Chiisana Viking Vickie

Chiisana Viking Vickie is a children's series from the 70s. It follows the adventures of a group of vikings, each of which with their own quirks. The main character Vickie is the son of the viking chief, Halvar, and is considered a weakling and a coward by most people in the village. However, he's very clever and usually ends up saving the others with his quick thinking.

PLOT

There's no red thread from the beginning to the end. In about half of the episodes, the vikings are on their way to pillage some far-away land and take away everything worthwhile. Or, rather, this is their intention. ... Since this is a kids' series, it can't really show the protagonists being evil, violent thieves. As such, the vikings' raids usually get resolved in one of two ways: 1) when they arrive, someone else is already there causing trouble, so the vikings defeat this bigger villain and get a bunch of rewards from the grateful locals, removing the need to steal anything, or 2) the local king or chief is such a massive jerk that by the time the episode ends, the vikings are perfectly justified in taking something for all their trouble.

The other half of the episodes take place in the vikings' home village, Flake, and shows them dealing with domestic life, such as working in their vegetable fields or going to the market. It's a running gag that trouble often brews between the vikings and their nagging wives, with the wives usually winning whatever argument there is.

CHARACTERS

There's no particular character development for anyone in the series, but all the main characters have clearly defined personalities that stay consistent through the series. Even though the characters aren't very deep, you grow to care about them if you watch enough episodes because they're all funny and endearing in their own ways. All the characters get their moments to shine and in some cases even entire episodes dedicated to them. For me, the highlight of the series was the duo of Snorre and Tjure who're always bickering but are actually good friends.

The only annoying inconsistency I spotted was that there was an entire episode dedicated to finding a wife for Faxe, the dumb giant of the group, but his bride was never shown again after that episode. In fact, in a much later episode we see that Faxe is unmarried and in love with a totally different woman.

Vickie, who is the main character, stands out amongst the vikings by being far more intelligent than the others. Whenever there is trouble, he gets a brilliant idea that solves all their problems. Sometimes the ideas are actually clever and would work in real life, and sometimes they're reaching and/or entirely implausible. Vickie might be an annoying character with his fast wits if not for the fact that he's a coward who routinely runs away from danger or trembles in fright whenever things get bad. It makes him feel like a balanced character. On top of that, he's genuinely good-hearted and tries to reason with the others when they want to do something evil.

ANIMATION

The animation is simple and sparse, but since the character models aren't very complicated, the style and quality stay on the same level pretty much all the way through, with one exception. Short segments of the first episode are so crude and badly drawn that I simply can't understand what's up with them. Thankfully, there's no sign of this after that, and most of the time I felt that the animation worked perfectly for what they were trying to achieve. But the series definitely shows its age and won't awe you at any point.

MUSIC

I watched the series in German, so the background music was by Karel Svoboda. I think the Japanese version may have a different soundtrack. I have no sources for this, but I know some other old anime series that were shown with Svoboda's music in Europe had entirely different music in Japan. In any case, Svoboda was a genius and his music works perfectly here. It's upbeat and funny but can get dark or touching when needed.

OVERALL

This is a fun children's series from which you can watch pretty much any episode in any order, though there are sometimes multi-episode storylines. There's also no need to watch all of the episodes, either. In fact, watching all 78 episodes might make you sick of the series pretty fast, so I would suggest not marathoning it. But an episode every now and then is a nice snack, particularly once you begin to enjoy the characters and just want to see what weird things they end up doing next. The only episode I actively disliked was the very last one because I felt it went against established characterization and was a pretty weak, almost depressing way to end the series.

Since there are so many episodes, here are some of my favourites in case someone wants to give the series a try: 25, 26, 31, 32, 34, 44, 56, 59, 63, 68, 70.

Ahh yes. Vickie The Viking. Also known in japan as Chiisana Viking Vickie. This was one of thoses animes that i never got to finish watching during it's run and yet i still remember the show from the top of my head.

And to find out that this also recognized as a german-austrian-japanese anime animated by Nippon Animation. It makes me have the urge to watch the entire anime from beginning to the end.

Now, for thoses who are unfamiliar with the anime, here's the rundown:

Vickie The Viking, or Chiisana Viking Vickie as it was known in Japan is a anime collaboration between Germany, Austria and Japan ... based off the books of the same name by a swedish author, Runer Jonsson.

It aired on german and japanese televisions in 1974 and it was a huge hit in there. The anime would later get aired and dubbed in other european countries like Portugal for example and much like in Germany, it would also become a hit there, too.

Because of it's success, it would later on spawn lots of merchandises and other medias. Like a video game for a Nintendo DS, two live-action movies made in 2009 and 2011, a CGI remake by a belgium animation studio, Studio 100 and a CGI animated movie released in 2019.

But what i'm gonna give my thoughts/review for today is the anime that started it all. So how does it hold up after all theses years? Well, here's how i feel about it:

The story itakes place in a village named "Flake" where lies the boy named "Vickie". Who's timid, physically frail and has a phobia for Wolves. However what makes him special compared to the other kids of Flake is the way of thinking and how he uses his brains to help out others.

One day, he secretly hid himself in a barrel to go on a journey with his father, Halvar and his Vikings. There, Halvar and the others found out in the barrel that his son, Vickie, was hidden there joining the journey without notice.

At first, Halvar was shocked and concerned about his son to join the vikings on a journey, mostly because he's too young and too early for him to become a future Viking.

However, thanks to Vickie's smart brain, he's able to help out the others from many traps and dangers that they have to go through. From there, Halvar was convinced and realized that Vickie could be the ultimate weapon to help Halvar and his vikings when going on a journey.

As the story progresses, each episodes tells each stories of how Vickie dealt with many situations. Such as the attacks of Halvar's nemesis, Sven, the way how to help out other countries to solve the problems they have and much more.

So far, the stories are nice to watch. Each episodes offers some nice, funny and even interesting plots that help the story progress.

It's also good to know how Vickie solves theses kinds of situations with his own brain.

However, not all things go well with the writting. Some parts of the writting of the anime and go a bit off and lead to some minor writting flaws. and while some stories can be fun to watch, there are a few that aren't that great. Like one episode about how Faxe, the big viking of the group, was forced to find a wife.

As for the animation, well, to be totally honest, it's my least favourite part of the anime. Mostly because there are numerous of errors that occur in the anime. Like how the characters are misplaced in each locations.

However, i can give it a break, because come on. This is a anime made in 1974. The technology wasn't really there and some of the budget is pretty low. So it's logical that the animators don't have enough sources to be able to fix some of the errors that happens in the animation.

But i will say this, though. The character designs do look nice. It does have a nice designs that differentiate from each characters. Even Snorre's design looks like something out of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. Sure it may look a bit weird at first, but you'll get used to it after you watch the anime.

The characters, for the most part, are good and enjoyable. Lots of them can have a nice character developments and offer some nice interactions between each others.

Outside of Vickie, the main protagonist of the series, you have Halvar. The father of viking and the leader of the group. He's one silly father to have. He does have some agressive personality, but he does have a good heart. He is willing to do what it takes to do the right thing when Vickie gets an idea of what to do and what not to do. Although he can find it dangerous at first.

Then you have the other vikings like Snorre, Tjure, Faxe, Ulme, Urobe and Gorm. Theses guys are usually taking orders from Halvar anytime he orders to attack or invade the country. However, they do have some personalities that make them stand out from each others.

Snorre and Tjure, for example, are some of the funniest characters in the anime. They constantly argue, fight againts each other and insult over the stupid stuff that they do. Whether small or big.

There's even one episode about thoses two where they were given a race by Vickie himself to find out who's better.

Other characters like Ylva, Vickie's mother, Ylvie and Gilby are only made to be supporting characters. They are okay, but nothing too special.

As for the sound, the background music is done by Karel Svoboda. Who would later on work on other animes like Maya the Bee and The Wonderful Adventures of Nils.

For the most part, they are good to listen. It does offer some nice adventurous-vibe music and sometimes even some blues music.

The openings for both the japanese version and german version are absolute bangs to listen to. On one hand, you have the japanese intro, "Vicke wa chiisana Viking" sung by the seiyuu, Yoko Kuri, who is the japanese voice of Vickie. It gives a relaxing and cute song to the opening sequence animation done by Nippon Animation.

On the other hand, you have "Hey Hey Wickie" sung by Andrea Wagner. Which is a song that was translated in other dubs. Unlike the japanese song, this one gives a more Rock N' Roll type of song. Which is also really good as well. It gives us excitement for what is to come from the show when you listen to it.

As for the voice acting. Yeah here's the thing: I watched the european portuguese dub version done by Somnorte from 2004. Which features portuguese voice actors like Raquel Rosmaninho and Jorge Paupério.

From what i watched from the Somnorte PT-PT dub, for the most part, it's good. They do offer some really nice voice acting and performances. Jorge Paupério is also a great in this and the best choice for Halvar.

The only issue i had with this dub, it would be the first voice of Snorre, Mário Santos. He gives a more obnoxious voice to the character. But that's about it. The actor was eventually replaced by Jorge Seabra Paupério in episode 19-onwards (Not to be confused with Halvar's portuguese voice actor who also happens to be called Jorge Paupério).

I wouldn't say that Mário is a bad actor, it's just that his voice doesn't fit with Snorre when it comes to voice acting. He's better off voicing Gorm.

As for the Japanese dub, i actually managed to find the subbed episode 14 on GoGoAnime since it was finally translated into english (although very very poorly).

Now from what i heard, people were saying that the Japanese dub had different music. Which is true here. It was more dramatic and comical compared to the german dub and the seiyuus are also different here. I'm not sure who composed the background music for the japanese dub, though.

Snorre here is voiced by Junpei Takiguchi and does sound pretty decent and Halvar's seiyuu, Tomita Kosei, actually sounds more gruesome and viking-ish compared to the more older voice type from the european dub.

Vickie is voiced by Yoko Kuri, who is the only actress that i didn't like her way to voice Vickie. She made him sound a bit more feminine compared to he more young boy-ish voice in european portuguese dub.

But Faxe's voice in japanese is actually the best one i've heard. Not sure who voices the character, but it seems like his voice in the japanese dub sounds alot more chunkier compared to his european portuguese dub.

But overall, despite some of the obvious flaws in writting and animation, i still think it holds up. It was a good children's anime and i had fun watching it.

The characters are memorable, the music is good, the animation is good and overall, i had a good time watching it. It's just a nice kids show to spend time with your kids in case you want to have a good time with it.

I would recommend it if you're into children's shows or you have a child to spend time with and want to watch a anime with your child.

Sadly only one episode has been translated into english, in which contained some swearing, ableist and even homophobic words that has nothing to do with what the seiyuus are saying and the english dub is still incomplete.

So my recommendation is to just watch the german dub for a complete experience. Unless you want to watch the european portuguese dub if you speak portuguese.

But if you do find a way to watch the anime, i'm very sure you'll have a good time. ^^

Anyway, that's been my first review to a anime, thank you for reading and have a good day.