NieR:Automata is one of my favorite games of all time. Rarely does a week go by that I don’t think of it—despite having not played it in years. So, while you’d think I’d be excited for the recently announced anime adaptation (which I admittedly am), I also worry that it will lack the emotional impact of the game. After all, NieR:Automata is one of those rare stories that relies on the interactive nature of video games to reach its greatest heights.
*This article contains major spoilers for NieR:Automata.
It’s actually happening.
A #NieR:Automata anime is on the way! https://t.co/3yIx2IWuVU pic.twitter.com/jiDp4u61NB
— NieR Series (@NieRGame) February 23, 2022
NieR:Automata is a game with five main “routes” through the story—though not in the traditional sense. The “A” route is your first playthrough. The player controls 2B as she and fellow android 9S try to defeat the machines that have taken over the Earth. The “B” route is the same story as the “A” route but from 9S’ point of view instead of 2B’s. The “C” and “D” routes are sequels to “A” and “B” and are largely identical except for the ending—which changes based on whether you choose to play as A2 or 9S in the final battle. The “E” route is a short sequel to the “C” and “D” routes and will start automatically after the “C” or “D” ending is shown (whichever is completed second).
This odd structure is the first major hurdle for when it comes to adapting the game into a different medium. In the “A” route, the story is rather straightforward. 2B and 9S battle the evil machines to retake Earth so that it can be returned to the last remnant of humanity living in exile on the moon. Along the way, the pair begin to realize that the machines are more than just mindless monsters and are trying to evolve into something greater—though that doesn’t mean they don’t need to be stopped. The “B” route, on the other hand dramatically redefines the story. Not only does it delve deeper into what is going on with the machines, it also reveals the secrets of the android pair’s own organization and the true fate of mankind.
Image source: NieR Series
As any anime adaptation would be unlikely to show the same events twice as the game does, it’s likely that the two routes would be combined into one. This would effectively remove the “A” route baseline telling of the story—and in the process erase the surprise that comes from seeing how differently 9S interprets the events on screen based on his extra knowledge.
The “C” and “D” routes of the story, on the other hand, could be adapted much easier. The only issue would be choosing a canon route ending—as the game’s “C” ending and “D” ending directly contradict each other. But the biggest issue of making a NieR:Automata anime comes from trying to adapt the “E” ending.
To be frank, the “E” ending is the reason that NieR:Automata is so critically acclaimed. Both the “C” and “D” endings are equally tragic with our heroes all dead and the machine/android war proved to be both meaningless and eternal. These endings are staggeringly, heartbreakingly nihilistic—but they are the story that Yoko Taro and his team decided to tell.
The “E” ending is the player outright rejecting these dark endings. You literally choose to fight the creators themselves—the game’s credits becoming a bullet hell shooter where you blow their names out of the sky. Yet, of course, they are the makers of the game—they have total and complete control. They can ramp up the difficulty as high as they want. You, a single player, have little to no chance of winning—forcing them to change the story as they have told it.
So you lose again and again, ramming your head against an unbreakable wall. Yet, each time you die, things change. At first, there is nothing but soon you are given a message from another random player—urging you to not give up. Soon, the messages multiply, and you are flooded with positive words from numerous real people from all across the world just like you who have refused to let 2B, 9S, and A2’s story end in tragedy. And then comes the moment when a player offers you, their direct help.
Image source: NieR公式PRアカウント
Suddenly, you are not a lone ship shooting names but a fleet of ships. The music changes from a single voice to a swelling chorus as your fellow players surround you—adding their firepower to your own. Each time you should be hit, one of your newfound allies takes the bullet for you and is destroyed—leaving you with the system message that their save data has been lost. Yet, for each fallen ally, another joins your fight and, in the end, you triumph and Yoko Taro and his team are forced to give 2B, 9S, and A2 a new ending—not a happy ending, mind you, but one where there is at least hope.
And once you have received your reward, you are given the single most impactful choice in all of gaming: to either help another gamer reach the “E” ending or not. Now, to be clear there is no incentive to help—no rewards gained or achievements earned. In fact, helping comes with a real world cost: your NieR:Automata save game will be permanently deleted. All you have done—the tangible proof of all your time and effort spent on the game—will be lost.
There is no logical reason to delete your game but there is an emotional one: someone deleted their own game to help you. And now, you have the chance to do the same for someone else—to spit in the face of Yoko Taro’s nihilism and show that people can choose to be good for no other reason than that they want to.
Image source: NieR Series
The whole “E” route is staggeringly impactful—and only possible within an interactive medium like video games. Anime, on the other hand, is a one-way piece of art. The creators put their vision on the screen and you take it in. But in the game, you not only respond to the creators by battling against them to change the ending but connect with other players on a philosophical level while confronting your own morals about what is right and wrong.
How could a NieR:Automata anime even begin to replicate something like this? Perhaps show the downer ending one week and let viewers vote to see the true ending the next—but if the vote passes the episode will be aired only once and the whole series will be deleted from streaming services immediately after and will never be put out on Blu-Ray? But let’s be serious, such an act would hurt the anime’s bottom line and will thus never come to pass.
This is the big issue facing the NieR:Automata anime. The most beloved part of the game is something that cannot practically be adapted into a non-interactive media genre. No matter how enjoyable the plot of the game is, the anime will almost certainly be a pale shadow of the game on which it is based…
…unless it’s not a direct adaptation, that is.
Image source: マンガＵＰ！ on Twitter
At the moment, all we know about the NieR:Automata anime is that it is in production. We don’t even know if it’s an adaptation of the game’s story. Based on the key visual alone, it could just as easily be an adaptation of the Yoko Taro-penned YoRHa Girls stage play which tells A2’s backstory. (Heck, that story is already being adapted into manga form with NieR: Automata: YoRHa Shinjuwan Kouka Sakusen Kiroku.) Likewise, it could be a completely original spin-off set in the same world—or even a sequel of some sort. We just don’t know at the moment.
But regardless of how it turns out, I am excited to see what happens with this anime. And who knows, maybe Yoko Taro has a trick up his sleeve that will leave us all stunned. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time.
Top image source: Aniplex of America on Twitter.
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