Makoto Yukimura’s Vinland Saga has established itself as one of the greatest historical epic manga and anime series ever created. The mangaka has clevery infused various themes such as drama, action, and revenge. In addition to featuring complex themes, it takes Thorfinn, the series’ protagonist on a journey of avenging his father and redeeming his actions.
Yukimura’s work can be labeled as a fiercely intelligent work of fiction taking place in the Viking Age, which critically comments on human nature and character. However, the whole Vinland Saga that we know, and love would have been quite different as Makoto Yukimura had different ideas for the manga. The mangaka initially pitched that the protagonist of his mangaka would be a slave, but his editor told him to change the beginning which resulted in the greatest story to be ever told.
Makoto Yukimura Had a Different Idea For Vinland Saga
Studio Mappa did an outstanding job adapting Makoto Yukimura’s Vinland Saga as they beautifully narrated Thorfinn’s journey of redemption and finding peace while working as a slave on a farm. However, fans are still in shock as they learned that the mangaka added fatherhood as the show’s core theme by mistake.
Yukimura-san was a guest at the Toronto International Festival of Authors and “The Pursuit of Purpose: Charting Vinland with YUKIMURA Makoto” event, hosted by The Japan Foundation, Toronto. Where the mangaka shared via AniTrendz, that his initial pitch for the series was “a little complicated,” as it featured Thorfinn being a slave.
He said,
“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.”
The mangaka continued that his editor rejected the pitch as it would not “sell,” and with this weak plot, the editor-in-chief would not let Yukimura’s vision become a reality.
“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.“”
This made the manga artist rethink the pitch as there was still one specific part of Vinland Saga that he was tackling, whilst changing the plot of the story.
Makoto Yukimura Revised His Work To Create The Greatest Story Known to Humankind
In the same event, Makoto Yukimura explained that he wanted to tell a story, where the protagonist was a slave, and from there he would transition into someone who is exploring lands. He said,
“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.”
Later in the event, the mangaka came back to his editor’s opinion and how he thought that the editor might be right and rethought the entire plot, which thrilled the editor-in-chief to convince him for the idea to become a reality. He said,
“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.”
Makoto Yukimura improvised the story so much that it has become one of the greatest stories to be ever told, if not the greatest.
Vinland Saga can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
