Where Did Yukimura Research Vinland Saga?

Yukimura’s research is part of the record, not publicity colour. His fascination with Vikings started with anime he watched as a child; for the manga he travelled in Scandinavia in 2003, before serialization, working around a language barrier he has cheerfully admitted to, speaking no Norwegian and little English. He called the Oseberg ship the most beautiful ship he had ever seen.

Later trips covered Denmark, Iceland, France, Britain, and Canada, and he built full-scale models to test how Viking gear and spaces actually worked, a slow process he accepted as the cost of realism. The final arc got the same treatment at one remove: the Mi’kmaq characters and language were developed with named consultants, educators Beverly Jedore and Yolanda Denny of Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey and linguist Bernie Francis, whose Francis-Smith orthography the manga uses.

His working summary of the people he drew: Vikings were, to him, closer to wokou, expressive and free, than to samurai, quiet and bound by obedience. The research fed the argument of the book, not just its costumes.