20 anime similar to VINLAND SAGA SEASON 2: Same old story based on genre, format, studio, and popularity
Looking for anime similar to VINLAND SAGA SEASON 2: Same old story? Here are 10 anime recommendations that share similar themes, genres, or storytelling styles.
We selected these anime based on shared genres (Drama), similar narrative structures, comparable art styles, and positive fan overlap. If you enjoyed VINLAND SAGA SEASON 2: Same old story, these series should appeal to your taste.
A boy fights... for "the right death." Hardship, regret, shame: the negative feelings that humans feel become Curses that lurk in our everyday lives. The Curses run rampant throughout the world, capable of leading people to terrible misfortune and even death. What's more, the Curses can only be exorcised by another Curse. Itadori Yuji is a boy with tremendous physical strength, though he lives a completely ordinary high school life. One day, to save a friend who has been attacked by Curses, he eats the finger of the Double-Faced Specter, taking the Curse into his own soul. From then on, he shares one body with the Double-Faced Specter. Guided by the most powerful of sorcerers, Gojou Satoru, Itadori is admitted to the Tokyo Metropolitan Technical High School of Sorcery, an organization that fights the Curses... and thus begins the heroic tale of a boy who became a Curse to exorcise a Curse, a life from which he could never turn back. (Source: Crunchyroll) Note: The first episode received an early web premiere on September 19th, 2020. The regular TV broadcast started on October 3rd, 2020.
The second season of Jujutsu Kaisen. The past comes to light when second-year students Satoru Gojou and Suguru Getou are tasked with escorting young Riko Amanai to Master Tengen. But when a non-sorcerer user tries to kill them, their mission to protect the Star Plasma Vessel threatens to turn them into bitter enemies and cement their destinies—one as the world’s strongest sorcerer, and the other its most twisted curse user! (Source: Crunchyroll)
The second season of Vinland Saga. After his father's death and the destruction of his village at the hands of English raiders, Einar wishes for a peaceful life with his family on their newly rebuilt farms. However, fate has other plans: his village is invaded once again. Einar watches helplessly as the marauding Danes burn his lands and slaughter his family. The invaders capture Einar and take him back to Denmark as a slave. Einar clings to his mother's final words to survive. He is purchased by Ketil, a kind slave owner and landlord who promises that Einar can regain his freedom in return for working in the fields. Soon, Einar encounters his new partner in farm cultivation—Thorfinn, a dejected and melancholic slave. As Einar and Thorfinn work together toward their freedom, they are haunted by both sins of the past and the ploys of the present. Yet they carry on, grasping for a glimmer of hope, redemption, and peace in a world that is nothing but unjust and unforgiving. (Source: MAL Rewrite)
Denji is a teenage boy living with a Chainsaw Devil named Pochita. Due to the debt his father left behind, he has been living a rock-bottom life while repaying his debt by harvesting devil corpses with Pochita. One day, Denji is betrayed and killed. As his consciousness fades, he makes a contract with Pochita and gets revived as "Chainsaw Man" — a man with a devil's heart. (Source: Crunchyroll)
It’s been four years since the Scout Regiment reached the shoreline, and the world looks different now. Things are heating up as the fate of the Scout Regiment—and the people of Paradis—are determined at last. However, Eren is missing. Will he reappear before age-old tensions between Marleyans and Eldians result in the war of all wars? (Source: Crunchyroll)
The third season of Jujutsu Kaisen. After the Shibuya Incident, a deadly jujutsu battle known as the Culling Game orchestrated by Noritoshi Kamo erupts across ten colonies in Japan. Haunted by guilt over the mass killings in Shibuya and wary of Sukuna’s interest in Fushiguro, Itadori chooses not to return to Jujutsu High. Instead, he teams up with Choso to exorcise the countless cursed spirits unleashed by Noritoshi Kamo. Amid this chaos, the Jujutsu Headquarters revokes Yuji Itadori’s suspended death sentence and appoints special-grade sorcerer Yuta Okkotsu as his executioner. Newly awakened modern sorcerers and resurrected ancient ones, now fighting as players in the Culling Game, collide with conflicting motives, driving the world once more toward an age ruled by jujutsu. (Source: TOHO Animation)
The war for Paradis zeroes in on Shiganshina just as Jaegerists have seized control. After taking a huge blow from a surprise attack led by Eren, Marley swiftly acts to return the favor. With Zeke’s true plan revealed and a military forced under new rule, this battle might be fought on two fronts. Does Eren intend on fulfilling his half-brother’s wishes or does he have a plan of his own? (Source: Funimation)
During daylight hours, an exclusive, elite private school prepares its illustrious students for careers in business, politics, and high society. But when darkness falls, the halls of this esteemed establishment transform into an underground gambling den where bright-eyed youngsters learn the timeless art of bluffing, backdoor dealings and social manipulation. In this school for the rich and elite, money is power, and the tyrant of the betting books rules with an iron fist. So when the beautiful Yumeko Jabami upsets the academy hierarchy with her voracious appetite for the thrill of the gamble, the entire student body mobilizes to send her house of cards tumbling down. (Source: Sentai Filmworks)
At Hyakkao Private Academy, Yumeko Jabami’s star rises just as the student council’s reputation starts to dim. In the shadows of the council’s dwindling power, discord reigns supreme. In a bold effort to rebalance the social scales, student council president Kirari Momobami intends to place her bet on the election for the council’s next president. Everyone starts with a single chip, and at the end of 30 days, the whoever holds the most becomes the president of the Momobami Clan. But chips aren’t the only things students can wager as they fight tooth and nail to ascend to the council presidency, and Yumeko Jabami intends to clean house no matter the prizes she must risk in the betting pool. (Source: Sentai Filmworks)
Dororo, a young orphan thief, meets Hyakkimaru, a powerful ronin. Hyakkimaru's father, a greedy feudal lord, had made a pact with 12 demons, offering his yet-unborn son's body parts in exchange for great power. Thus, Hyakkimaru - who was born without arms, legs, eyes, ears, a nose or a mouth - was abandoned in a river as a baby. Rescued and raised by Dr. Honma, who equips him with artificial limbs and teaches him sword-fighting techniques, Hyakkimaru discovers that each time he slays a demon, a piece of his body is restored. Now, he roams the war-torn countryside in search of demons.
In the aftermath of a World War II bombing, two orphaned children struggle to survive in the Japanese countryside. To Seita and his four-year-old sister, the helplessness and indifference of their countrymen is even more painful than the enemy raids. Through desperation, hunger and grief, these children's lives are as heartbreakingly fragile as their spirit and love is inspiring. (Source: Sentai Filmworks)
Theatrical follow-up to Chainsaw Man. Denji became “Chainsaw Man”, a boy with a devil’s heart, and is now part of Special Division 4’s devil hunters. After a date with Makima, the woman of his dreams, Denji takes shelter from the rain. There he meets Reze, a girl who works in a café. (Source: MAPPA CHANNEL)
Nature made Ash Lynx beautiful; nurture made him a cold ruthless killer. A runaway brought up as the adopted heir and sex toy of "Papa" Dino Golzine, Ash, now at the rebellious age of seventeen, forsakes the kingdom held out by the devil who raised him. But the hideous secret that drove Ash's older brother mad in Vietnam has suddenly fallen into Papa's insatiably ambitious hands—and it's exactly the wrong time for Eiji Okamura, a pure-hearted young photographer from Japan, to make Ash Lynx's acquaintance... (Source: VIZ Media)
Yuri Katsuki makes his way to the Grand Prix ice skating competition as Japan’s top representative with his eyes on the prize. However, instead of celebrating, Yuri walks away defeated and ready to retire for good. But a run-in with champion Viktor Nikiforov and rising star Yuri Plisetsky ignites a new fire within him. With the two of them close by his side, Yuri will take to the ice once more. (Source: Funimation)
An original anime series set in in the universe of Cyberpunk 2077. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners tells a standalone, 10-episode story about a street kid trying to survive in a technology and body modification-obsessed city of the future. Having everything to lose, he chooses to stay alive by becoming an edgerunner—a mercenary outlaw also known as a cyberpunk. (Source: CD PROJEKT RED) Note: The first episode received a pre-screening at Anime Expo on July 2, 2022. The first 3 dubbed episodes were streamed on Twitch as part of a co-stream promotion on September 12, a day before the show’s premiere.
In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream: she wants to be a witch. But everybody knows magicians are born, not made, and Coco was not born with a gift for magic. Resigned to her un-magical life, Coco is about to give up on her dream to become a witch … until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, traveling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she’s never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody “knows” might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem... (Source: Kodansha USA) Note: Tongari Boushi no Atelier episode 2 was streamed a week in advance on Crunchyroll, ABEMA, and Netflix, alongside episode 1. Streaming is one week ahead of the TV broadcast.
Ichiro Inuyashiki is down on his luck. While only 58 years old, his geriatric looks often have him written off as a pathetic old man by the world around him and he's constantly ignored and disrespected by his family despite all that he's done to support them. On top of everything else, his doctor has revealed that he has cancer and it appears that he has little time left in this world. But just when it seems things couldn't get any worse, a blinding light in the night sky strikes the earth where Ichiro stands. He later wakes up to find himself unscathed, but he soon starts to notice that there's something…different about himself. (Source: Crunchyroll)
Maomao lived a peaceful life with her apothecary father. Until one day, she’s sold as a lowly servant to the emperor’s palace. But she wasn’t meant for a compliant life among royalty. So when imperial heirs fall ill, she decides to step in and find a cure! This catches the eye of Jinshi, a handsome palace official who promotes her. Now, she’s making a name for herself solving medical mysteries! (Source: Crunchyroll)
In Florida, 2011, Jolyne Kuujou sits in a jail cell like her father Joutarou once did; yet this situation is not of her own choice. Framed for a crime she didn’t commit, and manipulated into serving a longer sentence, Jolyne is ready to resign to a dire fate as a prisoner of Green Dolphin Street Jail. Though all hope seems lost, a gift from Joutarou ends up awakening her latent abilities, manifesting into her Stand, Stone Free. Now armed with the power to change her fate, Jolyne sets out to find an escape from the stone ocean that holds her. However, she soon discovers that her incarceration is merely a small part of a grand plot: one that not only takes aim at her family, but has additional far-reaching consequences. What's more, the mastermind is lurking within the very same prison, and is under the protection of a lineup of menacing Stand users. Finding unlikely allies to help her cause, Jolyne sets course to stop their plot, clear her name, and take back her life. (Source: MAL Rewrite)
Self-styled “Japan's greatest swindler” Makoto Edamura is mainly targeting elder people and occasional foreign travelers. But when he tries to scam an apparently clueless French tourist in Tokyo, he can't possibly imagine that what looked like just another ordinary job is going to take him all the way to Los Angeles, tied upside-down on the famous Hollywood sign… And he is yet to find out what fate awaits him! (Source: Crunchyroll)