English Dub Season Review: NieR:Automata Ver1.1a Season One

Based on the Square Enix videogame that was co-developed by Platinum Games. The story (created by Yoko Taro), takes place in the distant future of 5012 AD where lifeforms otherwise known as begin their invasion of Earth. Since mankind escaped to the moon, the ground battle between the created by humans and the created by the Aliens has continued for a long time. The latest addition to the android forces is YoRHa, an elite android fighting force based in the orbital Bunker and communicating directly with the Council of Humanity on the Moon. YoRHa models 2B (Voiced by Kira Buckland) and S9 (Voiced by Kyle McCarley) are sent down as part of a reconnaissance force to investigate local Machine behavior and aid local Resistance forces. During their time on Earth, 2B and 9S suppress hostile Machine Lifeforms, coming into contact with other characters who exist in the world and unraveling shocking revelations. This is the story of these lifeless and their endless fight for the sake of mankind…

On the Technical side, this Anime adaptation was directed by Ryouji Masuyama, co-written by Masuyama and Yoko Taro, and composed by music studio Monaca. With some music arranged and recycled from the game itself. Yoko, who directed and co-wrote the original game, collaborated with Masuyama on adapting the story into a form that would work in an anime and was even involved in the wacky live-action puppet segments in the post-credits scenes. Monaca, who worked on the game’s music, returned to both arrange earlier pieces and create original music. The opening theme “Escalate” was done by Aimer, while the ending theme “Antinomy” was done by Amazarashi.

Anime adaptations that attempt to capture the essence and depth of the story and characters of a video game nearly always end up failing in doing the source material justice, A lot of the time, adaptations in general can be hit or miss. This is because adapting such an intricate and interactive medium like video games–which typically have multiple branching paths and endings based on player choices and actions as well–into a linear narrative and with the need to condense a lengthy gaming experience into a handful of episodes.

Nier Automata is set in a beautiful post-apocalyptic world where futurism is overrun with random patches of plants and other greenery, yet the anime never leans into this hauntingly desolate, atmospheric world except for once in episode 2 with the anime-original opening sequence involving the Machines. Much like its source material, it tackles the philosophical themes of meaning and existential despair, it revolves around topics such as finding your cause, finding a reason to live, a reason to fight, and the profound feeling of despair over that struggle, and the endless search for hope in an endless war.

Much of that narrative is intact in places, but in combination with that, there are random moments of wackiness in most of the post-credits scenes of the episodes that attempt to fill in gaps of information in the form of a live-action puppet show, along with the claim that it’s revealing multiple “alternate endings” of the game itself that might reward people who are willing to find a secret message that I couldn’t decipher, but good on them I guess.

Since there are reportedly little discrepancies between the animation and the game, It’s hard to believe that Yoko Taro had any sort of involvement. it cannot be said that the animation is a replica of the game. Except for some CGI mech designs and robots which are also a mixed bag, the visual design and even backgrounds sometimes appropriately give an invasive cold and mechanical feeling which appropriately works in terms of showing a bleak planet that’s been violated by machinery, and the legit sense of dread it can give to any normal living person…

Overall, if you a longtime of the game that’s been out since 2017, You will undoubtedly enjoy this show, but if you a newbie, it would certainly be helpful if you are to understand how things came to be or what’s been changed around because many technical terms were just thrown around without much of an introduction or explanation. But with the recent announcement of season two being made, we can only hope there’s a clear sense of finality for this crazy, convoluted dystopian plot.