LogFAQs > #970509244

BONUS. Vinland Saga
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37521/Vinland_Saga
Summer 2019 (24 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 8.73/10
Best Character: Thorfinn
Recommended by: @NFUN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U7BDn-gU18

Premise: After the death of his father, a young boy named Thorfinn joins a band of Viking mercenaries. While most warriors simply try to survive the war in England or secure the best plunder, Thorfinn is focused on revenge.

The Good: Vinland Saga is a historical action anime set during the Danish invasion of England. This approximate era has been popular in fiction lately (I've never watched the TV show Vikings, but I know it was successful). It was neat seeing an anime interpretation of it. I enjoy historical epics, and the Vikings are always a fun bunch. Their warrior culture is interesting, and they're usually boisterous badasses who enjoy plunder and battle. That attitude is nicely contrasted by the more dour Thorfinn. His goal is getting revenge against Askeladd, the man who killed his father, but the situation is a lot more complicated than that. Due to various circumstances, Thorfinn needs to work for Askeladd in exchange for chances to duel him, which was a unique dynamic. I mostly enjoyed the bigger picture historical stuff, but Thorfinn's story was a nice driving motivation. Otherwise, the production values were all solid, and the battle scenes especially were great. I tried watching another Viking TV show once, The Last Kingdom, but I didn't get very far because the whole thing felt so cheap. I was thankful that Vinland Saga created a believable setting.

The Bad: My biggest problem is that the story didn't get as far as I would've liked. For something called Vinland Saga, Vinland wasn't exactly a big part of it! From what I've read since watching it, though, this whole first season is basically a prologue, so I guess that makes sense. The second season is starting soon, and I'm glad I won't need to wait as long for it as other people did. If I had to complain about anything else, I guess the last few episodes were a bit of a letdown. It set up what could've been an interesting situation filled with political intrigue, but then it threw all that aside and rushed to a brute-force conclusion. It didn't ruin the show or anything, but it was definitely a letdown.

Overall: Vinland Saga was a solid anime. I enjoyed the historical context and setting, the characters, and there were lots of well-animated battles. I'm glad this is getting another season, too, because hopefully that will resolve my biggest complaint by carrying the story further! Thanks for recommending this, NFUN. It'll probably end up near the middle of my final ranking, but that isn't a bad spot to be. I'd put this alongside a few other high-quality and beloved action anime, shows like Claymore or Attack on Titan. Those usually don't resonate enough with me to get a super high ranking, but I enjoyed watching Vinland Saga and I can definitely see how other people would love it a lot more. I hope either next season or future seasons actually reach the part of the story where they go to Vinland, because I think those early explorations of North America are really interesting!