On August 31, 2021, Sentai Filmworks unveiled on blu-ray the first season of the critically acclaimed viking epic Vinland Saga. Grab an axe and a pint of ale and join me on a bloody crusade of vengeance!
The Plot: A young boy named Thorfinn lives his days in peace in a small village outside the troubles of the world, that is, until vicious vikings from his father’s past return to seek retribution for his father’s desertion of their ranks. When his father is killed, Thorfinn joins this viking crew in order to seek vengeance for his father’s death by challenging their leader to a duel. This plunges Thorfinn into a cold and cruel world of violence and war that will test the limits of his skill and perseverance.
The Opinion: This series certainly earns the designation of ‘Saga’ in the title. It has a very epic, years-spanning scope that feels somewhat true to history even as it revels in death and destruction at times. The viking culture is an interesting one where ruthlessness and honor lie uneasily next to one another with our protagonist Thorfinn there in the middle as something of an outsider with a single-minded thirst for revenge.
Early on following Thorfinn as a young boy, his naïveté is somewhat charming. He has had his entire worldview destroyed in an instant. Over time though, his single-mindedness starts to come across one-dimensional, but even that seems to be intentional based on how the first season ends. I will be very curious to see where this goes. For those coming into this based on comparisons to Berserk, I think you’ll generally be pretty pleased. It definitely has a similar feel with its brutish violence and strong bonds of camaraderie among soldiers. Like Berserk, women get severely short-changed here though and the more fantastical elements of Berserk aren’t present.
Speaking of the protagonist’s single-mindedness, characterization in general is one of this series’ biggest weaknesses (not surprising for an action anime). Characters like Canute, the effeminate prince, and Thorkell, the overpowered brash oaf, feel like tropes. Honestly the series’ saving grace on the character front is Askeladd, the man that Thorfinn has sworn vengeance against. He feels like a much more well-rounded character with a very hazy, gray view of the world that makes him more unpredictable than most.
One of the strongest elements of this series is the excellent animation quality at times. The fight sequences especially have a lot of effort put into them with the animators truly relishing in the poetic beauty of blood and battle. The CG integrated in works pretty well also, particularly during the sailing sequences.
The Specs: On the A/V front, the audio is nicely mixed and dynamic suited well to this action-oriented series. The transfer is crisp and solid, befitting the straight-up beautiful visuals this show offers at times. It definitely seems like a healthy budget was put into the series to good effect.
For extras, we get the typical clean opening and closing animations as well as some promos and trailers. This is one area that I wish Sentai Filmworks would step it up a little. For instance, there’s a little comedy spin off web series they could have included as a neat extra called Ponkotsuland Saga. Quite a few anime have these little spin-off specials and OVAs that Sentai rarely includes. I assume there’s probably a small license fee involved, but I would think it’d be worth including.
The Verdict: Despite my gripe about the lack of extras, overall this is a very good package of a great start to what promises to be an epic anime series. Definitely recommended for fans of action anime, especially for those into brutes with swords.