Vinland Saga S2 Anime Review – 92/100

The last time a seasonal anime impressed me, affected me, this much was 2018’s Run With the Wind. Not because of any surface level similarities, one is about kids in college running track and this is about Vikings and farming. Rather it’s because of their similar themes of finding oneself, of accepting who you were and resolving to be better, of just taking that next step regardless of how hard it seems. Upon hearing that it should then, for those that know me or have looked at my previous reviews, come as no surprise that I absolutely loved this season of Vinland Saga. Directed once again by Shuuhei Yabuta, his 2nd ever directorial credit, and this time animated by Studio MAPPA, Vinland Saga returns to once again dominate its season. But this time it does so with plows, not swords, sweat rather than blood, and wheat instead of arrows.

Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for Vinland Saga Seasons 1 and 2. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents.

Visuals

As usual the best place to start with an anime is with its animation. As I said above, this season was animated by Studio MAPPA. However the previous season was done was by studio Wit, though with the same director. That puts Vinland Saga in a position very similar to another popular and well loved series, Attack on Titan. However where that one had a rather contentious reception surrounding CGI titans, I feel that Vinland Saga only benefited from this change, a pleasant surprise considering how inconsistent MAPPA can occasionally be. Part of this comes from the shift in focus for the series. Season 1 was all about combat and action, a lot of episodes had a fight. Most of those fights looked pretty good to! But Season 2 of Vinland Saga couldn’t be any different, as it actively avoids fights. This leads to a less actiony, more picturesque series.

This means that if you were coming to Vinland Saga looking for more Viking action, you’ll probably be disappointed. Vinland Saga is not a sakuga fest this season, it is not an action power house. Instead it’s become a quiet, introspective show about farming that occasionally has some action. Personally, I think this is to it’s benefit. Rather then focusing on flashy animation and clean movements, Vinland Saga has become a very still but stunningly beautiful show, with some fantastic direction. One example of this I absolutely love is Shuuhei’s obsession with the characters hands, and the stories they tell. Their calluses, scars and rough textures. Whether a hand is presented as soft and caring or hard and powerful. Vinland Saga seeks to tell you who these characters are and what they have been through via their bodies and designs as much as their words.

This sort of care applies to the backgrounds as well. While it often resorts to simple colors and clear blue skies or monotone backgrounds for a funny scene, when Vinland Saga wants to it has some of the best landscapes in the season. Just look at some of the ones I have supplied below, don’t worry there are no spoilers in there. Vinland Saga isn’t afraid to bring some color into its forests and trees. Whether it be autumn leaves or a setting sun, it looks great.

The only issue with the series is that occasionally Vinland Saga gets… Lazy. Sometimes a characters face will disappear from their body in a medium shot to save on detail, other times something will slide across the screen or the lighting will become like a bloom filter. It’s all cost cutting measures, which I get. That doesn’t change that you will notice it and it will take you out of the moment. Luckily, it never happens during the big moments. Those get all the attention they deserve and then some, becoming some of the most visually beautiful scenes in the entire show (As they should). No, this only happens between the big moments, during smaller buildup segments. I’m talking Thorfinn walking down a road and not having a face, or another character just statically standing in the background as they talk, their mouth not moving. Nothing huge, but noticeable.

All in all while this season of Vinland Saga isn’t the most particularly animated, especially not from MAPPA or even this season, and it won’t show up on any Sakuga Blog lists, I don’t really think it needs to be. This isn’t a story that requires flashy action animation or clean, flowing character movements. Would those be nice to have? Would I object to that? No, of course not. But this isn’t Kimetsu no Yaiba. It doesn’t live and die on the hype of its combat. It can get away with still shots and wide shots and and “Shot reverse shot” conversations. And it does so because Shuuhei and his team put in the work to make the characters and world in those shots interesting to look at, with different and interesting or meaningful angles and compositions to keep your attention. Long story short? Show looks nice, doesn’t move much. And that’s fine.

Narrative

This shift in focus from action and movement to peace and picturesque applies to the narrative too! In fact I would go so far as to say the narrative is what informed how they produced it. Where Season 1 of Vinland Saga danced with its condemnation of violence, showing us both its seeming necessity and terrible cost, Season 2 progresses to a full-on rejection of it in all its forms. There is no glorification of combat here. Warriors are not depicted as these awesome badasses you should aspire to be. Death comes with all the gore and pain it entails, with characters generally in some state of shock, pain or fear. Slavery is shown as the terrible thing that it is, clearly unacceptable with no ground given even to the common idea of “The Kind Slaver Owner”. Simply put, Vinland Saga condemns everything usually glorified by this era in films.

This isn’t to say warriors, or characters that idolize and extol the virtues of war, don’t exist. They do! Vinland Saga takes place in Viking culture after all. Generally however these characters are portrayed negatively, either as bloodthirsty monsters with no care for those around them or arrogant fops who believe carrying a sword gives them the right to push others around. None them are what you would call “heroes”. In fact one of the central arcs of the entire show is one of these characters rebelling against their culture and deciding violence really isn’t all the productive. The only characters depicted positively are those who actively choose to avoid combat, even at their own personal loss. This of course includes Thorfinn, who routinely over the course of the show belittles and denigrates himself for his past actions. The message is clear: Violence is never the appropriate answer.

What makes Vinland Saga stand out the most though is how… consumable the material is. None of these topics are particularly new in anime. Plenty like to have kind MC’s that hate violence or attempt to condemn slavery. Most of the time however those shows falter and give in. Their MC starts to clamor for the villain’s head, or they buy a slave of their own, assuring the audience that they are “One of the good ones”. And they do this because it’s easy. Because saying your character is a bastion of moral greatness is easier then showing it. Which is what makes Vinland Saga’s presentation of it so incredible. It doesn’t walk back or attempt to apologize for a characters actions. When they screw up, and they do because no one is perfect, they own it. And they hate themselves for it.

Yet Vinland Saga is able to communicate all of this, all of their self-loathing and internal struggles, their quest for peace in a land determined to deny them it, their successes and failures, in an easily consumable package. Vinland Saga isn’t some doctoral thesis on the morality of violence. You don’t need to read Immanuel Kant or Henry David Thoreau to understand what is going on in these characters heads or what Vinland Saga is trying to say. And anyone who tells you otherwise, who attempts to gatekeep this show, need to step back and go outside. This doesn’t mean it’s surface level or shallow. Just that Vinland Saga introduces these ideas in an easily digestible manner. It works you through them along side the characters so that, by the end, you can start asking your own questions. And it does so without losing what makes them important and impactful.

To me, that’s why Vinland Saga is great. Not because of the ideas it tackles, but the way it does so, making them so accessible to everyone without watering them down or diluting them. As for how it accomplishes that? Well for that we need to move on to the characters and their individual stories that make up this larger narrative.

Characters

That’s right, for as praiseworthy as Vinland Saga’s narrative is, all of the above is just the broad thematic strokes. The true meat, the emotional core of the show, comes from the characters. Their individual stories on this farm, and how each one either feeds into or works to deny the violence inherent in their culture. Take Olmar for instance, a brash young man who grew up with tales of his father and brothers glorious deeds. For most of his life he wanted to be just like them, to become this Viking Ideal that his culture values so highly. It’s not dissimilar to how we did, or in some cases still do, view soldiers. And over the course of the season we see him face the bloody reality of what it’s really like, of what it really means to hurt people.

And Olmar isn’t unique in this. Every character has some sort of meaningful interaction with the topic of violence. Whether it be being able to look past it and see that one man is not guilty for the sins of his people or embracing it because their pride was more important than peoples lives. Not all of these are happy stories either. While every character is a victim of violence in one way or another, either because it’s seen as a necessary part of the culture or because they themselves are to weak to stop others enacting it on them, many succumb to the violence and end the season in a darker place then they began. Vinland Saga makes it very clear how difficult a conversation this is, seeking more to raise up those able to deny it rather then condemn those who can’t.

Just look at our lead, Thorfinn, for an example of that. Back in Season 1, Thorfinn was this angry and static child, forever locked in that moment after his fathers death, never able to truly move on. It was only after Askeladd’s death, after his revenge was taken from him and his purpose lost, that he finally started being able to move forward again. And it’s these first tentative steps into a life post-revenge, where he looks back on all he’s done and asks if his father would be proud of him, that we see in Vinland Saga’s first few episodes. The difference taking from others and building it up with your own hands. A young man’s story of personal redemption, starting from his cultures ideal, finding the strength to reject it, and to then forge his own path.

I’m being vague here, and that’s on purpose. Nothing I’ve said so far isn’t anything you wouldn’t see in the first few episodes. And that’s because I don’t want to spoil, accidentally or otherwise, the profound journeys of these characters. Each one is a different road with different views and experiences, but they all lead to the same place: A firm condemnation of violence in all of it’s forms. To some, looking for the action packed stories of season 1, this will be a disappointment. But this season of Vinland Saga isn’t about that. Characters actively seek to avoid conflict. Instead it’s a natural progression of the themes and stories present back in Season 1. We saw where violence and war got Thorfinn. And it wasn’t a happy place. Now we get to see where a peaceful life on a farm takes him.

OST

Finally we come to the music. Once again composed by Yutaka Yamada, Vinland Saga maintains much the same level of quality as it did in the 1st season. That is to say, it is neither obtrusive nor spectacular. The best thing I can say to Vinland Saga’s score is that while it is inextricably tied to the show. It is not an OST that you would ever feel compelled to listen to on its own, independent of the scenes the music are tied to. You’re never going to hear a piece of a song and remember a specific scene or moment, it just doesn’t have that kind of memorability. It is, at it’s core, a rather subdued OST all things considered. Still, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad OST. It’s just not a great one.

What do I mean by that? Well simply put, while Vinland Saga’s OST is never particularly memorable, it also never takes away from any scene over which it plays. It never overpowers the narrative or dialogue, ruining a moment as a singer belts something out at the top of their lungs. For a show like Vinland Saga, I think that’s a pretty good thing. This isn’t an action shounen, the focus should be on the story. And while it’s often forgettable after the fact, in the moment the OST often enhances what is happening on screen. That is to say, if it were attached to a weaker show it would feel much worse as what it is trying to enhance was never good to begin with. But with Vinland Saga it manages to support and augment something that is already great, leaving me with a generally positive impression.

Long story short, Vinland Saga’s OST is nothing particularly great or memorable. But when you’re attached to a narrative as well constructed and thought provoking as this, you really don’t need to be to get the job done. So long as you don’t take away from what is happening on screen then you’re doing fine. And in this case, Yutaka Yamada’s score occasionally does even more then that. Just don’t expect to see anyone going out and buying CDs or Vinyls for the score, it’s just not going to happen. You aren’t going to get a “KO-TO-WA-RI” or “Blumenkranz” out of this.

With This, Vinland Saga Feels Complete

With that we come to the end of this review. The only thing left is what I call the “Personal Section”. It’s where I try to give you a bit of a glimpse into my experience watching a show, what it means, and provide a bit of context towards everything I just said. If that isn’t your deal, if that’s not what you want and you’re just looking for a score, then skip it. However if you want to try and get to know me a bit, this is the place. Oh and be warned: This is extreme spoiler territory, no holds barred. So if you haven’t seen the show… probably skip this.

Now when you read the title of this section you may be mislead into believing I don’t want more Vinland Saga, or that I think what comes next doesn’t deserve to be animated. Neither of those are the case. I love Vinland Saga, I’ve been a long time reader of it, and I think Yukimura-sensei has so much more to say. Rather what I mean is that with the conclusion of Farmland Saga, Thorfinn’s journey feels as if its come full circle. It’s satisfying in a way where, if we never got another episode of Vinland Saga, I wouldn’t feel like there was anything missing. The man left home, lost his father, lost himself in war, lost another father figure, lost his purpose in life, and then slowly started to rebuild himself with the simple joys of creating with his own hands rather then taking from others. He found purpose.

And of course Thorfinn didn’t do this alone, he had others like Einar and Arnheid. 2 people that, in his previous life, he would never have given a 2nd glance. People who are all to similar to those he has killed in the past, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, daughters and sons. Through them he was given back a life he never even knew he had lost, as he wasn’t old enough to really appreciate it back when he was living with Helga and Thors. Einar grants him the forgiveness he never thought he deserved, even teaching him how to build something up for the first time in his life. Similarly, through Arnheid he is shown how fulfilling a simple life at home with those you care for can be, as well as exactly what its like to have that suddenly ripped away from you.

As someone raised in a traditionally masculine fashion, “Guys don’t cry” and everything that goes along with that, Thorfinn’s journey hit really hard. Of course his experiences outstrip mine, being much more extreme both in their effects and consequences, but as far as tackling toxic masculinity and promoting health alternatives without tearing down or disparaging who he was before, I think Vinland Saga does it beautifully. The series doesn’t act like it’s impossible to be saved, or like only Thorfinn could change. It makes it clear that everyone can, from people like Einar almost succumbing to the same violent urges Thorfinn had to the random soldiers in Canute’s army, they can all improve so long as they actively work on it.

The best part of course being that Vinland Saga even has it work! It doesn’t solve all the worlds problems. Thorfinn refusing to fight, instead talking others down, doesn’t instantly stop all violence or make up for those who have died. Rather he is leading by example. He shows others they maybe there is another way, and inspires them to give a try themselves. And when Canute does try it? When he pulls his armies out and starts approaching people as a King rather then a Conquerer? He finds a new, more peaceful road towards the future he desires. It’s a small taste, a demonstration, of how the best way to change your surroundings is to start with changing yourself and using that to inspire others to do so as well.

So yeah, you could say I was personally really affected by Vinland Saga. Just a little bit.

Conclusion

All in all I view Vinland Saga as one of the rare complete experiences in modern anime. Despite the fact that there is more to the story, should Vinland Saga never get another episode ever again you won’t end feeling cheated or like you should go read the manga. Instead you’ll leave knowing that Thorfinn has grown into a man worthy of respect, that he has made peace with himself and what has happened to his father, that he is finally whole again for the first time in over a decade. Is it perfect? No, if only because nothing ever truly is. However it is a deeply thematic, emotional work that I believe will linger with you for a long time to come. It certainly has with me, even back when it was a manga and not this great adaptation.

Suffice to say: Watch Vinland Saga. Because it just landed in my top 10.