YoRHa: Pearl Harbor Descent Record

I very recently got to finish the YoRHa: Pearl Harbor Descent Record manga after two years and I’m glad for that, for it is always good to consume another version of NieR: Automata, or well, a part of it. This is based on the Ongakugeki YoRHa Ver.1.2 stage play from 2014, so it actually predates the videogame in question, and it ran from 2020 to 2024, so it even predates the episodes of the anime that showed the same events. I gotta say it is actually the best version of it that I have consumed until now, partly thanks to its duration. It is short, withless than twenty chapters, yet that is still better than the limited runtime of the stage play, only episodes 6 of the first season and 5 of the second dedicated to it like in the anime, or just the Anemone: Encounter, Understanding and Separation logs without even some cutscenes like in the videogame. Just like in the animated series, Anemone is replaced with Lily for some reason, but without the latter’s role from the anime, her character arc and thus justification for that change remains incomplete, not that you would mind it though if you didn’t play the videogame. Anyways, this is going to be rather short as I’m not going over the whole details of this world, something that I already did while reviewing the anime, androids fights for humanity against robots, in a far dystopian future, and this story is about an android squad storming a robot server, at first. The reality turns out to be that what seemed to be a reconnaissance mission of a simple base, is actually a suicide mission about taking down a major enemy headquarter that’s about to deal a huge strike on humanity. Essentially, a way to portray that soldiers are sometimes (if not often) lied by their superiors on what their missions are really about, and that they’re seen as disposable forces and sacrificial pawns of sorts, further reflected on the mission being an experiment, to see the androids’ durability and behaviour during it, so they can improve on later models, and the robots even let them get far to satisfy their curiosity in turn. All of which was fairly known if you consumed its chronological sequel, the main game, or really another version of the same events. And as you can expect from something of this franchise, the stakes are high and characters are going to face far larger and stronger armies of enemies, thus they ARE going to die, in rather tragic ways. What makes this version better than the other ones besides its length, is focusing a lot more on its cast, both the android squadron sent from space, and the one inhabiting Earth. Every girl has either backdrops, introspection, interesting dynamics among the others, or maybe all at once. Even some, I guess, prototype Operators, with actual names in here, doubt the commands and are replaced because of it. There are even some flashback scenes showing interactions between Number 2 and the YoRHa commander, so the former’s feelings of being betrayed and actions on the other media are bigger, if they had any continuation. Which is the main issue of this manga, the fact that it’s clearly only a small part of a bigger story, leaving stuff of its setting without much exploration and even less of a conclusion. Also, although the characters are explored, they have different interactions with the others, their insecurities and abilities are shown, and each one has at least runtime dedicated to them, it is not uncommon for they to die shortly after being fleshed out, thus remaining underdeveloped and without a catharsis, kinda expected from such a tragic plot. They don’t even get their flowers-based names like in the anime, though maybe that’s an anime only thing, so I’d let it slide. The only character that feels that gets proper development and a slight sense of catharsis would be the main one, and even those feel rather rushed or incomplete because, again, this is just a part of a much bigger story. Also she gets a sudden power increase near the end of the manga as if it was a fighting shounen. Even the narrative ends with a cliffhanger after a crucial point in the mission, followed just by one or two pages of the protagonist in the far future. The manga was drawn by the same artist of stuff like Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry, a battle school romcom, and Zombieland Saga, an idol comedy, not the kind of author I would expect to draw a tragic sci-fi war drama, but the artist did fine. Maybe not as raw as I would prefer the art style or brutal as I would prefer the action to be, but still well drawn, good backgrounds too, and the effects can be very interesting, darkening the whole looks at times, and the machinery for the machine life forms and the fights can be very detailed when it needs to be. The action scenes have good sequences and composition, though not that impressive, especially when it comes to movement. The girls look pretty, as you would expect from this Megumu Soramichi, given his other works, but not that different one from another, and you don’t really notice their android details in their joints or other stuff that much, probably excused by being early models, I guess. So as a whole, this is a fast paced, good looking, well drawn, and overall polished sci-fi war drama with a somewhat interesting topic, high stakes, permanent deaths, and multiple perspectives and characters that are looked into, so I’d say it’s a very good manga as a whole, even if it misses the extra steps on characterization and a strong narrative closure.