YoRHa Type A No. 2(A2)

Before 2B ever became the face of NieR: Automata, A2 walked that blood-soaked Earth first. YoRHa Type A No. 2 is one of the game's three main protagonists and the android whose tragic origins quietly underpin everything players eventually uncover about YoRHa's darkest secrets.

A2’s Story Role in NieR: Automata

A prototype Attacker model from an earlier generation of YoRHa units, A2 was deployed to Earth during the Pearl Harbor Descent of the 14th Machine War, a mission the Council of Humanity never intended her to survive. When she discovered the truth behind YoRHa Command’s betrayal and watched her entire squad get wiped out, she cut ties with the organization completely and became a rogue android, hunted and alone. The combat data from A2 and her fallen comrades was later harvested to engineer the “superior” models that followed, including 2B and 9S. Route C, the campaign where players finally step into A2’s boots, sends her on a quiet arc that runs opposite to 9S’s descent into rage: where he unravels, she slowly opens up, forms unexpected bonds with Pascal’s pacifist machine village, and ultimately chooses sacrifice over survival.

A2’s Personality and Traits

Taciturn to the point of being mistaken for emotionless, A2 operates on instinct and distrust, diving into danger without running tactical calculations and speaking in a blunt, often foul-mouthed shorthand that sets her apart from the polished current-generation androids. Pod 042 notes more than once that her AI parameters simply do not meet the standards of modern YoRHa units. What makes A2 compelling is how that rawness reads as authenticity rather than deficiency. She doesn’t suppress emotion because her programming tells her to; she suppresses it because betrayal taught her it costs too much. Letting that guard down, bit by bit, across Route C is the emotional engine driving NieR: Automata’s most resonant final act.

Who Voices A2 in NieR: Automata?

In the English version, A2 is voiced by Cherami Leigh, a Dallas-born actress with one of the most recognizable resumes in anime dubbing. She is widely known for bringing Asuna Yuuki to life in Sword Art Online, Lucy Heartfilia in Fairy Tail, and Makoto Niijima in Persona 5, three wildly different characters that showcase the tonal range she brings to A2’s guarded ferocity. Leigh reprised the role for the NieR: Automata Ver1.1a anime adaptation. In the original Japanese, A2 is voiced by Ayaka Suwa, whose credits include Lady Eris in the KonoSuba franchise and Elise in the Fire Emblem series.