Exploring the surreal world of ENA
DISCLAIMER : In this blog, in the summaries, I wont be going in depth about everything included in both the series and game but rather I will be briefly going over the essentials. I would recommend you go watch the series and play the game before reading this blog.
ENA is a piece of psychedelic/surreal culture created by JoelG. It was first made in form of a short youtube series and now its being continued as a game series(ENA DREAM BBQ) with only the first chapter having come out with other chapters to come out in the future. In this blog I will be going over both the series and chapter 1 of the game and some theories I have formed.
Section 1: ENA : The series
SUMMARY
The first episode of the series was released 5 years ago. In the series there are two main characters, Ena and Moony. The Ena of the series is a very chaotic and dramatic character having two sides, one happy portrayed cheerfully(represented by a yellow colour) and one sad that acts gloomy(represented by a blue colour) that she constantly switches between. Moony is Ena's friend being a literal moon. This world that she is in has this very surreal vibe to it nothing really making sense that reminds you of the 90s internet even including some references to that era of technology and its culture. This series starts off in a very chaotic and random flavour not showing any signs of seriousness with stuff like Ena throwing up TV static that turns into a dog happening. Then in the third episode our two main characters try reaching a place called "The Great Runas" as it grants the person who reaches it a wish of theirs. Once they reach it, we find out that Moony's wish was to be thinner. It is believed by many, including me, that Ena's wish is real happiness which is honestly kind of sad. We believe that this is the case as we later on see that Ena has been given a mask of some sort that is disconnected from the sad part of her that acts happy. To further support this theory we see Ena hiding her sad part from the view of others at some points. Ena through out the final episode doesn't actually feel joy, she never did and the mask didn't change that. Then we can see a character called "The Therapist" tell Ena about the harsh reality that is she will never find actual happiness from this world and that instead true fun can be found in the little moments. This is the resolution Ena needed. This series starts off by being no unserious and silly but ending up being really really dark with loads of symbolisms everywhere. That's what ENA is really about.
THEORISING
In this chapter I will be sharing an original theory that I have created on my own called the "Internet" theory. For starters, the world of this series has many references to older technology and online culture of that time as I mentioned above. For example, the different sounds, the characters voices and the graphics all have this old technology vibe to them, like in "Temptation Stairway" after Ena falls into what seems like a pool of code that has a blue background and this old font we see an area with many low-poly mountain like structures which was a common occurrence in old games. Finally, the internet is a world wide service so It would justify the fact that the characters communicate in different languages such as Greek and English. This theory not only has the aesthetic proof but also might be shown in other ways. I would like to focus on the final video of the series, "Power of Potluck" for this part as it provides the most in the series in my interpretation so if you want to furthermore research this theory I would recommend focusing on primarily that video for this theory. So in this video we see Ena receive a mask that replaces her sad self. I believe that this mask is a symbolism for the persona that people put up on the internet to hide their true self. To further add to this symbolism we later on see these skeleton figures that are behind these shadow creatures telling Ena to "Take her role and play out joy to all audiences" which I interpret as showing a fake happy self. Ena's response to this is "Hey... how could a chore like this jollify anyone, anywho!". In the middle of saying this we see the mask being disconnected from Ena's body. Ena has been doing this exact thing ever since she got this mask without even knowing so. I would also like to talk about this scene where Ena and her mask are in this area with pipes in "ACT I" and the mask says this "Terrific! I perceive illusion within delusions! A world of endless connections!". This goes along well with my theory as firstly, the internet is the connection of all computers of the world and second I have been talking about how this episode is about how people put on these facades so in a way they are deluding you. Also, Ena herself speaks on these pipes saying "Connections and bonds that are meant to transmit cheerfulness and even so I... don't recognize this strain of joy.". I think here Ena is talking about the opposite in a way. The internet is a platform created to make you feel some extreme feeling, usually being happiness or sadness which funnily is also the two sides of Ena in the series. In the next section of this chapter we see a woman crying. There can be spotted a infinitely repeating animation of a mouth that seems to be speaking which in my view represents the information that we receive from the internet, like a mouth that gives us infinite information. In the beginning of "ACT II" we see those pipes again but with masks travelling everywhere, which again is a reference to the fake selves we put up on the internet. Something to note in this scene is what Ena says "But wait, these twists and turns are getting odd.", "Or... am I the one the rhythm can't catch?", "This notion of happiness is quite strange.". I believe this to be the "weird" side of the internet such as Ena which is a very weird and complex piece of art. In the end of the episode we meet "The Therapist" as I have talked about him in the previous paragraph which I purposefully didn't give a short description as I will now. I believe he represents the different ways we try to help ourselves in the internet and as I have mentioned in this blog he tells you that you cant find real happiness in this world I think he meant the internet. In conclusion the "Resolution" being that real happiness cannot be found by putting up a fake self online and not spending time with real people and not people that put up a persona just like you but rather being yourself and have real human interaction. Finally, the last scene once again provides a very human like creature hiding behind a suit. I very strongly believe in this theory for the reasons stated and would really appreciate if you also took interest in this theory as it took me a lot of thinking to formulate.
Section 2: ENA DREAM BBQ (CHAPTER I)
SUMMARY
This game's first chapter was released on the 27nd of March of this year which is pretty recently with other chapters planned. In this game you play as a different version of Ena. In this game Ena's two version are completely different to the ones in the series one being a salesman acting more sanely(represented by a red colour) and the other being mean being the more "crazy" one(represented by a white colour). When you first open the game Ena is found in an area called the "Red Outworld", a very dark and red zone where a giant figure and what seems to be war aircrafts can be seen. To escape this zone Ena finds a Bed Door that she uses which takes her to the Hub. Here she finds Dratula, a penguin with a very high ego and Froggy, your friend in a similar dynamic of the friendship that Moony and Ena in the series had. This is where Ena shares her main goal of finding the boss and implicate that she wants to murder him. Froggy explains that Dratula has found where the Boss is which is outside of the Hub. In an unfortunate turn of events, smoke appears that is harming Froggy so we first attend to that. Ena then proceeds to go to 'The Receptionist' to ask how to get rid of the smoke. In response, 'The Receptionist' explains how only Genies, important figures to the ENA universe, who inhabit Doors are capable of reducing the fog. In the first chapter Ena has access to only Lonely Door, In the hub it is understood that everyone dislikes Ena for some sort of wrongdoing. Using the Lonely Door, Ena is found in some sort of ship in the land of the "Bright Uncanny Streets", an fairly big area with primarily accents of yellow and orange. Something weird to note is that when Ena tries saying the word "Genie" it is replaced by "Bathroom" making it so she cant ask about the Genie but rather ask about the Bathroom. Ena is required to do some quests for the people of this area like find 4 pets for a character named "Shoryo" or block "The Watchers" view of "Hoarder Alex" with mayonnaise. In this point of the game there is a big decision to make that will decide the path you take. There are two paths you can take. You can either go to the "Purge Event", a dangerous and illegal event or you can go to a mysterious orb found in the map after completing all quests and receiving an item called the "Humanboard" that the "Shaman", a wizard, gives you. I will not be going in-depth as to all the details of each route in this blog as that is not the point of it. After going through the game's content you are taken to "The Smoke Room" where you can find a smoke machine and destroy it. When she reaches the "Lonely Door", she finds that she arrived too late since it's already closed. Cubes cover her entirely and she is trapped. After a while when everything faded out, she twitches, stretches out, and a Mannequin breaks out of her shell. Back in the Hub, a Mannequin lying here goes through several transformations before it changes into Ena. She's back, and "Froggy" sermon her for her non-professional attitude. This game's first chapter has a darker setting than the animation and leaves many questions to the player.
THEORISING
In this part I will be talking about a very intriguing theory that the ENA fanbase has created and I will be adding some of my own thoughts about the reality of this psychedelic world. A main theory in this game is the "War and Famine" theory that suggests that there was/is some sort of war going on. I strongly believe this to be true for many factors. Firstly, the first thing we see is a blood-red sky with war aircrafts as I had mentioned previously indicating that there might be an ongoing war. In addition, Ena has, what is thought to be, a veteran hat. Furthermore, when Ena interacts with the "Vending Machine" bullet casings can be seen coming out of her hat. This is the theory in its normal form but I have found some other interesting phenomenons. From the start of the game I always found it very weird why everyone felt a hatred towards Ena while never having met Ena before. What I believe to be the reason is that the ENA species might have ignited a conflict of some sort making them hated by others(I will talk about what I mean by species on another chapter). In conclusion, this theory is a very interesting one and I strongly encourage you to research it more on your own free time to come to a consensus.
SECTION 3: THE ENTIRETY OF ENA
THEORISING
In this section of the blog I will be focusing on a theory I mentioned previously which is the theory that ENA isn't just a single person but rather a species. This is also one of the more accepted theories in the Ena community. For starters, in Extinction Party we see the "Keeper", the guardian of the Overworld, finding Ena to have a high threat level even though our Ena hasn't done anything. In addition in ENA DREAM BBQ, "The Receptionist" assumes that Ena is a conman. Furthermore, the "Vending Machine" we meet in the game also refuses to sell to Ena. Finally, "Theodora", the genie of the Lonely Door, implies that Ena should be punished for being born. All of this makes it possible that there isn't just one Ena. To understand better we need to reference the previous theory of "War and Famine" theory. In one of the games scenes we see Ena going into a full blown crisis about "Not doing what everyone thinks she's doing" while bullet casings fall from her hat. What I interpret this as everyone assumes the Ena of the game is the reason of this war. I'm not sure If this knowledge of the war is conscious or subconscious as there isn't enough information but hopefully this conundrum will be solved in the next chapters. I believe that yes Ena does indeed in some way know of this phenomena. What made me come to that conclusion is something deeper than ENA being species. I think that this ENA species isn't just any regular species but a form hive-mind collective. In ENA DREAM BBQ we see many many mannequins in very weird spots like above a pit. In addition, in the final scenes of the game we seen Ena in a pool of some sort that has several mannequins and Ena's "soul" come out of her body. What I predict this to mean is that what Ena is doing is switching into another Ena in a different body as having failed. In conclusion ENA can switch between all of these bodies using the best one for each encounter.
CONCLUSION
The ENA series is way more complex than it seems on the surface and a very interesting series for me. This project was a really fun one for me and I hope for the second chapter to deliver some answers. I will be making more blogs on ENA as the series progresses. I would much appreciate it if you reached out to me to share your thoughts as this took me a long time to make and thank you for taking the time to read this, it is much appreciated.