Old Man Reviews Manga: Vinland Saga Books One to Eleven by Makoto Yukimura
If I’m not an ‘old man’ yet, I’m getting close to it. I just turned 60, and I’ve always thought that 60 was at least getting there. Despite my age, I’ve never told kids to get off my lawn, even when I had a lawn. I had to shake my fist at a couple people who’d driven on my lawn, but a pickup truck leaving muddy tracks on grass is a lot different than a couple kids retrieving the occasional football.
Even though I’d never read manga until recently, I’ve been aware of manga for at least twenty years and have noticed how the manga sections of bookstores seem much larger and more popular than those that carry the typical American graphic novels that I’m used to. Even though I was raised on Silver and Bronze Age Marvel Comics (1960s and 1970s), the stuff that a lot of today’s trade paperbacks reprint, I understand why manga is more popular than the Marvel/DC/indie trades at the bookstores.
Manga is generally much less expensive (not so true for Vinland Saga hardcovers, though), and the stories are easier to follow. I don’t mean that as an insult. Marvel/DC stuff can get very convoluted over decades and decades, and it’s almost impossible to find a good starting point, while manga stuff seems to have an easily determined beginning and end, even if the stories can go on and on as well. Manga seems to move at a pretty good clip, and some American comic books can plod through the same storyline over several issues and then a few years later just tell the same story again.
The only reason I know about Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura is because some tall youngster guy in the produce section of a grocery store I used to work at suggested it as a way to introduce myself to manga. He told me that I could thank him after he read them. He didn’t lend me any of the books, though. He just said that I could thank him for suggesting the books. Then he quit before I even had a chance to find the books and read them. I don’t blame him for quitting. The grocery store was pretty good when compared to most retail type jobs, but his skill sets would be better used in a different environment.
When I finally started reading Vinland Saga, I didn’t have an issue with adjusting to the right-to-left reading in manga. The storytelling and illustration styles in the series were a little jarring at first, though. Yukimura’s drawing style is a little more cartoony (imprecise word) than what I’m used to, especially in Bronze Age and Modern Age comic books (Silver Age can get cartoony but in a different way). I’m not saying it’s bad. It just didn’t always seem to go with what were supposed to be emotional scenes.
Anyway, Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura is good. I like it a lot. That’s my review.
Yeah, the art flips from realistic/serious/grim to cartoony, sometimes from page-to-page, and that can occasionally take me out of the story, but most of the art is good to great (and I’m kind of picky about this stuff). Some of the characters look alike. A few of the thin blond warriors look the same, and I had to flip back and forth a few times to see which character was saying what to whom. Yukimura has said in an interview that he likes to draw hands distinctly, but sometimes I think his faces are really similar. Then again, maybe we Anglo-Saxon warrior types really do all look alike.
Honestly, I didn’t like the first chapter of Book One at all. I won’t go into the reason why because it might sound stoopid (I admit it), and it’s not that important (especially if it makes me look stoopid). Overall, I was lukewarm to Book One, except for the ending, but I wasn’t yet hooked on the series when I was done. Book Two was better, and then somewhere around Book Three or Four, the series took a huge turn, and then I understood what the tall guy in the produce section was talking about.
Despite what I claimed earlier about manga and simple stories, Vinland Saga has a lot of stuff going on. The story takes several unexpected turns and gets more interesting than I expected it to be. Unfortunately, I’m not sure the characters are going to actually get to Vinland. They seem to be getting farther (distance wise) and further (accomplishing goals) away during each book. Fortunately, Vinland Saga is done, so I know I won’t have to wait years to get to the ending. Remember, I just turned sixty. I don’t mind waiting, but I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be around. I mean, I’m not worried about it; I’m aware, not worried.
Even though I’m not finished reading Vinland Saga, I’m pretty confident in it. I’m certain it’s not going to have a Game of Thrones Season 8 drop off (I really thought it was Seasons 5-8). I’m pretty sure the ending won’t suck, so I’ll review the series now while I feel like writing about it (that’s how I do things). If the ending indeed DOES suck, I’ll be sure to tell you about it.
Tall youngster guy from produce, I know you’ll never see this, but maybe somehow you’ll just know (if you even remember me). I am reading Vinland Saga now. I like it a lot. Thank you for suggesting it. Now go read some Robert E. Howard Conan stories. You’ll thank me for it later.
*****
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