ENA: the wonderfully surreal world of Joel Guerra

The past years have been interesting for independent animation on the internet, especially on the platforms YouTube and Newgrounds, where new amateur animators experiment by creating original pieces or works dedicated to their favorite characters. One of the characters that most caught the attention and the hearts of many fans is ENA: a girl that looks like part of a cubist painting and lives in a world that is just as surreal. ENA, created by Joel Guerra, debuted in the short film Auction Day on May 27th 2020.

The episode, almost three minutes long, presents the protagonist and her friend Moony attending an auction, and very weird things happen, though the characters react as if everything was normal, because this surreal world is their daily life. In fact the animation reminds of the video games from the 90s, with polygonal constructs and drawings with pixelated outlines. Furthermore, the series often uses electronic music and sound effects similar to those used in video games. Every episode explores different places, occasionally using a first person point of view (through ENA), that simulates the game experience, together with the introduction of key items obtained by the protagonist by interacting with other characters. The series accounts for a total of three episodes that constitute the first season: Auction Day, Extinction Party and Temptation Stairway. 

"Salutations!"-ENA

Peruvian creator Joel Guerra explained that he invented the world of ENA because he wanted to create “characters with strange shapes in a very colorful world where nothing makes sense”. Guerra shared for the first time a small animation of ENA on Twitter on February 24th 2020 accompanied by the track Browser History by Graham Kartna, who then created music for the episode Extinction Party. Through the three episodes we listen to a wonderful soundtrack, composed by Oliver Buckland, METAROOM, Graham Kartna and Tessienoko, which contributes a lot to the weird and mysterious atmosphere of ENA’s surreal world.

Hourglass Meadow (Oliver Buckland) from episode Temptation Stairway

Girl before a mirror,
Pablo Picasso (1932)

ENA is a girl with the body split in two sides: the right side is blue, with long dark hair and her limbs look geometric, with a diamond shaped eye; the left side is yellow, softer, with short hair and a round eye. The blue side is the sad, anxious and generally pessimistic side of ENA, while the yellow side is the happy, enthusiast and optimist one. ENA’s two sides speak with different voices, masculine the yellow and feminine the blue, and they alternate according to ENA’s emotional state. ENA’s particular appearance was inspired by the painting Girl before a mirror by Pablo Picasso (1932).

Moony in Auction Day

Her friend Moony follows the surreal style, with a spherical body that actually resembles a moon, in her left eye is stuck an object that changes according to the episode. It is not confirmed, but it is very likely that her appearance was inspired by the moon in the 1902 silent film A trip to the Moon, in which a spaceship crashes into its eye. Among other inspirations confirmed by Joel Guerra there are: video games The Town with no Name and Middens (aesthetic inspiration for Auction Day and Extinction Party respectively), Jackie Chan in Drunken Master (ENA’s “drunk” movements in Extinction Party), Osamu Sato’s work in LSD Dream Emulator, and the paintings of Polish artist Zdzislaw Bekesinski.

The episode Temptation Stairway is at the same time an ending and a beginning: after making her wish in front of the great Runas, ENA’s story ends on a happy note, although ENA is not only the protagonist but a species in this surreal world, as you can see in the last episode. Therefore this is the end of blue and yellow ENA’s adventures and the beginning of the story of a second ENA, this time red and white!

On March 25th 2021 the continuation of the ENA series was announced with a teaser for Dream BBQ, which in September was revealed as a short interactive game instead of an animated short film. To this day we have a trailer, more detailed than the previous teaser, and part of a song from the soundtrack, composed once more by METAROOM. Dream BBQ will be the beginning of ENA’s second season and is based on the theme of nightmares. The future of ENA’s universe is very promising, with an incredible potential due to its anthologic nature. I hope to see much more from Joel Guerra and his team!

Next year, In the murky depths of 2022, you are invited to experience the Dream BBQ.

Background and colors by @Mizu_wolf pic.twitter.com/uGlgDRTcJ6

— Joel Guerra (@JoelGuerraC) December 31, 2021