I won’t sugarcoat it – that was a sizable step down from the first six episodes of Vinland Saga. That’s not a big deal, considering how good those were – they set a standard far above anything else airing this season. So not a concern – or it wouldn’t be, apart from the somewhat unusual circumstances. We’ve just finished a prequel that was to a good extent anime-original, and jumped in more or less at the beginning of the manga. From here on out I’m assuming everything or close to it is going to be straight from the manga.
So am I worried? At least a little, to be honest. I have faith in Yukimura-sensei but Vinland Saga had a bit of a strange trip to get here. It started out in a shounen magazine (Shuukan Shounen) then transitioned into a seinen publication (Afternoon). The first six eps played like seinen; this week’s like shounen. What gives me hope is that the shounen run only lasted about 20-25 (weekly) chapters, which means most of the two cours of anime will be from after the shift. Just how quickly did the seinen genes kick in? I guess we’re about to find out.
One thing I can say for sure – this ep was shounen to the hilt. I adore a good shounen, as any perusal of my yearly Top 10 lists would tell you. But this season is loaded with evidence of shounen’s cliche and narratively lazy side. And this ep, while fun, was a shocking tonal shift from what came before it. For starters you had the frog-like (ironic or not I don’t know) French general Jabbathe (Yamaguchi Kappei). I love a good Yamaguchi comic turn but Jabbathe seemed totally out of place with the rest of the series. Then there was stuff like Thorfinn’s ridiculous leap of the moat and climbing the walls of the fort. Hell, never mind shounen – that could have happened in Shounen Jump.
In other words, there wasn’t much subtlety or elegance to the storytelling here. It was a basic, straightforward viking buffet of gore and GAR that didn’t seem to add anything thematically to what had come before it. Thorfinn is now in his mid-teens – and has a male seiyuu (Uemura Yuuto) to match. The invasion of England is on a winter break, as the king of Denmark plans a major offensive for the spring. This leaves mercenaries like Askleadd with a winter of discontent to fill, so he decides to take the gang to France to cash in on the civil strife going on there. He chooses a foundering siege (led by Jabbathe) of a fort as a chance to dip his wick in the oil, and sends Thorfinn to negotiate a deal – half the spoils for the pirates’ help.
The most interesting part of the episode is the developing dynamic between Thorfinn and Askeladd. Thorfinn, we learn, has done his share of killing and then some. He’s proving very useful to Askeladd – scout, advance man, negotiator – and of course, he’s expendable. All this of course as Askeladd is stringing the boy along where his promised duel is concerned. Now Askeladd responds to Thorfinn’s latest demand for satisfaction by telling him he needs to “bring me a head in a helmet” before he’ll get consideration. This Thorfinn does – the head in question being the general of the fort’s defenders – in a frankly rather absurd one-boy charge into the defenders’ ranks (I guess they forget they had a squad of crossbowmen at their disposal).
How Thorfinn would (or will) fare in a duel with Askeladd at this point is hard to say – the apple certainly hasn’t fallen far from the tree where combat is concerned. But what’s clear is that Thorfinn is ill-equipped to duel with Askeladd in a battle of wits. He’s a wild child, basically – self-raised on the fringes of perpetual war, with no feel for the intricacies of human interaction and deceit. That Askeladd has him dancing on a string is obvious – what isn’t is where things go from here.
I don’t know if the promised duel will happen this early but if it does, I can only imagine it will be an anti-climax – not least for Thorfinn. All the next steps of the story have been self-apparent so far, elegantly staged by Seko Hiroshi and Yabuta Shuuhei. Now it’s a bit of a mystery, though we’ll be getting the answers soon enough. If indeed what Seko and Yabuta have done is re-order the story so that we were introduced to Vinland Saga with an arc that feels more true to its eventual nature (after the publication change) than the one that starts the manga, their decision to do so looks that much more brilliant.
bnbros
August 19, 2019 at 6:07 pm> Hell, never mind shounen – that could have happened in Shounen Jump.
Heh, I see what you did there.
Miyu Fan
August 19, 2019 at 6:29 pmThis episode is actually Chapter 1 to introduce the manga when it’s in shounen publication – so yes even with the success of Planetes I would imagine Yukimura knew he needs to do a shounen action chapter first to reel in the new readers before hitting them with the main theme lol. After this there’s a lot of skirmishes here and there but in terms of major shounen-like fights , it’s not a lot.
It also doesn’t help that Wit decided to adapt exactly like Chapter 1 when at that time we still had no idea why Thorfinn like this, why he wants to duel Askeladd and Thor’s belief. Maybe they should have sprinkled some original dialogue to minimize the shounen tone, but the episode is still decent.
Guardian Enzo
August 19, 2019 at 6:40 pmI don’t think I understand your point. Why is that a problem with Wit? They did show us why Thorfinn was like this first. Is it a matter of not changing the content here to reflect the original prequel material the anime added?
Alonom
August 19, 2019 at 7:01 pmI think he meant the first chapter (which this episode adapted) had more mystery and interst when it was all new and we didn’t know the characters and their backgrounds.
How did this young kid got to work with this pirates and why did he want to duel their leader?
I remember this mystery being the main reason I kept reading. The thing that got me most interested. Now that we know all of those things it lost from its initial effectivness.
Because wit chose to adpat this introduction chapter not as an introduction, maybe they could have changed a couple of things to make it more investing
Miyu Fan
August 19, 2019 at 8:18 pmYeah exactly, the action was supposed to attract readers to read the new manga – vikings carrying longboats, a boy that can jump far and kill efficiently- but it was just the set up for the mystery of why Thorfinn end up like this. So now that there’s no mystery the highlights for this episode is only the action.
bnbros
August 19, 2019 at 8:41 pmIt makes me wonder how would the reception by anime-only viewers towards Vinland Saga would have been if Wit had chosen to adapt it as it had originally been published.
Guardian Enzo
August 19, 2019 at 8:55 pmAh, I getcha. So this would have seemed less… silly and unnecessary if we didn’t know what the anime has told us. I suppose that makes sense. I still think it would have lost something when compared to the first six eps, but a few tweaks might have done some good.
Heatth
August 20, 2019 at 6:47 amI am honestly kinda confused why they even bothered adapting this. With the reordering the flashback to the beginning and the original additions to Thorfinn’s early days with Askelad, I figured this whole episode would be completely unnecessary. Its original purpose, in the manga, was mostly to draw in readers with the quick early action (which is not “early” anymore and Episode 1 did it better anyway) and to introduce Thorfinn, Askeladd and their dynamic(which have already been done and the last few episodes). I mean, I suppose the anime haven’t shown yet just how good Thorfinn had become but, still, I figured they wouldn’t need the whole episode just for that.
The good thing is this is probably Vinland Saga at its weakest and it is now behind us.
Onix Franceschini
August 19, 2019 at 8:50 pmI agree with most of what the comments say, I was hooked due to the mystery of why these characters were in these situations… One of the drawbacks of them changing the order of the chapters, if I’m fairly honest. When you finally see what happens, it’s one of those “ooooohhhhh, I get it now” moments that is lost in this adaptation.
Elear
August 19, 2019 at 10:33 pmYeah, this battle was written as an introduction to the world and characters of VS, but with the anime being in chronological order, that’s already been taken care of, so it’s kind of inevitable that it feels a bit pointless here, since, as you said, it doesn’t really add anything thematically to the story at this point, and as others have said, the mystery the chapter had regarding what drives Thorfinn is obviously not present anymore either.
As for the shounen vs seinen thing, I don’t think you have to worry too much about that, considering that in the manga the Thors prequel/flashback also took place early on, before the switch to a seinen publication.
Yukie
August 20, 2019 at 2:21 amPerhaps because I read the manga I didn’t mind this episode, though I don’t quite remember Jabbathe being this over-the-top (design-wise yes, in movement no).When I read this chapter, it definitely didn’t feel like shounen and neither did this episode for me, but I can get why people watching the anime might’ve felt a little tonal shift here. But like the comments above there’s not much to worry. Yes, there will continue to be GAR (which I trust WIT will have a ton of fun with), there will be some goofiness, but the story that will take place is excellently woven and grounded in history.
I actually think this episode is important in setting us up in the present and for this arc. Thorfinn’s role as the messenger in the band of Vikings and frustrations with Askeladd is established. The anime’s choice of going with the chronological order was great. I enjoyed the manga as it is, but I definitely had wanted to see Thorfinn’s path to where he is now, even as a flashback.
Also, I have to say, the voice actors are all on point. Wasn’t expecting Uemura Yuuto, but he fits perfectly! Excellent choices all around.
Guardian Enzo
August 20, 2019 at 8:28 amIf he can do Thorfinn and Minato from Tsurune, he certainly has range.
kigen
August 20, 2019 at 2:13 pmI am a manga reader and initially I was also iffy on the prospect of the first chapter being animated, as it certainly begins with pretensions of less lofty themes. But if I recall correctly, it does set the context for the next chapter quite well, and chapter 2 is more subdued and mature. In fact by chapter 2 I think it became quite obvious that this manga was going to cater substantially to a seinen demographic. For these reasons I have quite high hopes for the next episode.
Caliban
August 24, 2019 at 9:25 amIMO the decision they made to have a chronological timeline was a good one.
I prefer this to have a sense of progression and culmination than having a mistery bait just to draw the reader’s attention.
The story in the manga is half-fragmented while the story in the anime is constructing a clear narrative that is easy to follow.
From the first 4 episodes, the show already presents it’s themes and motivations for the various characters while in the manga we had to follow a flashback to understand Thorfinn’s motivations.
This is an improvement over the manga and even then, this is the weakest part of the story.
Even if you disagree with me, you have to agree that the meat and potatoes of this show is what comes next.