Vinland Saga

Description

From Kodansha:
As a child, Thorfinn sat at the feet of the great Leif Ericson and thrilled to wild tales of a land far to the west. But his youthful fantasies were shattered by a mercenary raid. Raised by the Vikings who murdered his family, Thorfinn became a terrifying warrior, forever seeking to kill the band’s leader, Askeladd, and avenge his father. Sustaining Thorfinn through his ordeal are his pride in his family and his dreams of a fertile westward land, a land without war or slavery. The land Leif called Vinland.

Official English

Note: Was nominated for the 2008 Manga Taisho award. Won the Grand Prize in the manga division of the Japan Media Arts awards in 2009. Won the 36th Kodansha Manga Award for Best General Manga in 2012.

Type

Manga

Related Series

Ganso Ylva-chan (Spin-Off)

Animal Land Saga (Spin-Off)

Associated Names

Saga Winlandzka

Vinland Destanı

Vinrando Saga

Сага про Вінланд

ヴィンランドサガ

ヴィンランド・サガ

海盜戰記

Groups Scanlating

4chan

Anonymous Spore

Binktopia

Black Cat Scanlations

More...

Latest Release(s)

c.218 by Project Vinland 1 month ago

c.217 by Project Vinland 3 months ago

c.216 by Project Vinland 5 months ago

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Status in Country of Origin

28 Volumes (Ongoing)

Completely Scanlated?

Anime Start/End Chapter

Starts at Vol 1, Chap 1 (S1) Chap 1-2 adapted in EP 7-8 / Vol 8, Chap 55 (S2)

Ends at Vol 8, Chap 54 (S1) / Vol 14, Chap 100 (S2)

User Reviews

Vinland Saga by canucks

Forum

9 topics, 77 posts

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User Rating

Average: 8.8 / 10.0 (1982 votes)

Bayesian Average: 8.76 / 10.0

40%

30%

17%

Last Updated

April 29th, 2025 5:52am PDT - 5 days ago

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Genre

Action Adventure Drama Historical Mature Psychological Seinen Tragedy
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Categories

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Recommendations

Author(s)

Artist(s)

Year

Original Publisher

Kodansha

Serialized In (magazine)

Afternoon (Kodansha)

Shuukan Shounen Magazine (Kodansha)

Licensed (in English)

Yes

English Publisher

INKR

Kodansha Comics (13 Omnibuses - Ongoing | Premium Collector Hardcover 3-in-1 - 2 Vols - Ongoing)

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

Weekly Pos #271

(-3)

Monthly Pos #300

(+38)

3 Month Pos #260

(-19)

6 Month Pos #243

(-34)

Year Pos #298

(-58)

List Stats

On 7725 reading lists

On 2428 wish lists

On 175 completed lists

On 182 unfinished lists

On 843 custom lists

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Forum Posts Click to view the forum

Vinland Saga Anime Gets 2nd Season

4 years ago

Makoto Yukimura Starts Drawing Final Arc of Vinland Saga

5 years ago

Vinland Saga gets TV Anime by Wit Studio

7 years ago

Where is this going?

8 years ago

Discussion up to ch.56

13 years ago

User Comments [ Order by usefulness ]

Yes. Yay.

by GoldenKaos
13 years ago

Rating: 9.0 / 10.0

Ah, the Viking manga. Fantastic.
Of course, as a purely historical manga, this has some failings. The ideologies and way of speaking of the Vikings (and their contemporary European neighbours) in this manga are Japanese, pure and simple. It's a failing I feel Japanese entertainment achieves every time it portrays a foreign culture.
Nevertheless, a truly minor flaw. The characters are strong, the fight scenes brutal and bloody, the plot follows the characters closely, and the art is superb. Many have argued that the post-time-skip switch to a mostly peaceful manga has robbed this battle manga of its fire, but I think the core of this manga is about the main character's struggle with revenge for his father's death, and dealing with it when that possibility is taken away from him. The fighty-fighty bit is just flesh around the skeleton, and the 'Farmland Saga' arc provided some of the main character development for Thorfinn.
It's nice to see some proper research done into the period and geography as well, everything looks authentic from that age and the art depicting the landscape was very well done. When the story passes through Wales, I could certainly say 'Yep, that's my country all right'.
Overall, a great battle manga with fantastic character development throughout and we are currently approaching what seems to be the last lull of peace before sh*t happens again. XD

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A series never seen before!

by strixflash
13 years ago

Rating: 8.4 / 10.0

An excellent series which has a good plot,good story telling medium and a good amount of characters. Art is unique on its own way. Consider it as a 'Masterpiece'. You will surely enjoy it.

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Love it

by crynet
13 years ago

Rating: N/A

One of my favourites. I hadn't heard about Yukimura Makoto until I came across this manga. The Story is so captivating along with the brilliant artwork that keeps you wanting more. Too bad it's a bit slow on the releases, but I can I understand that a lot goes into making this.

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One of my favorites.

by musimusimu
14 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

This is absolutely one of my favorite mangas. I really like that there is finally a manga that has Iceland as a setting, as propably any other Icelandic person...

A little minus for me though is the spelling of the names as Thorfinn should be Þórfinnur or Thorfinnur also Thorfinns father Thors's name should be Thor or Þór the s in the end is the names Genitive case (Eignarfall)

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A True Work of Art

by JosephCurwen
14 years ago

Rating: N/A

Excellent visual artwork, great character growth, great plot, and it's about vikings. There's so much that goes into this historical manga; it's one of the best that I've read thus far. Historical mangas are, for whatever reason, few and far between, but the level of detail and character development that go into them is usually superb. That said, Vinland Saga goes beyond many of these mangas.

I wouldn't recommend it to those who just want an action-driven manga. Vinland Saga has a lot of that in it, but in the end, that's not what it's about (the last few chapters make this very clear).

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i like it

by fotzi
14 years ago

Rating: N/A

This is my first mature manga and I was a little shaken at first with the violence and rape scenes however I really like it. It is not cliche like the thousands of other mangas out there and there is HUGE character development which is very interesting. This manga is the one that made me prefer "seinen" over "shounen".

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I'm a read bearded viking

by Akujin
14 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

The problem with the viking literature is just that, there aren't any good ones. Which is why it's such a surprise to see a non-viking write an amazing viking story! The art is fantastic, there's a lot of historical characters that fits the profile, and the in-human fighting abilities makes me shiver at times. Like others have said, the personalities sometimes reflects a bit too much on the samurai and not the viking; however I find this not to be in a bad way, and it really creates a flow to the story.

...and you, TheShawn, If you followed the story up to that point you should understand that; the men pillage, like they've done several times throughout the years that he has been with them, and you expect him to suddenly get a morale boost and start killing his own? don't be daft.

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I like the new part

by DeaTh-ShiNoBi
14 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

This is mostly in response to Mattz.

I like the new turn that the series is taking. I typically hate the "warrior who doesn't fight" thing just as much or more than the next guy if it's not done well (for example, I did not like the "warrior who doesn't fight" ideal in Trigun. It was poorly done). On the other hand, I think Vinland Saga is much more refined than any other attempt at the ideal I've seen.

Vinland Saga took the reader on a journey before arriving at the ideal, as opposed to the character having it from the start and having the reasoning explained. All throughout Thorfinn's life, he basically wanted nothing but revenge on Askeladd, fueled from his hatred. Eventually, Askeladd was killed, and not by Thorfinn's hands, which essentially destroyed Thorfinn's purpose in life. If you understand this, I think it makes the farmland saga a lot more interesting, at least that's the way that I see it.

To be honest, I was a bit worried that Vinland Saga would boil down to Gungrave-like plot where the main character seeks revenge as the point of the story. If you can't tell, I disliked Gungrave. If you didn't watch Gungrave, then you can think of Thorfinn as Sasuke from Naruto (oh God do I hate that character). I was very happy when Askeladd died by someone else's hands because that meant that the story of Vinland Saga doesn't have to be stuck in the dark ages of a revenge plot.

That being said, I'm actually very interested where the author is going to direct Vinland Saga in the future. I think that if you dislike Thorfinn no longer being a Sasuke-like nothing-matters-but-revenge character, then you probably shouldn't read Seinen, and should stick with mindless action-Shonen mangas like Naruto and Bleach. Not that those mangas are bad, don't get me wrong. I like those mangas as well but they're more geared towards exactly what you're looking for.

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doesn't work as a historical, but good despite that

by lomegil
14 years ago

Rating: 8.5 / 10.0

Full disclosure: I've a PhD in Icelandic sagas. That should have automatically made me a hater of Vinland Saga - thru' "how can some mangaka know moar about my subject than me" line of reasoning. But truth be told, I still enjoy it - I just understand, while I'm at it, that it has nothing to do with Norsemen. Not that it has factual mistakes - on the contrary, it's pleasingly accurate there, good job on the homework, man! - but the mindset... It's not medieval Scandinavians, it's Japanese posing as the guys. A completely different world-view, set of ethical priorities etc. So, as a history tale, it fails; but when taken simply as an action-packed psychological drama (guess that's the most accurate description) in an exotic setting, it's a winner - lush, realistic art, 3D characters, a good doze of suspense and plenty of emotion. I still wish Yukimura would have continued his previous series, Planetes, longer, or done a new series in that vein, but Vinland Saga is nevertheless high-class seinen.

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I groaned

by Mattz
14 years ago

Rating: N/A

Ever since Thorfinn became a slave, I've been looking forward to the moment his warrior spirit would reawaken. Now I guess it did happen, but alas, it's the 'no violence' kind. I face-palmed myself into oblivion. If this peaceful "I'm a true warrior who wont hurt anyone or I'll cry" shyte's gonna continue, I'm gonna flush this manga through the toilet. Figuratively. But absolutely.

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