Vinland Saga | Reaction & Review 2x9 "Oath" - Masterpiece

Lastly, the similar themes of the wheat field getting destroyed and Thorfinn’s descent into the abyss is stunning. Just like it’s easier to destroy than to create, it’s easier to fall than to climb. To create and to climb takes work. Soo much patience and work. To fill up your emptiness left behind by destruction not just physical but mental you need to be productive and take those first steps into building yourself back up again. Just like Sverkel told him in ‘An Empty Man’ to work and in ‘Oath’ Askeladd told him to keep climbing. To recover from trauma, from ptsd, to atone this is road that Thorfinn must take. Thorfinn faced his worst fears and now he is on the literal road with Einar by his side to improve himself. Yukimura you are a god among men and I adore you!

Sacha

This is up there as one of the episodes I've been highly anticipating to seeing it adapted. Like you said, this is the turning point we've been building up to (certainly not the climax of Thorfinn's character, as I've read a few times) since the first episode and I'm sure Yukimura was absolutely delighted to get here as well. One goal of his was to write a manga in which the protagonist refuses to take part in violence. And of course the time period he chose as his setting is one where violence was very dominant. The fact that Thorfinn partook in that violence makes this moment and his whole character feel very earned. I cannot stress this enough, my favorite thing with Thorfinn is that everything about him feels earned and human. The prologue being as long as it is and the slice of life aspect of the Farmland arc help contribute to that. Not that these aren't amazing on their own, of course. Also it's very interesting to me that in Thorfinn's mind it's Askeladd who helps him start his true battle and not Thors. To me Thors appears to be there to judge Thorfinn for his actions, rather than helping him move forward like Askeladd does. I guess it could be because Thorfinn has this skewed view of Thors as a perfect being (which he's obviously not, he even admits as such: "The only reason I must rely on this sword is because I'm imperfect. A true warrior needs no sword."), while Askeladd is much more like Thorfinn views himself, just a Viking/Warrior. I'm sure that having spent more time with Askeladd also plays into that, but I'd like to think it's a little deeper than that. Either way, now it's time for Thorfinn to become a true warrior and go beyond the world that Thors saw.

RaijinCloud

How special is it that we live in a time that a masterpiece like this exist??These chapters have been soo special to us manga readers for soo long and even if this anime was a lack lustre adaptation (we are soo lucky it isn’t) the source material would have still carried it. But Yabuta knew how much this means to the story and to us and him and his team went above and beyond. Honestly I ugly sobbed through most of this episode on Monday. Us Vinland fans are well and truly blessed! I really do believe that while the visuals, the directon, the music etc was stunning the real MVP for me this episode was Uemura Yuuto. His portrayal of Thorfinn has already been amazing but this episode he went through the absolute ringer. His voice sounding so bright at the beginning, then desperation and sorrow, then genuine fear as he fell, then absolute pain and heartbreak, then that roar of sheer determination and lastly how alive he sounded as he came back to reality. That’s such a dream as an actor to have an episode like this and he really truly is the perfect Thorfinn. His natural speaking voice sounds soo kind and honestly I get soo emotional thinking about all the moments ahead that Yuuto is going to nail and excel at once again.

Sacha

Inuyashiki, Yabuta's directorial debut: https://i.imgur.com/VwRt9hi.png

Animation Supervision – Inoue, Tsujimura, Yoshioka, Wakasa https://i.imgur.com/crwiHe1.jpg (accidental jpg too lazy to fix *cries*) Incredible supervision work throughout. Loved the shading work in Thorfinn’s “Valhalla.” Since the light source is below the drawings are obviously going to have to reflect that. Bottom right one in the above collage is probably the best drawing in the episode. There especially, but a great understanding of facial depth across the entire thing. The scene with the vikings slicing each other up and the following overly detailed close ups of them laughing were animated by Kouki Tsujimura, one of the supervisors. And your thumbnail comes from a bit by main animator Akiko Kudou. She keeps being one of the greats for this, making sure people know why she is the main animator for the adaptation. Each of the supervisors and a big chunk of the LO/KA staff are all regulars since 2019. And Kobayashi and what turned out to be Kento Matsui in the end. Stupid beautiful work by both of them. The former definitely gets his praises, but let’s not forget the execution the first two boards of his for this season have received. The episode director can be thought of as the person who is responsible for bringing the storyboard into fruition, and they can modify it in whichever way they feel necessary. Be it due to them believing their idea will work better, or the original board being too unfeasible or arduous to carry out when it’s finally the time to do so. Matsui has been a part of the Vinland team since the beginning but was only a production assistant in 2019 having only worked as an assistant director for an episode. He has since climbed up the ladder to become a director himself and is definitely still considered a rookie, but has now proved himself more than capable. This was his second for the series, 2x6 was the first. I’m happy to see him getting to work on this season; only deserved after his work for the first season as what is arguably the most overworked and unappreciated position in the entire industry. Yabuta tweeted his praises for the animation producer Hasegawa about resource allocation for the episode. The man who quit his job at Wit to remain in the role for this season. Today he works at Studio Kafka (also where Abiru works at), which shows you that not even the animation producer needs to be employed at the studio behind a work.

This is it. The big one. The defining piece of this series. The seminal episode. Everything revolves around this, and I am so immensely pleased that the crew for this adaptation understood and gave this episode it's due diligence. Having the foresight of a manga reader, I couldn't even bring myself to comment on the previous weeks episode just knowing what was around the corner. I teared up at how beautiful this was. And though many have doubts about Thorfinn's turn, that he will go willingly or forced back into that pitfall, they make the mistake of thinking this was a simple switch of character. That he won't struggle or be challenged for this oath of his. This is the "true battle" Askeladd speaks of: to not succumb to the depravity of violence seemingly innate to man's nature. It is a battle for which Thorfinn will need to embody a truly great warrior to survive. The climb never ends. Climb Thorfinn, climb!

Shmengels

The dreams are also a very faithful adaptation from yukimura, since the vinland sagas from actual history are filled with supernatural occurrences. For example "Erik the red" in the sagas tells about dreams and prophecies that the characters had, and it had a profound and tremendous change in them. And this is just one example. They at first thought of them as dreams but later end up realizing they were supernatural occurences and even prophecies later. Even if its in your head, doesn´t mean it wasn´t real. Vinland saga, take inspiration from the real vinland sagas and this supernatural occurences where plenty, and they shaped the characters and future events. To make such a masterful adaptation to this ocurrences was incredible, because its also part of norse mythology, Dreams were considered an important means of communication between the gods and mortals, this is one of my favorites episodes of anime ever, and it only gets better the more I think about it

Sh3nx

Looked up Shuhei Yabuta after you referenced him and this guy is a legend man. Worked on so many more modern anime masterpieces. So cool that he saw your stuff Im.

Jak

In your discussion you mentioned how the bodies clinging thors are meant to showcase how it's also affecting his dad but I think it might be something a bit different. I think its meant to be that thors has walked that path himself right. he has killed people before but now hes changed he's carrying all those who he killed with him refusing to hurt anyone else whereas thorfinn gets dragged down by those he killed. I think its meant to showcase the similarity in the paths they walked rather than its affect on his dad. Also really love the discussion on this part been waiting since monday on it keep it up man

Abdulla Almheiri