Is the Vinland manga coming to an end soon? Series creator Makoto Yukimura has long told fans what to expect from his manga series, and it’s inevitable that Thorfinn’s story will come to an end as it’s loosely based on actual history.
The manga artist has confirmed that the manga was in its final arc, starting with chapter 167. He estimates that Vinland Saga’s final chapter will be Vinland Saga 216, meaning the finale in volume 28 will come out in 2024 (barring unexpected interruptions).
Note: This news item will be updated with new information over time.
The Vinland Saga Season 2 release date is coming soon and there is already talk of a full adaptation, which means that the anime TV series will have Vinland Saga Seasons 3 and 4.
- Updated May 3, 2022: Added the latest information based on the manga artist who spoke to the Vinland Saga anime director on Twitter Spaces May 1, 2022.
The story of Vinland Saga is tied to the history of Thorfinn Karlsefni
In a May 2022 Twitter Spaces discussion, Yukimura noted that the recent chapters of 2022 have shown good luck as the coming chapters will show a raw reality based on real history.
Warning: the next paragraph contains major spoilers.
The September 2021 issue of the Monthly Afternoon made a major announcement about the series on July 26, 2021, the day of the release date of the Vinland Saga Chapter 184. The story of Vinland Saga 184 featured the first contact between Thorfinn and the indigenous people of Northern -America.
The ending of the Vinland Saga manga will be based on the real Icelandic Vinland sagas “Saga of Eirik the Red” and “Saga of the Greenlanders”, texts written in the early 13th century. They told several stories about Norwegian travels to Vinland, which literally means Wineland because of the vines found in North America.
The characters of the Vinland Saga are based on historical accounts from that period. However, it is historical fiction as the author took a lot of creative liberties in filling in the blanks in the historical record.
The main character Thorfinn is based on the real-life explorer Thorfinn Karlsefni, whose nickname means “making a man”. Leif is, of course, based on the historical Leif Erikson, an explorer credited in modern times with discovering the North American continent where Vinland is located.
Other characters are based on legends or invented, with Askeladd’s name based on a Norse folklore character known for being clever.
The historical accounts, in fact, differed on important details, including who mentioned geographical features and when Eirik the Red died. The Saga of Eirik the Red notably empowers Thorfinn and downplays the role of fellow Norwegian explorer Thorvald Eiriksson. It even denies that Thorvald ever traveled to Vinland, relegating the site of Thorvald’s shipwreck to an anonymous ship.
Most of the manga storylines leading up to the journey west in AD 1010 were about fleshing out Thorfinn as a person. As such, the manga series serves as a fictional prologue to the real story.
Vinland Saga Volume 28 ending the manga’s story in 2024?
Writer and illustrator Makoto Yukimura’s Vinland manga series began serialization in 2005 as a weekly shonen manga, but eventually switched to a monthly seinen format by the end of the year.
Makoto has sometimes talked about how he maintains a “free style” compared to other manga creators.
“You just have to stay healthy and be careful not to die,” he said tweeted in regards to how long it took for the end of the Attack On Titan manga to come out.
In the May 2022 Twitter Spaces discussion, Yukimura admitted that he has switched from weekly to monthly publishing because he is a “very slow author”. He typically publishes about 11 chapters a year.
As of March 2022, the series had run up to Vinland Saga Chapter 192: Thousand Year Voyage Part 1. As of July 21, 2021, the tankobon books on Vinland Saga Volume 25.
Many years ago, the creator claimed that he was aiming Volume 25 at the end of the Vinland Saga manga. Manga creators are notoriously bad at estimating the length of their stories and it seems Makoto is no exception.
What we do know for sure is that Makoto declared that he plans to create four major storylines: War, Slave, Eastern Expedition, and the Last Vinland Arc. The final arc started with Volume 24: Chapter 167.
While that sounds like the end of the Vinland Saga manga is just around the corner, it seems more likely that the final chapter will be released years in the future. After all, Makoto promised in November 2019 that the final arc would be over 1,000 pages long and about 50 chapters.
“Vinland Saga can be roughly divided into four parts. So far I have drawn three volumes, the War Edition, the Slave Edition and the Eastern Expedition Edition. I’m starting to draw the last one,’ Makoto tweeted† “I will draw more than 1000 pages and more than 50 chapters. Will probably take several years. If serialization is not stopped.”
(The last sentence’s disclaimer is worrisome, but seems unlikely.)
The last chapters have a length of 19 to 25 pages. Assuming Makoto doesn’t intend to drastically shorten the main part of the story, there should easily be more than 50 chapters.
Therefore, Vinland Saga Chapter 184 is less than halfway through Makoto’s original plans for the final arc. The manga is released monthly, so Makoto could reach the end of the Vinland Saga manga at the earliest between May 2024 and July 2024, barring any interruptions or delays.
Since each manga volume has 8 or 9 chapters, the final volume can be part 28 or 29. The book would likely be released in late 2024 or early 2025.
Let’s hope the ending of the Vinland Saga manga is just as epic as the rest of the manga series. Stay tuned!
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