[Mystic Mock]

I'm going for a first world problem today as I've watched the first 14 episodes of Vinland Saga and my god it makes me disappointed in some of the Anime community who are only in it for the shallow stuff.

I'm gonna compare Vinland Saga to Berserk 2016 as they're both known for their violent worlds with a more "edgy" protagonist.

Spoilers will be down below so please be careful if you don't want to read ahead.

Characters:
Vinland Saga according to spoilers won't start developing Thorfinn (Vinland Saga's protagonist) until the second season, whilst Guts (Berserk's protagonist) gets a small Black Swordsman arc which is meant to keep you interested in Guts behaviour, and then you get the Golden Age arc which develops Guts into more of a 3D character and shows you why he is now mentally broken in the present. But his development never once stops in the story because Kentaro Miura (RIP) actually wanted his readers to like his lead.

Story:
My god this is where Vinland Saga really gets it's ass kicked, it's story basically is a character called Askeladd orders his men to kill Thors (Thorfinn's Dad and only good character in the Show) succeeds in killing Thors, and then Thorfinn joins Askeladd's group in hope of one day seeking his revenge on Askeladd.

Now the problem here straight away is that Thorfinn in episode 5 has a chance to get his revenge, but the Show decides to come up with a really bogus reason as to why Thorfinn wouldn't kill him in his sleep.

And then on the flip side they show Askeladd and the Vikings killing innocent people left, right and centre, yet not one of them is threatened by the fact that Thorfinn is journeying with their leader threatening to kill him? It makes no sense that Askeladd's group would let Thorfinn live knowing that information.

Now onto my butchered attempt of the Berserk Movies (in the Anime adaptation is made first chronologically) Guts & Griffith were friends, but along the way Griffith gets badly disfigured (I'm rushing through this because there's that much content in the Golden Age arc alone) and these demonic creatures called The God Hand start an eclipse which traps most of Guts group in this Eclipse, and to cut a long story short Griffith turns evil after being offered to join The God Hand, rapes Casca (Guts love interest) Griffith and the rest of the God Hand kills most of The Band Of The Hawk (bar Guts, Casca & Rickert) and after escaping the Eclipse Guts & Rickert come to realise that Casca has had such a mental breakdown that she can't speak, and from there Guts goes on his journey to get his revenge on Griffith.

Animation:
Admittedly Vinland Saga does do better here as I'm not a huge fan of CGI animation in Japanese Anime.

Music:
Personally I think that both have strong Music.

Neganism:
Berserk 2016 you could arguably say has Farnese, but personally I feel like she's written better and has stronger dynamics than Askeladd.

Also once Farnese is being redeemed she's not slaughtering innocent people unlike Askeladd who's meant to be a lovable rogue who slaughters people for the sake of it.

Now after explaining the strengths and weaknesses of Berserk 2016 & Vinland Saga, here's MAL & IMDB's scores for both series.

MAL:
Vinland Saga - 8.73/10
Berserk 2016 - 6.31/10

IMDB:
Vinland Saga - 8.8/10
Berserk 2016 - 6.8/10

It's great to see that the Anime community loves in depth writing and great characters over great Animation.

From the spoilers of what I've read I'll be giving Vinland Saga a second chance for Season 2 as it seems like that's when the real Show starts.

A few hours later.

Yeah by all accounts it seems like these are the important Vinland Saga episodes to watch in Season 1.

Episodes 1-4, Episode 9 as it has Prince Canute's first appearance, Episodes 16-18 might hold some importance, Episode 19 sounds like some proper character development for Thorkell (who knew) Episodes 20-21, 22 is filler pretending to be something more grand, and then episodes 23 & 24 plot/character centric.

Basically Season 1 of Vinland Saga could've been trimmed by 11 episodes to pace the story out better.