Rejoice, NieR: Automata fans! This award-winning video game is finally getting an anime adaptation…maybe. At least, according to the latest rumors. And even assuming that you’re excited about it.

NieR: Automata ~ The Anime?

"NieR: Automata" Game of the YoRHa Edition cover art.
Heh, very punny.

As it turns out, as reported by HITC, a popular leaker called Spanku_u has just announced on Twitter that NieR: Automata will receive an anime adaptation. That’s it. They have no other info for us other than that one announcement. No animation studio, no promotional art, and not even a general release date. I guess we’ll just have to wait for all of that info to come later. Assuming that this announcement bears fruit, that is.

Uhh, thanks for the leak, but I kinda wish you had a bit more to go on other than this.

HITC reports that Spanku_u is a generally credible source when it comes to anime releases. It doesn’t mean that they can’t be wrong, but it does lend a lot of weight to this otherwise bare announcement about a NieR: Automata anime adaptation. The fact that the Tweet itself went viral, with over 31k likes and over 4,3k retweets as of this writing, should also lend some more weight to this announcement. At the very least, we should take this rumor a bit more seriously than usual.

A Mixed Reception From The Fans?

I guess the fans are worried as to how the game mechanics would translate into an anime.

Curiously, HITC reports that the reaction from fans of the NieR: Automata video game itself are mixed. A large portion of the game community seems worried that the game mechanics might not translate well into an anime. One fan pointed out on Twitter that “how on earth would that even work considering how being a game is kinda integral to how the story is told? Do I have to delete my crunchyroll account to help someone else see the credits of the last episode?”. Apparently, the game’s plot is so integrated into the actual gameplay, that fans are genuinely worried that it might not turn out well, since the anime adaptation would have to cut out the gameplay elements by necessity.

It’s the yin-yang of Tweets here: you get both negative and positive reception in the same Tweet.

Other NieR: Automata fans though are a lot more positive about this announcement. Another fan pointed out, also on Twitter, that the game actually has a “low budget” musical stage play about it (called YoRHa). There are also novel and short story adaptations of the video game, so there’s precedent for the game to be adapted to other media outside of video games. Even aside from that, other fans are actually quite excited about the anime. While the news is worrying people, the overall tone is hopeful. Cautiously hopeful, but still hopeful. Maybe we could learn from this, and stay hopeful about this anime adaptation of NieR: Automata. Again, assuming that this rumor bears fruit, of course.

Source: HITC, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter