Vinland Saga's Anime Creators Talk Season 2
Vinland Saga's second season is one of the best-returning anime series of 2023. Focusing on the star Thorfinn who is trying to find a world where he can be free of the violence and brutality that has been a part of his life in the first season, a number of creators responsible for the latest anime epsidoes dove deep into how they approached the storyline. With one episode left in the season, a number of anime fans are crossing their fingers that a season 3 announcement might be on the way.
Producer Naokado Fujiyama had this to say to ANN when discussing how MAPPA could hit the same heights for season 2 that arrived from Vinland Saga's first season, "We really endeavor to surpass the fans' expectations. As the producer, I don't personally create the work, but I try to create an environment that helps the work be as good as it can be. So, for example, with Season 1, it was only available on Amazon Prime, but with Season 2, bringing that to other places like Crunchyroll and Netflix and trying to deliver it to as many fans as possible to create an environment that the work can be as great and as successful as it can be, and hopefully surpass fans' expectations."
Vinland Saga Season 1 Vs Season 2
Character Designer Takahiko Abiru added to this, confirming that their approach didn't change from season 1 to season 2, "Our fundamental approach didn't change from Season 1 to Season 2. We had a lot of good ideas that had been built up over Season 1, and so we started from a very strong position with Season 2. And we just tried to take that further and build up more and more good ideas and try to really realize the theme, the theme of Season 2."
Art Director Yusuke Takeda talked about the process of bringing Thorfinn's latest heart-wrenching journey to the small screen, "As the art director, I was really the first starting point to receive the director's vision or order. It really comes down to how we interpret the vision and the requests from the director and convey those to the viewers. And so for Season 1, there was a lot of trial and error, and I think there's a lot have manual work to try to realize that vision. But I think with Season 2, we understood the basics from Season 1, and we were able to build on top of that. I think Season 2 actually went more smoothly because of all the hard work we had done to realize that vision for Season 1. And so we really built on a strong foundation."
How have you felt about Vinland Saga's second season so far? Do you think it surpasses the first so far? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of the vikings.