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EP. REVIEW: Vinland Saga


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anddo



Joined: 07 Mar 2015
Posts: 670
PostPosted: Wed Aug 14, 2019 12:09 am Reply with quote
Another half filler episode with the second half getting back on track. I liked the way they handled Thorfinn's ambush but a lot of the episode was made up of emotional fluff that I felt was extraneous to what the manga was trying to convey, almost as if they were banking on the same sense of edgy sensationalism as Attack on Titan or Tokyo Ghoul. To be perfectly honest I'm not a fan of the additions Wit is deciding to implement and though they're not nearly game-breakers or anything, they paint a faux sense of of significance to Thorfinn as if he were primarily important to this part of the story and that simply wasn't true in the original manga. Thorfinn (and subsequently the emotional fluff associated with him) was always pushed to the side during the Prologue arc in favor of the political and sociological fluff of the Viking era, spearheaded by Askeladd, Bjorn, Thorkell and the bunch. Thorfinn's subjugated role helped the reader underestimate his potential and when he finally spoiler[came face to face with Askeladd's sacrifice and was forced to watch Cnut kill him in his place after all that build up] his character had finally gained the development necessary to be considered someone worthy of a main character position. I don't like that the anime is exploiting the earlier parts of the manga in order to "establish" Thorfinn as the focus right off the bat. It's like if they had changed Gohan's role in the Dragon Ball Z anime to that of a main focus right from the Saiyan arc. It would have destroyed some of the impact of his fight against Cell and the realization of his full potential. It's not that big a deal, it's just disappointing for me personally.
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ErikaD.D



Joined: 09 Jun 2019
Posts: 658
PostPosted: Wed Aug 14, 2019 11:57 am Reply with quote
Off topic, there's Vinland Saga's OP song available on Spotify but it's greyed out. (Same with One Punch Man season 2's OP song). No wonder piracy still exist and it's encouraged people to use VPN. Finding & listen anime songs on online including Spotify still not easy. Seems most Japanese musicians are overprotected their songs on Spotify, Youtube etc; than American and British musicians, even K-Pop songs aren't greyed out. So much fight against piracy. Rolling Eyes
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Wed Aug 14, 2019 2:25 pm Reply with quote
ErikaD.D wrote:
Seems most Japanese musicians are overprotected their songs on Spotify, Youtube etc; than American and British musicians, even K-Pop songs aren't greyed out. So much fight against piracy. Rolling Eyes

It's not the musicians themselves, but their labels. Victor Entertainment and King Records are especially militant at protecting their music. Sony, too.

As an example, just try to watch the OP or any of the dozen or so EDs from Hanamaru Youchien: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL087D902289713BE6

This show is nine years old now yet they still worry about whether someone in the west will get to see without paying the remarkable ED that is an homage to Jean-Luc Godard's famous "A bout de souffle" ("Breathless") with a nod to Schroeder from Peanuts. You can watch it on Crunchyroll, though, and King might collect a penny or two in royalties (starts at 23:49): https://www.crunchyroll.com/hanamaru-kindergarten/episode-7-a-hanamaru-summer-vacationa-hanamaru-summer-festival-538602
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5296
PostPosted: Wed Aug 14, 2019 3:12 pm Reply with quote
I had expected Thorfinn to have switched to a male VA as he got older, but I suppose that won't happen until he is older. At least the VA still does a great job portraying him, so i can't complain.

I wish there was more scenes of him growing up, it seemed a bit rushed, i suppose they had to cut out some content for time, but still a shame.
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v1cious



Joined: 31 Dec 2002
Posts: 6199
Location: Houston, TX
PostPosted: Wed Aug 14, 2019 3:21 pm Reply with quote
MarshalBanana wrote:
I had expected Thorfinn to have switched to a male VA as he got older, but I suppose that won't happen until he is older. At least the VA still does a great job portraying him, so i can't complain.

I wish there was more scenes of him growing up, it seemed a bit rushed, i suppose they had to cut out sbome content for time, but still a shame.


According to manga readers, most of the childhood stuff was added in by WIT. In fact, almost all of episode 5 was new material.
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Brack



Joined: 15 Oct 2005
Posts: 281
Location: UK
PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2019 5:11 pm Reply with quote
Episode 7 was good, but I prefer its position as the opening chapter of the manga than trying to slot it in chronologically where the tone is a significant diversion from the surrounding episodes, with an Askeladd and Thorfinn who are more simply characterised due to this being the first time we meet them in the comic.
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Dop.L



Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 713
Location: London
PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2019 6:15 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, episode 7 was mostly the opening of the manga which threw us straight into Thorfinn in battle before going back to Thors living a peaceful life in Iceland. Which kind of explains the odder stuff like Jabbathe and his enormous Totoro-style gob, as it was before the manga found its feet and became more realistic.
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Tuor_of_Gondolin



Joined: 20 Apr 2009
Posts: 3524
Location: Bellevue, WA
PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2019 6:27 pm Reply with quote
Just a nitpick of the review, but it wasn't Thorfinn who had to come up with the tactics used to defeat the walled town -- Askeladd did that, and told Thorfinn what to say to Jabathe. And while Thorfinn needed to kill someone with a helmet, it was Thorfinn who decided to go after the enemy commander.

A pretty good episode, but I can see how this was actually the intro of the saga. Also, I can't see Thorfinn beating Askeladd -- not yet, anyway.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2019 7:30 pm Reply with quote
Dop.L wrote:
Yeah, episode 7 was mostly the opening of the manga which threw us straight into Thorfinn in battle before going back to Thors living a peaceful life in Iceland. Which kind of explains the odder stuff like Jabbathe and his enormous Totoro-style gob, as it was before the manga found its feet and became more realistic.


Yeah even has someone whose never read the manga it was really obvious that this episode was the original opening chapter since it was so at odd with the rest of the show, like a lot of manga first couple of chapter are. It also make complete sense why they chose to start chronologically if this style isn't representative of the rest of the series, it would be really strange to start with this and have the show move more toward realism after that. Still, I think the adaptation could have been bolder and tone downed a lot of the fanciful aspect.
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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
Posts: 2858
PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2019 10:02 pm Reply with quote
It's the thing I found the weirdest with this manga, serious story but with superhuman characters.
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Kicksville



Joined: 20 Nov 2010
Posts: 1168
PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2019 10:04 pm Reply with quote
If nothing else, it's pretty apparent they had a lot of fun animating that giant mouth.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5296
PostPosted: Tue Aug 20, 2019 3:49 am Reply with quote
I'm still trying to figure out if this was completely out of tune with the rest of the show or not. Certainly an apparently serious show does well without an over the top Kappei Yamaguchi(?) comic relief character, though I'm still happy just because of how well animated he was. But a toned down version of a character like that could work, like Puck from Berserk.

Thorfinn jumping, or floating, across a 30ft gap was harder to believe at first, but given that his father could do similar accomplishments, it's not that hard to believe. The sliding boats where great and having stuff like that in future would be nice, as it is awesome and at least pleasurable.
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Sven Viking



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 1035
PostPosted: Tue Aug 20, 2019 11:15 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, presumably it’s just that Thors’ jumping skill is hereditary.

The Natuto run did seem a bit out of place to me even considering the first chapter’s somewhat differing tone. It’s fairly questionable whether it was intended in the manga — there’s only a single panel of him moving away with his head low and his arms at his sides (but still in front of his body), and as can be seen in the episode itself he’s running normally a short time later.
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GrilleSechsH



Joined: 30 Jul 2015
Posts: 16
PostPosted: Wed Aug 21, 2019 4:43 am Reply with quote
So is next episode the duel than jumping to London bridge? Definitely should have started with this episode.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Wed Aug 21, 2019 10:21 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Also, his name is just the first two words of “Jabba the Hut” smushed together, which feels too silly for Vinland Saga.

Or the French leader looking like a frog also being a bit too on the nose? Although I don't know if that's a slur the Japanese recognize, the author might have encountered it in his research.
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