3 out of 5

Hardcover collection of tankobons vol. 21 and 22

I was getting kind of worried about this with the appearance of Garm, since his shtick – boy o boy do I want to fight Thorfinn! – is essentially the same as Thorkell’s. So when you throw Thorkell into the mix as well, and extend this storyline (War in the Baltic) for 36 parts… it wears thin. Volume 11 reads like Yukimura having backed himself into a hole of trying to figure out how, exactly, he can back Thorfinn out of these squabbles, and so we get clash after clash with similar beats, until it just kind of… peters out. Thorkill gets distracted by a different fight, and it becomes a semi-mystical one, which is kind of weird for the tone of the series.

There are definitely quality story beats throughout this, with Sigurd, and Baldr, and Gudrid, all circling around the “why must we fight?” themes, and the art is pretty glorious throughout the war; I’d also say the conclusion of the arc is handled effectively, but the whole thing suggests there was a better way to juxtapose the violence of the clash with character development, and instead, it comes across as leaning on fan service, then pausing for contemplation.

Some final points off for bungling the handling of one of the female characters. It’s not an unrealistic development, which I won’t spoil here, but for a character who’s been trying to establish agency from their first appearance, well, that’s done.

The overall professionalism of the story – and that I definitely wasn’t bored, just not particularly engrossed in the repetitive narrative – keep this absolutely readable. It settles some longer running subplots so we can continue on.