Vinland Saga: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Vinland Saga: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Time for some action!

Vinland Saga is an action-packed anime series. Produced by Mitsuhiro Sugita, Naokado Fujiyama, and Youko Ueda, Vinland Saga has plenty of style. The series animation is produced by Wit Studio (Attack on Titan, After the Rain). The anime is based on the manga created by Makoto Yukimura. Fans of high octane anime will find it worth checking out.

Thorfinn Thordarson (Yūto Uemura) grew up learning about the legend of the peaceful land of Vinland. Thorfinn dreamed about going to Vinland for years – desiring nothing more than the opportunity to leave behind chaos and destruction for a tranquil home without war. Alas, the intoxicating dream of peace is brought to a close for Thorfinn when Jomsvikings arrive for slaughter.

After losing his father to the Jomsvikings, Thorfinn is now left with few options. Thorfinn decides to embark on a mission alongside the man responsible for his father's murder: the Jomsvikings leader, Askeladd ( Naoya Uchida). Yet Thorfinn holds a goal of his own – to avenge his father and bring justice for his murder. Can Thorfinn live the life of a warrior alongside evil Jomsvikings and someday find the opportunity to strike revenge against Askeladd? Battle wages on and the journey for Thorfinn is not an easy one.

The animation is not as impressive as the best productions in the genre. Nonetheless, Vinland Saga is reasonably well animated. The chief animation director (Takahiko Abir (Ushio & Tora, Kaiji: Against All Rules ) managed to bring forth a solid effort from the team of animators.

There is a lot of detail in the animation on this series and it is clear a lot of time and energy was invested in to the animation being produced. One of the attributes that is most important to the production of Vinland Saga is the character designs by Takahiko Abiru. These designs fit the protagonist and supporting players well.

War is on.

The cinematography by Yūki Kawashita (The Ambition of Oda Nobuna, The Irregular at Magic High School) is effective and brooding. Vinland Saga is a series with an often dark cinematic approach: it manages to balance light and dark but there is a sense that the visual components are meant to take audiences on a more earthly quest (with accompanying grimness as well). A solid effort by Kawashita.

The music composed by Yutaka Yamada (Tokyo Ghoul, Babylon) works well with establishing the tone of the series. The music by Yamada is good as a mood-piece. The score enhances the setting and the approach the storytellers and producers decided to take with the series.

Written by Hiroshi Seko (Attack on Titan, Mob Psycho 100), Vinland Saga is far from a perfect series and the writing reflects some of those shortcomings (and weaknesses). Much of this is likely attributable to the original source material used for adapting the story. Vinland Saga is reasonably entertaining but it isn't as cohesive as it wants to be. Fans of the genre will find it has some noteworthy qualities – such as a sense of ambition.

Directed by Shūhei Yabuta (Inuyashiki Last Hero, Alderamin on the Sky), Vinland Saga is going to be of particular interest to action anime fans. The series has a reasonable creative eye and Yabuta is the filmmaker responsible for imbuing the production with a decent creative backbone. While this is certainly not a first-rate series, Yabuta still manages to make it a interesting effort nonetheless.

The action scenes are arguably the bread and butter of the production. Yabuta made some interesting creative choices as a director and the action scenes help highlight the drama of the storyline while simultaneously driving the core of the series onward. Yabuta did a solid job in this regard – even if Vinland Saga is an anime that never manages to become extraordinary.

Vinland Saga: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from Sentai, Vinland Saga is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition. The series boasts a unique cinematographic stlye which highlights the darkness of the storytelling. The color reproduction appears solid on the release. This is a crisp, engaging, and satisfying presentation. The level of detail on the release is reasonably good and audiences will be pleased with the results.

Vinland Saga: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release includes a selection of lossless audio options: the original Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo and English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo. The high-resolution audio tracks are crisp throughout. Dialogue is clear and easy to understand. The lossless audio was encoded in 24 bit depth so there is extra clarity for the presentation. The sound design is reasonably impressive for a 2.0 stereo mix as well. Even without a 5.1 surround sound presentation, Vinland Saga makes a solid enough impression.

Vinland Saga: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Clean Opening Animations (HD, 6:08)

Clean Closing Animations (HD, 4:36)

Japanese Promos (HD, 4:20)

The release also includes a selection of trailers promoting other releases available from distributor Sentai Filmworks: Dororo (HD, 1:32), Swordgai (HD, 1:02), Babylon (HD, 1:34), and 7Seeds (HD, 1:37).

Vinland Saga: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Vinland Saga is a reasonably entertaining anime. The series has a compelling concept (and even if the production doesn't deliver on every element, the idea behind the series makes it worth checking out). The animation is decent and so are the character designs. The series has plenty of action scenes too: audiences looking for fast-paced fun will want to give it a spin. The Blu-ray release has a strong presentation (with quality video- audio) and a small selection of extras. Recommended.