The summer and fall 2019 anime adaptation of the Vinland Saga manga from Makoto Yukimura saw its streaming through Amazon Prime and now it’s going to expand things a bit. We learned formally last summer that a second season was in the works and the new show is set for a January 9th, 2023 debut. Overseas streaming is set for Crunchyroll worldwide outside of Asia while Netflix will handle it worldwide outside of China.
With the twenty-second episode coming up on June 5th, 2023, the folks at TWIN ENGINE have now dropped their first preview of the episode that’s titled “Emperor of Rebellion.”
The series has Shuhei Yabuta directing based on the series composition by Hiroshi Seko and Kenta Ihara. Animated at Wit Studio, Takahiko Abiru handled the character designs for it.
The Japanese cast includes Shizuka Ishigami as Thorfinn as a child, Yūto Uemura as Thorfinn, and Kenichirou Matsuda as Thors. The newly added cast includes Naoya Uchida as Askeladd, Kensho Ono as Canute, Akio Ohtsuka as Thorkell, and Hiroki Yasumoto as Bjorn. The supporting cast includes Atsushi Ono as Floki, Yōji Ueda as Leif Ericson, Ao Takahashi as Helga, Hitomi Nabatame as Ylva, Jin Urayama as Ragnar, Satoshi Hino as Willibald, Ryota Takeuchi as Asgeir, Takayuki Sugo as Sweyn, Hiroki Gotou as Torgrim, Shinya Takahashi as Atli, Makoto Furukawa as The Ear, Mitsuhiro Ichiki as Ari, and Yoshimitsu Shimoyama as Halfdan.
Additional second season cast includes Shunsuke Takeuchi as Einar, Mayumi Sako as Arnheid, Yu Hayashi as Olmar, Hideaki Tezuka as Ketil, and Taiten Kusunoki as Thorgil.
This season features the opening theme song “River” and the ending theme song” Without Love” below.
The manga has seen release in North America through Kodansha Comics, which has struggled in the omnibus hardcover format they were putting it out in to ensure it had a prestige feeling about it, but this is an adaptation that could really give it a huge and worthy boost. The manga has over five million copies in print across the twenty-four volumes released so far in Japan.
Check out the official site and Twitter.
Plot Concept: Raised on tales of the legendary land of Vinland, where warmth and plenty abound, young Thorfinn dreams of leaving behind the cold climate of Iceland and venturing into the great unknown. But when Viking sails appear on the horizon, the young boy is conscripted into a life of violence and brutality at the hands of merciless Viking Askalaad. With nothing left to him save revenge, Thorfinn swears vengeance against the man who slew his family, plunging headlong into a sprawling, blood-soaked, coming-of-age epic that marches to the drums of war.
