This article contains spoilers for the YorHa Stage Play and NieR Automata.NieR Automata Ver1.1 is one of the most anticipated premieres of the Winter Anime Season. The show by A-1 Pictures based on the famous video game is just around the corner, and a few trailers and visuals have been presented so far, looking pretty good. But one of the things that caught fans' attention the most was the introduction of a new, although not exactly new, character.
Lily, the mysterious android fighter was presented as one of the first and, consequently, most important characters. That adds to the uncertainty among fans about what will happen in this adaptation, or even if it's truly an adaptation or a continuation/alternative story. Since the official announcement of the anime, fans have been wondering how Yoko Taro can adapt a story built for an open-world game with as many endings as letters in the alphabet to a TV series.
Who is Lily?
The reason why Lily is unknown to almost anyone outside Japan is that her first appearance happened in the YoRHa Stage Play written and created by Yoko Taro. There are many versions of the Stage Play, but the ones that portray Lily are the ones that tell the story about the Pearl Harbor Descent Mission that kicked off the 14th Machine War, a battle of critical relevance within the NieR lore. In fact, the plays were around years before NieR Automata and served as a base for the creation of the game. The first YoRHa Stage Play debuted back in 2014, with other versions being released in 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2020. Lily also appears in the ongoing manga series YoRHa Pearl Harbor Descent Record which showcases the Stage Play events.
It is set on December 8th 11941, which is a reference to the real Pearl Harbor Descent, and 4 years before the events of NieR Automata. This ferocious battle was the first attempt of the YoRHa unit to defeat the machines. Lead by A1, the YoRHa squad commenced the descent to Earth in hopes of retaking the planet from the alien invaders and their machines. The first mission was to take destroy an enemy server in Mt. Ka'ala. There the YoRHa unit counted on the aid of the Android Resistance, a failed expedition from hundreds of years before that had been managing to survive.
In the Pearl Harbor Mission the Resistance was captained by Rosa and also counted with Anemone, the leader of the Resistance in NieR Automata and the anime's new character, Lily. Even before the arrival the enemy anti-air defenses had wiped out most of the YoRHa squadrons, including A1, leaving A2 on charge of the remaining forces. With almost a miraculous effort, the Androids destroyed the server and with just a handful of survivors from both armies, eliminated all the machines on the island. However, the whole mission true purpose was to test the YoRHa units combat performance. A2 was the only unit that survived the battle, but since the test was a matter of extreme confidentiality, A2 was cataloged as compromised and in need to be recovered or disposed of by the next badge of units.
Lily is described as a fearful character with a dark past hundreds of years before the creation of YorHa. Recently it has been revealed that Lily was a comfort woman for an Android Officer in the Army of Humanity. It was thanks to the ones who deserted and formed the Android Resistance that she got freed and found a new home. During the battle, she gets along pretty well with A2 and serves as an inspiration for her later character development. This is especially important because A2 seems very insecure during the Pearl Harbor Descent, and creates one of the best examples of how the androids developed complex emotions and personality changes.
What Role Can She Play in the Anime?
In the Official Website description of Lily and in the short trailer for her Promotion File is already hinted that she will cross paths with 2B which already is a diversion from the game's original story. That shouldn't come to a big surprise since Yoko Taro himself said that changes were made to adapt the story from the game to the anime genre, pointing out that the changes were the reason behind the title including Ver1.1a. It's impossible to know how Lily's relationship with 2B can shape the plot or if she will become a key character thanks to that. What is clear, is that, unlike in the Stage Play and the game, Lily will come back after the battle.
Apart from that, the Pearl Harbor Descent Mission might be shown as a flashback to explain Lily's background and her connection to A2. If that's the case, it may also reveal her past and the formation of the Android Resistance, which would be a great way to expand the lore of the NieR universe and give a chance to fans unfamiliar with these stories to see them in the animated version. Lily's voice actor is Atsumi Tanezaki, who played Anya in Spy x Family, Chihiro Morimura in 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim.
The video game by PlatinumGames and Square Enix will forever rest as an amazing piece, not it's up to the anime adaptation by A-1 Pictures to live up to its legacy. NieR Automata Ver1.1 is scheduled for January 7 and will be streaming outside of Japan on Crunchyroll. The manga YoRHa Pearl Harbor Descent Record released its first volume in English by Viz Media this month. The next one is expected in March 2023.