Review of Vinland Saga (2019)
Seen in 2023.
This review refers to the series aired in 2019, not its resumption in 2023.
When he is struck by tragedy and almost consumed by hate, an Icelandic boy still remembers what he heard from the explorer Leif Eriksson, the first European to land in North America, around the year 1000.
The gritty action of Berserk (1989) but with vikings and the humanism of Yukimura Makoto instead of the supernatural. As befits the historical setting, Vinland Saga is generally more attentive to detail. It has only a few of the classic flaws of historical action films: Swords are drawn with a “schwing” as if scabbards were all made of steel, and bows stay drawn without any apparent effort on the part of the bowmen. In a more intentional departure from plausibility, the writing marries the personal power-level disparities of real Icelandic sagas with those of shōnen manga; the two are highly compatible.