THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS FOR VINLAND SAGA S1 AND 2

Vinland Saga S2 is, to say the least, a pretty controversial season. It almost feels like a different anime compared to S1. While S1 was based around lots of fighting, gore, death, and action, S2 just disregards all of it. The pacing has been slowed down tremendously and has now turned into a slice-of-life farming simulator. Even Makoto Yukimura, the mangaka of this series himself, stated that he thought he would lose fans when he began this arc.

However, I do not feel any negative about this change. It changes how this show is now perceived. S1 makes Vinland Saga look like a shounen-y anime while S2 redefines the importance of the series. It becomes more philosophical, helping to develop Thorfinn's character, and how he sees other people around him. The very prominent fighting scenes in S1 are now reduced, but whenever I see a sliver of what could be an action scene, that scene immediately sends shivers down my spine. This isn't supposed to fit inside S2 AT ALL.

We can see this by how Thorfinn's personality, just entirely changes after failing to duel Askeladd after his death. We see him start as an edgy, badass character, who doesn't care about how bad murder is and responds to everything with a scoff. Now we see him as a washed-up, ugly man. He doesn't care about himself anymore, and he knows that. With all of that, he gives himself to work as a slave on a farm to gain his freedom.

It might seem like it's all over for Thorfinn until another person like him ends up in the same situation: Einar. Einar has basically gone through the same thing that Thorfinn has gone through to be in slavery. However, Einar is more open-minded and optimistic, always trying to get Thorfinn to do and feel the same thing that he feels. Just by how Thorfinn acts, we can tell that he sees Einar as a weird one, and trying not to be involved with him whatsoever, but eventually gives in, which starts his character development. I also like how the two interact with each other. Einar was made for Thorfinn.

Arnheid is also a major factor, contributing to both Thorfinn and Einar's development. She is a kind woman who cares a lot about both of them and treats them both nicely. I don't really have that much to say about her but that.

On the side, we see Canute, whose character has changed as much as Thorfinn's did. In S1, we saw him as a shy, quiet, femboy. Now he's a king who's not afraid to tell his men to decapitate a man and show that head on display. However, his kindness is still intact, which is important at the end of S2.

We also get a new antagonist, Ketil. At the beginning of S2, we all think that he's a caring person. He's scared of scolding children and is not like the other people on the farm. He promises Thorfinn and Einar freedom under a saccharine smile. However, we must remember that he is a slave master, and even though they can look like a good person, they actually aren't. This creates a phenomenal and complex antagonist, who we don't even know is the antagonist until we see him do something genuinely disgusting later on in the series.

With the story and the characters out of the way, I would also like to discuss the soundtrack. I absolutely love it. The placement of music in this series in incredible, as well as the audiovisual experience of it. The OP and EDs were also quite good except for the 2nd OP. That OP sounded like a generic shonen OP.

The animation has also not changed a bit. In S1, Wit Studios also had the same problem with the ugly CGI, but for S2 there has been a studio change. With a studio like MAPPA, you would think that the animation would be amazing like with the bullet animation in JJK or their famous running scenes, but there are some parts where MAPPA lacks a lot in. There are very yucky still frames of the camera at a distance showing the characters. The animation is alright, but the still frames urk me a lot.

All in all, I believe that this was an actual masterpiece of a season. It is over 100x better than S1, and sets up even more hype for the next season after we were left off with a tearjerking, heartwarming welcome for Thorfinn finally returning home. 2023 started off with an anime that I can already call AOTY, and nothing else can combat this.

__S1 score: 84/100
S2 score: 96/100__