Square Enix announces Nier: Automata anime series – Polygon

Nier: Automata, the hit 2017 action-RPG directed by Yoko Taro and developed by Square Enix and PlatinumGames, is getting an anime adaptation.

Announced Wednesday by Square Enix during the game’s fifth anniversary livestream, the animated television series will adapt the story of 2B, 9S, and A2; three combat androids in the year 11945 AD pitted in an unrelenting war against extraterrestrial machines for the fate of humanity and whose lives are irrevocably transformed through the discovery of a terrible secret.

The announcement featured a brief teaser trailer accompanied by key art featuring a katana-wielding 2B alongside her flying robot assistant Pod 042.

While it is unclear at this time who will direct the adaptation, how many episodes the anime will be, and when the anime is slated to premiere, it appears that Aniplex, the production company behind anime such as Fullmetal Alchemist, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, and The Promised Neverland is involved with the project.

Apart from its balletic swordplay, bullet-hell shooting, and leather-clad androids, Nier: Automata (much like its 2010 predecessor) is known for its fourth wall-breaking narrative structure and multiple branching endings. How this new anime will iterate on this defining quality of the original game, if at all, is currently unknown. Perhaps the anime will take inspiration from director Yoko Taro’s penchant for mischief and devote an entire arc to reanimating the same events over and over again with minor (albeit consequential) differences, à la 2006’s The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya?

In our review for the game, Janine Hawkins in 2017 described Nier: Automata as “a game that’s more than willing to make players feel small, both physically conceptually,” and a game that “demands and rewards patience with its antics.”