Anime Series Review — “Vinland Saga” Season 1 (2019)
This Anime series was highly being talked about in the anime community due to it’s Manga being so good and the anime adaptation was also closely following the manga. So I decided to give it a try as it had just 24 episodes in Season 1 with 24 mins for each episode.
The stage for this Anime/Manga is set in the Vikings era where their life and journey is being shown especially of our main characters Thors and his son Thorfinn.
The series name is based on (not a spoiler) the Vikings search for a fertile land in warmer places and is located in modern day Newfoundland in Canada as Vikings thought it was better than the cold environment where they came from and wars were yet to reach this new heavenly place. They thought that this new land would be better for their agricultural needs as well.
Since the series is set in medieval times, it does revolve around the usual topics of —
dispute over the succession of the royal family; assassinations ; political games etc. like your usual Game of Thrones stuff and this series doesn’t disappoint as main/supporting characters are getting killed, their backstories are interconnected with main plot & is shown with a good pace inside 24 mins.
It shows the way of life of Vikings i.e. pillaging and destroying villages for their own benefit and killing innocent villagers who come in their way, not even sparing women & children. This is also portrayed by one of the main characters saying as “Attacking and plundering villages is a tradition for us Norsemen”.
While the series is based on Thorfinn’s revenge, it does get static as many years pass by when he falls well short of completing his revenge task, but his character development and combat skills improve when he travels with his mercenary Viking group. Almost at the end of Season 1, Thorfinn’s enemy reveals how to defeat him and that is how the antagonist defeated his enemy but Thorfinn has too much pride to go to sneaky/backstabbing ways to defeat his opponent and wants to do it fair & square with a one-on-one duel.
One interesting character who is one of the strongest & also funny at times is of Thorkell who is always ready for a fight and is sad when fighting or war times are stopped. In one scene, he got upset when the fight started without him 🤣. He just wants war to go on as long as possible.
Another great character development throughout the season is of Prince Canute who was shown as very weak and borderline feminine prince but that does change dramatically as the series proceeds ahead and from history we know that he becomes one of the great rulers in history.
One amazing thing which I have seen in this Anime is the crisp camera movements. The transitioning in multiple scenes is something which I have not seen in modern Anime. The great cinematography can be attributed to “Wit Studio” who did an excellent job and glimpses of this can be seen in the opening introduction song here — notice the camera transitions in the ship & the child running on the bridge here
While this is just season 1 and there will be more to come in the future seasons, I have high hopes for this series.
Verdict is 8/10 and a “WATCH” recommendation. Season 2 is set to come out in Jan 2023, so I’m excited about it.
Watch it online here →
Paid Subscriptions →
https://www.amazon.com/VINLAND-SAGA/dp/B07TVV16BV
https://www.netflix.com/in/title/81249833
Or by any other means by which you can get your hands on it.
