Season 1 of NieR:Automata Ver1.1a has finally come to an end. After such a long hiatus, A-1 Pictures streamed the last four episodes (9-12) onto Crunchyroll this past Sunday. Boy, did they deliver one amazing season. Fans of the NieR franchise are talking all about it on Twitter and Reddit, theorizing for the next season.
Season 1 ended how endings A and B of the game ended. There was even a teaser for the second season, just like the teaser in the game, to keep playing it a third time around for its continued story. Now we’re curious to see how different the second season will be compared to the rest of the game.
We’ve already seen some massive changes between the game and anime throughout the show. This is what NieR creator Yoko Taro wanted. He wanted the anime to differentiate from the game and have its own story. He and the writers and animators of the show surely did not disappoint.
Older NieR fans got easter eggs from other games like NieR: Replicant, NieR: Reincarnation, and its prequel series Drakengard. Newer fans are grasping at these wonderful characters and getting to know the deeper metaphors the anime has shown. The anime has become its own story, separate from the video game.
Warning: spoilers ahead for NieR:Automata and NieR:Automata Ver1.1a.
Adam’s Revenge Instead of Eve’s
There are two unique machine lifeforms that take on the appearance of androids: Adam and Eve. If you’re religious, those names probably sound familiar to you. The “elder brother,” Adam, has a high interest in humanity, going as far as to mimic them in order to understand them.
From reading books to eating apples to dressing in clothing, he has Eve partake in his interests as well. Even though all Eve wants to do is spend time and play with his “elder brother.” In the game, 2B battled against Adam in the Copied City he created so she could save 9S. He disconnected himself from the machine network in order to experience death if 2B kills him.
He gets his wish and dies with her sword pierced through his stomach. Adam even says that death feels “dark and cold” before he passes. Eve learns of Adam’s death and proceeds to get revenge on the androids, seeing the world as meaningless without his brother.
In the anime, it’s the exact opposite. 2B and Adam fight in a church he had created in his Copied City, and just before his death, Eve intervenes and takes the killing blow. While 2B gets to take 9S home to repair him, Adam mourns over the loss of his “younger brother.” It’s then that he realizes how much he took his brother for granted.
The only family he had is gone and can never return. Filled with rage, he is the one who takes revenge on 2B, 9S, and the other androids in a plot to destroy them for killing Eve. Adam causes the other machines on the network to go haywire and eat away at the Resistance members. Since Adam had more characterization compared to Eve in the game, this change made more sense narratively.
A More Concerned Commander White
Fans of the game know how strict Commander White is. 9S even calls her a slave driver. In the video game, it does seem that Commander White puts the mission before the safety of her own units. She had a cold tone and rarely shows care for the YoRHa androids she sent into battle.
There are times when Commander White does show some compassion or worry, but not exactly in the game. Those moments are spread throughout other NieR content, like the orchestral concerts or short stories.
In the anime, Commander White does have a side that she doesn’t show anyone. We see those moments when she is talking to the Council of Humanity, which is really just a part of Project YoRHa, which was created to gaslight androids into believing that humans are still alive. Commander White expresses great concern when she has to send her units on suicidal missions and when YoRHa is not allowed to provide support. She is just as much a puppet as the other androids, and the anime shows us this perfectly.
Lily as the Resistance Leader
One of the massive changes in the anime is the leader of the Resistance. In the game, the Resistance leader is an android named Anemone. We don’t know much about her in the game, just that she had a history with A2. During the Pearl Harbor Descent before the events of NieR:Automata, Anemone was part of the Resistance led by her higher-up Captain Rose.
They met up with A2 (known as No. 2 during that time) and three other YoRHa members to destroy a machine server in Mt. Ka’ala. The mission was successful, but most of that team died for the cause. Lily was part of that team and perished. Anemone was the only survivor until she heard about A2 in the events of NieR:Automata. Anemone took on the role of leadership for the remaining Resistance.
In the anime, it is Lily that becomes the next Resistance leader after the Pearl Harbor Descent mission. This change is both narratively genius and heartbreaking. Lily has more of a story compared to Anemone, and it is a tragic one. The Pearl Harbor Descent story was told in the form of a YoRHa Stage Play, but now it can be read in the YoRHa Pearl Harbor Descent Record Manga.
To keep it brief, Lily was known as a lover android: a model that provided comfort for the commanding officer at the time before the Resistance. But said officer abused Lily to the point of almost breaking her, causing Rose and other members to save Lily and form the Resistance. Now Lily leads her androids with a refound strength. It is beautifully told in the anime and a change that makes so much sense.
These are only the major changes made throughout the anime. There were some little add-ons and changes as well, like both 2B and 9S killing Adam with 2B’s sword at the finale. Or Emil, not being a traveling shop, but his head merged into a tree, and he is treated almost like a god by Pascal and his village.
2B is also much more expressive with her emotions and actively shows sadness at having to kill 9S when he is infected by the machine virus. The anime is a love story through and through. Not just the story itself but a love letter to NieR/Drakengard fans, new and old. These changes, though risky and drastic, have made NieR:Automata a much more beautiful world than ever before. We have high hopes for the second season, whenever that may be.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
