NieR:Automata Ver1.1a

Avid fan of “NieR:Automata” here. It's good enough.

I'll talk about it on both sides of the spectrum, whether you've played the game, or watched with fresh eyes.

The story depicts the apocalyptic world of NieR. A mysterious landscape, with AI running things from good side and bad side. Both in a never-ending spiral of constant fights, constant horrors, and sacrifices. While the good side is inevitably the most human, there's something about the bad one that peeks into something greater. Some sort of humanity, brewing deep inside.

We follow two androids, the cool-headed power girl, and the bashful and curious dude. Perfect duo, which discovers the ... reality of this world while making their own choices, something not done in a long time by the group they work with.

I enjoyed the setup, the character interactions, and the many scenes giving us a little peer into the stories these people have suffered, as well as developing in the mystery on why the machines started becoming more. However, from the basic setup, and the “First Season Syndrome”, the series really couldn't do much.

Even the original game had that problem, where the beginning portion of the story was a bit dull, maybe a bit by the numbers. It was done with intent, with purpose, since the director Yoko Taro has a beautiful desire to make his audience suffer. Not only with storytelling, but with game mechanics, difficulty, and elements which only work for the medium it uses. The anime can't do that, and as such, it needed to compensate a lot, and create new elements and mechanics just to try to achieve a similar feel.

The game technically was three stories. The first one told with no context, just baseline knowledge. The second one was a retelling, with much more information, changing EVERYTHING. The third one awaits, lying in the second season of the anime. That part of the story being one of, if not the most AMAZING piece of storytelling a game's ever offered to me.

In turn, that itself makes the first anime season practically just the prologue, and it makes the entire sense that it wasn't as well put together as what goes ahead. Hell, I can argue, I wasn't enjoying everything the game was throwing at me, until, the end of what this season adapted, and I'll give this series credit, I care for these people.

The background characters get much needed development, and a character, much relevant to the next one, gets some proper background, and backstory. I love that. It adds to the story, and piles layers onto what is to come, but the MAIN cast is put aside.

I'm a firm believer, this series required at least three more episodes to tell the story in its entirety. The character development, the scenarios, how each builds their opinion on one another. 2B takes decisions instantly after contradicting herself, the feelings 9S, and her develop feel entirely rushed, and the villains didn't have as many more scenes together of their activities. The game managed to give a special pacing to all of this as a drip fed plot that worked perfectly. The anime's pacing doesn't suck, but it's not as remarkable as the game.

TLDR; all my problems stem from adaptation problems. Pacing issues, rushed developments, but at the same time, great background information, world-building, designs, interactions, and dialogue. The robot scenes are great, and the reveal at the end makes me so excited about a good adaptation of what lies ahead, since that's the BEST OF THE BEST NieR has to offer.

7/10. Many problems, but solid enough.

Automata is absolute peak, but just like the game, the anime is plagued by technical limitations. The animation is kept minimal, and the use of CGI is criminal. It also differs from the game at times for meaningless reasons. The quest-giver android from the resistance camp didn't need a full-on episode dedicated to her past. The fights are also so damn short to the point where it feels like someone has cut all the cutscenes together from the game and skipped all gameplay. I know NIER was more of a narrative-driven game, but some action would have been nice too. Nier is really interesting since ... it discusses the meaning(les) of life, and the anime does a decent job of conveying this message, but even if you aren't into videogames, you should still just play the game instead. Pacing is really important, and I feel like this is a bit rushed for what it is trying to convey. I highly recommend that you also play all the sidequests since they often touch on the topic and give you more food for thought, and these sidequests aren't brought up in the anime in the slightest, which is a shame. TDLR: needed more of 2Bs ass/10

"NieR:Automata Ver1.1a" is not bad, just DISAPPOINTING. I'm a huge fan of the "NieR" universe and this show made me feel LOST too many times (and not in the good way...) There were some episodes that did GREAT things with the lore (spoiler alert: A2's "origin" and those promising glimpses of Replicant) and THAT IS what this show should've been: a COMPLEMENT to its source material, NOT an intent to tell its story in a WAY shorter and less complex form of media. "Is this for newcomers or veterans?" I wonder, because I can't see myself feeling satisfied as any of them. Art and animation ... are average at best, with a couple moments of brilliancy, but too many of mediocrity (also, those gratuitous butt-shots of 2B are cringy to say the least). The OP song by Aimer is horrendous (and I love Aimer), but at least Amazarashi's ED one doesn't feel that off. Not a negative word for the rest of the OST, though (and voice acting), as it's taken straight from the video game... but sadly misused more than once. In short: this show could've been REALLY "something" if CHANGES were for the sake of a new experience and not for an "easy way out" (and if its overall quality was WAY better). As it is, I can't honestly recommend "Ver1.1a". Want "NieR"? Play the games. That, you won't ever regret.