If there’s one thing the Nier series does exceptionally well, it’s that its fan base closely observes every minute detail in search of hidden secrets. That’s still the case for Nier Automata Ver1.1a, the new anime adaptation that hit Crunchyroll earlier this month. In typical Yoko Taro fashion, there are already strange clues and cryptic messages buried in the first two episodes and of course fans are already at work deciphering them.
As noted by Kotaku (opens in new tab), secret and apparently nonsense messages are hidden in the highlights of the episodes. If you’ve ever watched an anime episode, you’re familiar with an eye-catcher: little transitional images or clips that act as a short break between episodes. The eye-catchers of Nier Automata Ver1.1a seem very basic at first, until you manage to pause them at the right time.
It’s a real “blink and you’ll miss it” moment, but jumbled lines of code appear for a split second. It’s something you probably wouldn’t even notice if you casually looked at it, but Nier fans really are built differently. Several Reddit users highlighted the code, with user Lifedealer999 (opens in new tab) to decipher part of it. There’s even one google doc (opens in new tab) which is currently running and keeps track of what each secret message means.
Running the messages through a hex-to-text converter produces a Japanese phrase, which fans then roughly machine-translated into English. The first episode features phrases like “androids are creatures that repeat life and death”, as well as words like “resistance” and “YoRHa” that are repeated. The second episode contains more complete sentences, such as “pseudo-intelligence exists in mechanical life forms” and “what difference does it make to human intelligence?”
It’ll be interesting to piece these together as the episodes progress, and I’m sure fans will be hoping for some extra Easter eggs along the way. A Reddit user (opens in new tab) has theorized that it is the pods belonging to 2B and 9S that communicate with each other, as each message begins with “report”. It’s a pretty solid theory so far, and I’m sure we’ll find out more with each new installment.