Reviews

Vinland Saga pulled off a complete 180 degree flip between the prologue and the farmland arc. Going from a bloody, action packed show; to a slow paced, dialogue driven character piece; it's a move so ambitious that ones like it are actively shunned within some cases in traditional writing. I have never seen it done better than how Yukimura did it with Vinland Saga. It is a perfect transition that completely redefined everything, while feeling like the natural-- and frankly, only --way that the plot could continue onwards following the end of the prologue.

I knew that the vocal minority would exist, even before this season began airing. A massive group had formed following the release of season one who had grown to love Vinland Saga because of the incredible action pieces within that season (They were amazing, to be fair). Many within that group had mixed or negative reactions to the release of season two-- and honestly, I don't necessarily blame them. The show took a monumental, jarring switch in its content and tone, and I think that not liking that is a perfectly valid opinion to hold.
This is what Vinland Saga is, though. If you didn't enjoy this, you won't like any of the future seasons and the things that they hold. The prologue was pure setup no matter how you look at it, but just so happened to be a masterpiece in and of itself.

Vinland Saga is a series where each arc is written so masterfully that the end of any of them would be a satisfying end for the series as a whole; they could even stand alone as individual stories, if they had to. You could pick this season up without watching the first, and still get a lifechanging experience out of it. The foundations set by the prologue, and the ones continued to be laid with the farmland arc, fuel and connect these stories together to form a whole that is arguably one of the greatest in all of anime and manga.