Almost a year after it was announced that we had an adaptation of ‘NieR: Automata’ underway, the first chapter of the series has already been released to start 2023 strong. video game adaptations to anime They can already be counted in handfuls and last year was tremendous between ‘Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’, ‘Tekken: Bloodline’ or even ‘Dragon Age: Absolution’.
And with the bar so high comes the story of 2B and 9Sthis time in series format directed by Ryouji Masuyama and co-scripted by himself Yoko Taro that we can now follow week by week through Crunchyroll.
back to the beginnings
For fans of the video game, ‘NieR: Automata Ver1. 1a‘ starts with the first mission in history and remains very faithful to what could be seen at the time by the hand of Square Enixeven going so far as to recreate scenes shot by shot.
For those who come back, the anime introduces us to 2Bwho is the sole survivor of her group and soon allies with another android, 9S. Both of them quickly get together to fulfill their mission together and face a giant robot… and a few other enemies that appear along the way.
The anime poses a good start, especially since it starts in the middle of the action and quickly introduces us to our two protagonists and their very opposite personalities.
She’s methodical and calculating and sticks to the script she’s assimilated, and he’s much more emotional even though it’s not appropriate for an android. Both characters work perfectly and also the anime is in charge of giving us an overview of everything that is happening in the midst of the chaos of this first mission, instead of seeing each side of the stage in “turns”.
The first chapter works well as a prologue and also has a lot of little details for fans of the game, such as the magnificent soundtrack. Now, for those who don’t have much idea of history the beginning can be a bit confusing because the basics of the plot have not yet been fully presentedso we have to be patient, wait for the next episode so that everything unravels little by little.
But in terms of approach, it does have the elements to bite us and leaves us with the right cliffhanger. And of course If we come looking for action, the first chapter has plenty to share.
Unfortunately, despite the good pacing and well-arrived action scenes, the point where ‘NieR: Automata Ver1. 1a’ is in the animation. The traditional animation part may seem simple, especially with the character designs, but it still works very well. The problem comes with the disastrous CGI from which it is impossible to get rid of.
Considering the number of robots and crowds 2B and 9S are up against, it’s only natural that A-1 Pictures I wanted to resort to CGI, but the result does not fit at all with the rest of the animation. Instead of opting for a more simplified finish or that hits like traditional animation, we have a finish that wants to be realistic but sticks to PS2 graphics and doesn’t do the anime any favors.
If all anime were in this style, you might like it more, less, or not at all… But the contrast with traditional anime style is too great, and we also have entire sequences with just these masses of junk. And it’s a shame, because the action scenes become unpalatable.
Luckily (and without going into too many spoilers), the end of the chapter leaves us some very nice credits where the possible alternative endings will be explored of the game and 2B and 9S themselves explain a little more about the rich lore of their world.