** BEWARE OF SPOILERS **
Today marks an end of an era. Yoko Taro’s longest running manga “Thou Shalt Not Die” (君死ニタマフ事ナカレ) with mangaka Moriyama Daisuke concludes with 59 chapters. It seems like an odd number to end the series on, but…
Continue readingNow that we’re coming down to the end of the TSND manga, it feels like some loose ends are finally starting to come together. Exactly what light these revelations will shed on the overall Yokoverse or how the TSND story could be connected is still anyone’s guess at this point. But the more we see of this story, the more obvious it seems to get.
First of all, the main conflict taking place at the school is over. The US Army infiltration into the school to eliminate all of the kids was thwarted thanks solely to Asagi’s efforts. Because of his ultimate sacrifice, the main cast was able to retreat from the area… and after that, apparently the statute of limitations that connected the US Army to the whole thing in the first place ran out, so they will no longer be pursuing the kids after this point.
A segment of the chapter is dedicated to telling the story of the army’s side, focusing on a head general related to the latest mission at the school. He’s the one that tells his subordinates that they are not going to pursue the kids any further… But since their mission actually ended in failure, he has to take that responsibility upon himself… and he ends up committing suicide after briefing his subordinates. It’s almost like… Miyata is trying to cover its tracks.
The kids get away on a military vessel and are scheduled to be dropped off at a Yokohama port (maybe Osanbashi!?!). On the way, Kuroi calls up Yamabuki-senpai to discuss the progression he’s made on compiling all the information about Project White that Asagi had collected. I entirely forget now, but it seems as though Yamabuki has a direct connection to Project White and helping the others out like (I forget his motivations) also spelled his own death.
Yamabuki mentions that he has to take responsibility for the failure of the mission or whatever and was given some suicide pills from Project White (yet another instance of Miyata covering its tracks). He mentions he’s only got about 5 minutes to live.
He mentions that Miyata cannot be destroyed and that it was specifically created in such a way that it would survive. Apparently the “Special Abilities” side of Project White was just one of many it covered. The information that Asagi retrieved was the connection between the Special Ability High and Project White as well as its connection to the Political World and the Self-Defense Forces. But there’s apparently another plan that they haven’t yet uncovered…
It seems like it was one of Asagi’s final predictions that Yamabuki would have already compiled all the information to hand it off to Kuroi in preparation of his own untimely death. It’s super interesting that Kuroi would even go to say “This is the end both of us hoped for, isn’t it?” Kuroi certainly has his endearing moments!
Yamabuki transfers the information to Kuroi, and gives him the location where to find more answers: at the Miyata General Hospital.
At some point during the conversation, though, we find out that Mashiro isn’t on the ship… but Kuroi still knows–somehow–that she’s fine. It’s almost like they have a direct connection between them now…
Another interesting thing I noticed in this chapter was the prevalence of BIRDS throughout the entire thing, in every scene change even. Birds have never been a major focus in the story, so I can’t help but imagine what symbolic meaning they may have here.
I’m guessing they’re going to aim for a total of 60 chapters in this story, so that would mean we’ll have 3 more chapters left with the final chapter on September 25. That is assuming there’s no month break between any of the chapters and also assuming the chapter length. Nonetheless, we know the story will be wrapping up by fall… so best be prepared!! It’s been a long 6 years!!
In an effort to promote the “STAY HOME” movement during the Coronavirus pandemic, the 2018 performances of the YoRHa Ver.1.2 Musical and YoRHa Boys Ver.1.0 stage play originally streamed on NicoNico will be coming back for a brief time. The plays will be available FOR FREE from Friday, May 1 to Sunday, May 10.
If you haven’t seen these versions yet, I would highly recommend checking them out. Both of which have been released on Blu-ray as a box-set, and can still occasionally be found at vendors like Amazon. But be prepared to pay anywhere from $300 at this point…
And if you haven’t seen it yet, the YoRHa Ver.1.2 Musical was my first experience to work as freelance press on the stage play report, so you can check that out here.
On Monday, April 27, the Weekly Famitsu official Twitter account dropped a teaser for this week’s up-coming issue of Famitsu magazine, which will feature 48 pages worth of NieR related goodness, including interviews with Yoko Taro and Saito Yosuke.
Additionally, according to Ryokutya, the issue will discuss these points about the new version of NieR Replicant (my personal comments in red):
Additionally, here are some more Famitsu leaks about NieR Re[in]carnation from another Ryokutya post:
Famitsu just posted a couple preview images of their article on twitter! Check it out!
Please stay tuned for more news and info regarding this release in the coming days! In the meantime, here are a couple of preview videos for you to enjoy and help you stay up-to-date with all things in the Yokoverse!
There also seems to be a bit of misinformation going around regarding these leaks originally stated by Ryokutya. Like a game of telephone, the information seems to be going through several different journalists, each time losing more and more of the original intent or meaning.
The original leak started with Ryokutya, traveled to Game’s Talk, and then over to Twitter. The thing is, Ryokutya often adds his own personal comment at the end of his posts of leaked information, so for anyone unfamiliar with this, they could misinterpret his personal comments for actual leaked information.
Let’s break this down to eliminate any misunderstanding, starting with Ryokutya’s personal comment (not part of the official Famitsu leaks):
Taura wanted to keep the same action feel of the original (since he was a fan of the original), but Saito, Yoko, and the development company (Toylogic) seem intent on changing the feel considerably.
But if Taura’s going to check on the work, then I guess there’s noooooooooooooo need to worry.
The only thing left to worry about is maybe changes to the somewhat taboo aspects of the game… [Ryokutya]
Then Game’s Talk picked up this bit and wrote it like this:
PlatinumGames’ Taura Takahisa, who worked on the game design for NieR:Automata, will be cooperating on the development by supervising the game’s action.
Taura, a fan of the original game, didn’t want to change the feel of the original, but it is said that Saito, Yoko, and the development company, Toylogic, intend on changing it considerably. [Game’s Talk]
And then other folks on Twitter picked up the information and rolled with it:
https://twitter.com/StormYorha/status/1255253748538060800 (Removed)
The majority of this “new” information is actually a month old, as it was originally announced during the 10-hour NieR 10th Anniversary Livestream on March 29, which I covered here.
I do recall them discussing on the same program that Taura would be “helping” with the new version of Replicant, but exactly how much or what his actual role would be, working with Toylogic, was not discussed.
So, looking at how the information gradually changed the further down the grapevine it got, it’s clear that we need to stick with official sources and to be careful what gets passed around. Even if the overall statement is accurate, the slightest inaccuracy could be passed around and taken at face value.
Edit: April 30
The one line of dialogue that we saw spoken by Mama says, “Wow! Sand is pouring down! What’s going on here?” What’s interesting with this is that Mama clearly uses “feminine” speech. Of course, we don’t know anything about the character to know if Mama is actually a living being, a machine, or what… but this sort of speech is really difficult to get across when it’s translated into English.
This is a quick reminder about the livestream scheduled for later tonight.
NieR 10th Anniversary Livestream
This livestream will include:
Known members to participate during the livestream include:
There is a form linked on the page below where you can submit your own Weapon Story for review by both Yoko Taro and Saito Yosuke! (Weapon Story submissions available to only NicoNico Premium members)
Other things we’re likely to see in the stream will be additional information about the two new NieR titles that were announced during the March 29 livestream:
See more: Additional information on these titles can be found here.
EDIT: After the Livestream
Long story short: There was no new announcement during the livestream tonight.
Yoko discussed some points along the overall timeline, including some dates that have not appeared before, there were several people who gave anniversary congratulation messages, Yoko read 6 selected Weapon Stories that fans had written before he wrote one himself on the fly, then the whole group just chatted up a storm about a bunch of mundane things before switching to a 20 minute break where they showed various promotional videos for both OG NieR and Automata… We thought maybe that was the end of the livestream, but they all came back again after that for about 10-15 minutes of additional chit-chat.
All-in-all, nothing important was discussed. Period. Nothing about NieR Replicant 1.22…, NieR Re[in]carnation, or anything else for that matter. In that regard, the livestream was pretty disappointing, but it’s always fun watching everybody interact with each other, so watching them all chat on ZOOM was amusing. Of course, Yoko kept his screen black and displayed his name as “taro yoko”. haha Might he be changing the style of his name after all these years…?