Vinland Saga gave anime fans one of the best storylines in 2023 when it comes to the medium. Studio MAPPA adapted the work of mangaka Makoto Yujimura to follow Thorfinn as he attempted to find peace while working as a slave on a farm. In a recent interview, the creator of Thorfinn and his brutal world took the opportunity to discuss the initial pitch of the series and how the original story changed as a result of it.
In a new interview, Makoto Yukimura discussed how the pitch for Vinland Saga differed from the start of the original series once it arrived as a manga, “It’s a little complicated. When I first approached my editor to write the story of Vinland Saga, the story didn’t start where [Thorfinn] was fighting the English in England. Instead, I was planning on a story that started with him being a slave. So, the editor I spoke to at Kodansha said, “Well, that’s not going to sell! A story that starts from being a slave? I thought this story was about the Vikings and fighting, and you’re not going to go into that? How am I going to explain this to my editor-in-chief?” That was the first reaction that I received from my editor.”
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Yukimura then explained that there was one specific part of the series that he was aiming to tackle when it came to Thorfinn’s story, “Since I thought of this story, the part that I really wanted to work on was the main character being a slave, and from being a slave to becoming somebody who is exploring a new land. That was the part of the story that I really wanted to write.”
How Vinland Saga Changed From Pitch to Page
Yukimura then discussed how his editor’s notes had him change up the beginning of Vinland Saga, “However, when I received this initial reaction from my editor, I thought to myself, “He might be right though.” This is about those people called the Vikings, and there were wars and fighting. Maybe if I incorporated these elements, we [Yukimura and the editor] could make this story very exciting. So, when we decided to do that, we actually got to excite the editor-in-chief, to the point that we can convince him, “This is going to be a story we can serialize.”
Do you think we’ll get a third season for the viking-based anime? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of Vinland Saga.
