A few years have passed since the first season of ‘Vinland Saga‘ by the hand of WIT Studio. The Vikings anime quickly became a hit and more than one lauded the series as the best anime of 2019.
With a change of studio, because it is another series that MAPPA has loaded behind its back, but with the same creative team, this week has also marked the starting signal for the second season of the series. So if you haven’t gotten into this epic drama yet, now is the perfect time.
Seeking revenge and the promised land
The first season of the series introduces us to Thorfinn, a boy who has always lived in peace and for whom war is something to play with his friends. when his father thorsa great and respected warrior, is killed by a mercenary named askeladdThorfinn swears revenge at all costs.
So in order to earn the right to defeat him in a duel, Thorfinn carries out different tasks for Askeladd as he grows up and proves himself as a mercenary. As the years pass, his skills as a warrior and his quest for revenge end up leading him to fight during the wars between Denmark and England in the early 11th century.
‘Vinland Saga’ drinks a lot from Viking epics and in fact the mangaka makoto yukimura he takes certain historical figures as the basis for his story, starting with Thorfinn himself and the explorer Leif Eiriksson. all the work is full of love for viking culture even the most minimal daily, and of course he does not cut a hair when showing the brutality of his incursions.
Is a very raw and uncut anime, which has no qualms about showing all the violence in the world and how it influences the way Thorfinn grows up and the kind of man he becomes as the years go by.
Because despite the fact that it is presented to us from the outset as a revenge story to useThorfinn has a lot to learn beyond letting himself be carried away by his thirst for blood and it is a path that is being built very little by little.
Despite the fact that it is simmering and could easily fall into a very linear story full of clichés, Vinland Saga It hooks you from the first moment thanks to the weaves that are woven and joined little by little and very naturally. some fascinating and well-constructed characters.
Is emotional and addictive, and even the villains you wish you could see staked have something that keeps you hooked and steers them away from being a bad one-dimensional cartoon. But indeed If you are a bit of a stickler for explicit violence, this anime is not for you. and it can get tiresome after a few chapters.
WIT Studio’s animation in the first season was outrageouswhich also integrated the CGI very well, and which gave us a multitude of scenes where you will be breathless, whether it is simply with the characters getting lost in the enormous landscapes, with the longship facing a storm or in the middle of an impossible battle.
Picking up where we left off
For this second season, ‘Vinland Saga’ has changed into the hands of MAPPA though Shuhei Yabuta He’s still at the helm as director and has also brought in the rest of the main creative team and a lot of the animators as well. So on this front you can say without fear that ‘Vinland Saga’ has not lost quality and has maintained a good level.
In fact, and contrary to what happened at the time with ‘Shingeki no Kyojin’, not a big change in style and it seems that we resumed the path practically from one season to another without time having passed.
Now, in contrast to the beautiful landscapes, what we have to start with this season is a brutal and very raw chapter that teaches us what it is to be a nobody in the eleventh century. This time we do not move within a company of Vikings, but the entire first chapter is developed from the point of view of Einar, who suffers first-hand all the cruelty and violence of one of his raids.
For now we will have to wait to see what role he plays einar in the long term in the story, but without going into too many spoilers, the season also starts by showing us some familiar faces that we haven’t seen for a long time.
In order to continue seeing what the season holds for us, we have double simulcastsince week by week we can follow the second season of Vinland Saga both through Crunchyroll and Netflix in Japanese with subtitles.
The first season can also be seen on both platforms and on Amazon Prime Video, and it should be noted that in addition the Spanish dubbing is wonderfulWith a great cast and an excellent location.