What Are You Reading?

[LumRanmaYasha]

I was hoping it'd be at CR, too. But that doesn't seem to be the case.

It's still on the list!

REAL is a Viz license, and CR primarily runs Kodansha stuff. You're going to have to look for the printed volumes or read scans for that one, I'm afraid.

But while you're still on CR, you could start reading the freshly-added Princess Jellyfish!

I've encountered my fair share of fans on the Internet, but it's just unfortunate that the manga sells so poorly in the West. It's a shame, too, because I really dig the high quality hardcover editions that they put out. It's very fancy, and the cover artwork looks great. That said, if you owned a huge manga/comic book collection (which I don't), then I imagind it would frustrate you how it stands out too much from all of the paperback editions of other stuff on your shelves. But honestly, stuff like that doesn't really bother me at all.

I would love to collect more manga in hard-cover, personally. As someone who does have a fairly sizable collection, they don't look out of place next to my other large-sized manga at all.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Personally, I think it deserves to be at least on Berserk's level in terms of success, but it just doesn't have the same level of exposure.

I still have to collect the manga, myself. I just haven't had much extra money recently and my manga budget has been relegated to Monster.

[Foggle]

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

How the hell does that exist and I never knew about it!?!

[gunswordfist]

How the hell does that exist and I never knew about it!?!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm 2 volumes into Vinland Saga now. I'm going to have to continue it online after volume 3 since I can't afford to buy any other volumes right now, and even if I could, there's only about 6 or 7 that have been released by Kodansha USA so far, and they are way behind the Japanese releases.

As for the series, I love it when a series of any nature gets into world building, especially via politics. As a historical series, it may have some actual history to rely on, but I figure it to be loosely based on history at best given its exaggerated nature, so a lot if what's there really is on good writing.

My only negative is that grown up Thorfinn is kind of a dick, but that also seems intentional and makes sense given his backstory, and I fully expect him to change and develop as the series progresses, so it's more of an observation right now on my part, as opposed to an actual critique. Though I do have to note that, as the main character of the story, his presence has felt a bit lacking so far. I mean, yes, he's there in most scenes, but he feels like more of a backseat character right now, while interestingly enough, the antagonist Askeladd currently seems to be the driving force of the early part of the story, at least up until this point, so far.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Actually, Kodansha's editions of Vinland Saga are two-in-one omnibi. The five volumes that Kodansha has put out so far are equivalent to the first ten volumes of the japanese releases, and there are only 16 volumes of those so far. Kodansha currently plans to release up to the seventh volume of their edition, which will be the equivalent of covering through the 14th volume of the japanese releases, which will mean they will have at least covered through the entirety of the Ketil Farm arc, which is a good stopping point in case they aren't able to publish any more.

Thorfinn does get something out of this arc, but it's true that Askeladd is the driving force, and arguably the "main character," of the Prologue arc. The bulk of Thorfinn's development will come during the Ketil Farm arc (which we put on our Story Arcs list), wherein he truly becomes the main driving force of the story.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah. I've heard a bit about that.

As for Ketil Farm, I hear mixed things about it, but obviously I trust you and Desensitized more than your typical manga fan (most of whom don't know shit).

The main complaint that I hear is that Ketil Farm feels like it's a completely different series from the story that people got invested in. But of course the counter-argument is that it's the natural progression of Thorfinn's character arc. Regardless, I'll formulate my own opinion on it once I finally get that far.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Those who feel it is like a completely different series are missing the point of contrast between the two. Redemption, sacrifice, life, hope, and faith, are all heavily touched on in both parts but without both parts neither part would be as strong. It's not just about Thorfinn (though he becomes amazing in the second arc) but about the entire world that changes around the characters.

And yeah, it's not terribly accurate to history in regards to events that happened, but I think of it more of a legendary myth type of story.

[LumRanmaYasha]

The Ketil Farm arc is to Vinland Saga and Thorfinn's character arc as the Farming Village arc is to Vagabond and Musashi's. It's an essential and necessary part of the character's journey and development, and about larger thematic concepts complemented by preceding parts.

Weekly Manga Recap did a good review of the series a few years ago. The Ketil Farm arc wasn't even close to finishing back then, but they both had the opinion that it was a fitting and logical direction for the series.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I finished the first 3 volumes of Vinland Saga. I'm going to continue to read the series online from here for now.

Overall I enjoy it quite a bit so far, but I have a few minor gripes, most notably that Prince Canute's character development from a timid pushover to a confident leader was way too abrupt and not very convincing. I get that removing his bodyguard helped to take him out of his safe zone and keep him from having a crutch to lean on, but his actual transition after that could have actually benefited from being a bit slower and more gradual, rather than having him become so resolute and enlightened after just one conversation with the friar.

Other than that, though, it's pretty top-notch stuff.

I've also recently begun reading the Bone series by Jeff Smith, which I got as a gift from a friend. This kind of simplistic art-style and humorous yet very serialized form of story-telling is really up my alley, so far.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Canute's change is abrupt, I agree, but he doesn't stop changing here. I don't want to spoil anything else from it, though.

Glad you're liking it!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I finished the Ketil Farm arc.

Spoiler

I think that it's a great character development arc and really brings in a sense of heart that was previously (though, also intentionally) lacking from the series. That said, I really disliked the Gardar sub-plot. I have a few reasons for not liking it, but it's the only blemish on an otherwise great string of writing.

As for the people who hate this turn for the series, I can understand why, but also believe that they are being very narrow-minded. It's just like the people who complain about "nothing happening" in the last two ASOIAF books. People tend to get invested in what a story is at the beginning, and then when it takes its next natural turn into a new phase and ends up feeling completely different than what came before, people say that it's going off track and completely miss the point of how the series was always headed this way.

This is the natural progression of Thorfinn's character arc. I once saw a review which said that Thorfinn becoming more peaceful didn't make any sense. That person was on about how cool and bad-ass of a character he was before the Ketil farm arc, and it's clear that he was focused more on superficial stuff like that as opposed to what the message of Thorfinn's character arc was actually saying. He was going down a dark path for revenge, and when he lost his chance at that forever, he had a complete mental breakdown since he couldn't process what to do with his life anymore. That whole "bad-ass" phase of his life was really just the "bad" part of his life and the Ketil Farm arc demonstrated how much it ended up causing him to suffer later on (in that regard, it really reminds me of Arya's story-line from ASOIAF, but probably with a happier outcome).

The people who miss that are too fixated on the idea of what they originally perceived this series to be, rather than viewing it for what it is. It's not the story of an epic war of conquest to crown a new king. It's the story of a boy who grows up through hardship and violence but comes of age as a man of peace throughout his life experiences. The former story-line only ever came up as an extension of Thorfinn's life experiences and what he happened to be involved with at the time.

When he moved on from that, so too did the story. And yes, it did explore Canute's character, still, but only because it would end up tying back into Thorfinn's character arc.

[close]

[LumRanmaYasha]

Yup, I agree completely. Glad you enjoyed it! 

[Spark Of Spirit]

Glad you liked it!