There’s no other anime franchise out there quite like Vinland Saga. While the series reformats real-life events of the past involving vikings and conflicts for the world’s future, it also explores the feelings of its characters in such a way that the franchise has become an emotional juggernaut. With the series preparing to say goodbye to Thorfinn and those lucky enough to survive the series so far, creator Makoto Yukimura has taken the opportunity to dive deep into his stories. In a new interview, the mangaka breaks down what women have meant to the series so far and how Vinland Saga has changed over the years.
For those who might not have dove right into Vinland Saga as of yet, the first season was one of revenge and bloody battles that forged the main character Thorfinn. In attempting to claim vengeance for the death of his father, Thorfinn joins the band of viking led by his dad’s killer, Askeladd. When Askeladd eventually dies, Thorfinn struggles with what next to do in his life now that his vengeance has been denied of him and Vinland Saga takes a radically different approach. Rather than continuing to focus strictly on hard-hitting fights, much of Vinland Saga’s second season reflects on Thorfinn attempting to find a path free of violence in a world where violence is celebrated.
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The Women of Vinland Saga
One of the biggest female characters of Vinland Saga was Arnheid, a slave introduced in the anime’s second season who had lost her child to war and seen her husband also taken into slavery. In a new interview, Yukimura discussed her character and how her presence was essential to the overall tale, “The reason I came up as this character, Arnheid, is that I wanted to specify the direction Thorfinn and Einar are going in their journey to make a better world. But what is this new world about? And who is it for? I wanted to be as specific as possible about this and to reflect that kind of the longing for the peace, the place without wars, somewhere that somebody unfortunate, like Arnheid, would be living safely, those are the kind of world that I wanted our main characters to build in the future story.
Yukimura continued, stating that he would often struggle in depicting Arnheid but knew she needed to have a big role in the franchise, “If you have read the story and felt like the psychological portrayal of Arnheid is realistic in some way, then I feel like my goal was accomplished here. I really did have a difficult time going into the psyche of Arnheid, because I’m not a woman, and I have never gone to war, and I am not a slave. So I really used every inch of my imagination to try to imagine: what would the life of such a person be like? When there is a war, of course, everybody suffers, but at the same time, I think the people who suffer the most are often women and children. I really felt like I must write her. It was my mission to portray this character in order to make Thorfinn’s life later on in the story to be against the war, and long for release. She was an essential character for his motivation.”
Vinland Saga: The Past And The Present
In recent days, Yukimura has confirmed that his beloved manga only has “a few chapters left” before the end. While a specific end date hasn’t been revealed, Makoto discussed in the interview how the series has changed in terms of where it started and where it’s currently at today.
“I started to write the story almost 20 years ago. Back then, the world was a much more peaceful place compared to nowadays. Back then, somebody told me we should be thinking about war when there is no war. And this is something that I have kept to my heart, and I have been doing since. So I was, you know, thinking about war when there was no war for almost 20 years, and now time has caught up in a way that the world unfortunately is a sadder place than what I could ever have imagined. So now is actually the best time to read my work: what I always wanted to write about has always been the message of peace and compassion.
As the manga’s end approaches, anime fans are waiting to see if Vinland Saga was make a comeback for a third season. Following the second season finale, Studio MAPPA has yet to confirm if Thorfinn will return though there are still plenty of stories that could help give viewers one more season at least. Fingers crossed that we’ll see this brutal landscape return to the small screen in the not-so-distant future.
Want to stay up to date on all things Vinland Saga before the series comes to a close? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for all the latest updates on Thorfinn and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.
