Vinland Saga

Vinland Saga is an anime television series animated by Wit Studio that began airing on NHK General TV in July 2019.

The anime adapts the historical manga written and illustrated by Makoto Yukimura. Shuhei Yabuta directed the series, with character designs by Takahiko Abiru and music composed by Yutaka Yamada.

The story follows Thorfinn, a young Icelandic boy raised on tales of a fertile western land called Vinland and inspired by his father Thors, a retired warrior. When a mercenary band ambushes their ship, Thors chooses to sacrifice his life to protect the crew and his young son. Devastated by the murder, Thorfinn secretly boards the ship of the mercenary commander Askeladd and swears vengeance against him in a duel of honor. The boy joins Askeladd's band as a warrior, executing dangerous missions during the Viking wars in England to earn legitimate challenges against his father's killer.

Yuto Uemura and Naoya Uchida voice the central figures Thorfinn and Askeladd in the Japanese cast. The first season ran for 24 episodes from July to December 2019. A second season consisting of 24 episodes aired from January to June 2023, with animation duties transferring from Wit Studio to MAPPA under the same creative team. The manga itself began publication in Weekly Shonen Magazine in April 2005 before moving to the monthly magazine Afternoon in October 2005, spanning 27 collected volumes by 2023.

The English version first streamed worldwide on Amazon Prime Video in July 2019. In 2020, the anime won the Best Drama award at the 4th Crunchyroll Anime Awards. The anime also earned the Grand Prize in the Animation Division at the 23rd Japan Media Arts Festival in 2020. Scriptwriter Hiroshi Seko handled the series composition across both seasons, writing the screenplays alongside co-writer Kenta Ihara. The second season concluded its broadcast run on Japanese television on June 20, 2023, after covering the farmland story arc.