The YoRHa have met with the Resistance, but they’ve met with resistance to the idea of the groups teaming up. When Lily is infected with a virus, the Resistance looks to be down another member. But No. 2 isn’t about to give up that easily! But will that sort of optimism help save Lily, let alone with the YoRHa’s mission of infiltrating and destroying the machine server?
YoRHa: Pearl Harbor Descent Record continues with the manga’s biggest flaw: a lack of explanations. While volume 1 ended with a dramatic accusation, and in volume 2, Lily, the small lover model, is revealed to have a logic virus. For readers unfamiliar with the NieR universe, this is a very confusing development, as suddenly No. 2 is encouraging Scanner No. 21 to do a revolutionary open “heart” surgery.
No. 2’s passion and kindness convince Captain Rose to agree to have her team join the YoRHa on their mission — which is more assistance than the base provides. While the two groups now have mutual respect and budding friendships on their side, the infiltration attempt soon hits snags in their plans. Any requests for backup — even the firing of a laser cannon — is denied. One of the twin assistants express confusion as to the Commander’s actions, and Futaba is being (should there be something here?) to develop frustration for not being able to do more. I’m looking forward to seeing how her story plays out as we see her develop more emotions. Yotsuba is a little more passive, and I’m sure there will be some disagreements between them moving forward.
Anyway, the gang attempts to make it past the robots to their base, and despite this manga being based on a play, it has very game-like developments. The party begins splintering off, a pair of robots must be defeated simultaneously, and the descent to the main server requires taking several different, protected elevators. A part of me was already making plans on how to proceed until I realized I had a book in my hand, not a game controller. I understand why these sorts of challenges are in an RPG (as irritating as they may be sometimes), but in manga, they feel awkward. At the very least, the tone is like that of a final confrontation, which is a shame after the effort to get the YoRHa and Resistance to learn about each other — and themselves, such as with the case of No. 21.
If you are mostly looking for some lady androids bonding while trying to overcome 300,000+ machines, though, YoRHa: Pearl Harbor Descent Record certainly is an engaging read. This is one of the most lopsided battles in terms of numbers I’ve ever seen, and that alone keeps me reading. The characters are trying to become more than just tropes like the hot-headed one, the leader, etc., and so that also helps with smoothing over volume 2’s story flaws.
Source link
