Vinland Saga Season 2

After his father's death and the destruction of his village at the hands of English raiders, Einar wishes for a peaceful life with his family on their newly rebuilt farms. However, fate has other plans: his village is invaded once again. Einar watches helplessly as the marauding Danes burn his lands and slaughter his family. The invaders capture Einar and take him back to Denmark as a slave.

Einar clings to his mother's final words to survive. He is purchased by Ketil, a kind slave owner and landlord who promises that Einar can regain his freedom in return for working in the fields. Soon, Einar encounters his new partner in farm cultivation—Thorfinn, a dejected and melancholic slave. As Einar and Thorfinn work together toward their freedom, they are haunted by both sins of the past and the ploys of the present. Yet they carry on, grasping for a glimmer of hope, redemption, and peace in a world that is nothing but unjust and unforgiving.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Thorfinn Main

Uemura, Yuuto Japanese

Einar Main

Takeuchi, Shunsuke Japanese

Askeladd Supporting

Uchida, Naoya Japanese

Thorkell Supporting

Ootsuka, Akio Japanese

Canute Supporting

Ono, Kensho Japanese

Thors Supporting

Matsuda, Kenichirou Japanese

Snake Supporting

Komatsu, Fuminori Japanese

Ylva Supporting

Nabatame, Hitomi Japanese

Erikson, Leif Supporting

Ueda, Youji Japanese

Arnheid Supporting

Saco, Mayumi Japanese

Fujiyama, Naokado Producer

Ootsuka, Manabu Producer

Hasegawa, Hiroya Producer, Production Manager

Matsumoto, Hitoshi Producer

Reviews

Jan 21, 2026

undeadk1ng

Recommended

What a masterpiece. I remember watching the first season when it came out, enjoying the violence and action packed episodes with the mindless revenge theme. Now, being much older, I just watched the second season and it truly exceeded my expectations. Thorfinn goes from being the embodiment of rage and anger, honing his skills and perfecting violence in the name of vengeance. Now, at the start of the second season, his source of anger is gone. He becomes empty. This season's journey of discovering how to fill that hole, how to appreciate life, and how to overcome violence in a world of strife and death ... is marvelous. He morphs into a pacifist, having understood the consequence of murder, the mc tries to find purpose. Yes, the pacing can be slow but unlike heart-racing violence, character development takes time. Thorfinn needs to cultivate an understanding of life and appreciate the goodness in everyone. To avoid violence. To abandon that rage and to understand that everyone is simply human. That people can be forgiven and people can change.

The shift from action to philosophy and ideology shows the maturity of the author. And, unintentionally, as someone who watched the show as I got older---only seeing this season after my teenage years---I can understand the intent the author was trying to convey in his writing. What a wonderful journey this was. I think this season, as well as other new anime like Frieren demonstrate a change in the anime world. We are changing. The stories are getting better, the characters having more depth, and the messaging richer. Truly, a masterpiece.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Oct 12, 2025

MitsotakiShogun

Mixed Feelings

The amount of missing content and time skips made this less enjoyable a watch than it would otherwise have been. I'm not sure if the missing content was there in the source material or not, and I don't care, but when you show me Thorfinn as a slave (which from S1 we knew he'd never accept) and give me 0 explanation when we're 20 episodes in, it pisses me off. When in one scene X character says "we can use [Y character]", and then everything that this line refers to is skipped and we just see the result with no explanation of what happened, I'm ... even more pissed. When you cut *critical* content to give long screen time to dreams and hallucinations that are completely irrelevant to what's actually going on in the real world, well, you get the picture. There is a brief explanation (<30 seconds) a couple episodes before the end, but that's it; it still doesn't sit well with me.

In season 2, the action was toned down, life has slowed down, anti-war sentiment goes as strong as ever, we do see progress, all is good. It's appropriately heavy, and it's still entertaining enough to watch (at least for me), although a bit slower than what I'd have liked. The animation quality is as great as ever, sound is an 8.5/10 (some sound effects are wrong/misplaced, most are great), OP/ED are not my style but the music is good anyway.

It could've been an 8-9 season for me, but the choices of what to show and what to skip is taking this down. Yet somehow, few/none other reviews mention this. Fellas, did you watch a different thing? Are you okay with these skipped scenes in favor of long, slow, pointless dreams? Anyway, it's worth a watch, and I guess since most people didn't even notice or care, you likely won't either.

----

The series was filled with so much anti-war sentiment that I feel like I need to rewatch Vikings, Overlord, or Youjo Senki... Viking Gandhi was not on my bingo card.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Nov 4, 2025

avantgarden

Not Recommended

Funny

vinland saga, one of the great shows of 2019. a great year, a great show. the story was interesting and the animation was awesome. there were a lot of great scenes, great characters, great moments. an absolute masterpiece. and then they release the 2nd season, which i greatly anticipated. but then it comes out and i am pissed off! nothing happens and they just farm on some stupid farm. no development. no action. no content. the first season touched upon the topics on what it means to be a man in the viking society but thorfinn throws that out of the window the next season ... and becomes weak. sadly this is a common trope in modern media where they want to depict men as weak and fragile. this is to put us down and make us not question all the nonsense they're feeding us. men used to go to war and hunt their food. but now society wants us to go to walmart. don't touch this absolutely horrendous "season 2" of vinland saga. let's just hope the author realizes what he has done. go woke, go broke...

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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	Poll: Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 24 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Jun 19, 2023	526 replies	by ReginalJohnson »» Feb 6, 8:50 PM
	Poll: Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 17 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - May 1, 2023	390 replies	by Lil_Human_ »» Feb 6, 11:04 AM
	S3's production Fayez0001 - Jan 22	16 replies	by Mackyreels »» Feb 5, 8:24 PM
	Poll: Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Jan 9, 2023	518 replies	by Lil_Human_ »» Feb 4, 12:11 PM
	Poll: Vinland Saga Season 2 Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Feb 13, 2023	173 replies	by Hahi-Refrain »» Jan 30, 4:08 PM