This was originally a series of tweets that I had written examining certain aspects from Snow White’s Reality Arc and how it could potentially connect to the overarching Yokoverse timeline. Since this post is based off of multiple posts I made last fall, some information may be a little scattered. I’m also adding a lot more new info that may or may not be considered as spoilers, so please read with discretion!

First of all, I took a look at the tabloids from the SQEX Cafe collaboration with SINoALICE:

Reality Arc: Snow White

According to this, Reality Arc Snow White known as Yukishita Miki (雪下美姫), was a 23-year old nurse at a hospital in Shinjuku. She eventually became obsessed with ideals of JUSTICE. Conflicted with the moral dilemma of curing/healing criminals, she ultimately took it upon herself to punish criminals and all-round bad guys. She realized that the hospital where she worked received multiple patients of questionable circumstances, and she was overcome with the belief that she needed to end the lives of these bad people herself. So, she would very quietly overdose and kill them. She got away with it for long enough for it to become noticeable that patients were mysteriously dying.

After some time, her sense of justice guided her to attack and kill the 57-year old director of the hospital, Mizutani Kenzou (水谷権蔵), who was running a shady business at the hospital (I believe it was some sort of drug syndicate that might have been involved in unsanctioned drug testing on people as well), but after killing the director, there was nowhere for her to run… and she was apprehended on sight at the hospital.

Around 3pm on the 20th (month not stated), Yukishita was being transported from the hospital where she was initially detained to the Tokyo Detention House (東京拘置所) in Kosuge, Katsushika-ku, Tokyo (東京都葛飾区小菅), which is northeast of central Tokyo. It was during this time that she was stabbed by 20-year old Yura Akiyoshi (由良明義), who shouted “Revenge for the Director!” as he plunged a knife into her heart. Although she was quickly transported back to the hospital, she was pronounced dead at 4:11pm.

Mizutani’s surviving daughter makes a comment at the end about how she wanted to know the truth about Yukishita and the death of her father–whether it was actually an act of “justice” or one of “evil”… but since Yukishita’s dead now, she’ll never have that closure.

The above clipping details the sudden death of Yura Akiyoshi (由良明義) sometime around the 30th. While in detention, he ingested some drugs called “Pebble” that caused massive internal bleeding. It was later determined that an unknown 3rd party handed him the drugs.

Pausing here for a moment, let’s take a closer look at some odd coincidences that connect with the Yokoverse:

• Tyrann’s real name was Yura Masayoshi (由良正義). Of course, Tyrann is the Gestalt that co-inhabits Kaine’s body in the original NieR. He also had a semi-important role in the early days of NieR after the 6.12 incident in Shinjuku, 2001.
• As of yet, there’s nothing to directly connect Yura Akiyoshi with Yura Masayoshi from the original NieR; however, they share the same family name plus -yoshi (義) in their given names. Interestingly enough, the kanji used for his first name Masayoshi (正義) literally reads as seigi, aka “Justice”. This is also Snow White’s symbol: Justice.
• The name “Snow White” is an important term in the NieR lore since “Project Snow White” lead to various experiments with Maso on young kids that created the magical weapons No6 & No7, Harua & Emil.

Reality Arc: Alice

In Alice’s Reality Arc, she is a 16-year old high school student who was sleeping with one of her teachers. She eventually became pregnant and ultimately committed suicide. The following is her related tabloid, similar to the one above for Snow White. I originally posted this on Twitter here.

• “Tokyo Metropolitan High School” doesn’t necessarily refer to a specific school, but is rather the name given to all public schools within the Tokyo area. 都立高等学校 → 都立高校、都立高
• Alice’s school is likely the Tokyo Metropolitan Shinjuku High School (東京都立新宿高等学校) since it’s right at the intersection of Meiji-dori and Shinjuku-dori.

There aren’t any major red flags with this tabloid that clearly connect with NieR, but it relates more to the wide-scale calamity that befalls the whole planet.

Fusion Arc: Alice

There are several interesting things that we’re shown in the PV that I’d like to explain in further detail.

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What’s fun to note here is that the SQEX headquarters is just a couple blocks north on Meiji Dori in East Shinjuku.

According to the Fusion Arc, many cities throughout Japan, including Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, have come under siege by strange black, shadow-like figures that actively attack and murder innocent bystanders. In addition to this, there are multiple unexplained explosions that occur at the same time, so both are initially claimed to be terrorism.

Although the details seem a little different, I can’t help but draw connections to the central 6.12 incident that lead way to the events of NieR. In NieR, the White Chlorination Syndrome either leaves behind white salt of the deceased or mindless zombies of the Legion. The Fusion Arc calamity seems to be similar with a few clear differences:

• It’s similar in the fact that mindless zombies (they’re not actually zombies; it’s just for a lack of another decent term that conveys the idea) suddenly begin appearing (we don’t know how or why yet, but I would like to assume that they were originally normal people who went through some sort of change, just like the Legion.
• It’s different in the fact that there seems to be a clash of worlds colliding into one with the appearance of the Library characters along with the “reborn” Reality characters, together, in the same universe. This portion of the story reminds me a lot of parallel worlds in the way that’s depicted in the TV series FRINGE. They clearly define the difference between separate/parallel universes and timelines and how it relates to time travel.

Accord and Maso

I believe sometime during the collaboration with DOD3, Maso was suggested to have something to do with the Library. Moreover, there seems to have been a strange “mutation” or “variation” among the general “observer” type Accord androids. One group is referenced as the “B Variants” whereas others are merely called “Variants”. It is suggested that Gishin and Anki are the descendants of the Accord models. They are the “B Variants”.

If you recall the DOD3 novella chapter of Michael, he talks about fighting 傀儡 (kugutsu) or “puppet”. These “puppets” attacked in swarms and also had projectile weapons that would target the wings of dragons. It is because of these “puppets” that the dragons were nearly entirely destroyed. The line to the right is from p.96 of Michael’s chapter in the Drakengard Novel Prelude book that came with the DOD 10th Anniversary Box.

“Shit! There were “puppets,” too?!”

In the Lv2 section of the Weapon Story for Accord’s Book in SINoALICE, she mentions a period that seems to reference this conflict between the androids with their dragon weapons and the aliens in the Kingdom of Night sometime after 6230:

The production and deployment of new “Dragon” weapons began to support the war effort in the “Kingdom of Night”.

Accord’s Book / アコールの本

[Lv1] August 2. It’s unknown where Group B came from. Perhaps they’re from a yet undiscovered branch. Perhaps the reason why we haven’t discovered them yet is because we set up surveillance near Singularities while attempting not to get too close.

[Lv2] March 12. At the time of the last Cataclysm, Group B propagated in immense numbers on the ground. Since they possess artillery against our aerial weapons, the situation will soon be out of our control. We’re holding them off as well as we can right now, but… it will be more than we can handle soon. Immediate action is required.

[Lv3] June 5. We’ve come to the conclusion that we Observer Models need to change. Development of retrofittable armored parts is currently in progress, but further investment is required.

[Lv4] August 8. The previous Recorder has been destroyed by Group B. Since there is a possibility it has been assimilated, we have requested assistance from the Association.

There is also a weapon in SINoALICE that has a very curious Weapon Story:

Similarly, it seems like Gishin and Anki are the narrators for a weapon that uses the same term 傀儡. Unfortunately, I haven’t unlocked the last level of the L weapon yet…

Puppet’s Sealed Dragon / 傀儡ノ封竜

[Lv1] Welcome! To the worst world! First we need to pay something forward, huh? Let us give you this weapon.

[Lv2] Do you want to know the name of the dragon that’s sealed in this weapon? “……” “…………” Oh, that’s amazing! That’s correct! It’s a dragon you undoubtedly remember.

[Lv3] However, it’s a separate existence from the original world. In this world, this dragon is the same as us, a puppet whose strings are pulled by an unknown force. Perhaps it’s no different with you.

• The random italics above is supposed to represent the likewise random usage of katakana throughout the text. Yoko uses this style of writing in many of his stories, mostly to represent the speech of a being that’s not exactly human.

To me, the term for “original world” (モトの世界) conjured up memories of the Old World (旧世界) that was mentioned in DOD3, and this term has still not been defined clearly by the source material. All we know about it is that Accord, the dragons, and Bartas (from DOD3 Utahime Five) are the only ones who have ever referenced it by name or indirectly by speaking an old, dead language from the Old World. It’s been speculated that the Old World is actually some point in the future (from the perspective of DOD3 in the year 1000), a separate universe that exists outside of time much like the Library (maybe), or a particular timeline that has been erased and no longer exists due to changes to the past.

Personally, I am beginning to think the origins of the Cathedral City, the dragons, the Flower, and magic all came from the main conflict with the aliens in the Kingdom of Night. Just for the fun of it, I looked up the antipode of the Cathedral City (roughly Madrid, Spain), and you get…

And there’s a huge lake on the other side… like something is missing…? Maybe in some other reality there was a large, modern city there instead that got transported to the other side of the world, leaving a huge gaping hole behind to fill with water and–? Yeah, makes little sense… In actuality, this was the site of one of the world’s largest volcanic eruptions, which collapsed the surrounding land and allowed a lake to form.

Anyway, back on the 傀儡/puppet term, it also appears in several names of Nightmares and Jobs:

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SINoALICE and Thou Shalt Not Die?

I have talked at length about the connections between NieR and Yoko Taro’s manga series TSND / Kimi Shi ni Tamou Koto Nakare, so I won’t go into too much detail about it here, but I haven’t seen too many connections between SINoALICE and TSND yet. The most obvious connection was the use of the SINoALICE soundtrack at the latest TSND stage play, Zero_KAI, but that could have been purely a coincidence since the SINoALICE Concert and TSND Zero_KAI occurred pretty close together.

Conclusion…?

So, at this point in time, I think we can say that there is a connection between SINoALICE and the overall Yokoverse, but exactly how is still pretty much unknown. There are a lot of weird coincidences and similarities, but nothing exactly specific enough to pin down anything without a doubt. It’s still likely that there is a connection, but it will still remain only speculation until more information from the top is revealed.

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Special thanks to Nashoki and Warusou for their expertise on SINoALICE, as well as the plethora of information on the Japanese wiki.