Episode Review: NieR:Automata Ver1.1A Episode 17: A2 Beginning

We’ll always be family, Freesia…

After the last few episode focusing on YoHRa and the main protagonist couple, the story’s perspective shift to our other major character – A2. With 2B gone, A2 will take over as the series protagonist. And we get to see her past as to why she became a rogue android, and at the same time learn more about Lily’s past as she is an original character for the show.

We begin with A2’s first mission as her team descended upon Earth. We can see that the android are still very emotional and expressive at this time. Seeing 2B’s face being all giddy like a child is both heartwarming and painful – since we just saw her demise in the last episode. But this isn’t 2B, it’s Type-2 and the eerie juxtaposition that this episode made us feel is crazy. A-1 studio really knows how to wrench our hearts – in more ways than one.

As the androids are descending happily, disaster strike (of course!) and the smile on A2’s face was wiped out almost instantly and we won’t be seeing it for a long time after. The whole team got absolutely devastated and only 4 of them survived. They then encountered the Resistance. At first they were at odds with each other but A2 managed to convince both sides. A2 isn’t the strict or competent captain type, as even though she is No. 2, she is much more aversive to conflicts between androids and just wanted to be with everyone. But of course, the mantle of a leader was pushed onto her – and she reluctantly accepted it. I think when she saw how good a leader Rose was, A2 really admired her and wanted to be like her, so she wanted the Resistance’s help no matter what.

A2’s time on the surface is filled with joy, happiness as well as pain and grieve. Even though her fellow android is safe, the Resistance’s member are prone to coming down with the crazy eye disease, and here we see Lily. Of course we saw Lily fine in season 1, so she was definitely fine, but we saw that A2 was the one that insisted on saving Lily. And it paid out in the end. That’s also the moment that the Resistance placed their trust in A2 and the YoHRa team. And we see many more moments between them that is a double-edged stab for us.

But of course, happy times don’t last forever. A2 and the team need to carry out their mission – which we later learned is basically a suicide mission from YoHRa, but I reckoned Commander White didn;t really intend on it as well, since this kind of sacrifice play is more “Human Council” style. And yeah, the Resistance went a long with it and they got demolished on the way since…the machine lifeforms knew about the entire plans too.

Kinda ironic that the A2 team is pretty much “puppets” in this “play”, with both puppeteer looking down from above seeing the little dolls struggle. And beautiful dolls at that. They got much more focus this time so we can appreciate their unique designs and details. I really like these and it’s cool that they put a lot of effort on them.

The battle in the machine lifeform’s base was more creepy than violent. As the YoHRa androids – A2’s comrades – were taken over and became their enemies, and all members of the Resistance was killed and even Rose was infected. The only ones that survived are A2 and Lily, and they were separated after that. The machine lifeform’s dialogue is extremely creepy since they are using a high-pitched kid’s voice – gotta hand it to Taro. Rose and the YoHRa squad last stand was very amazing, sacrificing everything to let their 2 successors – A2 and Lily – survive. What got me was when Rose gave every YoHRa member a name of a flower.

Animation in this episode was nice, nothing too crazy but with just 24 minutes, the anime were able to tell a very compelling background story for one of the most sophisticated character in the Nier: Automata universe. A2 will be our main focus starting next episode, and using just one episode to flesh out her character is a great move. The execution of the plot is very well-done. Furthermore, it was great to see an “alternate” 2B being completely active, full of hope and emoted much more than the 2B we’re familiar with. Even though their fight also ended in despair, A2 still lived on. And now she will open a new path for both androids and machine lifeforms.

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