Vinland Saga | Reaction & Review 2x2 "Ketil's Farm"

I hear all of you! I love Vinland Saga’s anime and I consider season 1 a masterpiece and from the 2 episodes of season 2 it’s on its way to be that again. While I adore the manga with all my heart and prefer it (so far anyway) it does not in any way lessen my love of the anime. Which is easily a 10/10. I’m not talking about how it’s been directed or story boarded compared to the manga because they are doing an amazing job. My post was talking about something that even the mangaka himself has addressed. A change to a character. When we first see Einar in the manga he is shouting, pleading the slave owners to look at the sick girl and while they are preparing to chuck her overboard he is is looking the other way in that moment and its only when he turns around it’s already too late. This is quite a difference than in the anime. In his interactions with Thorfinn he smiles less and they even added him grabbing Thorfinn fairly aggressively. Now these are all lil things on their own but they are all adding up and I’m not 100% sure how I feel about it yet. Like a said it’s just purely a nitpick just because I know the source material. This isn’t a deal breaker for me. Far from it I love season 2 so far! It’s just something I’m gunna now keep an eye on for myself.

Sacha

I feel you. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve watched an adaptation change something that I would’ve preferred to stay the way it was in the source - but I’ve also lost count on how many times I’ve been glad that a change was made. I wrote my previous reply poorly. Reading it over it does definitely sound like I’m excluding the writing related changes, which I’m not. I will always endorse creators who want to change stuff when they’re adapting something pre-existing, be it on the visual side or the writing side. But there’s clearly a limit to what will fly until it stops being an adaptation. I have full faith in Seko and Yabuta. Them not wanting to start the series with the Normanni chapter was an amazing change and the start of the anime is much better than the start of the manga because of it. This is a change that many didn’t like when the anime started. I read so many “just read the manga bro,” “uh oh, butchered adaptation coming,” comments and would love to know how many have backpedalled their words since. Of course, I want Einar to remain Einar. Just like anyone else. But like Yukimura said, it’s great to see other people’s takes on a character. We can later look back at the two variants and pick which one we personally prefer. Go ahead! Try and make him better than what the original author came up with! I applaud you for having the balls to even attempt! As long as you don't go overboard and fuck him up, I'm down. edited to add: I have asperger's and I usually avoid conversing with people over text because I'm afraid of coming off rude. Not my intention if it seems that way!

I think that's a given that an adaptation to another medium will be better in these things and I know that for many people it feels nitpicky. But the things we're talking about are not any additions or these respective points of animation but changes and here it's a change of a very important character. I’m also happy to re-experience the story and I‘m enjoying the anime so far a lot, I’m just sad that these changes exist

Sloopgamer

English speakers make similar mistakes pronouncing Japanese. Their seemingly ingrained need to just prolong random syllables. All the syllables are short and sharp like the "ha" in haha. Be it Yamada, Tanaka, Suzuki, Sasaki, Kimura, Shimizu, Takeda, Okabe, Kojima, Fujita, Hayashi, Ikeda.... Instead of: Ya-mah-dah, Ta-nah-kah, Su-zuu-kih, Sa-saa-kih...

I didn’t notice any major differences in the way Einar has been portrayed. Though, do keep in mind that it’s been about a decade since I read this part. The manga won’t have color, voice acting, or music - but can have more detail in its drawings, which in turn is because it won’t be animated. Manga panels vary in their shapes and sizes giving you more room for shot composition, whereas in anime you are often confined by the aspect ratio picked. These and the remaining differences are to be celebrated in my opinion. Hell, I’d be more disappointed if the anime staff were just going along laid out tracks not putting their own spin on things. I’m just happy to experience this part of the story again after so long.

Honestly the show its doing such a good job that the "better" version its almost entirely subjective and nitpicky, both are amazing, both I would say have advantages over the other. IMO right now there isn´t any part that its done better than the other in this two episodes.

Sh3nx

I have similar problems with this adaptation. I love the VS anime but with these nitpicks I just have the need to compare it to the masterpiece that the manga is. It's incredible hard to seperate things when you love one version of it so much and have a feeling that it works there way better

Sloopgamer

Thank you, that makes sense!

Shmengels

While there are few changes to the adaptation that I’m not fond on, very similar to how I felt in season 1, I’m still thoroughly thrilled with season 2 soo far. Even Yukimura has posted on Twitter that he is aware of the changes, particularly to Einar (by the way you are saying it kinda right now but just have a good R sound at the end and you’ll be all good. It’s one of those Japanese language things. They just aren’t getting that hard ‘AR’ sound) and that he is fine with what Yabata is doing. For me I’m not so sure. A lot of discourse that is being had with his character in the anime community is the anime only backstory. It makes him an inactive person which … he really isn’t. Like at all. He’s less jovial and helpful and active soo far and much more … brooding I guess. I don’t know. I’ll see how it goes but if I had a nitpick so far it would be that. That shot of Thorfinn in the hay after Einar says “Thorfinn are you asleep?” is one of my favourite manga panels of Thorfinn at this time of his life and I’m so happy they were able to capture it soo beautifully. It’s speaks soo much with soo little and that is the beauty of Yukimura’s art. And how the anime added the flashback to 1x5 with those almost war drums at the end *chefs kiss* Vinland is back baby! See for me Ketil is already incredibly interesting. To be honest I latch on to his line “the right way” and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The real right way is them having never gone into slavery. So far in this story he reminds me of those people that just doesn’t know that they are discriminating against other people and think that they are just the nicest and treating them “right”. Not to say I think he’s terrible but just that it creates a lil bit of interest to him. More than just ‘nice slave owner’. Also his offer to Thorfinn and Einar was pretty historically accurate. This happened fairly often in that time period. Although it could be argued that it was also used as a good manipulation tactic by slave owners. Lastly I love that you immediately like Olmar. I particularly love the small moment when he’s concerned about the wheat when the soliders are wadding through it. Great 2nd episode and I’m honestly soo giddy for the moments ahead! This is gunna be a good 6 months!

Sacha

I love Thorfinn and Einar just working together. Something about two people working their asses off is just very relaxing to me. I guess the environment they're in helps with that. Plus their talk (if we can even call it that when Einar is the only one actually speaking) at night is just a perfect bookend to the episode. Thorfinn's gonna have trouble sleeping after being reminded of his past by Einar. And I agree with you about Olmar. He's just a very fun and vibrant personality, which makes him a character that I can easily enjoy and get into.

RaijinCloud

Yeah, the a is similar to the a in "alike" there is just a sharp "ah" sound instead of the longer and rounder a in "are". The tendency for english speakers who don't roll their r's is that the a becomes a bit longer to compensate for the rounder r common in english.

Nemo

The 'a' is short, not elongated, if that helps.

Willhoe

I think I need more clarification on how the 'a' is supposed to sound? I'm struggling to figure out the distinction between the 'a' sound in "ha" versus "are" and that might be a thing with my own accent that I just wasn't aware of. I'd appreciate it greatly because I'm also pretty lost with the pronunciation!

Shmengels

I've noticed a lot of reactors seem to skip right to the apologia of slavery after seeing just how kind Ketil is to them. And yeah, I get it, it's a silver lining and Ketil does seem like a genuinely nice master to have if you had to have one. But most really gloss over the fact that at the end of the day, they are still slaves. Einar's excitement was initially only about the prospect of freedom, not about the conditions that the slaves were given. And when it did start to bleed into other aspects, like him being impressed that someone brings them their food, he immediately gets that wake up call with the demeaning treatment from the farm's hired hands. They are still the bottom rung in the hierarchy here. And fewer have even recognized the theme of climbing the social ladder here continued with others trying to use Olmar to prop up their legacy: including both his own father and that peasant farmer family using their daughter. Many of the characters here are using others, despite the best or worst of intentions. As usual though, none of these themes get past you!

Shmengels

As a scandinavian myself, the japanese do a good job of pronouncing Einar. the first syllable "Ei" is pronounced like "ey" not "eye". The second syllable might be a bit more difficult for english speakers since you don't roll your r's, But the "a" in "Einar" is pronounced similar to the the a's in "haha", rather than "are". Hope this helped!

Nemo

You could say slice of life. although as typical Vinland saga fashion. it takes its time to plant its seeds and arguments, but they develop tremendous deep and complex structures of roots. Hope you are enjoying the slower phase and take it all in. I certainly really love that aspect of vinland as well and I totally believe its 100% necessary for what its going for.

Sh3nx

Oh hey, I also thought the opening resembled Dark's opening! I definitely enjoyed this episode a lot more on my second watch. This season is looking very promising

A

Storyboard – Tadahito Matsubayashi Direction – Michiru Itabisashi https://i.imgur.com/M4ILFPF.png The same duo that brought us the 9th episode! Matsubayashi's presence didn’t surprise me as he was one of the animators on the premiere - spotting him in the credits last week convinced me that the man who Yabuta trusted a part of the season finale with would remain an integral part of the series. Really happy to see Itabisashi reprising herself into the team as well! She was one of the backbones of the prologue’s director line-up; having directed three episodes by herself and two jointly. This now leaves only Youji Satou and we’ve got all the mainstay directors back since Yamamoto already showed himself. Each of the three animation supervisors and more than half of the LO/KA staff are regulars from the first season too, with the remains ranging anywhere from seasoned veterans to a dude from Indiana - however, it’s virtually impossible to know whose involvement ended as soon as it started (still grateful for those few dozen seconds, Imai-san). The priority of the episode on the animation front seemed to be the scene at the end of the first half. Perhaps main animator Akiko Kudou’s work? The varying line weight accenting much of the drawings makes me believe it was Abiru’s center of attention as well. This scene getting this amount of care would make sense too, as it is also the debut of a character who’s supposed to be looking enough for Einar to forget how sentence go. The latter part of the animation process is about as fully outsourced as it gets, be it to the next street, country, or something in-between. As is tradition in an industry where the amount of anime being made goes up but the people willing to make it does not. Tomonori Katou’s name is above the rest of the background artists in the credits, which can imply a few things, including him having done a bulk of the work by himself. Admirable work if this was the case. Katou and Takeda go back nearly thirty years to when the former joined studio Bihou in 1996, which was co-founded by the latter. Katou was then among the Bihou staff to transfer to Bamboo when Takeda founded that in 2005. Already loving what little new Yamada’s teased us with. The track that kicked off the B-half reminded me of the start of my personal downfall (lit. middle school) when I spent all of my days on nothing but Fable and RuneScape. We get greener: https://i.imgur.com/CBBXgRu.png