Japanese Title: Vinland Saga
Similar: Dororo
The Heroic Legend of Arslan
Watched in: Japanese
Genre: Historical Action Drama
Length: 24 episodes
Positives:
- Good music
Negatives:
- No effort at historical realism
- Empty protagonist
- No likeable characters
- Super powered warriors when convenient
- Art is riddled with problems
(Request an anime for review here.)
It shouldn’t be difficult to write a story about Vikings marauding the coasts of Europe. At minimum, it shouldn’t be difficult to know that Vikings didn’t act like high school anime characters. It should be easy, yet Vinland Saga fails in nearly all possible measures.
I need to go from the start, where an early sign warned of the direction for which this anime headed. Thors, leader of the village and father to Thorfinn, finds a runaway slave on his land. His family tries to rehabilitate the slave, but he soon dies. Worse yet, his owners come to collect and Thors, being the honourable Viking that he is, refuses to return him even as a dead body, offering a few cows instead. He buries the slave.
I understand what the author is going for here – difficult not to – however, the execution shows a lack of thought into the time and place of this story. Thors acts like a modern day person objecting to slavery. This likely stems from the author’s inability to separate his personal feelings from the characters within the story. Some authors think it makes them noble or better people if they write moral characters, regardless of whether it fits the story. This only makes them bad writers. A great writer doesn’t just write the good guys that align with their personal morals, while all villains are everything they see as reprehensible.
This slave incident is minor, in the grand scheme, yet it is an early indicator of problems to come. In 99% of fiction, every core problem has a presence within the first chapter or two (or first episode or two, in the case of anime). It’s why author agents and publishers can reject a novel within a few pages. If characters are shallow in the finale, they will be so in the opening as well. Mistakes echo in every chapter.
The author wants you to know how noble Thors is so that when he gets into an ambush later, executed by the mercenary Askeladd at the behest of the Danish king (Thors deserted his army years ago), you buy into the idea that he would let himself die for the sake of his honour and morals. Thors challenges Askeladd to a duel and wins. It doesn’t take a genius intelligence to foresee that a sellsword driven by gold wouldn’t hold up the terms of the duel. That isn’t the problem. We run into heightened levels of stupidity when Thors, who up until now has outsmarted and outfought the entire mercenary crew singlehanded, refuses to dishonour himself and “cheat”, even though his death leaves his village without a leader, without their strongest (possibly only) fighter, and his family without a father. For honour.
I hate stupid characters. An honourable character isn’t stupid. Someone who doesn’t save themselves, not even for the sake of others, just to preserve their honour is loathsome, however.
And so, Thorfinn makes it his life’s mission to kill Askeladd. Does he turn himself into a killer so he can stab him at the first opportunity? No. Thorfinn joins Askeladd’s crew, fights for him, does his dirty work, all so he can prove himself worthy of an honourable duel to the death.
Mistakes echo in every chapter.
This stupidity compounds further when we talk fighting prowess. After a jump of some years, Thorfinn is a trained warrior, often sent in first like a scout or assassin capable to dispatching a dozen enemy soldiers with ease. There is no doubt of his deadliness. He could kill Askeladd any day now, whether in his sleep or with his back turned. That wouldn’t be honourable though.
I hate stupid characters and Thorfinn is the stupidest in the lot.
Speaking of his deadliness, Vinland Saga has a crippling issue of nonsensical character strength. Looking at this show, you would imagine we were in for a realistic Viking saga. It couldn’t further from. This first rears its nonsensical head when Thors leaps five metres into the air in the battle against Askeladd’s crew.
At first, I thought it was a minor exaggeration of strength, as was often done in folk tales of legendary warriors. However, one warrior fighting for the English can hurl boulders with the strength of a trebuchet using his bare hands. He can also mow down a half dozen soldiers with a single throw of a hand axe. It’s ridiculous.
The issue isn’t the strength (anime is no stranger to super powers). Rather, there is a problem in how it affects tone and breaks the in-story logic of the world. If a warrior were that strong, he could conquer the world. Just give him a cart of boulders and no fort stands a chance. The story avoids this pickle by conveniently forgetting that some characters are super powered when required. Thorfinn does duel Askeladd early on – after we see him massacre a squad – and one would think the kid had never held a weapon with the way he fought. Vinland Saga can’t decide if it wants to be a realistic Viking drama or a battle anime.
Not only is inconsistency a problem, it also makes action less interesting. One battle has Askeladd and co hired by a French nobleman to siege the castle of a rival nobleman. The enemy has a fortified position with view of open ground in front of their castle and a river protecting their rear, guarded up and down stream. The Vikings manage to bypass this defence by hoisting their longships on their shoulders and charging full tilt from the forest into the water. They run as if these boats are as heavy as a paperweight. No one gets tired either. If all trained warriors were this strong, that castle wouldn’t have lasted a day even without Viking help. Let’s not forget to make these same Vikings weak in the next fight so we can kill some off. It would have been better to go more supernatural – incorporate powers bestowed by the Norse gods or something – and work out clever uses than to have this nonsense. Or you go grounded and use some brainpower.
When I talk of realism, I don’t mean everything has to be exactly as it was in real Viking times. I’m talking of getting the tone and feel right. The recently reviewed Dororo is more realistic than this despite having monsters and magic. I praised it for how it truly feels like a nation gripped by famine during samurai times. The way the characters act – the way the monsters and magic affect them and the world all makes sense. Everything fits together.
In Vinland Saga, nothing works. You have these stupid overpowered characters that turn weak when needed. You have a protagonist with no depth beyond his “I’m angry and will kill you” attitude 24/7. Everyone acts like a modern day anime character. The big twist of the story makes Askeladd protagonist (he should have been from the start) and introduces enough allegiance flip-flopping to make you want to hook your brain through your nose.
Is Vinland Saga the worst anime? It is the worst Viking anime, sure. I hated Vinland Saga more and more with each passing episode. I do not recommend this to anyone. If you want Viking content, go watch the History channels Vikings instead.
Art – Low
I could show you many nice still of Vinland Saga. I would however be hiding the insane amount of CG and poor implementation. The number of scenes with characters running (read: sliding) across a CG ground are too many to count. Even the OP has one. This anime almost looks great, except there is something wrong in every shot.
Sound – Medium
Thorfinn’s performance is laughable. The script is rubbish for a historical Viking show. The one redeeming quality is the great soundtrack.
Story – Low
A Viking boy swears revenge against the mercenary that killed his father. With so many stupid character and inconsistent strengths, the feeble plot is the least of the problems here.
Overall Quality – Low
Recommendation: Skip it. I don’t recommend Vinland Saga, especially to Viking fans.
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Awards: (hover over each award to see descriptions; click award for more recipients)
Positive: None
Negative:
Nefarious Reviews 
Phew, for a while I thought that maybe I was just being too snobbish when I crticised this anime for the same reasons.
After all, almost everyone else seemed to like it and the manga was rated really high.
Thank you for restilling confidence in my perceptions.
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I haven’t read the manga – I wonder if it did anything substantially different?
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Can’t thors be driven by his history as a violent marauder to become a pacifist and an altruist making him abject to slavery and valuing freedom over everything else.
At the point of honor, well yeah that was dumb of him, but well the author might have wanted(or found it easier) to use some mechanism of chivalry to help in developing the plot further to produce a revenge story.
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The problem isn’t that Thors is honourable. The problem is that it makes him look like a complete idiot, which by all indications of him as a mighty warrior and founder of a village on a distant island goes against his character. He should be the sort that has the line “Honour is great – I thought you about honour, Thorfinn – but it isn’t worth killing yourself over.” If you want a good example of a character whose honour costs him, look at Ned Stark from book/season 1 of Game of Thrones.
As for Thors’s history of violence into a pacifist. Again, the idea, as I mentioned, isn’t the problem. However, the author needed to take the time and place into account. You have to remember slavery was so common that most people didn’t even question it, like owning pets today. It would have been cleverer for Thors to approach the situation from a business angle when talking to the slave traders, rather than a matter of honour. Not only would it have fit better, it would have made him a smarter character in his ability to read his opponents beyond the battlefield.
The ideas aren’t bad. They needed more thought from a historical perspective, which unfortunately doesn’t feel applied to any element of this story. If Vinland Saga had taken place 500 years later, would they have to change any of the characters to fit? Probably not and that is an issue.
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Most characters would also consider killing one another on the battlefield a completely normal thing, and wouldn’t question it. The whole point of the story is that Thors is nothing like most people back then. There are people who reject to normal things today such as keeping pets, there would have probably have been some people objecting to things considered normal back then, such as slavery. Yes, people like Thors who don’t like slavery would be very rare, but they would still exist, and the whole point of action/adventure stories is they don’t focus on normal people for their time.
Not to mention, Thors’ death had nothing to do with his sense of honour. As soon as they sailed into the ravine, there was literally nothing Thors could have done to prevent his own death. Challenging Askeladd to a duel was his best option, as there wa stage very small chance Askeladd would stick to his word, and even if he lost he would be the only person to die. Any other choice would have resulted in worse.
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Hmmm a critical review at last! Personally I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t without its problems. I had sort of accepted Thors and Thorkell as forces of nature that don’t obey logic, and at least they are consistently OP, but scenes like Askeladd slicing a guy in half through his helm drove me crazy, since every other scene has him fight normally with skill. And you are absolutely right about the whole honor thing. Thors dueling with Askeladd the honorable way, fine. It’s a bit lame, but his character was set up that way. Thorfinn wanting to defeat Askeladd only in an honorable duel, hmmm that doesn’t make too much sense. But Thorfinn is portrayed throughout as an immature guy chained to his father’s death and the other characters also call him out for that, so this sort of fits as well. Askeladd not getting rid of a genuine threat to his life, what the actual ****. He is nothing if not pragmatic in the rest of the story, why have him break character here. He would have killed Thorfinn at the first opportunity. There were so many other ways of accomplishing the Stockholm syndrome set up of Thorfinn sticking with Askeladd despite the latter’s actions. Why not have Thorfinn enslaved to Askeladd, stripped of weapons and constantly in chains, except when sending him into combat because he’s useful there. That way it would make perfect sense that Askeladd sends him on kamikaze solo missions as a first approach, because he’s disposable. All the while, I questioned why Thorfinn wasn’t killed yet. When the premise is so flawed, everything that follows will also have a big question mark over it.
The lack of realism in things like this, especially in combat, contrasts greatly with the attempts at realism elsewhere. In the first few episodes, I was pleased that the Vikings were depicted as civilised people when it came to their home lives, because that’s accurate: they were a fairly advanced society with a democratic system. The raids were only one part of their culture, and was necessary because of the barren environment they lived in. But the raids themselves…ugh…if combat was going to be a major part of the series, they should’ve focused on making it realistic. The fighting frequently disappointed, and there was a lot of it. I was more engaged when there wasn’t any fighting, especially when Canute appeared; his growth and the campaign against his father was enjoyable to watch for me, albeit a bit rushed.
I would overall say it was a Medium for me, despite my serious complaints with it. I’m hoping the next phase of the story is better, since it looks like it’s not going to contain war or combat, which the writer seems to have trouble writing believably.
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I think I didn’t talk about in regards to the OPness of the characters is how lazy the approach to making them OP was. They’re just absurdly strong when convenient, with no logic behind their strength or given any attention to physics. You see this in the very first scene when Thorkell cuts through a ship’s mast and four enemies in one slice. The problem is that his reach wasn’t even long enough to cut through them all. It doesn’t work.
I get what the intended arc was for Thorfinn, with his obsession in defeating Askeladd in an honourable duel, yet it still doesn’t make sense. As a character arc, he should have started that way but realised how stupid his plan was and how stupid he’s being, grown up, and outsmarted Askeladd instead. Thorfinn has no arc on the twist happens.
And you’re right – I didn’t even mention how stupid it was of Askeladd to keep him around! He only has nothing to worry about because Thorfinn is the stupid guy to have ever lived.
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You do know this is a fictionalised version of history right? You just seem way to cynical to actually enjoy this anime. Loom I am not saying you should ignore the flaws but maybe try and appreciate some of the good points and have fun just a little bit.
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Re-read the review. I spend half the review addressing the point of realism.
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While not as bad as your reviews of Attack on Titan, this review is still rife with bad criticism. Let’s start.
You claim that when Thors saves a slave, he “acts like a modern day person objecting to slavery.” How? You don’t actually explain how. Because the truth is, Thors doesn’t outwardly object to modern day slavery. He never expresses any hatred towards it like a modern person would. The reason why Thors saves this man is pretty clearly specified. He’s not got long to live, and his slaver wants to make those last few days as painful as possible. Thors interjects, and makes sure to pay the slaver well to make sure his last few days are comparatively peaceful. There’s no modern day objection to slavery here, there is only base morality that is in many people regardless of time period. There are many interpretations for Thors’ actions here, you are assuming the author’s specific intent based on no evidence, and then calling him a bad writer.
Your criticism of Thors’ actions against the mercenary crew is complete idiocy. Thors can absolutely take on Askeladd’s entire crew, but every inexperienced young man on his ship (including Thorfinn) were at risk of getting caught in a skirmish and dying. Thors can’t be everywhere at once, defending every single person from every single one of Askeladd’s men. Not to mention, Askeladd has archers up on the cliffside who could easily rain arrows down on Thors or the people he was with whenever Askeladd ordered. Thors didn’t start a duel with Askeladd because he thought he would stick by his word, it was an act of desperation because there was literally no other way out of the situation. If he didn’t start the duel, Askeladd’s men would murder everyone from Thors’ village, and the archers would probably kill Thors too if Askeladd gave the order. So what does Thors do here that’s actually stupid? You explain it so badly that you come across as the idiot, and someone who lacks any understanding of the scene.
I’m not going to argue against your criticism that characters in Vinland Saga are superhuman, because they are. What I can argue against is your terrible criticism of the Thorfinn vs Askeladd fight where this superhuman ability is supposedly forgotten about. You claim “one would think the kid had never held a weapon with the way he fought”. Sorry, what? For most of the fight, Thorfinn and Askeladd proved to be on equal footing. Both were fighting incredibly well, and neither seemed to have the upper hand on the other. The only reason why Thorfinn fucked up so badly at the end was because Askeladd got inside his head, messed with him by mocking Thors’ death and causing Thorfinn to enter a blind rage. As you yourself pointed out, Thorfinn is an impulsive idiot, and Askeladd knows this. When Thorfinn lost control, Askeladd was easily able to take advantage and knock him down. The only time Thorfinn fights badly, there is a logical explanation for it that remains consistent with both characters.
“If all trained soldiers were this strong, that castle wouldn’t have lasted a day even without Viking help.” Sorry, no. That logic is stupid. If all trained soldiers were that strong, the defending soldiers would be just as strong as the attacking soldiers, meaning the castle would not have fell. “Let’s not forget to make these same vikings weak in the next fight so we can kill some off.” Can we have an example? Can you back your point up with some evidence? You don’t, so I assume you can’t.
“You have these stupid overpowered characters that turn weak when needed.” Of which you could name a single example, the Askeladd vs Thorfinn fight, which an idiot like me was able to debunk easily. Then you talk about “allegiance flip-flopping” and in true Nefariousreviews fashion, don’t give a single example to back that up. What allegiance flip-flopping are you talking about? Askeladd doesn’t change allegiances after siding with Canute, Thorfinn doesn’t change allegiance, Thorkell doesn’t change allegiance, no one from the king’s side switches sides. Your point is completely empty.
And then we have another Nefariousreviews trademark, focusing only on what a show does poorly, and ignoring everything it does well. Funny how you don’t bring up Askeladd, who has a huge role in the story. Oh wait, that’s because he’s an absolutely phenomenal character with huge amounts of complexity, depth, and character development, and the best anime character of the entire year. And we can’t have you admitting anything about the anime is actually good. I wonder why you didn’t mention Thorkell? Could it be that mentioning a character from the show who manages to be funny, intimidating, and badass all at once while having plenty of moments of genuine depth and philosophy would cause you to admit something else is good about the show? Seriously, you ignore one great character with a huge amount of screentime (Thorkell) and one fantastic character with a huge amount of screen time and plot importance (Askeladd) in order to continue your narrative that the show is irredeemable garbage.
That just leaves the overpowered characters as your only halfway decent criticism, which is a problem with the show, but not a major one.
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Thors makes it clear he is against slavery in general when negotiating with the slaver. The reason I made the assumption about the author is that this was irrelevant in the larger story and felt forced to make us like him before he dies (for a similar thing done right, see Ned Stark in the first episode/his first chapter of Game of Thrones when he executes the deserter). There were certainly people against slavery at the time – no population is unified on any issue – but the way he acts would have had greater consequence from the people around him, those on his side. This doesn’t happen because his side is all good and the other side is all bad – a.k.a. bad writing for something that is meant to have grit.
Having characters who are different, out of their time, so to speak is fine. Most protagonists have that certain something different about them – it’s why they’re protagonists. It simply works better when they are a product of their time as well. You don’t want to write a story about slavery in the American south and have your protagonist be the one white guy who doesn’t think black people are scum sucking troglodytes, the one guy who knew all along they were just as human as everyone else while he struts around like an unflappable white knight. This is an extreme example, of course, but it illustrates my point. (Again, refer to Ned Stark for a great case.) Look, this Thors and slavery point is minor and ultimately doesn’t matter. Plenty of great stories have their dim moments. But it did indicate future problems.
This line contradicts itself: “Thors can absolutely take on Askeladd’s entire crew, but every inexperienced young man on his ship (including Thorfinn) were at risk of getting caught in a skirmish and dying.” If he were competent, he wouldn’t be this stupid and in this situation. Your comments sound straight out of the playground comment section that is the Goku vs Superman Youtube video.
Regarding any of the fights. When a superhuman character is suddenly no longer superhuman to make them conveniently lose, that is bad writing. The writer couldn’t figure out a way to cleverly have one opponent defeat the other. MMA fights would have been a good reference point. Reminds very much of those roleplay fights between kids where one kid keeps changing his powers and the rules to “win”.
I only give one example of issues in many cases otherwise these reviews would be novel length. Any decent viewer will be able to piece the rest together. Do you think it’s a reviewer’s job to lay out every single problem? Hands don’t need to be held. FYI, this “depowering” happens in almost every fight between two superhumans. I only pointed out one of the most egregious cases (that didn’t spoil anything).
I didn’t focus on Askeladd because it would have been too much into spoiler territory to explore him. He is the best character of the show, no doubt, and should have been protagonist (unfortunately, that would require a demographic change and a smaller audience or perhaps the author wasn’t confident in the reception of having an “unlikeable” protagonist, which would be understandable). He can’t save the show. Thorkell was just alright to me. I don’t see where you got intimidating from though. Physical might isn’t intimidating when everyone is superhuman.
The irony of you pointing out how I only focus on particular elements certainly wasn’t lost on me.
p.s. You need to stop getting so angry that other people don’t like the same things you do. It makes you come across as immature and difficult to take seriously in anything you say. For instance, when you say Askeladd is the best character, I don’t know if you mean that because you understand why or because you’re just mad and are throwing counterpoints at the wall and hoping something sticks, in a “gotcha” moment.
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