The anime adaptation of NieR: Automata will be released early next year.The remake is now known as NieR: Automata Version 1.1a will make its debut in January 2023.Yoko Taro, the creator of NieR, revealed the release date over the weekend at Aniplex Online Fest (via Gizmodo), while also revealing that the anime’s story would differ from the source material.The two will, at the very least, be based on the same premise.The story begins with a destroyed Earth and a proxy war involving human-made androids.”Nier: Automata was a story we created for a game, so copying it would not make an interesting story for an anime,” Taro explained during the panel.
A-1 Pictures, best known for its work on series such as Erased, From the New World, and Your Lie in April, is producing the film, with Taro and Ryouji Masuyama co-writing the script.Masuyama has previously worked on Gurren Lagann and Evangelion: 2.You Can (But Not) Advance.”I’m the one going around breaking things for [A-1 Pictures], so if anyone is unhappy [with the anime’s story], it’s probably my fault,” Taro warned fans.
The panellists made no mention of distribution outside of Japan.However, because Sony owns both Aniplex and Crunchyroll, there’s a good chance the streaming service will get simulcast rights.It will be interesting to see if the anime revives interest in NieR: Automata in the same way that the recent Netflix release of Edgerunners did for Cyberpunk 2077.Commercially, Automata outperformed publisher Square Enix’s expectations, but the company has yet to announce a proper sequel-though a mobile spinoff and remaster of the original NieR were released last year.