NieR: Automata Ver 1.1a – 12 – (Part 1 Fin) – 420 Seconds

That giant beam from the sky that iced Adam? That was a satellite weapon that the Council of Humanity did not authorize YoRHa to use. And yet, it was used. When 6O asked Commander White if “this is okay”, White says, cryptically, “this world needs a god, even if it doesn’t really exist.” When the Pods detect a faint ML symbol, 2B and 9S ride them down into the blast area, where Adam is still “alive” but in rough shape.

2B prepares to finish the job, but hesitates briefly, as Adam recalls his promise to Eve and grabs her leg. 9S takes hold of 2B’s sword and plunges it into Adam’s head, defeating him for good. However, moments later 9S’ eyes turn red; the result of being infected by his hacking encounter with Adam.

This means 2B has to kill him before he goes berserk (he slashes her mask off with a metal sword arm), with no chance at backing up the personality of the 9S she’s come to know and care about…again. Even so, she does her duty and eliminates the threat.

Afterwards, 2B cannot help but weep at having to say goodbye to her friend once more. Fortunately for her, it’s only a temporary farewell, as all of the ML husks’ eyes start to glow green in sequence like fireflies, not only in her vicinity but all over the planet.

A larger ML mech rises to meet 2B, who draws her sword, but lowers it when she hears 9S’ voice. Turns out his uncorrupted personality data had been backed up in the ML network. 2B smiles in joy and relief, showing a great deal of emotion despite her past insistence that they’re forbidden.

9S gives 2B a ride back up to street level, and Bob’s your uncle: the end credits roll, announcing the end of the series less than eleven minutes in. When the credits end, we’re taken back a couple of hours to the Bunker, where the recently delivered 9S is undergoing diagnostics and checks.

In the process of connecting to the Bunker server, he hears a weird, unexplained sound. He does a little digging in the virtual archive and uncovers some forbidden data protected by a firewall. He’s then chased around the construct by defense systems.

Rather than destroy him, the units corral him into a black cube, within which he is confronted by a pair of seemingly identical girls in red dresses, whom we caught a slight glimpse of during the drunken battle omake after episode 10.

These girls in red talk in a bunch of cryptic riddles, but the gist is that they’re the ones controlling and watching the war between the Machine Lifeforms and the Androids. In other words, a Big Bad beyond Adam and Eve.

The voice of the Council of Humanity eventually chimes in, and 9S is given unprecedented access to top secret information. Among this info, something is revealed I had suspected all along; humanity really is extinct, and has been so for a while. There’s nothing on the moon but a communications server maintained by other androids.

The fiction of humanity surviving, and the establishment of YoRHa, was meant to improve the moral of the androids. This is all very intriguing, and I look forward to these mysteries being explored further in NieR’s confirmed second cour. Hopefully we’ll be treated to more fun 2B/9S interactions… along with more omake puppet shows.

NieR: Automata Ver 1.1a – 11 – We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Sword

The Machine Lifeforms are wilding the fuck out. Amassing in huge numbers and filled with (I assume) Adam’s rage, they quickly surround and overwhelm the Resistance camp. Fresh off their big guest appearance in episode 10’s omake, the redhead twins perform triage as Lily ponders her unit’s next move with the enemy growing and their ammo dwindling.

2B shows up to lend a much appreciated hand, and her Pod downloads a new, even bigger ML-killin’ sword. Commander White goes to the plate for her soldiers, but the Council of Humanity (who may well be neither a council or human), refuses her request for logistical aid, citing a greater purpose. Even so, 2B and the Resistance are still able to activate an EMP that disables the advancing ML armies.

Unfortunately, after it starts to rain, all of those neutralized ML husks combine to form a colossal Adam just as 9S returns in his mech. A resistance fighter fires a bazooka that topples Big Adam, but he simply transforms into a frankly silly looking giant monster, with the newly two-toned Adam lodged in its skull.

Rather than despair at the enemy’s evolution, Lily rallies her troops, and when they respond with unswerving loyalty, she looks the happiest and most excited she ever has. She believes they can defeat that big thing, and I believe her too.

2B engages the scary-fast, scary-vicious “elite” MLs, and while 9S’s first hacking attempt on the monster ends with the destruction of his mech, he is caught in midair by Pascal, who along with his village did not go berserk since they were cut off from the main network.

While he may technically be breaking a YoRHa regulation or two, 9S dons a heavy-duty hacking connector for his second attempt to shut the monster down. 2B is initially overmatched by her three elite hyper-berserk MLs, but manages to trick them with a hologram of herself and slashes them to smithereens with her big sword. It’s a magnificent spectacle.

Pascal carries 9S to the monster’s head so he can contact it directly with his gauntlet. Once he’s hacked in, 9S quickly realizes that Adam is pretty much going mad, which explains why the ML and the monster are totally out of control. But as usual, he’s able to buy just enough time exploring the various metaphorical constructs thrown his way and stab the cyber-Adam at his flaming table.

This causes the monster to start moving in the direction the Resistance troops want: right into the line of fire of a salvaged railroad cannon. When the monster is thrown back, an ICBM launches it into the atmosphere. While it initially survives and begins to plummet towards the earth, it appears to be finished off by a giant particle beam, I assume from an orbiting satellite weapon.

The battle against Adam and his berserk ML army escalated quickly, and appears to end just as quickly with a great victory for 2B, 9S, Lily, Jackass, and the androids. The omake is a brief one, with 2B and 9S petting their Pods as if they were pet puppies, and actually doesn’t result in a Game (or World) Over. With the Big Bad vanquished, I wonder what’s in store for the final episode, knowing a second cour has been confirmed.

NieR: Automata Ver 1.1a – 10 – Missing Eve

In the aftermath of the big Adam & Eve battle, 9S is shuttled back up to the Bunker for repairs (whether his memories are wiped again isn’t mentioned). Commander White orders 2B to finish the job solo and destroy Adam. Adam, as you’d imagine, is extremely blue, and has no patience for a ML dressed as a priest taking Eve’s place at the brothers’ table.

From the moment 2B arrives at a huge derelict factory festooned with religious banners, seething with proselytizing ML zealouts spouting boilerplate dogma. There’s some light comedic moments surrounding the fact 2B now temporarily has two Pods; they talk over each other and 9S’ wants 2B to converse more. Meanwhile the religious MLs get more and more fired up, while half of Adam becomes covered in tattoos.

You get the feeling 2B just stepped into the middle of a tinderbox, and while I’m not certain Adam’s change in body art triggers it, suddenly the yellow eyes of every ML in the joint turn red, and 2B and her Pods find themselves locked in a fight with a swarm of them. She does manage to escape to the elevator, whereupon she meets a still yellow-eyed ML, remotely controlled by 9S from the Bunker.

The happy semi-reunion vibes don’t last, as 2B jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire: specifically, an arena for a boss fight with a giant spherical ML with several legs. 9S uses the ML to hack into the factory in order to shut off the power so the boss’ shields drop, sacrificing the ML unit in the process. 2B manages to defeat the boss with a cool coup de grace. Unfortunately, she’s surrounded all over again by the hordes of red-eyed MLs. Back at the Bunker, alarms are going off all over the place.

It comes as no surprise that even in when White approves sending backup to 2B, comms are jammed. She’s on her own, and when she releases the Pods’ limiters, they barely make a dent in the ML numbers before going into low-power mode to recover. Fortunately, these Matrix Sentinal-like hordes of MLs aren’t interested in 2B, and pass right by her as they dive en masse into the tank of lava below, with the intention of becoming like Eve.

As for Adam, he’s destroyed his table, and looks ready to jump to his death…or do something else.I gotta be honest, while cool-looking and sounding, he’s simply not the most compelling villain. He has no one to blame but himself for Eve’s demise, as he’s the one who captured and tortured 9S and provoked 2B.

Could it be Eve, and his singular control over the network, was actually keeping the MLs from going berserk? Whatever the cause, that is the situation as the episode ends, with even the Resistance Camp threatened by escalating enemy action on all sides.

We close with a longer than usual puppet omake, involving the soft-spoken Popola and more rowdy Devola (both voiced by Shiraishi Ryouko, a fave of mine), 9S, and some desert rose wine. Hijinx ensue. I particularly liked the touch of using human hands to draw on the chalkboard and raise glasses for a toast.

NieR: Automata Ver 1.1a – 09 – Into the Lion’s Den

It took four months, but we finally learn where 9S ended up: right in Adam’s clutches, as expected. The trap takes the form of an endless matrix of hallways and doors, and Adam has all the keys. He stalks 9S, then sidles right up to him and mocks 9S’ fondness for 2B. Meanwhile 2B knows something is up, so she follows the Pods to the art room, where she finds specific coordinates.

After a futile call to the Bunker for backup (there’s no backup to spare), she uses her Pod like a Mary Poppins umbrella, arresting her descent into the coordinates. A pure white “Copied City” coalesces around her.

She walks down streets, through a church-like structure filled with reliefs of humans and a grotesque construction made from captured YoRHa soldiers, and in a library similar to the one in Beauty and the Beast, Adam finally reveals himself with panache.

Adam reminds 2B that they met when he and his brother were first born, but that there “wasn’t time” to get to know each other, what with 2B trying to kill them on the spot. Now he’s in complete control, and like a cat with a mouse is content to simply mess with 2B in an attempt to get her to express emotions.

2B takes the bait when Adam shows her a crucified 9S at his mercy, and seems to feed off of her surge of anger and hatred. The two spar, but it becomes clear that physical attacks are pointless; Adam can regenerate his body instantly.

With 2B seemingly out of options, Adam produces a pure white copy of 9S. Though Adam is disconnected from the network and thus mortal, a group of 9S clones spring forth from the ground and restrain and choke 2B. But before she passes out, her Pod tells her “the appointed time has come.”

2B wasn’t really trying to defeat Adam; she was only buying time for 9S’ Pod to hack into Adam’s system. Once it does, the white city turns charcoal grey, the clones disappear, and 2B is free to impale Adam with her sword. And she would have, too, if Eve hadn’t stepped in her path.

Eve protects his big brother, but as I assume he is also disconnected from the Network, when he dies, he seems to die for good. 2B gets off relatively easy; her sword is destroyed, but Eve’s blow merely blasts her out of the library. 9S is secured, and 2B is 100% emoting when she says “let’s go home.”

Any day’s a good day when you and your partner are able to walk away in one piece. But while Adam was once merely very curious and pushy in his desire to learn everything he can about Androids and 9S and 2B in particular, now that they’ve killed his brother I imagine they’ve made a mortal enemy of him. In other words, they might’ve taught him how to be vengeful, and thus even more dangerous.

After a production-related hiatus, the final four episodes of Nier:Automata have surfaced, and a second cour has been confirmed. I’ll be watching and writing about both. And no, I still haven’t played the game!

NieR: Automata Ver 1.1a – 08 – Sea Breeze

When they return to the Resistance base, 2B and 9S ask Lily if she’s ever seen A2, whom Commander White has ordered them to pursue, investigate and ultimately eliminate. Since A2 saved her life, Lily lies and say she never heard of her, but I imagine 2B doesn’t believe her.

The YoRHa duo asks the quiet twin redheads Devola and Popola, who sugges they ask Jackass. However, Jackass is currently scouting in the Flooded City. That gives us yet another gorgeous, haunting establishing shot, along with some scenes of 2B and 9S dwarfed by their surroundings as they run and leap about the ruins.

When 9S starts thinking and asking questions about 2A, like why she’s still fighting MLs if she’s a deserter, 2B tells him curiosity could get them destroyed, so best not to think too much. Then 9S suggests they take a break, and he removes his boots, socks, and even visor to play in the water. 2B grudgingly follows him (though wisely doesn’t try to pull off those thigh-high boots). It’s nice to see their eyes for once.

Since Jackass’ signature is hidden for some reason, 2B and 9S split up to cover more ground. 2B is the one to find Jackass, who is absolutely rocking a bright red bikini as she fishes for mackerel, whose oil can prove fatal to androids (but she wants it for research). Like Lily, Jackass claims not to know 2A (though she may be telling the truth)

When 2B fails to contact 9S due to jamming, we switch to 9S’s POV. Turns out he split of from 2B so he could contact Operator 6O, upload some photos for her hobby, and also hack into the Bunker’s monitoring systems. He eavesdrops on Commander White having an uncomfortable chat with Command about sacrificing someone (the Resistance, 2B, and 9S, possibly both). Then Command notices a security breach and 9S is cut off.

But it isn’t command that jams his signal from 2B and Jackass, it’s 9S entering a weird room full of handmade drawings and paintings of him and 2B, including when they were wading in the water just moments ago. Unless previous versions of themselves did this same thing, someone here is not only watching them but is also a very fast painter. Very weird and intriguing.

9S catches glimpses of long silver locks, and so assumes it’s 2A, but the fact that Eve can’t sense his elder brother indicates that that long hair actually belongs to Adam, who is lures 9S down a dark, creepy hall before knocking him out. While this probably doesn’t bode well, I am glad the Adam/Eve and 2B/9S’s stories are finally connecting.

P.S. The post-ED puppet shows continue to make me LOL every week. It’s always nice to see that an otherwise quite serious show has a sense of humor. Also, we got a little bit of the Bunker theme again, which might be my favorite piece from Taro Yoko. It really does feel like you’re floating around a space station overlooking a ruined planet.

NieR: Automata Ver 1.1a – 07 – Missions Don’t Need Hairpins

“Emotions are prohibited”, and yet Operator 6O contacts 2B to tell her she’d look good with a lunar tear (a kind of lily) in her hair. Why would YoRHa androids care about aesthetics aside from their practical or tactical use? Maybe, I guess, because enough time has passed and these androids have lived and been regenerated enough that they do have emotions, and it’s a fool’s errand to deny or suppress them.

2B has shown time and time again that she not only has emotions, but is willing to let them guide her actions rather than her strict YoRHa programming and independent from Bunker directives. It’s why when Pascal reports that Little Sister is missing after looking for parts for her Big Sister, 2B agrees to a sidequest to find her. It’s not like they have anything else going on.

Pascal gives 2B and 9S a lift to the Forest Kingdom with his new flight attachments, and the androids learn that he can change out his body parts as needed. That leads to a talk about how much can be changed before Pascal is no longer Pascal. He believes that as long as the heart of someone, be they human, Machine Lifeform, or android, remains, they are still themselves.

Within the Forest Kingdom there’s a sprawling ruined castle of brick and stone, calling to mind not just Castle in the Sky but the classic video game Ico. The visuals and soundtrack combine for another another triumph of location establishment and atmosphere setting. But while the kingdom is supposed to be guarded by a fierce ML fighting force, nearly all are destroyed, and by someone who knew what they were doing.

Various record chips held by the castle’s defeated occupants contain not just a dispassionate record of events 256 and 128 years ago, but a history of their kingdom, from when their first king declared their kingdom, to when he died and was succeeded by a new “Little King”. There’s also a record of four hours ago, when the intruder is revealed to be a female android.

As they’re walking on a bridge high above a long drop,  the stone beneath 9S’ feet crumbles, but Pascal saves him. 9S is shocked by this since he’s been badmouthing Pascal and all MLs the whole time, and even afterwards he still can’t fully trust him. But they eventually find the Little Sister, who has fallen in love with one of the castle guards and wishes to be married.

With one sidequest complete, the sister’s new fiancé gives the androids another: save the Little King, who is under threat from the intruder. They reach the throne room and find the King—the Machine Lifeform version of a babe in riveted metal swaddling clothes—but they are too late to save it, as it is run clean through by the blade of the female android intruder.

The Pod identifies this android as the ex-soldier A2, currently classified a deserter and a fugitive (and I’m guessing she’s the “Number Two” from last week’s exploration of Lily’s past). After crossing blades and having hers shattered by 2B (the upgraded model must have an advantage), 9S asks A2 why she betrayed Command. A2 responds that Command was the ones doing the betraying.

Judging from what went down last week, I’m not skeptical in the least about A2’s assertion. She runs off before 2B and 9S can question her further, but I hope we get to see her again. I’m also eager to see what Adam does when he feels he and Eve have amassed enough knowledge…and clothing.

NieR: Automata Ver 1.1a – 06 – Do Androids Dream of Electric Lambs to the Slaughter?

Lily keeps shooting looks 2B’s way, and this week we learn why. She once met an android that shared 2B’s face: No. 2, an previous-generation model. 2 was a lot more animated in their speech, and she led an early YoRHa squad that, like the resistance, had been hung out to dry by Command. Back then, Lily’s resistance squad was led by Rose, who decided to join forces with No. 2 for a mission that neither of their groups could accomplish alone.

While there was initial distrust on both sides, Rose’s decision to cooperate rather than fight paid off and the “family” thus grew. There’s both an 86 and Iron-Blooded Orphans vibe to this group of misfit fighters who got the short end of the stick. Their familial chemistry and rapport with one another felt lived-in and genuine; everyone supporting one another and staying in good spirits to distract from their unfair plight.

One day, Lily was not looking well at all, and her eyes suddenly turned red: a sign her data has been overwritten by a logic virus. This is actually the first time I realized that Lily and the other members of the resistance were also androids (unless they aren’t, it’s not made crystal clear). But Lily definitely is, and even though Rose’s first instinct is to kill her before the virus spreads, No.2 deflects that bullet, and eventually everyone helps hold Lily down so No. 21 can purge the virus.

But saving Lily delayed the combined unit’s plan to infiltrate the target server facility, which is overrun by hundreds of thousands of enemies when they arrive. The Bunker will not provide backup, but the mission must be executed no matter what, so one by one Lily’s comrades sacrifice themselves so she can get to the server. She does, but at the cost of her entire family, including her big-sister figure Rose.

In the present Lily is far calmer, more composed and confident, but she remains haunted not by dreams—as 2B says, androids don’t dream—but memories of the things that happened, and regret about what could have happened to possibly save some of the people she cared for. In lieu of dreams or souls, androids are who they are due to their accumulated memories and experiences.

2B leaves Lily with a comforting rhetorical question: what if someone from her family were still alive out there, somewhere? And sure enough, a long-haired woman with the same beauty mark as No. 2 and 2B is revealed to be still out there fighting the good fight. Will Lily and her savior No. 2 unite, and what will happen when 2 and 2B meet? Whatever happens, I hope they can all be allies. Nothing can happen in this world without them.

NieR: Automata Ver 1.1a – 05 – It Takes a Village

Lily sends 2B and 9S on a delivery mission that takes them through a derelict shopping center. The extreme wide shots that dwarf the two androids, the merging of nature and the man-made, and that terrific Okabe Keiichi score all conspire to set the mood exquisitely as always. After showing his cruel side when he extinguished the ML “family”, 9S seems back to his chipper self.

He dreams of a day when the fighting’s over, the mall can reopen, and they can spend the day shopping for T-shirts. 2B says she has all the clothing she needs, and that “emotions are prohibited”; ironic considering she’s clearly had her share of emotional reactions in the past four episodes. She’s someone wrestling with the contradiction between her programming and directives, and the things she’s been feeling.

If last week’s amusement park demonstrated that the MLs emulating humans without proper context results in a state indistinguishable from madness and psychopathy, this week’s ML village demonstrates that a more tempered and realistic form of humanity mimicry can be replicated by the androids’ enemy. Led by the green-eyed gentle giant Pascal, a large population of MLs live in harmony completely severed from the ML network.

In a scene that is half-Laputa, half-Ewok Village, all shapes and sizes of MLs have their specific functions in the village, but rather than working like a well-oiled machine, their movements and behaviors are thoroughly human. They also have familial connections such as big and little sister (with the big sister being smaller). 9S is simply astonished that Pascal is able to converse with them so eloquently.

2B and 9S are given freedom to explore the village, and when they find a ladder that plunges far below ground into the darkness, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Thankfully, there are no flayed androids, but there is a very strange large head that is neither android nor ML. When 9S hacks it, a number of strange images of fellow androids flash by before his connection is severed.

Pascal joins the two and notes that this giant head is the one who inspired him to stop fighting (something he’s apparently done for thousands of years), and is now an object of worship. 9S gathered enough data to identify it as a creation of humanity of yore, perhaps also as a weapon, but like Pascal it seems to have found a new reason for its (now sedentary) existence. The vivid palette of Pascal’s memories is a neat contrast to the subdued earthy tones of the village.

The more 9S observes this seemingly perfect society, the more he resents them as “selfish” for deciding to suddenly stop fighting a war both they and the androids were designed to fight. It’s clear that like 2B, there’s a part of 9S that wants the fighting to stop, and a part of him that believes its the only reason he exists. For her part, 2B asks her assistant bot to properly map this place so that she and 9S can return someday, to buy those T-shirts. The clouds part, and 9S’ mood brightens when she says this.

When the two return to the village to say their goodbyes, they see a group of ML “kids” bickering and getting violent over a music box one of them found, so like humans, the ML village isn’t without its problems.

What was the deal with the images 9S saw when he was hacking the head? Was the visual glitching he experienced—during which time the very environment around him and 2B changed—related to that hacking session? As an anime-only NieRer, I’ll have to wait to find out.

As for Adam and his brother Eve, the two highly evolved MLs are evolving steadly, going from wearing tighty-whities in the cold open to full-on pants and gauntlets in the parting shot. They don’t just look dangerous, they look just like YoRHa androids. Coincidence…or design?

NieR: Automata Ver 1.1a – 04 – The Play’s the Thing

After a three-week, Covid-induced hiatus, NieR: Automata returns, opening with the Machine Lifeforms doing weird-ass Machine Lifeform shit. To whit: they’re putting on a play. MLs play the roles of characters and act out the parts, MLs sit in the seats and watch and applaud…and a captive audience of flayed but still alive androids are strung up around the theater.

2B and 9S return to the resistance base and give their report (Jackass also made it back and provides much needed comic relief). With talk of MLs evolving to a state they feel something like emotions, Lily and Jackass wonder if there’s an opportunity to at least negotiate a ceasefire. But here’s where 9S’s programmed orthodoxy is laid bare: there will be no ceasefire or quarter given: the mission of all androids is to wipe out every last ML and reclaim Earth for mankind.

Perhaps due to the fact her memory file is longer than his or possibly because she’s been doing a little evolving of her own, 2B doesn’t fall into lockstep with this hardline view. Their next recon mission from Commander White (who tried and failed to get them YoRHa backup) takes them to an active and bustling amusement park full of non-hostile MLs.

They find the black box signals of the androids in the theater, and are ambushed by a giant mutated Machine Lifeform that has taken on a prima donna personality…and wears the still-living android bodies like jewelry. A vicious boss fight ensues, with 2B and 9S just barely able to keep up with its myriad attacks. They’re also enclosed within an energy field, so retreat is not an option.

2B covers 9S as he tries to hack the ML, but he ends up overwhelmed and controlled by the imagery within the boss ML’s brain, as if it’s hacking him. There, he finds that personality that constantly needs affirmation that they’re beautiful, which nearly leads to him being swallowed up by a giant mouth and into the spinning meat grinder within. He’s saved at the last second by 2B, who breaks protocol and uses her hacking ability, deemed a risky action for B models due to the possibility of corruption.

2B didn’t have any other options, and seemingly comes out of the situation none the worse for wear. She exposes the boss’ core and the Pod blasts it to smithereens. Not long thereafter, an ML “mother” with a bouquet of roses and her “daughter” arrive; the mom pleads with the androids not to harm them, as they only came to watch the play.

9S’ chilling reaction underscores his inflexibility when it comes to any kind of negotiation of compromise with the Machine Lifeforms: he walks up to the two MLs, crushing the roses under his boot, and destroys them both, then turns to 2B and tells her they can’t hesitate.

But something in the way 2B reacts tells me 9S may ultimately be on the wrong side of this issue. Eve was born from the rib of the destroyed Adam and is still out there, evolving. At what point does mimicry of human emotions and behavior simply become…human emotions and behavior? I think we’re approaching that point in real time.

NieR: Automata Ver 1.1a – 03 – This Cannot Continue

Lily brings 2B and 9S to their ad hoc base, and does not get into why she shoots so many intent looks in 2B’s direction. Could Lily have known a former version of this 2B? Did she know 2A, since she recognized her as “Number Two”? We also meet Jackass, who really wants to take the YoRHa androids apart to “collect data”, but is content to drive them to their recon site.

The truck ride, and really all establishing shots in NieR succeed in creating a vast sense of both scale and desolation, especially when we see the half-buried ruins of our familiar civilization (Saturday is apparently post-apocalypse day for me—not that I’m complaining). The grandeur is enhanced with the score, with themes perfectly suited to the base, desert, and the orbiting YoRHa base.

When they encounter Machine Lifeforms wearing tribal masks and markings, 2B and 9S get to work trashing them. But when 9S hacks the biggest bot, he gets a lot more than he bargained for. These MLs are among those that have absorbed knowledge from the library of humanity of yore, and he ends up in the middle of a Mesopotamian-style  ritual.

With this group of bots defeated, 2B, 9S and Jackass trudge on into the ruined city, where all communications to YoRHa HQ are being jammed by an unknown power source. They keep exploring, and locate a group of android corpses, including the missing YoRHa liaison. That the corpses aren’t totally destroyed but in various states of dismantlement bodes ill for our two androids.

2B and 9S fall though quicksand and into a yawning undergeround complex. They come upon a circle of yellow-eyed, non-hostile MLs both reciting and emulating various human emotions and activities, including copulation and childrearing. All of this makes 9S particularly uneasy, since this is not the way the enemy should be acting. But then things get even weirder when one comment from a red-eyed ML—“this cannot continue”—sends the yellows into a frenzy.

The MLs climb columns made of the fossilized bodies of their dead, and huddle together in to the super-brain thingy teased last week. The mass opens and out pours an approximation of an android that quickly grows skin and stands up, part Terminator, part Sephiroth. 2B and 9S’ first instinct is to kill it ASAP, even though he is not immediately hostile to them.

While they successfully break his energy shield and impale him with their blades, a second, unharmed ML android emerges from the lifeless body, good as new, and this one is a lot more aggressive. 9S is just able to grab 2B and leap out of the way of the android’s devastating main weapon. The resulting cave-in apparently crushes the android, but as we saw that’s not going to be enough to do it in.

We learn from Commander White up in space that she didn’t send 2B and 9S to assist the resistance, but to use the resistance as a shield and decoy in order to facilitate their real mission, which has now borne fruit. Not only do they know what became of the liaison, but they’ve uncovered a potentially game-changing development in their once-primitive foe.

NieR: Automata Ver 1.1a – 02 – Blood and Lilies

In episode two, perspective shifts from the YoRHa in their pristine orbital headquarters to a battered but still operational Machine Lifeform (ML). Curiously, despite having apparently been created by “Aliens”, they have a very similar bootup and heads-up display as the humans’ androids.

This single ML unit starts to walk, creating a sense of scale and grandeur to the ruined landscape. Upon returning to a base, it finds a book, and in that book, a bookmark with the image of a white lily. Scenes of ML are interspersed with a childlike narrator telling the story of the MLs with colored paper compositions.

This particular ML develops an “emotional matrix”, deemed a critical error, and its red eyes turn yellow, denoting neutrality. It ;earns how to garden, and devotes its existence to growing flowers, gathering “followers” in the form of other yellow-eyed MLs.

The comparisons to WALL-E are obvious from the serene, gorgeous empty vistas ML inhabits to the way the storytelling takes place without dialogue (narration segments aside). But hey, if you’re going to borrow, borrow from the best.

Not far from ML’s growing garden is an embedded group of human resistance fighters led by…Lily. I immediately wondered if, like the stiff redheaded twin maintenance units assigned to the unit, she was an android in disguise. Regardless, she’s bitter about the “Council of Humanity” on the Moon ignoring all requests for badly-needed reinforcements.

Every encounter with the red-eyed MLs means at least one of her unit will be injured or killed, with no one to replace them. They’re ambushed when trying to gather resources to keep fighting, and have to abandon those resources when the MLs send in kamikaze units.

Little does Lily know that up in orbit, she’s about to get a helping hand, in the form of 2B and 9S. When 2B wakes up she tells 9S she finds the sound of his voice comforting, only to cooly head to the control room without him.

They may have just come back from a brutal battle that claimed 9S’s memories, but Commander White sends them back down to perform recon on the resistance unit. They had an android embedded with the unit, but there’s been a breakdown in communication.

2B and 9S can’t come soon enough, as a huge mass of red-eyed MLs trample and destroy the yellow-eyed peaceful bots and their garden on their march to kill the humans. Lily demonstrates that she’s a capable leader despite her youth, quick and decisive and maximizing the limited resources she has.

When they mine a bridge and lure the red-eyed bots across, the detonators fail to work. It’s here where Lily’s underlings spot the yellow-eyed ML we know and have grown fond of. He stands in front of the hundreds of red-eyes, seemingly to try to talk them out of further fighting.

But before he can turn any red eyes to yellow, the entire bridge is lit up by missiles from 2B and 9S’ flying mechas. 2B makes a characteristically stylish entrance, and Lily not only knows her as “Number Two” but is very shocked to see her, or indeed any Council reinforcements. That said, Lily’s bloody shoulder seems to confirm she’s a flesh-and-blood human, not a “tin man”.

As for our yellow-eyed friend, he didn’t die in vain, nor is he alone. Hundreds if not thousands of his kind are soaking up knowledge from the library of the civilization they toppled, and seem to be combining their amassed knowledge and brains into a single mega-brain.

While I’m not sure what this is quite about, from a visual standpoint I can at least guess that yellow eyes and books are, at least now, less of a threat than red eyes, kamikaze bots, and slaughter. The narrator also describes the yellow-eyed bot anomalies as “treasures”. Were they meant to evolve in this way, or was it just random happenstance?

Whatever the answers are, and even if they’re never revealed, I remain thoroughly intrigued, and the setting lends the show a welcome splash of color and life from last week’s largely monotone, industrial battles. The post-ED omake featuring a cloth puppet 2B and 9S answering fan mail provides humor and whimsy.

NieR: Automata Ver 1.1a – 01 (First Impressions) – Glory…to Mankind

Nier:Automata Ver 1.1a is an anime adaptation of a video game sequel to a spin-off of another video game series dating back to 2003, but for me it might as well be anime-original. With this adaptation, A-1 Pictures gives us a polished sci-fi action flick set in a bleak and gritty world decimated by alien invasion. The aliens use “machine lifeforms” (retro-looking robots) to fight sleeker (read: sexier) androids developed by humanity.

Our protagonist is YoRHa B-Gata H-Kei 2-gou B-gata, AKA 2B, which is super easy name to remember. Sporting a silver bob, eye mask, dark maid/knight outfit, katana, and slick-as-shit mecha, 2B is voiced by Ishikawa Yui, channeling Mikasa with an appropriately stiff, mechanical vocal performance. I also thought of early Vivy.

2B has the baroque look of a late-stage Final Fantasy character, which contrasts nicely with the more bare-bolts industrial setting. At times I wondered if Yuuri and Chito from Girls’ Last Tour might come running through the mist. She’s supported by a float “Pod” companion that keeps her informed about her surroundings and conditions.

2B has a mission, and despite being the only one of her squad to make it to the factory where her Goliath-type target is located, she is determined to carry out the mission or die (or rather be destroyed) trying. She’s aided by a far more “human”-acting intelligence android, 9S, voiced by Hanae Natsuki as if he were an affable high school character.

9S hasn’t spoken to anyone in a while, and is happy to be teamed up with someone, being a typically solo unit. 2B is less enthused, especially with 9S’ loquaciousness (she tells him not to call her “miss” and cuts his exposition short). But he also saves the “brute-force-first” 2B’s ass. As for the Goliath, it appears as a massive oil platform-on-tracks, with a face resembling the boss from StarFox.

This Goliath is a tough customer, but 9S has it handled: diving into its computer brain in a trippy hacking sequence that’s a nice change of pace from the external twisted metal and rust, and smoke. His hacking ends up being incomplete and he’s ejected from his mecha and seriously maimed, and Goliath is able to reboot and regain part of its autonomy.

9S urges a suddenly very human-like 2B not to worry about him and complete the mission. She runs up the appendages of the Goliath and punctures its core with her katana. The good guys have seemingly prevailed and defeated the big level boss. But then it wakes back up, and four other Goliaths awaken and rise, surrounding them.

It looks like it’s going to be Game Over, Man for both 2B and 9S, so after she thanks him for saving her, the two take out their Black Boxes. When these boxes touch, they self-destruct in a massive explosion that consumes all of the Goliaths. Even with 9S by her side, this was always going to be a suicide mission as soon as 2B arrived without any of her fellow squad units.

But while that’s the end of her body, her mind, memories, and data are all transferred back up to the massive orbital human stronghold called the Bunker, and she wakes up in a new android body. It’s the first time we see her eyes, and because of that the sight of them really packs a punch.

When she reunites with a revived 9S, he confirms that the mission was complete, but that he must have only had time to transfer her data back to the Bunker. The 9S before him has no memories of their joint mission down on the surface. When this new 9S dutifully utters their motto—Glory to Mankind—2B clenches a fist and repeats the words …but grudgingly.

We don’t see a single human being or alien in this episode, only their tools. If we never see either, I probably won’t mind. Their absence contributes to quite a compelling atmosphere of loneliness, isolation, and even a tinge of resentment and brooding in the androids. They were built and programmed to say that motto and fight and sacrifice their bodies and minds, and while emotions are forbidden, they are also definitely there.

2B wonders if her unending cycle of life and death is a curse or punishment from the gods who created her. None of this is groundbreaking stuff, but it is admirably executed, and looks and sounds awesome (Aimer sings the OP and the score is boss), which is why I’ll be continuing to watch.