NieR:Automata Ver 1.1a Season 2

Episode 17

A2 has always been one of my favorite characters in the “DrakeNier” multiverse. When I first played NieR:Automata she resonated with me more on her vibes than the full scope of her characterization. This is because a lot of the backstory and roundness of her character arc comes from seeing where she goes in the game contrasted with where she started in the events of the YorHa stage play. We already saw the events of the Pearl Harbor Descent catastrophe back in Episode 6 of Season 1, where they served to explore Lily's backstory and her fractured relationship with the YorHa androids from the Bunker. Here, we witness the tragedy again to understand who this Android known as “A2” is.

Back in Season 1, all we got to see of her was how she so casually interrupted 2B and 9S' mission in the forest by murdering the tiny Forest King. Now, though, she is taking a much more direct role in the story: She has killed our heroine 2B, for one, though she has also inherited Pod 042 as a companion, not to mention all of those memories she seemingly absorbed when she took 2B's sword. On top of all that, she has earned the all-consuming rage of a grief-mad 9S, which is just the extra bit of complication this already insane scenario needed.

If “bad [J]udgment” has anything going against it, it would be the fact that we've already seen about half of it before. Some of the footage from the Lily-focused Episode 6 seems to have been ever so slightly retouched and re-edited, but that won't keep that uncanny feeling of déjà vuM from settling in, especially for anyone who is watching the entirety of this series without the months in between episodes/seasons. Still, it's a minor issue at worst, since the story of the Pearl Harbor Descent is critical enough to A2's whole deal that it is worth revisiting, and the brand-new sequences that bookend the flashback are well worth it. The first time we saw Rose's survivors team up with A2's doomed YorHa squadron, the focus was on introducing the threat of the Logic Virus and giving some depth to Lily and the context of her Resistance's perspective being stuck on the ground. Now, we're seeing things from A2's perspective, and the bloody tragedy that she survived goes a long way toward explaining why she's been a rogue machine slaughterer for all of these years after cutting ties with YorHa completely.

The revitalized production of this second season sells that “tragedy” bit, by the way. Seeing A2's allies be commandeered into suicidal self-destruction like bloody marionettes stands as one of the best sequences of creepy techno-horror to come out of this anime. The way that the Pearl Harbor Descent has been incorporated into NieR:Automata Ver1.1a remains one of the show's greatest selling points. Don't get me wrong: I dig it when a franchise can find creative ways to implement multi-media projects like the YorHa play or the Pearl Harbor Descent Record manga, but I much prefer it when such a thematically critical portion of the story as this can be more completely stitched into the larger narrative. A lot of what makes A2 such a fitting successor as one of NieR:Automata's deuteragonists comes from understanding her transformation from the innocent No. 2 model that she was into the hardened killer that ends up taking 2B's life. For all of its faults, I think this is one area in which NieR:Automata Ver1.1a has surpassed its source material.

Rating:

Extraneous Code

•This week's puppet show keeps things mercifully light by returning us to Lily and Jackass to demonstrate the catastrophic effects of serving Machine-infused sake to the Androids. The funniest part is that, as her continued demands for mackerel suggest, this isn't even the stupidest way that the world can end due to Androids eating something that is obviously and ridiculously not good for them.

NieR:Automata Ver 1.1a Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.