Vinland Saga Director Shuhei Yabuta has revealed that there will be several small changes in the content of Vinland Saga Season 2. Yabuta said that the number of changes in Season 2 will be more than that of Season 1, and hoped that fans would look forward to it and enjoy it.

According to Yabuta, the farmland saga or the ‘Slave arc’ was serialized a long time ago, which made him feel that he had to come up with better way to portray the characters in the current era.

“I thought that the times had changed, and I thought a lot about how to draw the appearance of the characters in this new era. This was work serialized long time ago, and it was important to be conscious of that,” Yabuta said.

The director was of the opinion that changes were needed in the original content, so that he would be able to properly portray the mature and deep themes that are dealt with in the manga, including the effects of violence.

“After, all the part of how to deal with violence is draw very deeply in this anime,” he said. “As for the content, there might be several small changes. It’s actually much more than in Season 1, since all the weight of drawing those feelings I just talked about is very big.”

Yabuta also said that sometime the “things didn’t go the way you wanted, or didn’t feel like what you experienced in the story” justifying the necessity of the alterations.

He further added that he made the adjustments after confirming with author Makoto Yukimura and the editorial team.

Character designer and Animation Director Takahiko Abiru too reflected on the changes in Season 2. According to him, while Season 1 was an accurate and faithful adaptation of the manga, the staff’s work in the sequel was based heavily on director Yabuta’s opinion.

“I feel like we were basing ourselves more on director Yabuta’s opinions,” Abiru said. “It took me a little while to understand what he wanted us to do. As he sat next to me, I talked a lot with him, but in moments where he seemed stressed I preferred not to talk to him and rather reflect on what his way of thinking was like.”

Yabuta also revealed in the interview that he was just one of the readers of the manga as Slave arc was being serialized more than ten years ago, and never imagined that it would be getting an anime adaptation.

“I just thought that Mr. Yukimura was drawing something really good. After all, I never imagined the farm story would become an animation for the second season,” the director said.

Vinland Saga Season 2 is set to premiere in Japan in January 2023. A new PV and key visual were released for the anime on June 8, 2022. Though the studio in charge of animating Vinland Saga Season 2 changed from WIT to MAPPA, the staff working on the anime is same as Season 1.

Season 2 of the anime is confirmed to have 24 episodes.

Source: YouTube