Mayank

Been a couple of days since I finished Vinland Saga and here's my attempt to express my thoughts on it. Review may does contain spoilers so please proceed with caution.

I kept avoiding Vinland Saga for a few weeks after taking an interest in it based off the hype. Mostly because I was doubtful that Wit Studio would be able to make a show as good as Attack on Titan S3 P2 within the same year and also partly because I simply didn't want to believe Vikings could be portrayed so well in Anime. And I was so happy to be proved wrong on both fronts! I knew I wouldn't hate this anime whatsoever because it's a Seinen revenge story. My favourite story trope. Though I did prepare myself for some generic 1 season story with a lot of bloodbath, maybe some sex, and a normal/no brainer plain ending. I even believed it up until episode 18 (Also my least favourite episode of the season).

Story and Animation: I loved the story almost through and through. The world building right from the start of first episode was beautiful. You can really feel the amount of care and attention was given to the background animation. Whether a scene had characters in the foreground or not, the backgrounds never lost their quality. This became an important aspect of passive story telling. I felt like I was taken to those cold and unforgiving lands of Northern Europe in every episode. Thors's death was set up very well and it gave the anime a perfect lift off. With that frame of a dead but standing Thors and little Thorfinn clinging to his father's dead body right after one of the most satisfying duels of the year, VS truly captured my attention. I knew right then the story was going to satisfy me. Until it didn't, in a good way. The pacing was nice overall with the exception of a few episodes in the middle. I think this could've easily been a 4.5-er if Canute's character development hadn't been so sudden. But the show sets on the right path right after that turbulent bit. There is less focus on action now and more on politics. I almost liked it as much as I did the action. The 4D chess game between Sweyn and Askeladd was amusing to say the least. And now about that ending. Oh what an ending it was! It was almost obvious from the last duel between Thorfinn and Askeladd that Thorfinn was never going to "get his revenge", but seeing it being cemented was nice. I still wished a simple, no brainer ending like Thorfinn killing of Askeladd. This ending was definitely better than what I wanted though. It took away from me what I wanted the most and gave me something truly meaningful. My favourite moment in the entire show was when Askeladd tore off Sweyn's head with that clean swish. It was completely out of character for him to lose his cool and he was cool even when he lost his cool.

One thing I'd like to mention is the fight choreography. It was just too sweet!

Characters: Most of the characters were super interesting in this series. I loved how Leif, Thors, Askeladd and Thorkell were handled. Ann is by far the best minor character in the series (she's the only girl who survives Askeladd's mass murder of her village because she was too busy stealing xd). 

Canute is my least favourite character in Vinland Saga. I dislike him. Mostly because of his stupid character development of going from scared cat to roaring lion in just one episode. I really think that could've been handled a lot better. 

Another character I dislike is none other than Thorfinn himself. He had the opposite problem that Canute had. No character development whatsoever. Sure, he grows from a weak child to a strong fighter with multiple combat skills. But he remains the same brat that he always was till the very last episode. You could argue that was the main purpose of the entire season, but tbh 24 episodes is too fucking long to have so little character development when the other main character in the series that only becomes noticeable very late changes far more drastically. 

That said, I'd have liked to see more of King Sweyn. I really hoped to see more of Ylva too. Based on her appearances in the initial episodes, she seemed a very strong character and not seeing her for a single bit was a bit sad. 

Sound: Not much to say here. This was my least favourite aspect of the show. Especially the openings and endings. I hated them. The background music rarely stood out too, but it wasn't bad. It was just there and did its job.