NieR:Automata Ver1.1a Part 2

For something built to adapt the unadaptable, it's as good as it could've been.

2B, and 9S, the two most important robots of this world are soldiers set to fight a war against machines, being androids themselves. The fight has been raging on to protect humanity, or what's left of it by the moon. Their search for answers leads them to understand this has been going on for far too long, too long to make any sense. So long, in fact, the world has ended twice by now.

What's so great about the NieR franchise is their play with time, with patterns, with how humanity is ... nothing more than a pattern which is doomed to be potentially repeated. That's the question, will it repeat itself infinitely? What are we, exactly, to the show?

We repeat our mistakes, we commit wars, we kill our enemies, we cause genocides for personal reasons. Nothing that grand, or nice to say, but it recognizes how much we can do for each other. The show knows we're capable of so much love, so much compassion for each other, and how that just makes hatred so easy to comprehend. It makes sense. We're two sides of an easily flipped coin. On our mission to lead our futures by emotions, we seek for something they can target.

Purpose. Something etched on the fabric of humanity. We live for purpose, we're given purpose, we seek purpose, and we give it to ourselves, at times. The philosophical question that's permeated us for as long as we exist. Thousands of years into the future, robots built to resemble us grapple against the question of why? Why were they put in a world without an ounce of meaning? What can they find which fuels them for another day? Are they human? Is being human a sign they'll keep failing, and keep destroying everything they selfishly love? What even is love for androids prohibited to feel it?

2B, 9S, and A2 are the surrogates for diverse ways humanity finds their own failings, and how purpose can ruin, or give them a wonderful thing. They go about finding their ways, do their missions, seek their vengeance. In their stories, finding friends, things to care about, and the remembrance of how humanity still makes its effect on what they are. Characters go about their lives in a war which gives them something to do, but there is always an end to everything. What happens then, when nobody wants there to be an end to a massive purpose?

Every robot, android or machine, grapples with the emotional responsibility of not knowing what to do in life. They find things we're expert at, religion, philosophy, murder, sex, reproduction, death, suicide, governments, even to be a small-town teacher. Everything they come up with is an echo of the world we represent for them, things we were, or tried to be at our times.

Some of them seek to give respect to their friends, others find jobs, others create lies for themselves, and others do gardening. It's so simple, and powerful to pit that against innocent things with only war as life experience. You eventually notice how immature everyone is, and how growing to them seems so painful.

Everything was made to end. No space for a living thing, no open interpretation. The end was decided at the beginning, but do we want that? Will humanity ever end? Nobody does, not even machines programmed to WANT it. No, we must persevere, we must keep ruining it, because we're as imperfect as they come. Capable of so much hate, and equally to produce so much love, why can't we try again, why can't 2B, 9S, and A2, try one more damn time?

The thesis of the story always goes back to what matters, and it's all about giving ourselves a chance to accept we're not made for emptiness, nor fulfillment. We're made to try. We'll keep trying, and we'll keep ruining it. It's only human, and that's what's so beautiful about everything.

An anime that uses the messages as they should, and it includes so much information which was missable from the game. Everything you need to understand NieR:Automata is right here. So much more character development, some others which aren't as interesting, but the stories are great. I loved the adaptation, but it does have its problems.

The ending's structure, the organization of information, how it was revealed and how we got it. The first cour of the show was okay. Definitely not as good as the game's, but the second one went all out on what it could be. Still doesn't reach the heights of the credit sequence, and it can't nail its message to your forehead. The game did it in a way only a game could.

8.5/10. The best adaptation from a video game up to this point, but an even bigger reminder to play the game, and seek out every aspect of it.

The second season of NieR: Automata Ver1.1a has remained consistent, if not better, in production value and staying faithful as an adaptation. The consistently gorgeous animation, painterly backgrounds, perspectives, and expressions continue to breathe life into the world alongside the exceptional game soundtrack. This time around, the narrative is more grandeur, covering more compelling stories, character explorations, and climactic resolutions, along with diving deeper into some more philosophical concepts, such as the barrier between man and machine. This part certainly feels like a culmination of prior events and established relationships, and despite some somber themes, the story arrives at a satisfying and well-paced conclusion.

NieR: Automata.

The anime.

I refrained from reviewing Part 1 as the story and presentation of the title was literally unfinished there.

Part 2... I am beginning to see why people who know nothing about philosophy and think little to nothing about most things are impressed with this title. This is the same segment of the audience who will surely click "confusing" to this review, by the way. Even so, I intend to express a different reflection of this title's quality to express than simple awe.

To begin, I make sure to state: this is a review of the ANIME -- ignoring any exclusively source-material merits, as ... an anime should stand on its own, at most relying on its prequels. Even if I have source material knowledge, I will deliberately not factor them in. No, I will not watch 3 or 5 hours long of fan-made explanation or head-canon videos and if someone needs to in order to have any points of dissatisfaction addressed, that's not a work standing on its own, now is it?

Moreover, given we are in 2024 and the sound and visuals are nothing impressive for this year, I'll get it over with and say: there's no bonus points to my rating added from merely meeting industry standards. No, I have no complaints about the female designs, in case anyone asks if that's why I'm not giving bonus points. I'm not about to complain about sexy female designs; in fact, I enjoy them, though they never get a bonus point on just this alone; see my criteria for grading anime for more details.

Here we go:

For those watching this anime as it's being released, a huge impact that hurts this anime is timing -- Part 1 was quite a while ago... but Part 2 took too long to release, which numbed a great deal of any emotional anticipation. Yes, this is common in today's animescape, but that does not diminish the effect. Animators, PLEASE! Just release an anime you WANT people to feel is deep or epic in one go. And not 12 episodes; that's hardly screentime to tell a truly good tale; however many episodes it takes, please! Thankfully, this point is not relevant if you aren't watching as it's coming out. In my case, as a reviewer, it gives me a more unbiased and clear-minded approach to analyze the story when any emotional workup is disrupted and neutralized so I can dissect straight into the meat of the story.

Now for the actual story -- even as someone who rarely touches videogames anymore, I heard the praises sung about this title, the game and source material that is. There's all that about how it's deep, PROFOUND! How it explores nihilism, how it explores existentialism...

As an actual living nihilist, this should excite me. Not so much in an elevation of value in the work, but as something simply stimulating for the mind on a purely biological, neurological and psychological level. After all, even people who live by active nihilism, those who actively deny objective meaning and value to keep their gaze upon the world unclouded, are still motivated by the same hormones in our carbon-based data processors called "brains".

Yet, one fundamental problem is, this story is like a college essay that throws a lot of big words and names around, but fails to show true comprehension and ability to explore them, often just falling into pessimistic bias in representation and "FeeEeeeLz".

>>Human emotions are somehow forbidden... for... robots.

Read that last sentence again. Yes. Um... Why not program and make bots to not have them? Why not just program them to be a literal goal-oriented and efficiency-driven protocol? Especially combat units.

GPT can explain why it does not have feelings. It might take a little thinking about why an entity can outwardly behave similar to a human or perform otherwise intellect-necessary actions without feelings. It involves knowing and understanding statistics, probability and linear (tensor) algebra to begin. But, it's quite possible. We only did it this entire time in human history. No, the electronic device you hold in your hand does not have feelings, thankfully. Imagine if your smartphone could cry in pain every time you drop it by accident. Or if it had existential angst when you decided it was time for an upgrade to a new iphone or samsung for better memory or features. Who ever would invent such a feature...

Yet the logic behind machines having feelings is never explained in the show. Were YoRHa making imitation family members and substitute friends/lovers for buy or were they manufacturing combat units to decimate invading alien forces? Same question for the tin cans that YoRHa fights against.

>>Philosophers' names are used. Concepts get brought up.

Yet, all coverage of this is shallow.

A robot is named Pascal but does not touch on "The Wager" (which was about believing in or not believing in god and the associated consequences to believe or to not believe) that Blaise Pascal was famous for. The concept of a "Wager", by the way... involves betting something of value at the risk of something else of value. Nihilism... is about the world lacking inherent meaning and value. Right so, put the last two sentences together. Go on.

"2B" teases the line "To be or not to be" as a nice nod to Shakespeare's Hamlet's famous soliloquy about if to live in suffering, or to defy in death. The show certainly tries to show a lot of "suffering"; I mean, there have only been so many times where a robot was RPing as though it was in great grief, but sadly when humanity coined the concept of suffering, it meant only carbon-based lifeforms, not ChatGPT when it gets bombarded with insults for misunderstanding a user's poorly phrased run-on sentence or that poor baseball you keep swinging a bat at when you play baseball with your friends... But yeah, as there are no carbon-based lifeform sentients, suffering-RP is honestly about it.

Religion, cults, beauty and femininity, perception of reality. Ideas like these get a mere 20 minutes with even less of the episode on some allegories that reference the most superficial layer of these ideas. There is no tie-in to how it even should be connected to the supposed central theme of nihilism and there is no dive into any of these topics at length or any direction of where to go with this. It's much like how someone throws ideas around and hope something is seen as relevant, meanwhile nothing new is added to the literature surrounding nihilism; no new ideas regarding nihilism is being added.

Maybe I should write a book or draw a manga where I name every character after a philosopher with barely any relevance to the philosophy they are known for -- like... all the female characters could be named after a feminist, and all leadership role characters could be named after a thinker from the enlightenment. Will I get seen as a DeEp and PrOfOuNd WriTeR too...? EZ ticket to fame and fortune?

>>9S

Much of the juice and bulk of what makes this story "profound" (and that takes the bulk of the episode count of the anime's part 2) is in 9S's portrayal in that ending where he experiences "existential despair". The "not 2 B" ending where 9S is the main character of it, to euphemistically refer to the gist of that ending versus the first episode of Part 2.

...Here's the problem: in terms of psychological realism, which is what actually makes characters in stories interesting and thus, in most people's eyes, worth it to experience, this... is not how most nihilists come to realize that nihilism is very much real and undeniable. And, for most people, the reaction is first, denial. When someone tells you nothing matters in the objective, you deny it because subjectively, you have painted the illusion of value and meaning all over your own eyes. It's like covering your eyes with your hands and pretending the sky does not exist. Of course, some people will deny the truth until they die; gazing into the void isn't something every homo sapiens sapiens has the mental strength and intellectual rigor to brave. Others come to a mature realization that it's the truth. That it's all constructs that construct the world in our minds and thus are just the illusions we painted into our vision. An intangible thought paradigm that was once advantageous for survival but in lieu of imminent danger, serves as nothing more than a constricting relic of thought. An intellectual enlightenment. Then a decision of what to do with that plot twist of life occurs, often calmly.

That's the usual reaction.

Melodramatic despair when you lose your only "purpose"... is really not that relatable or realistic when discussing nihilism or the realization of it, which is often coined the term "existential crisis". Reality is just not very often that angsty.

Don't mistake the above though.

Yes, you will suffer and despair if the person you love the most dies. There is not a single person, nihilist or otherwise, who does not suffer. This is because, even for the most extreme of nihilists who actively deny objective meaning and value, the body still excretes dopamine and oxytocin which is what the "feel" of attachment and love are based on, physically speaking. Even if you actively know none of it matters, that none of it will objectively have intrinsic meaning or value and thus nothing was truly lost in the grand scale, your eyes will still shed tears because cortisol and prolactin are still secreted by your body to make you cry. How you proceed consciously, intellectually speaking, is what differs between a nihilist and someone who isn't one. A normal person will probably mourn, perhaps hold a funeral, perhaps go over good and bad memories and tell themselves what this meant to them. A nihilist may take a much more pragmatic approach. Some might be existentialists or absurdists who try to be passionate anyway, under the cling of subjective value. Some might take a much more mundane approach. Yet importantly, the reason this does not work when portraying 9S... is because he is supposed to be a robot per the very premise of the show. He doesn't secrete dopamine or oxytocin or any other hormone, and I have no reason to believe the combat androids are the bodies humanity were supposed to transfer into and thus need these functions. So then, why is he acting like someone who is governed by hormonal cycles and systems that form the physical foundation of human emotion? Was he a role-play AI who is supposed to generate emotional character text instead? Maybe RPing enemies to "death" was a combat tactic here?

The same thing applies for discovering that what you were doing the whole time did not matter. Biologically and psychologically speaking, there will be a reaction. It will be tailored to what that specific situation is. But again, 9S is a robot. And for an android designed to fight, even in a scout role, I cannot see the advantage of having it secrete and be affected by dopamine, oxytocin or any other hormone let alone engage in what can be observed as role-play behavior when you talk to AI that are programmed and trained to act like fictional characters. The narrative logic here simply does not compute for why combat units need emotion.

This is why 9S's portrayal when he is the focus and in grief is problematic because it is pure theatrical, emo angst. There is no exploration of a realistic realization of nihilism that would be typical of a normal human being who is undergoing an intellectual enlightenment of their view of the world or an exploration of the psychology of loss, even if we ignore the narrative flaw that a robot somehow has the hormone secretion and effect cycle called "emotion" as if he was just a naive boy until the big despair happens.

"Nothing matters" and emo screaming with tears, the trope.

...And that's all there is to it.

So, how does this impact the story?

Well, once you stripped all the "profound" down, this anime boils down to, two robots who take orders from a super powerful organization, they do missions, and then in various ways, things went poof.

This isn't profound.

My reaction to the entire thing was blasé.

9S's emo and angsty portrayal had me laughing at the attempt at illustrating a philosophy I know as well as the taste of bread. The stereotype that "nihilism is despair", is too old and so poorly represents the rare individuals who are truly nihilists in life. I for one find it quite liberating to not be fettered by the prescribed meanings and values of the world around me, by the way. And, I'd choose no other way of life than to abandon definitions and paradigms meant to have me submit.

To its credit,

At least this anime is not another isekai or reverse isekai where the main character, male or female, is effectively god, or the avatar of popularity. It's at least trying to do the thing I loved about some older anime: having a theme, something to think about.

Unfortunately, the lack of depth and the stereotyped portrayal of nihilism as despair, coupled with the fact that the characters themselves are just robots with unrealistic melodramatic reactions to stuff that occurs and say stereotypically emotional lines, the experience of watching this anime is truly closer as an experience of reading to a shallow forum post. It’s akin to an ENTP or INTP debater on a forum who writes the first sentence of every point he wants to make but fails to complete the paragraph for any of the points and then goes on a rant in the middle, ending up with a shallow, scattered post that then loses the debate altogether because it lacks the actual focus and incisiveness their INTJ debate partner can muster. Or, maybe I should consider this public domain philosophy texts, the commercial -- with 2B as the marketting waifu to entice those who would otherwise be too bored to study philosophy.

4/10

Note: There was no reason for me to write this review, nor a reason to not write it. If there is a term you don't know here, look it up by yourself. Oh and, feel free to copypasta this over to Chat GPT and ask for an "unbiased psychological analysis of if or not the writer is truly nihilistic" if you doubt my claim.

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