A dystopian prospect

Chinese science fiction

The trailer for the second season takes the timeline of the story back to the early days of the old world, expanding the overall temporal dimension of the narrative and addressing some questions that arose in the minds of viewers while watching the first season.

Du explains that this extensive preview for the second season aims to further enrich the Ling Cage's worldview. The retrospective content also allows for a smoother narration in the second season, eliminating the need for excessive interjections of flashback scenes.

Du elaborates that after the conclusion of the first season in 2021, the team conducted a retrospective analysis, identifying areas where there was a lack of experience during the first season. They aimed to learn from these and make improvements in the second season.

"Whether it's in terms of the story, art or technology, during the first season, we encountered many challenges from the early planning and design phases to the actual execution. Our entire team has been continuously growing and overcoming difficulties," he says.

"During the preparation for the second season, we not only wanted to deliver better plot content to the audience but also aimed to integrate some improved three-dimensional animation techniques," he adds.

According to one of the writers, Wang Chenwei, the city of Jiuchuan in the preview of the second season represents the pre-disaster old world in the entire story. In Jiuchuan, every citizen's body is implanted with an interconnected chip, and the city's super artificial intelligence, ASH, can connect to each person, perceiving all their experiences.

"At that time, the level of technology was highly advanced, and the arrogantly confident humans of that era believed that technology could do anything. They recklessly developed technology to the point where they could no longer control the consequences," Wang says.

Many details in the city showcase the state of technological development at the time, such as advertisements challenging ethics with themes like human genetic modification and pleasure sharing.

"These details aim to reflect the severe imbalance between the spiritual cultivation of people in the old world and the speed of scientific development," Wang explains.

Wang is passionate about content in the sci-fi genre, and has been keeping track of advances in various cutting-edge scientific disciplines.

The scene in the trailer where Bai performs a craniotomy on an ancient creature deeply moved and shocked the audience. Wang did extensive research for this scene, studying the current process of craniotomy surgeries and consulting experts in neurosurgery and brainmachine interfaces.

"The sci-fi aspect of our work extends from a foundation of achieved realities, making reasonable imaginations based on facts," Wang says.

Chinese elements are also a highlight of this domestically produced sci-fi series. Taking the example of Bai, her attire incorporates Chinese elements. Particularly noteworthy are her attacking moves, which depict tai chi techniques such as yema fenzong ("wild horse separates the mane") and yunshou ("cloud hands"). Even her weapon is a knife of Tang-Dynasty (618-907) style.

The acupuncture scene in the animation further demonstrates the incorporation of Chinese elements. To ensure realism in this plot point, the creative team consulted experts in traditional Chinese medicine, striving to faithfully re-create Bai's acupuncture techniques.