I haven't seen a lot of anime/read a lot of manga that hit me even half as hard as Makoto Yukimura's Vinland Saga. And season 2—often called the farm arc, slave arc, and/or Ketil's Farm arc—is arguably the strongest part of that punch. Or—actually, it doesn't feel thematically right to call it a “punch” in season two per se, because unlike the incredibly violent first season (although there's still plenty of violence in this season as well), this time we see Vinland Saga explore the idea of pacifism.

This second season takes place after the events of the first, and this is absolutely the type of anime where you need to watch the first season to understand what's going on in the second. The two are about as tonally dissonant as two anime can get, but trust me: the payoff is worth it. Whereas the first season was a violent shonen series with a coat of viking paint, the second is an introspective, emotionally fraught drama about slavery, emptiness, and the grim realities of war, violence, and revenge.

While there's something to be said about the gorgeous visuals and meticulous historical research (and we'll get to that), the unparalleled brilliance of Yukimura's writing takes center stage in this season, as he completely subverts the expectations the events of Vinland Saga's prologue laid for the rest of the series. Inevitably, not everyone will be terribly thrilled to hear that. But those who are still willing to hear the show out are rewarded with one of the all-time greatest character arcs in anime history: the journey of Vinland Saga's protagonist, Thorfinn Karlsefni, as he comes face-to-bloodsoaked-face with his past, and has to figure out who he wants to be, and what he needs to do in order to move forward.

Yukimura is, without question, one of the all time best character writers in manga, and this thought-provoking arc is a large part of why I say that. Even outside of Thorfinn, season 2 of Vinland Saga showcases so many incredible and deeply moving character storylines that you're unlikely to find anywhere else. And it's through his exceptional character writing that humanity is put on full display, warts and all, in Vinland Saga season 2. The result is an emotional rollercoaster with incredibly hopeful highs and desolate lows. And the violence takes on a whole new gravity, and with it, a much more serious tone that the fun meathead of a first season wouldn't have you think Vinland Saga could be capable of. It's so rare for an anime's tone to shift so much in so little time, and even rarer that it actually pulls it off well—let alone is better off for it. But Vinland Saga season 2 is definitely a member of this highly exclusive club. It honestly might even be the president of that club.

But of course, I can't not talk about how the close attention to historical details throughout Vinland Saga makes this medievalist's heart absolutely sing. While it's not to say he gets absolutely everything down to the tiniest speck of dust right (EX, the use of modern rather than then-contemporary place names), Yukimura demonstrates a level of research that you don't often see in historical fiction, period. Whether it's invoking specific, known figures/battles/events, or even something as small as making sure there are no forks around, Yukimura never ceases to impress with his dedication to learning about the era. To clarify: true historical accuracy, especially in something like Vinland Saga that takes place so long ago, is a mirage. There's still so much we don't know about the era, and even now, our understandings of certain elements of it are evolving all the time—to say nothing of how experts don't even always agree on certain aspects of it. So a certain degree of speculation and/or having to fill in the blanks with something is more than just an inevitability, it's a full-blown necessity. But before I start rambling about if/when/to what extent historical fiction has a responsibility to maintain at least a certain level of historical accuracy, suffice it to say: Vinland Saga strikes an expert balance between being true to historical fact as we currently understand it, true to the Icelandic sagas it's based off of, historical speculation, and fiction.

As for the Blu-rays themselves, they're pretty barebones as a release. You get all the episodes in sub and dub, you get the promo videos, and that's all you get. You don't even get, for example, closed captions, which it gets major points off for since they're such a great and simple accessibility option (to say nothing of how it's kind of distracting when you want to watch the dub with subtitles on to make sure you're hearing things correctly, and the characters are saying one thing, and the subs are saying something that's substantially the same, sure, but worded ever-so-slightly different). It's also worth clarifying, since there are two English dubs for the first season, that the dub in this Blu-ray release is—as the Crunchyroll logo seen throughout denotes—the Crunchyroll/Sentai cast. I call it the “Crunchyroll/Sentai” cast because Crunchyroll didn't dub Vinland Saga's first season, so when it did get to dub the second, it utilized the Sentai Filmworks voices of both Thorfinn and Canute (as Sentai wouldn't be dubbing the second season), who remained in the second season's spotlight.

Literally, as this show was originally airing, Thorfinn's Crunchyroll/Sentai English voice actor Mike Haimoto was accused by voice actress Avery Smithhart of domestic abuse and sexual assault. He was soon replaced in his role in Record of Ragnarok. Frankly, Crunchyroll should've followed suit and replaced him in this Blu-ray release. That they've continued to work with Haimoto since then is appalling. But even taking Haimoto out of the equation, it's hard to hold a candle to the subbed version of Vinland Saga—my vastly preferred audio track. Yūto Uemura's Thorfinn, in particular, sends chills down my spine—to say nothing of the incredible degree of range he gets to show off he has in this season. That being said, I don't at all like how the first sentence of the plot synopsis on the box for part one spoils what happens at the very end of season one. Sure, you can pretty reliably assume that just about everyone actually watching this season has watched the first, but you can't be so sure that just about everyone window-shopping for anime Blu-rays has. For example, you can see this spoilery description in one of the images of this Blu-ray on its store listing on Crunchyroll—a listing people who haven't yet finished the first season might plausibly look at.

On the topic of packaging, by the way, I feel it worth mentioning: while it's not to say they were in terrible condition, my Blu-rays arrived with their sleeves already looking a bit beat up—the edges already with some white from wear. I want to emphasize that I don't think they were in awful condition. But if they were trading cards, they'd be lightly played, hardly the condition I'd expect brand new, unopened Blu-rays to arrive in. I imagine collectors, in particular, would probably be pretty dissatisfied if theirs arrived similarly. I couldn't help but feel reminded of the (FAR worse) state in which some people have reported their Macross Plus sets arriving in. High-quality shipping was one of the hallmarks of Right Stuf, so it's frustrating and disappointing (but, alas, not necessarily surprising) to see Crunchyroll being uninterested in maintaining this tradition.

But while this Blu-ray release is incredibly lacking, the show itself is as good as it gets. Not a lot of anime are gutsy enough to even consider defying expectations in the same way that Vinland Saga does in this arc, let alone succeeding to the extent Vinland Saga has. An absolute masterpiece, I can't recommend the second season of Vinland Saga highly enough.