I’m a bit late to this Vinland craze that took place over the past few weeks but I finally caught up with this new viking anime. So instead of me posting four separate reviews, I decide to give you guys my impression on the anime so far and continue on from there.
So the episode starts out with a flash back of a war that took place on the sea. We saw two warriors decimating the forces of those that opposed them. The animation of those fights were really good and visuals are even more impressive than I thought it would be.
Funny enough, one of these characters, known as Thors Snorresson, apparently fled the battle scene and abandoned his company. Later on, we learn that he settled far north in Iceland. From there we are introduced to Thorfinn as he sat at the feet of the great Leif Ericson, listening in to his wild tales of a land far to the west. We got to learn a bit more about their homeland and culture and their drive to find a new homeland called Vinland, a place with no slaves or war. Knowing that some of these characters were based on real life people of the past made this even more appealing as I do enjoy learning about history from other cultures.
The first few episodes focused round Thors and the type of person that he was and is today. We learned he began wanting to abandoned his life of war as soon as his first daughter was born, and wanted to live long enough to see her grow up. Things changed however when the Jomsviking crew came to Iceland to get aid from Thors. How they knew he was there was never revealed I think but it reveleaed a lot about his past and his immerse strength as a warrior.
After been threaten with the deaths of villagers, Thors reluctantly agrees to go. This is when Throfinn snuck on bored the ship his father was sailing and winded up going on a journey with them. Floki, the guy that asked Thors to join him decided that he didn’t want a traitor to fight among them, and hired Askeladd to assassinate Thors.
The fight that ensure between Thors and Askeladd was really interesting. Despite coming off as as simple assassin, the guy had a lot of honor within him. Unfortunately, Thors had to give up his life for the sake of this people and his son, which ultimately drove Thorfinn into a fit of rage and a lust for vengeance. I think it’s from he on out we’ll get to see some real action from Thorfinn. That scream that he let out was intense and you can tell that he has his eyes set out to kill Askeladd. From his perspective, his father was the stronger man and therefore should have won. For a kid that has been raised to value the viking lifestyle, it must be unfathomable that his father would simply give up. I’m really enjoying this anime so far.I don’t think we’ve gotten a viking anime based on real figures from the past before so it’ll be interesting to see how the story evolves as time goes.
