NieR:Automata Ver1.1a (Potential Spoilers May Be Untagged)

First off, a warning. Given that this is an adaptation of a game, and thus far from what I've seen it is going to be one that faithfully covers events, there may be spoilers from people that have played the game and know what's incoming. Please try to keep spoilers to a minimum as well as give warnings/spoiler things when applicable. That being said, some of the discussion is going to be nearly impossible to have without talking about elements of the game.

The first episode covered the events that I suspected it would, those being analogous to the game's first mission. Tightened for time of course but still keeping most of the elements. Noteworthy in that we're already seeing elements of both A and B routes in this adaptation. That only makes sense though given that the two routes are just the two different perspectives of 2B and 9S, so combining them both is going to save budget most obviously but also prevent audience burnout from an Endless Eight style situation, even though it will ultimately dilute some of the content.

On a technical level, the CGI was fine. Not mindblowing, but also not detracting. I suspect that most episodes won't be as CGI heavy as this one because the aerial elements are not overwhelmingly heavy in the game. Use of the game's own soundtrack was a nice touch. The music was already fitting and continues to be so here.

The puppet theatre is going to be a funny little touch. Although after some episodes I can only imagine the mood whiplash it'll cause.

To my knowledge there hasn't been any confirmation of how many episodes this is going to be. That being said I can imagine that this adaptation will SPOILERS AHEAD cover at bare minimum up to the end of Routes A and B, with a potential second cour/season covering C and D.

The more traditional animation was well done, no complaints there.

I like the combination of perspectives. This should be am interesting watch.

Anyone knows where I can watch this?

I feel like it did a pretty good job of translating the prologue into linear narrative form. ...Judging from the reactions of new fans, they may have been best off just skipping this portion, though

Figured they'd combine Routes A & B, the story only seriously diverges after C.

So far it’s a pretty by-the-book adaptation, doesn’t do anything too crazy. Some dodgy CGI with the robot-planes but the 2D animation is fine.

Using the game’s soundtrack as is may be a bit lazy but come on, you simply can’t replace Automata’s OST.

The little touches they put into adapting 2B and 9S meeting again in the Bunker has me feeling optimistic that this could be decent overall. Otherwise it was mostly just functional.

I am hoping for the soundtrack to be touched up a little if they brought Monaca on board this project.

The puppet theater is indisputably the funniest part, I look forward to the next 20 episodes if they keep this up.

Due to the way the endings work in the original game, I don't know if a beat-by-beat adaptation can have the same impact as the original game.

Not a fan of the animation; I think it needed more time in the oven.

I think the CGI felt a little off-putting but overall seems to be a solid adaptation, felt from the episode A1 is putting in passion into this project!

I hope so don't want sub-par Fairy Tail animation for this project.

Episode 2 deviates a little more, we’re introduced to a new character (from one of the spin-offs I think?) and the daily life of a few machines that developped feelings.

The little narrated skits were a bit distracting though.

The character in question Lily, is from the stage play, which is in the past covering the mission of A2 and her squad. Offhand at a guess she'll have some elements in common with Anemone, though she seems angrier to see someone so closely resembling A2 than Anemone was from the looks of it.

I'd imagine that some people might have been thrown off by the first half of the episode, but it goes a long way towards making the machines out to be more than a collective soulless army of metal. More philosophically it also shows the tragedy that can befall leaving the in-group, so to speak.

The narrative shorts were done by 9S in the game I'm pretty sure, but they had to be done by someone else here in order to avoid potential audience confusion. The "9S" that narrates those scenes in the game is more of just a presence with a familiar voice than the actual character himself.

Angelus as she appears dead in Drakengard Ending E also cameos in Ep 2 in a split second clip of a TV news broadcast the Machines use to gain knowledge of humans from the past.

Edited by Demongodofchaos2 on Jan 15th 2023 at 6:48:22 AM

The second episode's creative decisions certainly has me piqued that the rest of the season could maintain this level of original story quality and allow the anime to stand by itself.

Yes, after a first episode that just took the game and stripped out most of the fighting (and the fiddling about with OS chips, never liked its combat-build mechanics) this one made a bold move by dedicating a third of its runtime to building up themes with no dialogue or plot consequences. Gives me hope that this will be an adaptation that can strike out on its own and isn't shackled by its source.

One complaint I have about both the game and this is that the non-Yorha androids look too human and contemporary. When injured they are bandaged and bleeding, all their equipment is modern despite being millennia in the future. (You wouldn't want an AK-47 against metal machines, an anti-tank rifle would suit better.) It's possible to make equipment look both futuristic and run-down, Star Wars did it. A few touches like plugging into their vehicles (with old, worn plugs) would have done the trick.

Another problem I had with the game was how empty the ruined buildings were. I never felt like people had lived here, they were just hollows shells with trace of life. That in turn meant there was no lingering sadness from the great catastrophe of humanity's fall. Adding in remnants of human lives helped, I hope they add more.

Id argue that there isn't much remaining sadness over the fall of humanity. Thats ancient history. The real tragedy is that the Machine Lifeforms and the Androids are all people locked into an unending conflict over that ancient history.

Humanity has been dead for so long that there really shouldn't be much left

I thought the implication was the machines built some of what is presently available in their attempt to emulate humanity? Maybe I'm misremembering.

Edited by Nouct on Jan 17th 2023 at 8:27:42 AM

It doesn't help that the Androids are being tricked into thinking that humans are still alive.

Edit: Below are spoilers from the game.

The real tragedy is that said conflict is nothing but some messed up social engineering project to help the AI behind the Machines' Network (manifested as the Red Girls) develop true free will. And Project Yor Ha goes along with it because they need the war to continue to maintain the deception that humans aren't extinct.

In other words, the powers running each side are actually working together for their own mutual benefit while throwing hapless Androids and Machines into the grinder.

Edited by M84 on Jan 18th 2023 at 11:40:45 PM

Maybe you should specify when you’re spoiling the game’s story, in case some may not have played it.

We should avoid using spoilers about revelations that are to come much later. I have played the game (though I'm puzzled about parts of the backstory, especially relating to the androids' early days among humans) but this thread should be accommodating to new watchers. Though granted, the fact that humanity is extinct since long ago is probably easy to tell.

Its at least apparent that humanity hasn't been on Earth in a long, long time. That they aren't on the moon, either, is the twist.

Episode three thoughts:

So, in anime Lily is replacing Anemone entirely as the local leader of the resistance. Personally I don't find anything wrong with this because it's not like the latter played a huge role in the story of the game, and given what little I know of Lily there's a lot of overlap there anyways.

Jackass has made it over with very little change, which is great. I love how utterly manic she is; it can be expressed here a lot more clearly than in the game. They're also not shying away that she's more aware than most about certain things going on, although I'm sure that'll be extrapolated on later.

Have to say that I'm disappointed in how short the Adam fight was though. I get that they can go through the version where he's adapting as the player is attacking him, getting smarter, hitting harder, developing wisdom as the fight goes on. Here though he gets to block one attack and then gets shanked; it was pretty anticlimactic. I will say that his birth was a hell of a lot creepier here than in the game, as in the game he emerges from the goo in perfect Ken doll glory whereas here the Androids and by proxy us the audience get to see him grow skin. It's offputting but for the right reasons.

https://twitter.com/NieRA_anime_EN/status/1616843160000385024?s=20&t=UK_xxo150PCE7NN13kAsdw

Broadcast of the Nier anime has now been delayed until further notice. Citing COVID 19 and its effect on the production.

Jackass and Adam/Eve had a pretty great introduction but all I can think about is Facade wedding cameo ;-;.