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.
