Vinland Saga Episode 1 Review

 So I've heard a l lot of good things about this series for a long time now and after watching the first episode I have a strong feeling that its going to live up to expectations. Some background on this series is that it has to do with the Vikings in roughly the 1000's and focuses on this one family's life in particular.

The show starts off with an awesome battle scene on the ocean with a ton of battle ships and a guy named Thors slaying a ridiculous amount of enemies with his sword before battling a man in the water and escaping to shore. (not sure when this battle happened I'm guessing a few years in the past from where the story takes place though) either way Thors is established as a badass warrior.

After the OP plays we go to the present day 1002 in Iceland where Thors son Thorfinn is doing some chores like milking cows, carrying water. Thorfinn appears to be maybe 12 or 13 years of age and has a sister named Ylva that could be anywhere from 17-23 probably. 

We go to Leif  Ericson who is an older man telling a story to Thorfinn and a bunch of other children in his adventure to discovering Vinland. This seems to be a very embellished story as some of the children start to mock him for not being a warrior and not believing him. Leif comes across as a goofy nice old man. 

The next day Thors and his daughter Ylva are clearing the snow off the roof when Ylva mentions they should buy a slave to do the chores for them which Thors kind of just ignores. Ylva then falls off the roof and lands on the snow and is ok but she starts digging in the snow and finds a man who seems to be dead so they rush him inside and warms him up to the point he awakens and is barely alive.

It turns out that he is a run away slave from a infamous rival of Thors tribe named Halfdan. Halfdan comes down to the tribe asking about where his slave is and is shown to be quite a powerful person as he fucks up one of his own men with his chain for disobedience. 

Meanwhile Leif is telling Thorfinn the story of of they arrived in Iceland and explaining that their ancestors used to live in Norway until a man named Harald took over Norway and proclaimed himself the king and banished anyone who would not bow to him. This really upset Thorfinn because this meant his ancestors ran away and didn't fight which i guess is considered not honorable.

Finally we see Halfdan barge into Thors house and demand the slave back in which Thors decides to pay 3 sheep for the slave because Halfdan originally paid 2 sheep for him but Halfdan demands 8 which Thors eventually agrees. The slave ends up dying hours after and Ylva is really upset they gave up so many sheep for to save the life of a slave that died anyways.

The final scene id Thorfinn asking Thors if the story of their ancestors escaping to Norway is true which Thors basically confirms then a shot of a massive Viking ship on the ocean is shown with a strong looking man captaining it with a large crew. (I'm guessing he's the main antagonist).

My Thoughts

The scenery of this anime is spectacular and is different then any other I've watched. I like how the story is completely different then other animes and has to do with Vikings. It seems like this is going to be some what like assassins' creed in the sense its based on history and real events but has an original story that is placed in the middle of history.

The first fight scene was beautiful and they really did a great job of establishing their characters personality while setting up some feasible bad guys.

Highly recommend watching this anime.