Vinland Saga | Reaction & Review 2x3 "Snake"

I don't see the animation quality being any different from the first season. I think it's just selective memory choosing to remember the highlights. Episode 11 was one of the most broken anime episodes of 2019, and many other episodes avoided total meltdown solely because of the talent and inhumane hours the staff put in. I'm inclined to believe that – just like last time – staff and resources are allocated to episodes that are more demanding and of higher importance.

Season 1 should be reason enough to trust the writing process and progression of this season. You can see just a tiny dip in the animation quality but not by much though. Hardly a deal breaker to me, but it bums me out a tad.

Sarah S

Yep, Einar is indeed pronounced like the 'ey' in "Hey"

Willhoe

I don’t think you need to worry about another season. VS is in the first place not a successful manga/anime in Japan. The manga has sold only 7 million copies in over 15 years. It’s a lot comparing it to the many mangas that sell less, but in comparison to some other banger, with less episodes, it’s sadly not that much. Japan isn't just that interested in the Vikings. I feel like the production committee doesn’t care to much about the money cause they made the second season possible. We VS fans should be optimistic.

Sloopgamer

Returned with a few interesting links. Interview with with Kobayashi, Yabuta and Yukimura. (also has a link to the full ep. 14 storyboard) https://vinlandsaga.jp/special/special_interview/vol3_part1_en.html Interview with Seko, Yabuta and Yukimura. https://vinlandsaga.jp/special/special_interview/vol1_part1_en.html Interview with Yamada, Hata and Yabuta. https://vinlandsaga.jp/special/special_interview/vol2_part1_en.html Part twos include vague, trailer-esque hints about what's to come - so avoid those if you don't want them. The part ones are about the first season.

I felt the ED was a clear indicator of how this season would be like since ep 1. I think it's fantastic we are seeing Thorfinn this way although it's extremely sad. Mentioning the ED again, I think it's just incredible and beautiful. Makes me emotional each time. I'm so excited for this arc!

A

Manga readers have been calling it since we knew we were getting an anime adaptation: this leg of the story was going to be the big hurdle. Based on other reactors (who obviously have an incentive to continue in spite of thematic comprehension), almost every single one I've seen so far has thought that Thorfinn would go berserk in that scene. [in fairness there's a number of bigger channels that had a pretty good grasp on things that haven't started reactions yet, if they at all intend to]. But there's already comments all over YT and the VS subreddit about how they don't understand or hate Thorfinn's characterization as of right now and want the old version back. Really disappoints me man. I get what you're saying that this isn't for everyone, but like you put it, the future of the anime will be probably be unfortunately determined by audience retention. I just hope enough stick around long enough to finally "get it". As much as I can praise this story, I don't laud over it as if it's a "you have to have a very high IQ to get it" or whatever nonsense gatekeeping goes on. But it's the wanting for something that is almost perfectly contradictory to what the story is pretty concisely trying to convey that is frustrating. It's rarely that they are unable understand the moral here, but seemingly that they refuse to acknowledge it or even outright reject it. So yeah... It sucks, but as long as we can retain a devout core of fans then I can imagine we'll still see this series through!

Shmengels

There's probably gonna be some dropouts, but I don't think it's going to matter whether we get a Season 3 and beyond. It helps that S2 is actually on Crunchyroll and Netlifx as opposed to Amazon like it was in S1. That already helps with bringing in a bigger audience. Also Yabuta, Yukimura and others have offhandedly mentioned S3 in one form or another, whether that be new characters or other things. Now that certainly doesn't mean too much, but it's clear that there's every intention to continue after S2. The fact that we even have a second season is proof of that. As for the episode, it's rough seeing Thorfinn like this, but it is kind of the only logical thing that could happen to someone who wasted 11 years of his life. Love his VAs work in this one, particularly the nightmare scene. I enjoy Fox even if he's a douche. He can be funny, serious, a bully and then go right to pathetic when Snake shows up. It was quite the satisfying punch. You can immediately tell the respect he commands when he shows up.

RaijinCloud

I wrote some clarification on your post for the episode 2 about Einars name. Check it out if you still feel conflicted.

Nemo

not sure if you're aware, but the opening of this seaoson was supposedly inspired by the opening of Skyfall!

Polygon

Storyboard & Direction – Youji Satou https://i.imgur.com/xhH0m9G.png Last time I said we’d only need Satou to have all the mainstay episode directors from the previous season back, and now here he is. Seeing him storyboard the episode surprised me considering he is mainly a director. As long as my fact-checking skills aren’t utter trash, this is only the 10th board in his nearly 20-year-long career. With that in mind, I think it’s a fine showing. Though, the inexperience can be seen in how unnecessarily demanding the board is to execute. I would expand on that but that's a wall of text and a half. The three animation supervisors are Vinland regulars. Abiru himself can again be spotted in places due to some distinct traits of his in sight - the jagged shading and the excessively detailed teeth being especially noticeable: https://i.imgur.com/S0vr4gE.png One step closer to Kobayashi-cinema: https://i.imgur.com/6NAwuzK.png If it was 'eye-nar' Yukimura would've probably went with アイナル instead of エイナル, so I agree with the pronunciation you're leaning towards. Since Japanese is phonetic, words tend to be katakanized according to the pronunciation, not the spelling.

Man I wasn't expecting the reference to Schopenhauer during the Vinland reaction but I LOVE it. Who are your favorite philosophers if you don't mind me asking? Also it's so sad (but good lol) to see Thorfinn in this mindset. I really enjoy the reactions and the commentary!

- Dropouts are expected, it happened back when the manga took this approach as well, also gained a lot of new people like me. but the shonen viewers did dropout heavily, even now you can see videos of "thorfinn went boring" even, or most reactors getting frustrated when thorfinn isn´t acting even tho they know and we know that if he wanted, he would probably obliterate every single one of them including snake. thorfinn was sold as a war machine, and the change its brutal. (for me I love it) - Most reactors expected and did got disappointed in thorfinn lack of response in fact haha. - The analysis and discussion in this new season has been rich, There is so much to talk about about and I´m really enjoying it as well, you are the perfect reactor for this season, because this season its all about deep character development and life philosophies, along side a very beautiful but smooth story that takes its time to develop. You are 100% right for everything, including the expected reaction for this anime And I do hope this season its successful enough for the third season and the third arc, and maybe even having a final season 4. A man can dream, I just hope there is the support for a seinen like this one.

Sh3nx

I'm glad you mentioned that there might be some viewer drop-off - everytime I recommended this anime to a friend and they loved season 1, I warned them that they almost certainly wouldn't find the same story in season 2, that much was clear from the season finale. "End of the Prologue" was the most obvious sign that what we were most likely going to see moving forward was a story focused on character development, change, new hardships, and emotional growth. Thankfully us fans who are here to see Thorfinn's development are probably about to see greatness 😁

elliot