Ling Long: Incarnation

I have no idea why it has low rating. My guess is subs are not that well translated. This show is amazing.
Its a post apocalyptic world where everyone lives in a space prison. Many "old world" relationships are cast away to make human survival possible. Hunters go collect resources to survive. it is very interesting to see human interaction in relationship less world.
In the not-too-distant future, the human world has long been overpopulated. Humanity marched to the stars in search of a new home, and just as this was going on, the moon's alignment caused massive earthquakes to ripple across the world, lasting several ... decades. Humanity was demolished. When the land finally recovered, humanity reemerged to face this strange yet familiar world. Will we, who once lorded over this domain, still remain the masters of this world?

The greatest potential of Chinese anime (donghua) recently released - mainly by the producers Bilibili and Tencent Penguin Pictures - comes from a great expressive use and enabling its 3D.

While many are still prejudiced against this language - relatively recent considering that it is less than 50 years since its emergence - which is still undergoing great development, it seems to me that it has reached maturity at Pixar. But that does not prevent that animes like "Douluo Dalu, 2018" and "Ling Long: Incarnation, 2019" have been able to use this resource in a very evident, expressive and enabling way.


It is interesting to note how ... Ling Long: Incarnation has a very strong relationship with video games. Both visually and narratively, anime has a very unique principle in being able to link such choices to convey a feeling that we are enjoying daily gambling. The first scene of the anime conveys this idea very well.

The characters start in a kind of cave where they need to take resources and go back to their base. As soon as they get what they want, they are attacked by a type of mutant insect that baffles the minds of some, and also by a giant lizard.

The characters have a mission, after achieving their objective, they need to escape to survive. This idea is not only in the narrative structure of the anime, but also in the visual, which are very characteristic of shooting games, and in the way the anime is staged.

In addition to the expressive use of 3D, which always seeks to travel through spaces, which always leaves the viewer in a great perspective of the action, it also has some frameworks that complement a lot of shooting games. In the action scenes, the characters get to be in first and third person.

If Douluo Dalu is an anime that takes advantage of this resource in a very "poetic" way trying to express a more contemplative and enchanting beauty, here the scenarios have a presence that seeks more dynamism in the scenes. The camera at various times even floats through the action. The anime makes great sequences without losing perspective on what is happening in each sequence. Something that is not impossible to do in conventional 2D animation, but that requires much more effort and technique from those who are doing it. It turns out that anime isn't just about that. The plot also explores a certain social and religious context and hierarchy that guides the events of history.


One of my “disappointments” was to think that the anime was going to take this idea - of a game narrative - way ahead. It turns out that most of the anime sequences take place only on the floating base of the characters and in some flashbacks.

But in no way would I say that such a development of social classes was bad. In fact, anime spends a lot of time contextualizing everything it can from that universe. Even though it was not what I wanted to see, consequently, I ended up being very interested in everything that was presented to me. The direction also managed to express a dramatic possibility of this 3D very well. Not to the point of making you cry, but rather to interest and instigate.


If I could make a general summary, I would say that Ling Long: Incarnation tries in every way to play the viewer in the whole context of that universe. It seems to me that there is an almost perfect balance between these ideas.

Looking at the tags and poster, i thought that this was going to be a cliche serie of monster killing, not entirely different from those series that attempt to ride on Attack on Titan's popularity. To my surprise, Incarnation gives almost no importance to the monsters, instead focusing on the human interactions and struggles in the society that formed on this new world. After a global earthquake unleashes a myriad of underground monsters on the surface, collective known as Extremozoan, humanity is almost entirely wiped out. The last remains lives aboard the Lighthouse, a flying fortress. In order to maintain the civilization, all interpessoal ... relationships have been abolished. All individuals live only in function to their role on the Lighthouse hierarchy, being divided in 2 segments: Superiors, those who were born with desirable genetic traits, and who are given the most important jobs and best living conditions; and Inferiors, those who were born just as regular people, delegated to the worst living conditions and, "less important" jobs. Only Superiors are given names, while Inferiors are reduced to just to "Worker N° ####". This is a refreshing change from the usual "medieval magic fantasy" that 95% of Donghua are composed of. Another welcomed change is the animation quality: while most CGI shows have frame drops issues and kinda ugly graphics, Incarnation is really fluid and good looking, some scenes are actually beautiful. This was a really pleasant surprise of a show and i can't recommend it enough.