Yoko Taro’s NieR: Automata—An Existential Journey through the Absurd

The focus of this article is Yoko Taro’s NieR: Automata in general and its four main characters—androids 2B and 9S as well as machines Adam and Eve—in particular. Following their evolution in the game, I intend to show that they serve its author as a tool with which to propose that the sense of absurd, and the sense of life’s meaninglessness around which their world is created, can be fought with selflessness.