In today’s issue of Famitsu magazine, we were treated to a 14-page feature on NieR:Automata detailing more on its development, discussions by the creative and development team, plus we were given one more tease that there is still some “secret” left undiscovered within the game. As the teasers about this have stated, you are apparently able to zoom out the camera by pressing R3+using the directional buttons in order to “bug out” the camera… if you do that, you’re apparently able to see something that would be “very bad” and yet the dev team didn’t bother to remove or fix it because it felt very “NieR-esque”. xD

Now back to the topic at hand. In this issue of Famitsu, we are given a development timeline that details all the important points in Automata’s development. This includes things such as the YoRHa Ver.1.0 stage play in October 2014, the demo release in December 2016, and the NieR:Automata collaboration with Valkyrie Anatomia -The Origin-. All of the points listed in this timeline have *something* to do directly with Automata. That is why this is very curious:

The KimiShini – Zero stage play performed 9 shows up until Christmas day in 2016. The story was a prequel to the manga series. I wrote a long review and speculation piece regarding the manga and how it could relate to NieR here, but for the purposes of this post, I will take those ideas and outline them below. There may be some copy and pasting going on from the original post that I linked above.

• The world has been thrown into chaos, but we don’t know exactly what is going on beyond the fact that fossil fuels are in serious demand, which has then triggered international conflicts and war.
• Japan is unable to actively get involved in any international war because of its “self-defense only” constitution, but it also tries to bypass these restrictions by touting the NPO guise (more on this below).
• Japan is desperate to protect itself from the rest of the world, so a drug is developed to give people “special abilities”, but the adults that took it lived no longer than 30 minutes after taking the drug before their brain literally explodes; however, if young people take the drug, their bodies are able to withstand the side affects and obtain seemingly random special abilities. Note: This sounds very much like the drug Luciferase in NieR.
• This is why young adults are sought after to become test subjects. But the problem was finding suitable candidates for the project whilst putting on the guise that nothing illegal or unconstitutional is going on. This is why they use the guise of NPO work in foreign countries to get more recruits into the program. Likewise, any test runs of the kids’ abilities had to be carefully choreographed as to not be overly suspicious. Many “coverups” also resulted, such as with the opening conflict in Brazil when nearly the entire squad is killed–the whole thing was said to be the result of an unfortunate plane crash.
• A school is set up to train these young people to learn how to use their special abilities. They are divided into three types: Short-range, Long-range, and Analysis… Pretty much the same as the three initial types of YoRHa androids: Attacker, Gunner, and Scanner. This is why I used the YoRHa type names in my translation of the manga.
• The Enemy: It’s never said in the manga thus far, but they could be the Legion. They appear to be human but they have become infected with the White Chlorination Syndrome (WCS) and have entered into a pact with the god in order to remain “alive”. Or they could be a man-made enemy created through experimenting with drugs like  Luciferase.
• Another important thing to mention is the true reason the kids were coerced into participating in the experiment in various ways (KimiShini -ZERO- stage play). In the end the mad-scientist Suou stated that it was to gather data on the kids’ performance in battle. It matters little if they survive; actually, they get better data if they die… This is exactly like the early YoRHa experiments, ie. the Pearl Harbor Descent Mission. The YoRHa are essentially pawns created to be destroyed in order to obtain valuable data for new androids.
• The main heroine of the story, Mashiro, seems to be involved in a secret study called Project White. Mashiro is one of the “special abilities” students who was given superhuman strength. She’s able to easily crush or break through objects, receive multiple bullet wounds and still survive… and she also has “red eye” moments where blood pours from her eyes and she goes on a mindless rampage against anything or anyone in her way–friend or foe.
• Update: With the release of Chapter 34 today, March 25, they’ve actually dropped a YoRHa term in the narrative. Yanagi explains that he has two unique abilities: the power to copy and another to cancel out others’ powers, the latter of which he dubs as the power of a “Canceller”. This term was dropped in the original YoRHa stage play back in October 2014.

◼ Further Speculation

• I believe Mashiro and everyone are part of the “5th Crusade” that is talked about in the DOD/NieR timeline. They were deployed to Brazil and were nearly completely decimated in the battle with the Legion. We know that Mashiro’s unit was deployed somewhere in South America, but it’s never stated exactly who their adversaries are in the manga.
• There may be a direct connection to some of these kids and the 13 Grimoire tomes. I originally speculated that Kuroi and Mashiro might be related to Grimoire Noir and Grimoire Weiss, respectively, but after reading the short story “And Then There Were None”, I believe it’s safe to say that we have not met the BOY who became Weiss nor the GIRL who became Rubrum. Three other tomes that were referenced to in the novella were the Amber, Emerald, and Azure tomes.
• The drugs the kids are taking are probably the Luciferase that’s talked about in the DOD/NieR timeline. It was made from particles of “Maso” that would slow the effects of the White Chlorination Syndrome and was very effective to give young children magic-like abilities. This was not a cure for the disease, however.

◼ Related Links

• I originally started making speculations on how this manga connects to the world of NieR back in 2014. You can read that initial post here.
• I’ve made more translations to the overall timeline if you’re interested, please have a look. It’s around 2011 that things get interesting in relation to the manga.
• I answer a bunch of questions regarding the KimiShini manga here in this FAQ.
• Additional information on the characters that appear in the KimiShini -ZERO- stage play, including further speculation on the No2 / Kaine connection.
• Since it was announced last year that YenPress obtained the license to release an English version of the KimiShini manga, I removed all of the chapters that I worked on. I had been planning on keeping up with the summaries for each new chapter, but I’ve fallen way behind. I do intend on working on it more, but I don’t know when that will be. In the meantime, you can read the current summaries here.

◼ So, long story, short

I don’t see why the KimiShini play would be listed in the development timeline for NieR:Automata if it didn’t have some direct connection.

The manga has now concluded with no definitive answers… except… for a tease from Yoko. Read more on that here.