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The manga series Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura contains a mixture of historical, apocryphal, and invented characters in its cast. The major characters are of Danish descent—Vikings brought to England to assist King Sweyn's invasion of the country. The series is divided into four story arc focused on Thorfinn, a young viking who wishes to kill his superior Askeladd as revenge for the death of his father, Thors. In following arcs, an older Thorfinn questions his sins and decides to atone for them by finding the land Vinland which he was told as a child where people can live in peace. However, Thorfinn has issues with starting a new life as he is encounters people related to his life as a viking who share interests on the young man.
The series was influenced by Makoto Yukimura's thoughts with vikings as they were hailed as heroes despite their violent methods with Thorfinn's development being how to atone for his killings. As the story progresses, Yukimura creates new characters needed to help the protagonist often using historical figures. Critical response to the cast has been positive for their traits and action scenes.
While the vikings are recognized as heroes, Yukimura wanted to explain the harsh reality that was their era. Because of the harsh violence, the character of Thorfinn was always drawn with a serious expression in the first arc as well as with self-deprecation one in the following where he pitied himself for his sins. As a result, the character of Thorkell is characterized as more comical and thus makes the battles more enjoyable to draw.[1] While Thorfinn's design changes across the manga, Yukimura gave attention to the several cuts in Thorfinn's hands as a result as a sign of always fighting alone.[2] When drawing, Yukimura paid attention to drawing hands as he claims they are more expressive than faces and give a brief explanation of the person's personality. This was influenced by manga author Katsuhiro Otomo.[2]
Yukimura insists that when writing the characters, most of them are who Thorfinn need with Askeladd being a rare exception as he is both Thorfinn's mentor and an enemy at the same time. Their relationship is also meant to look like father and son as during the beginning of the series, Yukimura was planning Askeladd's death and how Thorfinn would react to that. Another complicated relationship involves Einar and Thorfinn as the two cannot help each other due to dark narrative they are involved. Across several things Thorfinn does in the manga, one of them was learning the effects of revenge and how it affects others.
Several characters are based on real life. The historical Leif Eiriksson is one of the most famous Norsemen according to the author. However, Yukimura imagined that he would have had a very weak nature as a warrior so he instead fleshed him out as a strong adventurer. In retrospect, Yukimura found that the series features prominently male characters as the female ones either have few screentime or die. One of the few exceptions is Gudrid due to how she is based on a historical figure with the same name who makes a major impact on Thorfinn's life and the author tries being faithful to such event. Meanwhile, the revengeful hunter Hild was made to remind Thorfinn of his sins as a viking in the same way with how the series starts with Thorfinn wanting revenge on Askeladd.[3]
For the anime adaptation of the series, Wit Studio said there was a strong sense of camaraderie toward an individual, Askeladd, that brought them vikings together. They portrayed Askeladd as being able to take charge because others viewed him as powerful. They were also careful not to depict the supporting characters as overly dependent on their leader, as that would diminish their individual charm. The anime also added new scenes about how Thorfinn turned into one of Askeladd's soldiers rather than just make a time-skip which the manga artist appreciated. The director claimed that for these anime original scenes they also tried to keep Askeladd in-character. He further said that the story about Askeladd's forces was entertaining to see.[4]
Early response to the cast centered around the misrelationship between Thorfinn and Askeladd due to the former's quest for revenge against the latter even though they work together.[27][28][29][30] Anime UK News said that while Thorkell is initially presented a main antagonist due to how he took Canute, the narrative does not make a black and white morality as Askeladd's forces are still presented as overly violent to civilians.[31] The ending of the first season was well received for how a single death brought a major impact to both Thorfinn and Canute for how they change when such event occurs.[32][33][34] Yukimura's artwork was praised for making every page of the manga overdetailed especially facial expressions.[35] The action scenes the characters were involved into were the subject of praise for how well they were illustrated as well as because of the handling of the fighter Thorkell notable for his supernatural strength,[36][37][38][39] Thorkell's fight against Thorfinn being a nominee in 4th Crunchyroll Anime Awards in 2020 for "Best Fight" but lost to Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.[40]
Following Askeladd's death, critics were surprised by Thorfinn's quieter personality and his parallelism with a corrupted Canute while also giving focus on slaves even if it employed less action sequences.[41][42] The inclusion of prominent female characters in the third story arc attracted more critics as the narrative usually was employed more male character in previous arcs instead.[43] The romance between Thorfinn and Gurdrid was praised for giving the a more lighter tone to the manga famous for its violence.[44] For the fourth story arc, Manga Sanctuary said Thorfinn now lives to his father's legacy during his quest while finding his new found family appealing.[45][46]
There was also commentary behind the voice acting with the performances of Shizuka Ishigami and Yūto Uemura being praised by Anime News Network for the amount of yells the character performs.[47][48] Decider also praised the English acting, singling out Allegra Clark's Ylva.[49]
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