Awakening

Wow! Where should I start? Perhaps with a big thank you to Mappa. Thank you for giving me this magic every monday for such a long time. I cannot await what happens next.

This episode shows that the animators at Mappa are the best you can hire in the whole world. Just look how they make the emotions. It's just hilarious. I also rarely saw such great character development in a show. What they are doing with Thorfinn is just perfect.

And if that is not enough they got me hardcore intro enthusiast to love their intro. The music, the animations it fits perfect to the theme of the show and gives me goosebumps every week.

I repeat myself, but this show is heading straight up the way to perfection.

I heard there would be no action this season and most of it is will be slow character building for thorfinn and they way their handling his growth as a character especially in this episode has been nothing short of amazing. In season 1 thorfinns character was focused strictly on revenge that it blinded him to the harm he was causing himself and now that askeladd is deceased he's being forced to recognize how the horrors of war effected his worldview. Also love how einar's character parallels thorfinn's in some pretty interesting ways as he's also seen the horrors of war with his family being killed(didn't even mean to talk for this long I was just trying to reach the limit of 600 words 😭)

Vinland Saga once again delivers an emotional and powerfull experience! This episode took Thorfinns character further by confronting him with what It means to be alive! In season 1 he had a purpose! Something that drive him forward! Now that he is stripped of that we instead se a character, confronted by what he has done! Not just by others, but by himself as well! I love the self realization! Realization forced by nightmares!

This also marks an important moment in the relationship between Einar and Thorfinn! The animation was great once again! Loved the style used in The nightmare! Thorfinn's VA did a great job!

This episode was beautiful. I don't take usually say something is perfect because it can't ever meet a total standard but this was certainly almost near to that. MAPPA has not let me down with this adaptation and I think we neglect how they have perfected the feel of Vinland Saga's emotional moments.

The highlight of this episode was some of the voice acting from Thorfinn and Einar. They performed on the level of Grisha's VA in Attack in Titan in Season 4, and the emotion ran deep through me while listening to it. Two men, shouting in a stable about life's philosophy and the beauty of existence back in the middle ages became something of utmost sublimity, something beyond anime, more like real life.

This is probably the best episode of Vinland Saga yet for me, and the Stoicism ideologies in previous episodes broke down to reveal the Aristotle's theory of life's purpose (to amass happiness) and the conflict between the theory of Einar and Thorfinn is so interesting to watch.

There's really no need to complicate this show; it's amazing, plain and simple. The best episode of anime I've watched in a very long time.