Let's first start with the story. I will try not to go into much detail in order to refrain from spoilers but here we go. The story starts out with the main character Thorfinn joining his father Thors on an expedition overseas. Thors crew comes face to face with another Vikings group, Askeladd’s group, that was hired to murder Thors as he was a threat to them being one of the strongest Vikings of their era. Thorfinn watched as his father was brutally murdered by Askeladd and everyone else on that voyage was also murdered by Askeladd’s gang. Instead of killing Thorfinn as well, Askeladd decides to take him under his wing and promises Thorfinn that he will take him under his wing and when he is old enough, he can try and take his head. Thorfinn is subjugated to these harsh wars all in order to be able to face Askeladd and kill him. This war story that Askeladd subjects Thorfinn to takes up the majority of his childhood and makes Thorfinn’s childhood full of regret, anger, revenge, and murder.
One problem that I do have with the story is that the author feels it is necessary to add time skips throughout the story in order to not bombard the reader with so much information. I felt that one of the arcs that was skipped due to a time skip was very necessary and would have been cool to see what actually happened. But nonetheless, I understand the author’s reasoning for these time skips as there is already so much to digest, even more would be too much.
Now let us talk about the characters. Unlike many manga and anime, the story is not heavily focused on the main character. In this case, we get to learn so much more detail about the side characters and are able to see their character development throughout the manga. The author also does not stray away from the gore and the brutality that went on during this time period. Things such as rape, plunder, pillaging, colonization are all displayed throughout the story and are displayed with an exquisite art style.
Speaking of the art style. That is what I am going to talk about next. The art style in this manga is magnificent. It is arguably more gory and gut wrenching than manga like Berserk or Vagabond. The art style allows the author to really show how brutal the 11th century Viking era truly was. The wars and fights are very realistically drawn and the background is drawn masterfully as well.
One thing that the drawers do really well is the faces of the characters. The immense amount of detail that is used for facial features is insane. The reader is always able to tell how the character is feeling by just looking at their facial expressions. I cannot stress enough how beautiful the art style of this manga is and you’ll just have to read it to understand.
Now let us discuss the characters. This is definitely the best part of Yukimura’s work and he has not slacked off once while writing chapters for the manga. The characters are introduced carefully into the story allowing for character development to occur through the interactions of the main cast and the side characters. As I have stated before, the readers are able to go through and see how Thorfinn changes from a boy wanting revenge to a man wanting redemption and peace.
Even Askeladd has been shown with immense character development and always plays a role throughout the story even though he is not the main character. Side characters are also very important to the story and are not excluded and not given any background on because they are just side characters. Each side character is carefully crafted and is used to develop the main character and progress the story.
Now for the enjoyment factor. This is probably one of the most well crafted manga I have ever read in my life. From start to finish I was on the edge of my seat waiting for what was going to happen and was able to catch up to the latest chapter all in one sitting. I recommend this manga to everyone that is reading this and hope you guys will see what I see in this manga.
