Updated: Wednesday, September 4, 2024 – 4:30pm (JST)
Preparations for this year’s Tokyo Game Show is well underway! The three NieR dudes won’t stop their huge stock of NieR Orchestral Arrangement Special Edition boxs are signed!
This will be a light-hearted livestream as they are effectively locked inside the SQEX building and forced to sign their autographs over and over again! While they’re busy signing, they’ll be discussing some highlights of their work, some behind-the-scenes stories, and other fun talk. It will be interesting to see if they’re able to finish signing everything by the end of the livestream…
Just last night was another fun “Game Sakaba” segment with many folks from the NieR development team and more in which we were able to watch the guys play around with the new system from SEGA in which it lets you play actual UFO catcher games through a simple touch on your smartphone!
I will not be covering the main portion of this livestream regarding the UFO catchers, but you can watch the full broadcast from the link below:
Music: Song of the Ancients / Atonement (Ver.1.1a)
Size: 500ml
▶︎ New “Smart Toy” brand anitech by HIBINO
Much along the same lines as the PSYCHO-PASS smart toy that was released in 2016 which connects to your smartphone and transforms, several NieR:Automata themed items are currently under development. Here’s a look at the PSYCHO-PASS toy:
Firstly, here’s the mock-up of 2B’s sword, Virtuous Contract:
And secondly, here’s the mock-up of Pod042:
Please note that there seems to be three pods shown in the image on the left, but these are the individual stages in which the smart toy will effectively morph into. They’re currently debating what size to make the smart toy, as if they go with a 1:1 ratio, it might be too large for most people (as there’s little storage space for most in Japan). They demonstrated generally how large a 1:1 ratio would look like in the image on the right.
▶︎ Happy Birthday, Yosupi!
Yosuke “Yosupi” Saito’s birthday was on August 25, so the gang gave him a little birthday celebration including a song/rap by Yoko, Namio, and Ui. The only thing was… the girls couldn’t quite hear the BGM track to be able to sing their lines very well and it was kinda a mess in a hilarious way. They later tried it again and it was a bit better, but it was a little painfully obvious that they didn’t perform a technical rehearsal before the livestream… lol
Music written by Keiichi Okabe (DJ Okabe)
Lyrics written by Yoko Taro
Performed by Mio Hanana (Diva Namio) & Ui Hinagata (Diva Ui)
▲ The lyrics were color coded for the performers.
Red: Yoko
Blue: DJ Namio
Pink: DJ Ui
Green: DJ Namio / DJ Ui
What was really funny about this is that Saito even ratted them out, saying that they needed to practice and rehearse more, which to anyone involved in productions like this, is an ABSOLUTE given. There’s no excuse for them not to hear the BGM and therefore mess up, but even the second time through, they still kinda messed up, so… yeah, they needed a couple more takes in rehearsal. haha
Here’s a look at Yosupi’s cake that they gave him. The first photo is pretty funny with Yoko’s head on the side. For the actual cake, you can see that they printed a photo of Yosupi in his 9S cosplay that he wore for the World Cosplay Summit in Nagoya earlier this month.
They even made a large poster of the same image of Yosupi as 9S (which he dubbed 54D) and unveiled it during the program. For some reason, the camera focused on his knees, maybe at Yoko’s request.
They also made some small acrylic stands of Yosupi and Yoko in their cosplays from WCS2024.
▶︎ NieR:Automata Ver.1.1a – Season 2
▶︎ The Limited Edition DVD/BD Boxset Bonuses:
Digital jacket with original artwork by character designer and chief animation director Jun Nakai
New short story by Jun Eshima, 笑顔ノ君ヘ “Egao no Kimi e” (To you who smiles)
Drama CD “fa[T]al error“
Collection of production materials, “Elements of NieR:Automata Ver.1.1a 002”
”Pod’s Records 002” Illustration Book
Replica Disc
Special Illustration Card(s)
Virtuous Contract
▶Over 130cm of an overwhelming presence with realistic texture ▶Reproduces battle scenes with vibration, light, and sound effects based upon movement ▶Secondary product: Pod042 remote control ▶Includes voice recordings of the main character, 2B ▶Comes with unique serial number engraved ▶Scheduled for release in Autumn 2025
Pod042
▶Automatic transformation mechanism ▶Reproduces laser beams with sound effects and light ▶Can be remote controlled with the Virtuous Contract or smartphone ▶A special voice recording plays when stroked ▶Includes an alarm and alert function with Pod042’s voice ▶Comes with unique serial number engraved ▶Comes with dedicated stand ▶Scheduled for release in 2027
▶︎ The Next BAKUKEN Stage Play in 2025!
They let slip that there’s another Bakuken stage play set for 2025, and we’ll hear more about the details later in December, maybe around Christmas along the same lines as the previous Saito Santa livestreams, which officially ended in 2022. This will mark the 4th official play, 3rd in terms of story, which should continue the story from the last one in which we saw the appearance of Kyosuke Suga as Michael. Although I’m very excited to see him back, if that’s the case, it will be hard to see him as a BAD GUY in need of saving by Yatsume…!! The implications for the whole Bakuken stories in terms of the overall Yokoverse is CRAZY!
Absolutely insane take: Could Yatsume actually be the basis for Accord…? We know she’s immortal and will always come back to life due to “reasons”… It would be interesting if this is how Yoko envisioned fusing everything together. This next play might be the last for Bakuken… before Yoko gets another idea for something brand new.
More news will follow when it’s been announced! Please stay tuned!
For fans of Yoko Taro who’ve been around for awhile, you might recall how Yoko used to be relatively free and open to reply to fans questions about his works, but… sometime around 2018, he began declining to answer questions, and this is basically his reasoning:
“I’d like to share my thoughts on the characters from the “YoRHa Boys” stage play and explore deeper into their feelings, but since I’m the creator, whatever I’d say would be considered official canon and therefore limit fan’s imagination, so I can’t say anything. RIP!”
The context of this tweet was specifically about the YoRHa Boys stage play, which was going on at the time, but it may be safe to assume this is his overall stance on the subject.
Many people have been introduced the vast Yokoverse over the years, some who’ve been a round for a long time and others who are brand new, but it seems like more and more people are trying to answer questions with such absolute conviction that I’ve begun to lose interest. It’s not fun thinking or discussing things when people are only looking to argue or point fingers. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut, thinking you know everything, but it’s absolutely true that this can stifle the creativity of others who might interpret things differently.
So, in order to avoid this from happening, Yoko has generally decided not to answer questions for more clarity or confirmation on various aspects of his stories. He wants you to think for yourself and draw your own conclusions. Maybe you’re right, maybe you’re wrong. It makes little difference.
Clearly, we do have answers to many questions throughout the Yokoverse but certainly not everything. For me personally, I’ve been around this fandom long enough to experience extreme fatigue on multiple levels, and I certainly have my own thoughts about various things that maybe other people disagree with. But that’s okay. Nobody needs to agree and I’m perfectly fine not having all the answers or actual confirmation from Yoko himself. If it makes sense to me and I’m having fun thinking about it, that’s fine. I’m just super tired of pointless arguments that I’m like Yoko and simply not interested in engaging anymore. The fact remains that I am not Yoko Taro and therefore do not have all the answers, so it’d be nice for people to come to the realization that they are no different.
So, I suppose it’s my simple request to keep it cool and simply enjoy talking about things. Realize that you don’t have all the answers, and that’s okay. We can still enjoy things as they are.
The Single CD for the NieR:Automata Ver.1.1a anime Season 2 ending theme, “Ashes and Prayers” (灰ト祈リ / hai to inori), will be released on Wednesday, September 4.
Pre-orders can be made from various venders here. There are several different versions that will be released as well, some with a companion blu-ray disc of the music video or without, plus there is also a limited edition version that comes with a bonus large CD jacket.
It will also be coupled with the songs “Normandy” and “Guadalcanal”, which Keiichi Okabe explains have been updated to include all GEMS COMPANY members rather than only Yukino Akaba & Mikoto Hase as in the 2019 version.
— 岡部 啓一 / Keiichi Okabe (@MONACA_okabe) July 27, 2024
These songs were originally composed by Keiichi Okabe for the YoRHa stage play in 2014, and Yukino Akaba & Mikoto Hase from GEMS COMPANY covered them for the YoRHa Ver.1.3a stage play in 2019 and YoRHa Ver.1.3aa in 2020. Reina Tanaka also covered the song “Guadalcanal” at the YoRHa Ver.1.2 Musical in 2018.
I had entirely forgot about the announcement for this book, so here’s some of the details:
Title: NieR Re[in]carnation Official Document Collection -The Story of “The Cage” and Prayers
Content: A memorial archive commemorating the conclusion of NieR Re[in]carnation. The book contains character visuals, weapon stories, and stories that had not been implemented in the game.
464 pages seems like an awfully huge thing, but it will likely be similar to what they did with the SINoALICE book which was mostly a collection of weapon stories, although that was over 1,000 pages… This at lease sounds to contain more than just the stories, not to mention unreleased material, so that sounds super interesting.
