The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent – S2 05 – Heart of the Matter

With Sei sequestered to the palace, Jude has to make excuses for her to Prince Ten’yuu, who shows up day after day asking about her. When it becomes untenable for Jude to continue to do so, Johan and Sei agree the best way to proceed is by making herself available to the prince, so they can try to learn what he’s after.

When he spots her packing up a huge amount of mid-level potions and asks how many people crafted them, Sei has to lie and say four to five, because she’d give away too much about herself if she told the truth: she made them all herself.

Lying doesn’t come naturally to Sei, but she does learn one thing: the prince knows his stuff, and seems keenly interested in high-level potions. Believing a good offense to be the best defense, Sei resolves to learn more about Zaideran medicine so that she can steer their lengthy conversations away from places where she could be exposed as the Holy Saint.

To that end, she meets with the merchants Oscar and Franz, who make the connection between the prince and the sea captain Seiran. Sei also hopes to study up with Liz in the library, but Commander Hawke shows up before Liz to tell Sei he’ll be headed home for a while and wanted to see her. Liz makes a tactical retreat, allowing Al to help Sei devise a plan to deal with Ten’yuu.

The next day at the institute, Ten’yuu comes by as usual, but this time says that he’ll be going to other facilities going forward. Then Albert rolls in to discuss, quite loudly with Sei, his unit’s need for more high-level potions, and asking if she could reach out to her alchemist friend to make some.

Ten’yuu later apolgizes to Sei for overhearing them (which was their intent), and asks her directly if he’ll put him in contact with that alchemist. Sei in turn asks what exactly the prince needs, and he tells her: he’s seeking someone who can brew a potion for muscular distrophy…for his mother.

That’s right, Ten’yuu wasn’t sent to spy on Salutania or steal its secrets, simply to to seek out what he could not acquire in his homeland. Now that Sei knows the truth, I doubt she’d hesitate to help him out. However, Johan has made clear they don’t want Zaidera to know she’s the Saint, so she may have to get a little creative to do so.

The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent – S2 04 – The Prince from Across the Sea

Johan and Sei receive word from the king that a prince from the distant kingdom of Zaidera is traveling to Salutania as an exchange student at the royal academy. Due to the fact Sei’s status as Holy Saint is a state secret, the king requests that Sei remain sequestered in the royal palace for the duration of the prince’s stay.

Sei bristles at this. Not only does she have work to do and rare herbs to tend, it’s a big imposition to suddenly uproot her from her daily work life. When Jude suggests that the potion she gave to the sea captain from Zaidera may be the reason the prince is coming, she concedes it might be best if she’s not around when he is.

Liz, who is vice president of the academy’s student council, jests to Sei that the prince could be a troublemaker escaping is country, or even a spy, but in all seriousness doubts that Zaidera cares all that much about Salutania’s national secrets. What she’s not so sure about is whether they care about Sei.

While Sei is to stay at the palace while Prince Ten’yuu is at the research institute, as a member of the royal court it’s her duty to attend his welcoming ceremony. She does so while wearing her saintly raiments, but also a magical veil that will conceal her face. Since the veil makes it harder for her to see, she needs an escort for the ceremony.

Enter Al, who is once again clearly overjoyed to serve her once more. Sei is working on not letting his compliments fluster her, but while she does well at first, when the maids note she looks like a bride and he calls himself her groom, she loses her composure. At the ceremony, Al is all business, and Sei could swear the prince momentarily glanced in her direction.

She stays away from Ten’yuu as agreed, and Liz reports that he is indeed a very studious, serious young man, but also one who makes friends easily and soaks up knowledge like a sponge. But one day when Sei is back at the institude, Prince Ten’yuu is suddenly there, introducing himself and asking all sorts of pointed questions about her herbs and what she does there.

It turns out his impromptu visit to the institute was neither announced nor sanctioned, and while he claims to have simply gotten lost, Sei overheard his attendant saying “it’s almost time,” which wouldn’t really make sense if they were actually lost. He’s given a warning and the king assigns him bodyguards to make sure he doesn’t wander anywhere else without warning.

Ten’yuu has almost immediately zeroed in on Sei as the “key” to his mission in Salutania. Whether he sees her as a resource for potion-making, a suitor to heighten his status, or something else, it’s clear he has all four of his eyes fixed upon Sei. It seems only a matter of time before he discovers she’s far more than a mere herb gardener…

The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent – S2 03 – Ballin’ Out

Sei is unexpectedly summoned to the Royal Palace for not one but two official events: her official debut as the Kingdom’s Saint, and the royal ball later that night. It is reiterated that Sei can be rather insecure and unconfident about such things, as she lacks the self esteem she should have.

However, whenever Al takes her hands in his, as he does when he offers to be her escort, Sei feels a lot better. The morning after she spends the night in the palace, the maids don’t hide their excitement at the prospect of dressing her up not once, but twice.

Sei is less enthusiastic, especially when she considers herself unworthy of the intricate white robes of the Holy Saint. But once again, as His Majesty introduces her to his assembled court at the debut ceremony, Sei finds that Al is in attendance, offering her a smile of support, and her spirits are buoyed.

That’s also the case when Liz stops by to see Sei in her Holy Saint vestments. She brings along a friend, Rayne, the second prince of Salutania. He was eager to meet her, and also to apologize on his behalf of his brother. Seeing Liz and Rayne so happy to see her, Sei stops regretting going through with the ceremony.

When they encounter one another other in their ballroom duds, both Al and Sei play a back-and-forth game of who can make the most Shoujo Manga Face. It hurts a bit when Sei tells Al not to say she’s beautiful when she clearly is, and also when she’s not able to tell him how beautful he is. The two simply end up embarrassed when the royal herald and maids loitering in the hallway tell them it’s time to line up for the ball.

If I had a complaint, it’s that Sei and Al don’t actually get to dance for very long. I feel like Bell and Ais got more time. Nevertheless, the pair oozes chemistry and grace, and both Sei’s butter yellow dress and Al’s blue suit reminded me of Belle and the Beast in the Disney film.

Etiquette dictates that Sei not dance with the same partner twice, so with a lot of ball left to go, she is protected by Al and Johan from randos who might want to curry favor or even propose to her. Johan dances with her first, followed by Yuri and Erhart.

While having tea with Liz and Aira the next day, Sei mentions how she had no idea men lead in different ways, since her only partner for a while had been her dance teacher. When Liz asks her who her favorite was, Sei hesitates. She says she’s not sure, but c’mon. It was Al. I know that, you know that, and Liz sure as hell knows that!

The tension builds after the credits as Johan tells Sei that she must have received a number of fresh invitations from members of the court and nobility, but the palace likely politely declined them on her behalf. The herald once again summons her to the palace for an important matter, suggesting perhaps the subject of her future husband will be broached.

The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent – S2 02 – The Taste of Home

While en route to Morgenhaffen via carriage, Sei is gently woken up by Albert, and the two exchange admiring looks, all before Sei wakes up for real. Turns out Albert couldn’t join her on the trip, but she’s here with Jude and Wolff, and Oscar also shows up.

Nevertheless, the Saint can’t just wander around a foreign land in public, so she adopts the disguise of a merchant’s daughter. Anyone who hoped to see a light brown-haired Sei with glasses gets their wish this week—I don’t hate it!

The market is full of interesting wares, but before Sei can come across any rice she learns that a crew member from a ship in port was seriously hurt in an accident. We see his leg has been crushed and mangled, and potions aren’t working.

The captain—who incidentally is hot—calls out for help, and while Jude and Wolff advise against Sei intervening with her magic, she still finds a way to help out those in need. She offers the captain one of her potions she keeps on her “in case of emergency.”

It goes without saying the potion saves the sailor’s life, and the captain, one Seiren from the Empire of Zaidera, tracks Sei down and insists upon rewarding her. After they go back and forth insisting and declining, Oscar finally comes between them and suggests Seiren offer Sei a discount on the wares he’s brought to port.

The wares from Zaidera end up being the motherlode: not only do they have shiso and chili pepper and miso paste, but also rice, sweet, beautiful rice. Sei’s little Naruto run and reaction to finding the rice is adorable, and as soon as she’s home she invites Aira and the guys to a Japanese feast she’ll be preparing…just not while Johan watches intently!

While Johan waits impatiently, Albert also shows up, answering Sei’s “modest” invitation. Johan makes clear to Albert that as Sei continues to rise in the world it’s only a matter of time before she receives suitors for her hand in marriage. Al needs to make a move soon, or he might lose her.

This sudden urgency is on his mind when he joins the others for Sei’s completed feast of rice, miso soup, and other Japanese staples. You can tell both she and Aira are over the moon; now this strange world feels a little more like home with their soul food.

When Sei spots Albert, she smiles and waves with a subtle blush. There’s no way he could know she was dreaming about traveling with him to Morgenhaffen and making eyes, but that’s precisely why he has a good shot at her: she likes him too, at least on a subconscious level.

He just needs to find the right opportunity…before that hot captain tracks her down again and proposes, lol! Seiren’s already sending a letter to the emperor regarding the miraculous potion a random young woman gave him, and remaining in these lands to search for the alchemist who made it.

The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent – S2 01 – Coffee Break

After a brooding, dramatic prologue elegantly cut between classi white-on-black credits involving an undead dragon in a cave, Takanashi Sei, AKA the Saint wakes up in the comfort of her bedchamber, ready for her second summer in this new world. She is greeted by a huge delivery of ingredients courtesy of the alchemist Cecilia from Krausner’s Domain, as thanks for clearing the forests of monsters and miasma.

Sei’s hobby of crafting cosmetics takes the next logical step when Johan introduces her to two representatives from a trading company. They’re getting grief from other traders for being the sole distributer of her wildly-popular products, so they suggest she start her own business.

She agrees, and the business is started…off-camera, with her only responsibility being to just keep developing cosmetics when she feels inspired. Her store is a huge success, so she and her bodyguard Albert (who holds her hand on the way) celebrate by visiting a recommended café that serves actual coffee.

Sei is overjoyed to have coffee back in her life, which is how anyone who’d ever had coffee before would feel, but what she really wants to try to find in this world is rice, Japan’s staple crop. Johan and Jude haven’t heard of it, but they think the best place for her to begin her searc is to visit the eastern port city of Morgenhaffen.

The violent, fiery stinger aside, this was another calm, quiet, deliberate episode that merely follows Sei around for some low key interactions and experiences. In other words, this second season seems poised to remain Tuesday evening comfort food for yours truly!

Synduality: Noir – 09 – Not So Black and White

While driving through the rain on his way to Traders Nest with a sleeping Noir, Kanata witnesses gunfire outside: a lone Drifter taking out a Coffin that seems to be infected with a parasitic Ender. The pilot than hops out and walks through the rain without a protective suit, which is definitely abnormal.

Kanata continues on his way, and when he arrives at Traders Nest he immediately geeks out at all the stuff that’s for sale, particularly cheap second-hand Coffin components. Noir, borrowing Maria’s words, says that no matter how old they are, men can still turn into boys at the drop of a hat.

While Kanata does look like a boy in a metal candy shop, the pilot who walked through the rain strides in like a full-grown man, his very Noir-y looking Magus in tow. The shopkeeper says word is the guy is watertight and has been piloting a Coffin since the collapse of Amasia and is responsible for Amasia’s collapse.

Rumors also indicate the man knows his way around Magus memory, something Kanata is very interested in. But he’s so excited, he asks the man to talk to him without so much as introducing himself. The man walks off with his Magus without responding, leaving Kanata only with the knowledge that Noir is good at shoplifting.

That would have been that, except they run into the man’s Magus in the food market while she’s buying a ludicrous amount of soy sauce (and Kanata and Noir are admiring real organic bananas). The Magus, named Ada, is a lot friendlier than her master, Alba.

When Kanata describes Noir’s issues, Ada (voiced by Ishikawa Yui) says it’s normal for a Magus to reformat their memory after their previous contract is terminated. Unless Noir is from a lab during the “Amasia period”, Alba may be able to dig deeper into Noir’s primary memory. Noir wants to do this, because she believes there’s more to her than she currently is.

After Ada serves Kanata and Noir real coffee, Alba returns from an errand and grudgingly agrees to lend his know-how to potentially help Noir. The process will take some time, though not a full day, and Noir will be in Sleep Mode for the duration. Kanata need only stay by her side during the reboot.

The parasitic Enders pick this time to attack Traders Nest, and a trio of Magus-less Drifters are too weak to handle it, with one of them losing their life without much fanfare. Alba sorties with Ada and tells the remaining two Drifters to buzz off so he can do his job.

Ada unleashes “Ignition”, her Magus Skill, and incinerates all of the parasitic Enders in one fell swoop. Among the derelict Coffins is one from Amasia, so Alba checks it out, but insists on doing it alone while Ada stays in their Coffin.

When Noir comes to, Alba and Ada learn that Noir has no abnormalities, and that no further memory data exists within her system. However, they also learn that she’s essentially been operating in a constant state of overdrive. While it explains why she sleeps so much, it’s a little anticlimactic that that’s all we learn about her.

Noir apologizes for still being a “dud”, but of course Kanata doesn’t feel that way about her. If she doesn’t have any old memories, they’ll just have to keep making new ones, and snapping more photos along the way. In private, Ada makes mention to Alba of a “black box” within Noir that they could not open or decipher, so some mysteries yet remain within her.

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.