Internet animator Joel G (Joel Guerra) announced his upcoming project for his oddball internet sensation, ENA. He introduced his viewers to her next chapter, Dating Oblivion, on Feb. 23. Despite its short duration, this next chapter of the dimension-traveling avatar immediately feels more surreal than its previous shorts.
ENA’s Iconic Chaotic Style
If you’re new to the ENA series, the animation style is inspired by random internet humor, famous paintings, and 1990s video games. The best way I can describe Joel G’s vision is that it’s a hodgepodge of various eras of animation, so think of Cartoon Network’s The Amazing World of Gumball. Every person and dimension has a unique art style that ranges from a pixelated sprite to a low-poly 3D model.
The worldbuilding matches the zaniness of ENA’s ever-changing personalities. When she debuted back in 2020, she was recognized by her two-tone skin. According to the animator himself, his design is based on Pablo Picasso’s Girl Before A Mirror. Her yellow half represents positive emotions that are often voiced by males, while her blue half represents negative emotions that are often voiced by females.
Then, in her adventure visual novel, Dream BBQ, her colors are traded in for red and gray. This separate canon established she serves as a freelancer under the surveillance of the Boss. Joel G labeled her red side as a ‘Salesperson’ who speaks in a gentlemanly tone. And for the gray side, it’s labeled as ‘Meanie’ for her aggressive nature. They act as a good cop/bad cop duo.
Joel G takes advantage of ENA’s multiple personalities by displaying who’s speaking during an interaction. The yellow and red halves are facing left when they want to handle the conversation humanely. The opposite sides face right when they are either experiencing an offensive gesture or confrontation.
Why Does Dating Oblivion Feel Different?
When I watched Dating Oblivion’s trailer, I immediately sensed a different atmosphere from ENA’s traditional random humor and subtle horror. Joel G exchanged the character’s jagged structure for a more rounded look. And for the first time, viewers witnessed the two-tone girl as a human.
Artists immediately connected the dispersing blue-and-yellow swirls from Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night. The Dutch artist depicted his famous art piece from his bedroom window while staying at Saint Rémy for mental illness treatment. It’s very symbolic considering ENA’s past adventures, for she constantly endures battling her personalities.
At the end of the trailer, ENA peers at a world with aurora borealis hues, a hilltop with trees, and a strange eyeball in the sky. This is another artist referenced called The False Mirror. The painting features an eye with a clear blue sky in the person’s pupil. Belgian painter René Magritte described this as his surrealist puzzle as someone being both an “observer and the observed.“
Both paintings accurately describe what is happening with Joel G’s living ‘Girl in the Mirror’. She’s experiencing a transformation that is putting a new perspective in her eyes. After the wolves separated her colors from her body, her eyes dilated at the sight of the painting in front of her. They go normal for a moment until Van Gogh’s spirals revert them back.
Could ENA Be Breaking Free?
It’s unclear if Dating Oblivion will be the final part of the ENA series, and Joel G made sure to stay very tight-lipped about the project’s development. What we, the viewers, do see is a possible new era of the sensational retro dimension traveler.
She appears to be waking up from the colorful world of Pablo Picasso, judging by the animation’s narrative. And based on The False Mirror and Starry Night’s contexts, ENA will be exploring surrealism. If you like to support Joel G, consider purchasing Dream BBQ on Steam or watching the series on YouTube.
