schemes, in which he attempts to play his enemies, but achieves a pyrrhic victory at best, though he did manage to outwit Thors, but that's hardly an accomplishment. As he later states himself, most of his problems stem from the fact that his daddy (Olaf) didn't love him and his mom, and treated them like cattle.

Canute - a young man, whose timid character and androgynous features lead others to mistake him for a woman. Like the rest of the cast, there's not much to say about Canute. Since his introduction and until episode 21, he was a sissy that did nothing except prayed to Jesus with his aide and a priest at his side, and abhorred war and everything that's moderately associated with it, which in turn led everyone else to point and laugh at them. In episode 21, he has a 3 minute discussion with priest about human nature and love, during which he arrives to the conclusion that humanty is flawed by it's nature, and that he'll be the one to right the wrongs and save everyone. This, together with the fact that Ragnar (his aide) was killed a few episodes prior, causes his metamorphosis from who he is into a discount version of Griffith from Berserk.
Also, just like Askellad, the core of his issues comes from the fact that his father (the current king of Denmark) didn't spend a lot of time with him when he was a child and never loved him much nor accepted his unorthodox behaviour (for the times of the setting), which resulted in Canute treating Ragnar (his aide) as his actual father.

Bjorn - another non-character and Askellad's right hand man. He's quite strong, and, in time of need, is known to consume mushrooms that cause him to enter a state of
berserker rage, when he becomes violent to such an extentet that he is unable do distinguish between friend or foe. He's just there, but at one point he finds out that
Askellad is not a pure dane, and that he actually hates them, which leads Bjorn to defect from Askellad. This conflict concludes in a duel which Bjorn loses, his last words being that
he only wanted to be friends with Askellad *yawn*.

Thorkell - an individual of exceptional stature, size and physical build, who is said on many occasions to be one of, if not the strongest warrior. In an interesting contrast to this is his behaviour, which is that of a child, as all he does is expresses glee and joy at the though of a battle, and wants nothing esle except that - more fighting. He is also the leader of an army that consisting of 500 men. How those 500 men can consider him a leader and follow him, when he has 0 leadership skills and also doesn't seem to rule over them with fear, is beyond me. Thorkell is also the character responsible for most damage done to one's suspension of disbelief, as he lifts boulders that weigh a couple tons above his head and hurls them. At one occasion throws a spear over what seems to be a distance of no less than 400+ meters and manages to impale 4 people on the said spear (somehow), and more.
He used to serve under Thors during his time in Jomsvikings and has great admiration for the man, as he is the only one to ever beat him (how could that have happened is never shown, nor is it beliavble, but w/e). Therefore, he also expects Thorfinn (when he's confronted with him) to be up to par with Thors in that regard, something that Throfinn barely manages to deliver in their first bout.

The rest of the cast do not warrant to be looked on individually in my opinion, as they can be summed up in a single sentence.

-Plot
Guess it's there? The titular Vinland is brought up about 4 times during the course of 24 episodes, some characters think it's heaven on earth and want to get there, and that's about it. The plot over the course of 24 episodes encompasses the following: How Thorfinn turned from the cheerful little boy in the first episodes into who he is now. Flashbacks to the past of the main cast, to establish them (which does a very poor job of that). A ring around the rosy between Askellad and Thorkell, which results in their alliance at the end of the day and Canute's transformation from who he is into a discount Griffith, and the following plotting against King of Denmark. I do undesrtand that it's a prologue, but in my opinion it's neither engaging nor interesting.

-Sound
As I always say, OST is mostly subjective. Some people will like a certain OST, others will not. What is not subjective however, are the awful sound effects that plague this show.
This isn't the first intstance of horrendous sound effect, as currently running Fate/Grand Order Babylonia suffers from equally awful sound effects, as did many other anime that aired this year.
As for OST, personally, I cannot remember a single track from it, though I do remember the very weird mix of what seems to be a typical orchestral music and hip-hop, which is a very strange choice, and doesn't work with the atmosphere or the setting. Both OPs and both EDs are pretty bad, especially the second ED, which is simply abhorrent.

-Art
This has been extensively adressed by a lot of people in preliminary reviews, but I will go over it briefly for the sake of it. The CGI is unbelievably bad, so bad in fact it's simply indefensible. Attempting to close the eyes on the quality of the CGI here is a disservice to the community and a blatant acceptance of awful mediocrty. The art and animation themself are nothing spectacular either, characters often have silly expressions, are off model and etc. The animation in fights, especially duels, is severly lacking and pairs
awfully with the horrendous sound design. When you're shown a wideshot of a large scale battle, it's simply full of same looking 3D CG models that are stuck in a single animation loop.

-Summary
It's your average run of the mill shonen devoid of interesting characters and story, very much like Kimetsu no Yaiba that aired earlier this year. But at least Yaiba was done by ufotable and at least it had visuals going for it (2D characters on 3D background still look absolutely vile and awful though). Why is this hailed by majority of people as a better Berserk is something I cannot comprehend whatsoever. What hurts the most, is that it's from Yukimura Makoto, the original creator of Planetes, a manga that was highly
acclaimed and praised for it's realistic depiction of space and things associated with it. Planetes also has a magnificient anime adaptation by Sunrise, and is one of the best anime out there. To say that I'm severely dissapointed by Vinland, is to put it very lightly.

Final Score:
I can't believe this is from the author of Planetes/10. (1/10).

I would also like to thank my friend for proof-readind and helping with the editing.

Vinland Saga is pretty awful, but for reasons I truly find unfortunate, most of why can be boiled down not to its story, characters, or anything like that, but simply to its troubled & misguided production. Above all else, Vinland Saga is an absolute nightmare of mixed media failure after mixed media failure. As they have the prestige of being Production IG’s subsidiary, WIT Studio was hooked up with the legendary art director of countless illustrious productions, Takeda Yūsuke, and naturally, he and his team at IG funded and staffed, Studio Bamboo, began work on Vinland Saga’s background art selection an estimated half a year ... before WIT took to animating it. This process was able to proceed ahead of WIT Studio’s despairingly behind schedule storyboards because—as anyone whose seen even a minute of this artless indignity could guess—WIT Studio had appointed their CG Director to direct the project and resigned the anime to being a direct adaptation months before pencil was even put to paper or stylus to tablet, and so the adaptation was thereby in no position to get ambitious with its cinematography. In the end, anything not ripped directly from the pages of the manga was, in consideration of the director’s credentials, fitted to 3DCG environments obviously not handled by Takeda or his team of 2D artists. Inevitably, what was vomited atop these modern masterpieces of digital artwork was some of the most embarrassing character animation and equally humiliating CG models proportional to the caliber of the studio putting them out of all time. From the very third episode onward, there would be weekly threads on 4chan’s anime and manga board dedicated to archiving mountainous amounts of off-model character artwork picked from hopeless abundance. Nearly every single frame of this show which isn’t one of a character close-up is off-model at worse or funnily under-detailed at best, and the further away from the camera perspective the characters stood, the more laughable if not depressing the state of the character artwork found itself…until calling it “artwork” became a true stretch of the world. By the time episode counts were getting into their teens, Takeda Yūsuke’s heartbreakingly gorgeous backgrounds were being used as the pathetically lazy hammock of unmoving CG models, because I guess even redrawing unanimated background characters for one more frame was just too much to ask.

It is truly difficult to oversell how shameful this thing is on every visual level. Outside of episodes one and four there is but one meager cut of full-frame-rate sakuga animation in the entire two cour long show, and half the cuts from even those exception episodes were only able to be animated at the frame rate they were because the character animation was traced over CG references, with Thor running from ship to ship in episode one or Thorfinn rushing the soldiers on the ramparts in episode seven being the most egregious examples of this criminally lazy and talentless technique. But the laziness of Vinland Saga much runs much deeper than its disgraceful indulgence in cost-cutting animation to the point of being paradoxically effortful. This entire adaptation is seated in appeasing public desire and always has been. Thanks to the ever impressive artwork of young legend, Makoto Yukimura, Vinland Saga has found itself much in the same category as the works of the god, Kentarō Miura. Constantly labeled with words like “unadaptable,” the success, acclaim, and of course, popularity of Vinland Saga kept fans demanding an anime adaptation for over a decade until the project was finally announced, but the announcement in spring 2018 came with a surprising time table of the very next year. It had been rumored WIT Studio was about to embark on a massive project which may even begin to threaten their Attack on Titan franchise—which it very much did given the total train wreck second cour production cycle for season three—but the rumors were referencing a strictly anime original project. We now know this huge and ambitious project to be Great Pretender, but at the time, only one thing was for certain: this project was NOT Vinland Saga. The Vinland Saga anime was, remember, a fanservice production first and foremost, and two aspects of the manga’s metaculture were what sparked the weirdly effortful laziness I mentioned haunting the story’s core in a misguided effort to serve those fans. One, the target audience, and two, “Farmland Saga.” Farmland Saga, as it’s facetiously branded, is the second arc of Vinland Saga’s expansive narrative, and it takes the bloody, gory, edgy seinen manga of the first four volumes and turns it into a more contemplative and mature wandering adventure manga for the next two and a half volumes. Despite the fact this arc develops the main protagonist in a way which actually makes the series meaningful and smart, this is very much not what the teenage boys—the fans—of this series desire. Terrified to reach this point in the manga, which remember, is only five short volumes in, the adaptation team riddled the story with filler to push Farmland Saga out of the planned two cour adaptation to keep the fans happy, and what resulted is one of the most mind-numbingly boring slogs of so-called entertainment I’ve ever sat through.

Frankly speaking, Vinland Saga is not even that enticing a narrative. Yukimura himself—as if he needed to tell us—stated the inciting arc structure of Vinland Saga was heavily based on his admiration for aforementioned Kentarō Miura’s Berserk. Berserk is a series which begins in earnest after a couple volumes of setup with an epic prologue arc which ends in one of the most legendary upheavals in literature to incite what will be the remainder of the story, and Vinland Saga tries very hard to replicate this effect to its utmost. That said, Yukimura very clearly missed the mark on what made that shell-shocking prologue of Berserk so moving. Putting aside its thematically gigantic accomplishments, what made that story what it was, was its well developed, human characters undergoing emotional transformations weaved throughout the otherwise innocuous seinen battle manga which just happened to sport some of the medium’s greatest artwork. And I think it was the flashiness of this artwork which made young Yukimura think that in itself was the appeal. Shortly after the debut of Vinland Saga as a weekly release, Yukimura had the publishers change it to a monthly release, and the quality of his artwork soared even higher thanks to this extra time. The early chapters of Vinland Saga are well planned, well written, and as cohesive as any good story is, so clearly, the only reason he did this was to make his already gorgeous artwork that much better…when Vinland Saga was already good. The story shows its hand quickly enough, though, because after the obviously long premeditated and tightly executed opening volume comes to its close, the so-called prologue arc which seeks to emulate the complex build up and break down of Berserk’s Golden Age Arc is little more than style over substance battle manga antics and edge tossed back and forth until the ending comes around, and the main character’s goal is betrayed in an unceremonious fashion just for the sake of having done it. The anime, if anything, translates this to screen perfectly, but whereas I got to flip through those hellishly boring three remaining volumes of the prologue in a mere fifty five minutes at maximum, I had to let the anime go at its own eight hour pace to finish the damn thing—and that’s plus its previously noted filler. If they were so desperately eager to avoid Farmland Saga and equally willing to shaft the production values for the sake of pre-production on Great Pretender, then why on earth did they not just forget about the filler, cut the hours of wholly uncharismatic viking side characters on a road trip through England plaguing volumes two and three of the manga, and go for a one cour anime adaptation of the prologue? The staff would have more time, and the teenage boy fans they were trying to appease in the first place would get more action, better animated, and far more frequently. Literally everything would’ve been better, if not solved completely.

Even at its heart, Vinland Saga is questionable at best. Its cast of characters is the very definition of a mixed bag. Thorfinn, the main character, is a treasure trove of tragedy and good ideas for a juicy protagonist. He begins as an idealistic child, but as his father is unfairly murdered in front of him by Vikings, his world is shattered, and he joins the Vikings’ gang vowing to stay with them until he can kill the leader who so maliciously did the same to his righteous old man. What makes it meaningful, though, is his father was only killed because he was a hardline pacifist who preached his ideals to his family and especially his son to no end, so seeing Thorfinn go down this ugly path of vengeance and death and becoming a beast of the exact opposite nature of that which his father died hoping for his future is more heartbreaking the more you think about it, and seeing him actually mature into a man the likes of his father in the Farmland Saga arc this anime adaptation never got to actually gives meaning to the otherwise vapid finale of the prologue. Askeladd, the Viking who killed his father and the antihero of the prologue, is an absolutely electric personality (when the snail of a story allows him to be) who is—spoiler—the son of a Viking mob-lord’s sex slave fighting for his own sort of vindication for his humiliated but proud people. While their dynamic could be a hell of a lot more nuanced and well written, the story has other priorities. Helping to draw out the laggard sloth of a narrative with the added help of meaningless no-stakes battles is the remaining supporting cast. We’ve got a guy who can hear approaching troops from miles away by putting his ear to the ground, a guy who can literally talk someone out of a hallucinogenic drug trip, a guy who can throw entire tree trunks at offensive distance and stop a full-charging stallion with a single punch, and a guy who can fall from the cruising altitude of a golden eagle landing spine-first on a tree and walk away fighting again within minutes. I once said in reference to Studio Bones’ Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, “If you want me to take your drama seriously, start by not making your fleeing pedestrians clunky CG.” Now I find myself saying if you want me to take your juvenile edgefest seriously as a mature war story, start by not making your charging soldiers clunky CG AND by not making your so called characters little more than retarded teenage power fantasies holding no logical bounds within the historical world you’ve attempted to establish. Okay, that was honestly a little more harsh than I wanted it to be, but I’m not rewriting it because it’s true. Vinland Saga squanders so much of its potential intrigue trying to capitalize on the blood and guts capabilities of the setting, and while I guess that works in the beautiful manga panels if that’s all you’re here for, it sure as shit doesn’t work in the hideously ugly animation of the adaptation. I’ve mentioned to no end how slow it is, but as for what it is, I can barely even speak in vague terms about the story of Vinland Saga without being negative at least in part. The content of volume four, which is the last five-ish episodes of the anime if I remember the manga correctly, is okay, but seeing as it’s predicated on the fact a certain character had to completely change their personality in an inhuman amount of time, to an inhuman degree, and with an inhuman level of totality in order for those events to take place in the manner they did, it can hardly be called well written by any stretch of the phrase. But to wrap it all up in a nice little package, the entire story of the prologue is the following: Having joined Askeladd’s band of Vikings on a mission to grow up and take revenge for his father’s murder, Thorfinn finds himself serving Askeladd in a campaign alongside the Danish Jomsvikings into mainland England, wherein they and other hardly important personalities find themselves taking responsibility for the safety of Prince Canute, a spoiled softy of nobility whom was sent out to man-up or die, only to man-up to such a degree as to eventually harbor ambitions to kill and dethrone his father, The King, who bestowed upon him on this bloody fate. Sounds badass in one sentence, right? Well, I dare you to watch the nine hour version of it riddled with meaningless filler only to proceed though a fifteen episode long road trip interspersed with nauseatingly poorly produced, CG bloated action sequences with no decisive resolutions or character deaths on either side of the battle and no shortage of ham-fisted fluff conversations and altercations preaching morals with the thematic complexity of a children’s parable disguised as something more by edgy violence without falling asleep. Note: being twelve years old is cheating.

There’s just short of an infinite number of ways one can criticize a piece of fictional media, and personally, I find the vast majority of it to be ignorant, opinion deifying shlock. What most tout as “objective quality” doesn’t exist—and frankly can’t exist—because this media can’t be held to standard. No one can definitively say something is “good” or “bad” without relying on predefined norms, and seeing as every epoch has defined its own benchmarks of quality, doing such is inherently reliant on opinion, even if the opinion held by the consensus. What is valuable for critique is not so-called objective quality—for all that really boils down to is subjective quality in which one, like myself, can at most explain why they liked something and ask the reader to please empathize—but technical quality, because ironically, only technical quality can be called “objective.” Just as a traditional technician can fix a car in a way which is objectively correct or objectively incorrect, in a way which functions mechanically or in a way which does not, there is such a thing as an authorial technician, a writer; a cinematic technician, a director; an artistic technician, an animator. And all of these technicians do work which can certainly be taken at personal value, but which can more solidly be taken at technical value. Nothing and no one can stop you from using opinionated standards to call the scripts of a writer, the shot compositions of a director, or the cuts of an animator entertaining or boring, awesome or lame, or pretty or ugly, but anyone with two brain cells and a dictionary can stop you from use technical standards to deem them logical or illogical, original or derivative, or strictly well-animated via on-model fluidity or lacking in frames or faithfulness to the designs. And in light of every angle of scrutiny, it is simply impossible to take a critical eye to Vinland Saga and its overwhelming droves of off-model character artwork, brainwashingly endless panning shots over still frames, anatomically offensive clunky animations, and—I know this one is mean—literal boatloads of Play-Doh branded CG models and walk away from the examination concluding you’ve seen something of even remotely quality construction. And even if you were to close your eyes, only consuming the narrative at hand via the characters’ dialogue like a radio drama, your eyelids would find themselves bolted shut not by their resolute aversion to the hellishly ugly visual display hidden before them, but by the inescapable lull of sleep brought on by the terminally snail paced, filler ridden, basically themed monotone downpour of personalities only charismatic to viewers privy to the attitude and scripting sensibilities of a middle schooler enticed by their first showing of seinen edge their mommies and daddies would never permit them to indulge in before now.

Thank you for reading.

The first 3 episodes were a blast, tons of interesting characters were introduced, and the story seemed to be really interesting. Then bang, the big event happened and I'm here 11 episodes in waiting for something new to happen.

I get it, it's a revenge story, but it's really not going anywhere, there's filler everywhere, episode 7 to 10 could have easily being crammed into a single one. Episode 11 in particular was absolutely useless, the first 12 minutes were literally people just talking about christianity and food.

Maybe later on it becomes more interesting, but based on what I've seen so far I'm dropping it.

Vinland Saga is nothing more than Shonen disguised as a Seinen , I am offended that this series receives so much praise for doing nothing

This series tries so hard to be like Berserk and it fails in every way , the writer tries so hard to make the story appear dark and mature and edgy and all I do is cringe at his terrible writing

I will never why this series receives praise

it follows a cliche story of a guy wanting to get revenge but this isn't any ordinary revenge no no no , he wants to get revenge in an honourable way like ... why would anyone waste 11 years of their life trying to get revenge when they can just kill the guy in his sleep , Nonsense and what makes it worse is how they try to attach so much emotion into his plan when it's just plain stupidity

He then gets Stockholm Syndrome and gets attached to the guy he wants to kill, Like come on the writer put absolutely no thought into this

The side characters are also awful and plain , there is nothing to them , they are just a couple of NPC's and the characters designs are also ugly , the writer has some sort of fetish for blondes

The fights are just unrealistic , it makes no sense for a 5'2 18 year old to be overpowering and easily killing GROWN ass men

I also dislike how Thorfinn sounds , this guy tries tooooo hard to be all EMO

The issue with this adaptation of vinland saga is to do with the pacing in the manga imo, they want the first 'arc' of the story to stretch the full length of this season, so they don't have to finish up a little way through the next arc.

This means they've added a tonne of filler, and extended scenes that were just a panel or two in the manga to be a whole 5 min segment. Something explained in one line of dialogue becomes a whole conversation etc. The pacing is so slow and boring it kills this show.

For both the manga and the anime the ... characters are mostly one dimensional and straight awful. Almost every single character undergoes literally no character development and remains a cliche throughout their life. The only character development that does happen is sudden and jarring, and rarely makes sense. Askellad is the only saving grace among the characters, but he alone isn't enough to warrant more than a measly 1 for character. It's like they rolled on the DND character trait table and that was the only personality these characters were given. Legit whothefuckismydndcharacter.com makes more in depth characters.

Fighting is alright, but the art isn't anything to write home about, many people keep preaching how pretty this anime looks, but it's fairly mediocre, a solid 5, nothing more, nothing less.

Music is alright but is generally a background music style, rather than have it play over the top. It's also consistently ruined in action scenes by the screaming of the MC, hooray.

Spoilerwarning:

Welcome to Askeladds Gambling Show!
I am Bjorn, your trusty right-hand man and announcer!
Introducing our host, the one and only king of gamble, Askelaaaaaaaaad!

Our first candidate is Thorfinn.
He is the son of Thors the Troll, who won the Duel against our host, but died because i threatened our little Thorfinn with a knife.

On to our first Gamble!
... Askeladd, how high is the chance for our first guest, to be your trusty little puppy, saving you every odd episode, despite his oath of revenge for killing his father?

Askeladd: 100% !
Thorfinn: Wait, wha..? *woof*



Our second Candidate is Canute.
He is the second prince of Denmark, a complete wuss, unable to talk for himself and has no followers or allies apart from his *mother Ragnar. He is killed by me and Askeladd.

On to the second Gamble!!
Askeladd, how high is the chance for our Princess to forget his entire character in the span of 10 minutes, through a sudden realisation become badass, cunning and a leaderfigure and despite his killed *mother, putting our host as his right hand man and most trusted advisor?

Askeladd: 100%
Canute: *pathetic wimper*... So shall it be!

This concludes todays episode of Askeladds Gambling Show!
One round of applause for our Candidates and, of course, the one and only King of Gamble, ASKELAAAAAAAAAD!!!!!!!! *coughs blood*
If youd excuse me, my intestines are leaving my body.

Good night, everyone!



I could give you a few more examples (Askeladds gamble with the Lord in episode 13, Throneroom scene in episode 20, etc.), but those 2 are the most dealbreaking.

The Show could be summarised with Askeladd taking ridiculous gambles and always hitting jackpot. Other characters are acting completely irrational and dumb to make him look good, while superpowered ogres are pillaging, preaching you a clear black and white view.

Which brings me to the point why i disliked the Show.
If you can accept that Askeladd is the smartest, most cunning, godly, anticipating and manipulating character, you are in for a treat.

If you dont, you just see a Show that falls flat (flatter than 99% of the cast) on his face, trying to find a way getting 1 character from point A to B in the Story, sacrificing every other character or logical causation on its way.

I seriously don't understand the hype for this one. Vinland Saga is one of the well-known "It gets better after episode 3000" kind of anime. By the extent of 8 episodes, we only know a few characters, and most of them don't show up anymore after the timeskip. The show has its focus on three of them: Thors, Thorfinn and Askeladd.

Thors is the typical lawful good retired warrior. He doesn't kill anyone anymore for personal beliefs, but this code of his messes it up when he has to go to war. I mean, being someone who cares for the young men he brought from the ... village, his son included, he would do what it needs to protect them, right? He doesn't. He spares Askeladd even though he knew that killing him was the only way to end the duel, and because of that he is killed like the generic lawful good character he was.

His son, the main character Thorfinn, is one of the worst protagonists in anime. He doesn't make decisions for himself, acting as a servant for Askeladd for entire episodes, a guy he supposedly hates.

Here is the main problem I found with this protagonist: He is hypocritical, but he wasn't written to be so. He is devoted enough to his father's teachings to not kill Askeladd when he has the chance, instead demanding to have a fair duel with him. But he also doesn't care about going to war and killing a ton of enemies, what Thors was also against.

This incoherence of Thorfinn may be what made me drop the show. Why does he stick with Askeladd? He showed his hatred for him a lot of times, and also for killing people by his orders. Then why does he keep doing it? He is not Askeladd's slave or anything, he joined by his own terms, and if it was because he needed some place to train to become a strong warrior in the future, he could go somewhere else. By this period there were dozens of other viking raiders around, and as the son of a legendary warrior he would be invited to almost any of them.

Not like he needs any training. Like some of pre-teen shounen/seinen protagonists, Thorfinn is overpowered to the point that he is a Gary Stu. Showing him taking more than 20 trained enemy soldiers at once, just so he looks badass, is some of the worst cliche in anime. And also similar to them, he doesn't show a bit of a personality during the 8 first episodes, being just a revolted kid, even more shallow than Eren Yeager at the beginning of Shingeki no Kyojin.

For me this is the worst anime of the season, or at least the worst I've watched. And I've liked some fighting-genre anime with some of these flaws, but this one is just too much.

(vagueish spoilers)

I'm sorry, but I just don't get the hype for this series at all. The plot is fine at first glance: main character's father dies, and so he has to vow to get revenge. The first 6 episodes are basically just exposition. I can't speak for everyone on this, but watching Thorfinn be absolutely pathetic for 5 whole episodes (or more, I can't remember) completely turned me off this anime. Like, there is no way this little brat kid can be so aggravating. Every single thing he does, it's so stupid and pointless. It's like Thorfinn subsists only on anger and violence. I mean, ... in one episode he was starving to death and he ended up surviving, like a leech, probably because he somehow burned his anger for energy. And there was the scene with the wolf and then it magically became food somehow, like this kid actually knows how to prepare consumable meat from a whole, dead wolf?? Thorfinn's capacity for higher thought isn't there at all because bro physically cannot imagine anything other than getting revenge for his father. It's like in Frieren, where if you can't imagine performing a spell, you can't do it. Applies here too. Thorfinn can't do shit since he's so hyper focused on revenge. Where is the personality? What other things motivate him? Does he even care about the family he left behind? There's nothing there except this unfocused and infinite void of unfiltered rage. Okay, so I know Thorfinn is perpetually seething and can also photosynthesize that anger... now what? Watch him fail in getting revenge for the 5th time?

Even though Thorfinn's had a rough childhood, he's still just a kid, and I should be able to see that somewhere in him. The literal growling and screaming was also pretty cringe. Like seriously, you don't need to act like a wild animal just because Daddy died (also kind of your fault) and you need to make sure everyone knows it. Something better would have been to have Thorfinn learn from his mistakes, and channel his anger in a meaningful way. Except he can't, cause he's barking at everyone who gets within 3 feet of him. And on the topic of Thorfinn's father, I never understood how he could be this high and mighty goody two shoes. Like some other comments have pointed out, they live in the brutal age of the Vikings... Surely, Thorfinn's father would know that the world wouldn't prostrate itself before his shiny, golden knight's honor.

Talking with a couple of other friends who highly recommended this show to me, I was told that Thorfinn's uselessness was intentional, which is fine, but I'm watching this anime to be entertained. I can assure you there was nothing fun about the amount of secondhand embarrassment I got (FROM A FICTIONAL CHARACTER NO LESS, how is that even possible??). I thought the cringe would go away as the series progressed, but nope, it's still there, kicking and screaming (in typical Thorfinn fashion). At this point, humiliation might just be a central theme of Vinland Saga. Someone PLEASE pull out your video essay and tell me what kind of message I'm supposed to be getting here.

There are 24 episodes in total, so maybe it gets better...? But from the start, the animation was kind of middling, and that's a huge factor for me to determine whether to continue a series if its contents are poorly written. I've put this show on hold for now, so I can read through a couple of reviews and see exactly what people love about this show. But most likely, I'll drop this anyway. Vinland Saga has an interesting revenge concept, but this kind of story REQUIRES strong, deliberate, and mature character writing. Thorfinn being a one trick pony (in regards to his grudge) just isn't gonna do it.

Final Rating: 4

edit: updated the rating from 3 to 4 because it's not *that* bad, but still pretty bad

[Sploilers ahead , but if you couldnt guess judging by my score, I will be spoiling a garbage bag, so you won't lose much}
Vinland Saga is a passionate story about of a son of a great Viking who is on his Quest to avenge his father...
Well not really , if at some point that was plot of the show, got dump faster than Vegan chick you only dated cause she was hot. So whole revenge story is sad side gag hm..
Ahh I know Plot is Invasion campaign which Denmark began vs England. Except at no point we get to ... see whole picture, they been at war for about a year but largely have no idea what Denmark invaded or how succesful it was , and whole Invasion plot comes and goes .
hmm.. well this is tricky, no oh wait ah yes there is a prince,
I got it, this show is about internal conflict of Denmark's royal family . Yes indeed this is a story about 2 brothers battling it out for the throne and with both having their supporting lords backing them up. Except we don't even get to see one of princes and get to barley see the king...
So I guess...
Its an Isekai show there Naruto is transported to alternate universe there his father is alive but at same time , story takes time at 1000AD

You should have probably picked up what this show is, but let me beat this over hyped dead horse bit more.
Characters- well son of great warrior thor is an over powered egde lord , which would give Kirito run for his money. He is a middle schooler weeb who watched too many anime theories ion Internet and now thinks fighting like discount naruto is actually effective. He wants to be a warrior and honor his father, but uses daggers and throwing knifes, so kinda seems clash of interests here. Im doubt your father is feeling proud of you as you hold daggers back handed and duel guy twice your size while he is using an axe. Ohh yeh whole Revenge plot gets pushed away in first 4 episodes, they just mention it here and there so that viewer doesnt forget what protagonists is suppose to be doing.
TL;DR over powered blond edge lord kirito

Animation-
Gonna keep this short pretty shit, Animation seems to have gone to Tokyo Ghoul's "If we use big enough white slashes we can hide the fact that animation.. well isnt" School.
-"Sir white slashes are no longer fooling the audince, they relized this anime is a slide show!"
-"Use bigger slashes!"
-'But Sir, they already cover half of a screen!'
-'Let em cover entire screen if you have to damn it!'

Or
if it isnt feeling it, go full on Beserk 2018 .

Plot-
Lack luster, there like like 4 different plot lines going on at same time and none of them know where they are even suppose to go.

OST-
Yeh i dont even know if this has one, i can't recall single scene there i remember there being music.
Opening and endings are trash as well.

Well that should cover it, like I have seen trash shows but at least those have stuff you can trash them about. This show is boring garbage bag . Can't even think of stuff to say really.

i'm fond of historical series, and a person gave me the advice to watch this series, " about Vikings". prologue or not, i find this serie ridiculously overrated.
the protagonist is a stupid, useless brat who always needs help from someone else to achieve something, and to live. first mistake: disobeying to his father, and my impression was that he is the real culprit of the mess that happens later. second mistake: sticking to a childish lifestyle in order to survive. Thorfinn is a like a living-dead, unable to do anything. he doesnt' change, from 5 to 17.
third mistake: total absence of chara development and ... of a more rounder world building ( everything is Viking, and the English troups or whoever is anonymous being about whom we know anything).
fourth mistake: Canute' s holy spirit, from a crybaby to an almost trustworthy king. very realistic, mixing it with harshness, blood and all.
fifth error: Askeladd pretending to be a weel-written character, without any emotion.
this series was a totally unworthy and a waste of time for me. WIT studo has no this great animation too, and the series was not able to give me anything, not a tear nor a shiver. a forgetful thing, for me.

i was looking for a more rounded and serious historical manga, to know everything about the setting and not only stick with the protagonists.

You know what I hate? How every single story set in the medieval period has to be a fantasy, which is a genre I really do not care for, as soon as there are wizards throwing giant purple hadoukens and dragons and shit, my interest is immediately gone, so, when I heard of Vinland Saga, an action anime set in the medieval period, that didn't contain any of those things, I was somewhat excited, since this was a rare opportunity, but it simply failed to deliver.

So, our story begins with some bloke called Thors, who's in Iceland, living a normal life with his wife, son, ... and daughter, until that daughter encounters a critically injured slave escapee, who Thors takes in, and then the slave's owner comes along not long after, but the two come to an agreement, and Thors eventually buys him for 8 ewes, albeit the slave dies almost immediately afterwards. Now, this comes to mind as an extremely fucking humanitarian act, he's not some aristocrat with more money than he can spend, and this is the 12th century or so, so why'd he do it? Especially considering that as it turns out, Thors is a pirate, who apparently has no trouble killing people, and I have to say, when it comes to word associations, humanitarian and pirate are not two I'd put together. But that's not very important, what is important is that Thors incurred the wrath of some Duke Nukem looking geezer for something he did a while ago, and got a price on his head because of it, and some former colleague of Thors arrives at his village and blackmails him, telling him that he has to participate in the war against England or else everyone else will die, as brothers in arms typically do, and that's what he does, gets on a boat, and he goes, it just so happens his son, Thorfinn, happened to be really eager to go to war and just happened to be hiding in a barrel that happened to be empty on the ship that happened to be unguarded as he got there and happened to be the very one that Thors got on and happened to announce his presence as soon as they'd gone too far for them to turn back, but that's fine, this is the only time that an exceptionally contrived coincidence makes its way into the story, but it's still one too many, so anyway, to cut a long story short, Thors goes over there, fights a bunch of people, and dies, making Thorsfinn our main character, and I rather like Thorsfinn, from a conceptual standpoint, a young chap who's eager about fighting in a war but realises that it's not the pleasantry he thought it was, yet still ends up fighting in it because of the sins of the father and a bunch of other things. Problem is, Thorsfinn's character is not engaging in the slightest, because at this point in the story, all he does is cry, and the problem is, that is all he does, I've often heard complaints that "Shinji is a pussy", but he still gets in the Eva, and actually engages in combat, he might cry a lot while doing it, but he gets shit done, whereas all Thorsfinn does is cries and gets bullied by Thors' blackmailer, and that is the end of it.

Or at least, that's the end of it, for a while, some woman takes him in, with as much reason to do it as Thors did with the slave earlier, for a series about war and bloodshed and everything, I don't know why they feel the need to incorporate characters who are so unrealistically, unjustifiably, and unbelievably fucking nice, people do not act like that. But anyway, he's under her care for a bit, then stops being, then a bit later he goes to the woods and trains himself to get stronger, and also has his first experience killing, then a bit later he goes back to fight the blackmailer, but is no stronger than he was before, and then, we get a timeskip of a couple years, and suddenly, everything's changed, just because what? He's a little bit older? Not because he retreated into the woods and trained himself for combat, that had no effect on him at all, it's just getting a bit older that transforms him from Clark Kent into Superman. And that's the other main problem, he's Superman, but his enemies aren't supervillians, just normal blokes who get decimated, which isn't engaging at all, if Superman only ever went around beating up muggers and shoplifters that wouldn't interest anyone, because a character who never even seems to acknowledge that he might be threatened since he's fighting enemies so weak isn't fun to watch, and that's exactly what Thorsfinn is, it's like watching someone play a video game with godmode on, when they are completely untouchable, it's boring. I came for medieval combat, but that's not what I got, instead I got this man jumping across buildings like he's got rockets on his shoes, and performing these ballet routines of death, jumping through entire crowds and swiping through them, as if people wearing thick, metal armour are as easy to cut through as a fucking watermelon, it's not believable, it's not interesting, and he doesn't even have some family heirloom or any other one of a kind super-weapon, his only superpower is that he is a shonen protagonist, and he is very angry. The story feels monumentally directionless as well, like he has no objectives, just kill people because apparently that's what everyone likes to see. Ultimately, you're not there for the characters, because they're as bland as they come, you're not there for the story, because it's more sparse and haphazard than a Schwarzenegger film, so the only thing that remains is the action, which just so happens to be terrible, and as a result of this fact, Vinland Saga itself is awful. As Shakespeare said: There is something rotten in the state of Denmark.

This story is pathetic. I'm not the type of person who enjoys Viking story's much, but this is especially horrendous. I am someone who enjoys good story telling and character development and growth, and this show is really bad in that regard. I was 10 episodes in when I dropped this show because its just a cycle of the same trash, so keep that in mind when reading this review (also this review will contain spoilers).

First of, the only good point of this anime is that the animations look great. The sound/music is mediocre, and I cannot think of any other positive, so lets move ... on to the characters and story.

Now lets move on to the story.
First of all, we spend 4 whole episodes just setting up the world and the characters. This is way too long to set a specific mood when the show is barley 26 episodes long. We get a lot of information about the world in those 4 episodes, even though at no point in the story does this become really significant. They are just a group of pirates pillaging around, any setting would do. Knowing the specific place and time did nothing to change the story.
Second of all, when his father died, all his values and teachings died with him. I'm not saying the kid should not pursue revenge, because that is justifiable. What I'm saying is don't go murdering random innocent villagers/villages just to get stronger. He literally joins the pirate crew that killed his father, and does exactly what they did to him to other people, and its somehow supposed to be justified because his goal is revenge? The sole reason he does not kill askedd (or whatever his name is) in his sleep is because he supposedly has "pride" as a warrior, yet he has no qualms about sentencing a whole village of someone who took him in, fed him, and literally called him by her son's name to death. The irony is a bit too much for me.
Third of all, not a single character 10 episodes in has shown any growth whatsoever, even though several years has supposedly passed. You'd think that growing up from a kid to teenager witnessing all the cruelties of the world would change a kid at least somehow, whether for better or worse, but absolutely nothing changes. The teenager literally has no personality whatsoever. I am 10 episodes in and the character is a complete blank, the only thing we know is he wants revenge. That goes for all the other characters in the show. No character has changed at all.
The first 10 episodes were basically a repeating cycle where they raid a village, kill everyone, main character fights someone strong, gets stronger, asks for a duel, lose, and repeat. The characters just repeat that cycle of mostly incomprehensible actions, with no character growth, no world development, and no change or deviation from the cycle.

In the end, this is a very flashy show, so if you are into just Viking shows without much care for the deeper intricacies of a story, then you would probably enjoy this show. But as someone who enjoys an interesting story, interesting characters, and careful world development, 10 episodes of this show is more than I can take.

This show is fake deep. It tries to be philosophical and fails. Then there's also nothing to look for besides that. The characters are boring, I can't tell you anything about the characters personalities besides a trope or archetype they fit. I've seen revenge arcs, pacifists, war, religious themes all expressed far better in other anime. I can't enjoy fights with no depth so I don't particularly care about that either but hey maybe you really want to watch something that makes its one and only selling points fights and half thought out philosophical scribbles...if so go on I can't stop you

Okay, so this anime actually caught my attention. I have never read the manga but I've heard some people say this is worth it and awesome.

However, okay- it started off really well the concept of war and action, then the animation was great! Interesting start, I love how it was animated, the sounds were great too and I would have enjoyed the whole thing BUT as I watched more episodes the young characters especially the little boy just seemed to get to me.

Huhu- they are young and naive which irritated me along the way because they still really cannot understand the value ... of life and no matter how much the father tried to let them realize that war and killing is no play thing, they still don't get it.

It's part of being young but it pained me to see sacrifices. And I don't know where this is going but it might go with the concept of revenge and all. They would end up blaming the "enemy" and would lead to more blood baths which really just make the fathers efforts all for naught. His teachings, his heeds and his sacrifices.

I've heard some people say there will be really awesome character development but for now I must say its gonna be a long way and that this little boy is still so self-centered which would irritate me so I choose to stop watching for now since I can't handle the annoyingness of the main character.

While it isn't the worst series I've seen, it doesn't take risks or depart from the traditional shonen formula. It markets itself as a seinen, but it isn't any darker or edgier than the typical tale about revenge-driven, over-zealous shonen protagonist who later develops a religious devotion to pacifism. The art, music, characters, and world-building are fairly conventional and the story as a whole doesn't have much new to contribute to the conversation.

The anime seems to confuse peace with impracticality and irresponsibility. It's particularly jarring as the story is set in the context of Viking culture. If anything the setting is only surface-level and characters ... are confusingly Japanese with no real impact from the culture it takes inspiration from. You can tell because take the characters and clothe them in any other costume and the story wouldn't have to make any changes. This disconnect makes it difficult to believe the setting of the story, which in turn makes the world and its conflicts flat and carry less weight. It's like listening to a witness tell a tale about a long-dead historical figure, like we're viewing the story from the third-person, not from Thorfinn's perspective.

We believe in Nanashi's refusal to draw his sword in Sword of the Stranger and Kenshin's pact because we're traveling with them on their journey and coping with their failings in real time, but we're meant to idolize the current Thor as a cross-section in time. Of course we can enjoy grand stories of Zeus and Chronos, but we root for characters that remind us of ourselves and the people who know.

So how could it be improved? First of all, the direction is the key issue. Right now it's in third person. It's easier to overlook the cultural disconnect if the story was told compellingly in first-person.

Let's start with how heavily telegraphed and drawn-out the prologue was. Because of the third-person perspective, we see the plotting take place for the assassination. Though we could've guessed it would happen otherwise, we now know exactly what, how, and when it would happen, removing all tension and surprise. The narrative relies heavily on telling not showing. There was a good moment in the show when Helga says "I'll tell him" when Thor can't voice his parting words to Thorfinn. It should expand on this type of subtle storytelling.

Instead, let's have the story trust its audience and instead open episode one in media res with shots of Thorfinn fighting on a battlefield split with shots of his father fighting in the past. Then we discover his grand dreams are only in his mind, as we see him get beaten in the snow in the playfights he has with the village children. What does this change? We implicitly know that his father was a great warrior without the villagers and Leif telling us repeatedly that he is. We also know that Thor wants to be like his father, that maybe he is embarrassed that the village kids underestimate him, especially as he is (in visual language with the use of split screen) compared with his father. Now we're viewing the story from Thor's perspective.

Cut the scene of the slave escaping. Thor wouldn't have seen him running in the night, so why should the audience know? Exposition should only be used when the potential confusion disrupts the story experience. Instead let's have Thor be the one to discover him as he lies in the snow after being defeated, AGAIN. The direction should show the fight from 1st person perspective, shot with weight to the movements so the stakes feel real. We feel his frustration as he almost beats the older village kid, kicks the snow in anger, and finds the slave. He inspects him while his friend would rather leave the body alone, showing us that he is curious about the outside world, rather than have him shout and verbally express his interest during Leif's stories. Now the audience is curious too. Where did the man come from? How did he get here? We're in his shoes and thinking about what to do. We also get a comparison between the stakes of this playfight and the coming fights we know he's going to have to face. This also sets up an early conflict. He needs to beat the village kid. Without it, we and Thorfinn are passive spectators in his father's superhuman story.

Next step is adding complexity to the characters. We do this by cutting down on trope reliance. The father is strong and kind, Leif is playful but internally serious, the mother is quietly resilient, the sister is shallow and headstrong, and Thorfinn is bold and rash. Instead let's add some opposing traits to make the characters appear more human. Maybe Ylva finds Thorfinn and instantly knows what to do, because she's very practical. She might be called selfish (which is what is simply portrayed in the show) but with this change we can guess it's because neither of her parents are and she's the one who has to look out for their interests. She instantly decides to hide and bury his body because she knows whoever owns him will come looking for him. It might be brutal but is not unrealistic for the times, which grounds the show more. Thorfinn objects because he wants to hear this outsider's story and takes a compass off his body. He's still rash, but now we see he's capable of subtlety. Their father finds them as they're arguing and we get to see his altruism like in the original storyline. Ylva objects but her mother silences her. Now the mother isn't just quiet and resilient, but also very much submissive to her husband's will. Every trait can be both positive and negative in either extreme. This also makes Ylva more relatable as a character, whereas she's squandered as ineffective comedic relief.

When the owner comes to retrieve the slave, have Thorfinn present and watching as Ari faces off. In the show itself we lost focus on the MC at this point and went to the third-person narration. This places him front and center. At this point, Leif can be cut completely. His only value is to serve as a narrator. He interjects to explain the story to us, but has no material impact to the plot. If he were removed at this point, would anything have to change? If no, we don't need to dedicate time to his narration, which reduces tension from the conflict build-up. Instead have the compass Thorfinn steals off the body have a map inside it and be connected to Leif and make that a mystery and goal for him to find the owner as a central conflict of the first arc.

Without him, Ari and Thorfinn get more screentime. Rather than the narrator/Leif seem like the wise one stopping Ari and verbally explaining the entire scene to the audience, we'd get to see him attempting to be like Thor and defending the village in his absence. We also get the chance to guess that his heroics stem from wanting to impress Ylva rather than having Thor straight up telling the audience later on. Ylva should be there too, showing concern for Ari so we guess at their relationship.

She can still step in to explain why they have the slave, but instead of being portrayed as comedic relief, we can understand her trying to defend her family because her dad may be heroic, but also narrow-minded and inflexible and she may be selfish, but also practical and protective. Characters come to life when we're not focused on the big moments but the details. For example if after the ewes are given away, she tells Ari she only likes warriors because as far as she knows their village never fights in wars and now their family has no dowry even though there's mutual interest. Ari now has a more complex motivation than "brash youth likes fighting," and Ylva gets more character development because of course a character as practical and responsible as her would assume others would require the dowry. Including moments like these shows us that the world keeps moving without the MC, the ensemble are fleshed out characters with complex motivations, and that even heroic, commendable choices have their consequences.

For the resolution of Thorfinn's first conflict, let's have him use the chain whip technique he sees the slave-owner use on his man once he is knocked down by the stronger, older boy once again. The way the show is portrayed now is he has natural talent that magically allows him to beat a boy 2x his age and physically much stronger, that brashness can overcome reality, a notion that heavily detracts from the stakes and tension of all fight scenes. He uses a ship's rope to trip the stronger boy and wins, giving us something to root for, and characterizing him as more than an irritating child, but one capable of tactical fighting and fast learning. We're also keeping the first-person perspective and MC in focus.

Until the prologue's resolution, retain tension build-up by removing moments like unnecessary dialogue between his father and his old comrade, because Thor wouldn't have been able to realistically eavesdrop on everything. Let us know only what we need to know, develop complexity, and keep the focus on the MC so we can be surprised and experience the story with him.

Now let's zoom out a little bit and focus on bigger picture themes. I'd like to compare the way the show deals with death and conflict to a stand-out anime from this season, Kimetsu no Yaiba, where the protagonist understands that to protect innocent lives, he has to take lives. But that doesn't make him any less moral or compassionate.

Shows that deal with the gray area are noticeably more mature than those that see in black in white. Sure, characters can be black and white, but the show's attitude shouldn't be. Where this show fails is when it takes a heavy-handed approach in dealing with morality. We're told what is right and wrong and that our perspective on events doesn't matter because the show is telling us what to think. This detracts from audience involvement and investment. Instead, it would be great if the audience were given the freedom to interpret at will, which happens more often through storytelling that shows more than it tells. Vinland Saga can also become more mature by developing Thorfinn as a character that sees the nuances of violence and war and can straddle the line between mercy and naivety and sees the consequences of taking a stance as immovable as his father.

Okay so...
I see a lot of people talking about CGI, I honestly don't feel like it's as bad as everyone says. (Coming from a guy who liked Overlord so, heh, take it with a pinch of salt)

Sound is great, love the anime, really.
The story is nice, there is quite a lot of character development, I would have rated this a nice 8/10...
But then I watched the last 4 episodes...
What a shitshow...

Basically the show, which has taken a slow approach to storytelling from the start, gets reminded that there are only 4 episodes left and finishes 50 episodes worth of content (looking at the average pace ... of the show) as fast as possible...

So basically, you know the main character ? Yeah fuck him, now Canute is the main guy !
The first 4 episodes meant nothing, all the character development from the start of the show meant nothing, your watching experience meant nothing.

It's pretty bad, really...

Vinland Saga is arguably the worst anime I have ever watched. I don't want to draw this out, so I am going to make this a quick review. Thorfin and Askeladd are both terribly written characters. Neither of them have any character development throughout the entire show, and nothing that the characters do seems to have an effect on the plot. Every episode between around 7 and 20 could be interchanged and no one would be able to tell the difference, because all of them have no actual impact on the plot. Thorfin is a boring protagonist, who does not engage the viewer at all. ... He is always angry, and never seems to show any emotion unless he is getting his ass beat by Askeladd, or talking about his father. Unfortunately, these are both rare occurrences, so most of the time Thorfin says almost nothing, and when he does it is an insult or a threat. The show also has no comic relief, and without any compelling characters in the show, the episodes each feel like an hour, as they draw on without any respite. The only saving grace for this show is it's animated very well, and the fight scenes are well done, (although the teenage and malnourished Thorfin has superpowers). Overall, I really did not like the show, and would not recommend this show to anyone else, and I really do not know why it is so highly rated. I think this is a similar sensation to shows like Tokyo Ghoul, which is a terrible show, but still has a large fanbase due to it being "edgy." Thorfin is very similar to protagonists in these types of shows, where he never changes, and is the same throughout, but he is REALLY MAD the whole time, so teenagers feel like they can relate to the MC because they did not get a new car for their sixteenth birthday, when the MC's parents just died.

YES - it is a fantasy shonen. Expect a little boy to do ninja-moves and go on a rampage.
He still gets beaten down by his boss from time to time, so he's not as OP as other MCs of similar shows. The show starts being about VIKINGS / DANES and you think: hey, that's metal!! But: THEY TURN IT INTO CHRISTIAN PROPAGANDA! Oh look - the nice old christian lady praying to jesus giving the MC shelter and food - and oh look how dissapointed she is when she sees him buring down a village. "Feeling guilty yet?" Oh look, the kind, all-loving innocent ... christian people sharing their supper - Oh look, the evil Viking dudes pillaging and slaughtering villages.

A complete misrepresentation and white-washing of history.

Do I need to remind you that it were the christians who did the pillaging, slaughtering of non-believers and witch-burnings?

Do I need to remind you that it were the christians that slaughtered and subverted our pagan forefathers and destroyed and replaced their culture and religion?

And then the unnecessary christian philosophy scenes - in an anime that you come to watch to see some Vikings in Action cracking skulls with their Axes, but no, we get pseudo-philosophical christian monolouges/dialouges that should bring christian values closer to the viewer... that's why I call it propaganda.