Automata Anime ends on a high note with a stunning finale

There never was a world in which NieR: Automata Ver1.1.a ended in a predictable way. The anime adaptation of the 2017 action RPG by Joko Taro and PlatinumGames has continuously deviated from the expected story since it aired in 2023. Over 24 episodes, Ver1.1a offered a gripping retelling of the original story for newcomers, while also continually playing with the franchise’s extensive lore to keep longtime fans on their toes. With last week’s finale, the show went out on an undeniably high note, which speaks to the effectiveness of the story regardless of medium, and to Taro’s evolving relationship with its themes.

For most of its runtime, the final episode was of Ver1.1a“the (E)nd of YoRHa”, doesn’t mess with the true ending of the game, from which this final takes its name. But just when the show seems over and the credits start to roll, things start to change. Unlike the end of the game, Ver1.1a shows us the aftermath of the final confrontation between the androids A2, 9S, the machine lifeforms and the remains of YoRHa. Even more shocking is that it has a happy ending. First we see 9S wake up with shining blue eyes and no trace of the virus that once threatened his life and sanity. Then we see 2B waking up next to him. The two reunite without their blindfolds and weapons, stripped of their roles as YoRHA’s androids. Together they have a new future ahead of them. The credits then moved to A2 and rested peacefully next to the Kidney the franchise’s signature moon tear grows next to her. It is a symbol of hope, and a recognition that the better future A2 has fought for is beginning to blossom. A final title card reveals a new name for the episode: “Alternative (E)den.”

Finally we see a mysterious girl with black pigtails walking away with a large suitcase in her hand. She turns to the camera and stares directly at the viewer with her speckled face. She winks and then the show is over. That girl is perhaps the most important character in the lore of Drakengard And Kidney. Her name is Accord and she is a constant observer of the Drakengard/NieR universe whose name pops up NieR, Automata, and even the now defunct one Reincarnation. Her most prominent appearance, however, is indoors Dragon Garden 3. In one of the game’s many routes, we see the mysterious girl make a call to an unknown party, after which she is given explicit permission to intervene in the story and give protagonist Zero the opportunity to change her fate. Although not explicitly stated, this unknown party represents creator Yoko Taro intervening in his own story to help the characters towards a better future.

During the Drakengard/Nier series, Taro has always dealt with dark and depressing themes of nihilism and hopelessness in the face of tragedy or overwhelmingly bad odds. There isn’t much happiness to be found in his games and what there is is often fleeting and comes at a price. But with each successive game Taro makes, his nihilism seems to diminish Vending machines was already a more hopeful story than anything that came before it (something the director discussed Kotaku in 2018) it still comes with so much loss and sacrifice for A2, 2B, 9S and more.

But inside Ver1.1a Taro gives these characters a chance to be happy. Seven years after the game’s release, it seems he’s decided that these characters have sacrificed enough without seeing the fruit of their suffering. Over the years, Taro has shown a growing optimism in his stories, despite the rise of nihilism in the real world. The 2021 remake of the original Kidney features a new ending that allows players to save the protagonist from his own sacrifice. Like Ver1.1a‘Alternative (E)den’ leaves the characters in peace.

Of Ver1.1a, Taro shows the rest of the video game industry how to make a remake. Instead of a hollow retread of a story meant to gain a new audience (and more profits), Taro delivers every time Vending machines‘s story he interrogates his own artistic intention and execution. Through this approach, Vending machines has become an evolving thing that reflects Taro’s growing optimism through the lens of the same characters. This is what makes NieR: Automata a masterpiece: whether it is a video game, a play, a manga or an anime.

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