After "The Wandering Earth" opened the door to Chinese science fiction films and "Shanghai Fortress" closed the door to Chinese science fiction films, it truly opened the door to Chinese science fiction, and it was serious science fiction.

text | Linghu Boguang

Recently, a domestic science fiction work was broadcast. It has a very good reputation and everyone who has watched it has become a favorite of it. After " The Wandering Earth " opened the door to Chinese science fiction films and " Shanghai Fortress " closed the door to Chinese science fiction films, it truly opened the door to Chinese science fiction, and it was serious science fiction.

Do you think we are talking about "Walking Alone on the Moon", or some "Tomorrow's War" that is of high quality but not good at the box office? The answer is none, but a domestic science fiction animation called "Black Gate". It is a hard science fiction work similar to "Ghost in the Shell", and the work is really hard.

Although the results of this animation are relatively average, it is definitely another great improvement for domestic science fiction animation after "spiritual cage". Moreover, this animation company's first color animation is completely based on the model of "Spirit Cage" company Yihua Kaitian. Yihua Kaitian made the original animation "Spirit Cage" and then used it to obtain the animated version of the IP work "The Three-Body Problem" of copyright.

Primary Color Animation Now the original animation "Black Gate" has just been launched, and there is also an IP adaptation animation "Galaxy Heart" in production at the same time. In the future, it will be the same as the animated version of "The Three-Body Problem", and at the same time promote the progress of Chinese science fiction.

Hard science fiction , the Chinese version of "Ghost in the Shell"? Is this domestic science fiction animation worthy?

In fact, when we talk about the Chinese version, we put our own works in a lower position, but in fact, Chinese science fiction animation is indeed far behind Japan, and we need to learn and learn from it. As for the Chinese science fiction animation "Black Gate", I think it has a greater significance.

While the foreign "Ghost in the Shell" and "The Matrix" have reached the peak of this kind of cyberpunk virtual world science fiction, "Blackgate" can also play the same theme in new ways. The key is The quality is not low, and it may even create a peak for similar Chinese science fiction.

So what is so good about "Black Gate"? The plot and character creation of this story can't be explained clearly in a few words. In addition, there are good suspense elements in the plot, so I won't go into it here. This domestic science fiction animation is really different from similar foreign works. It has a pioneering point that can be said directly. "Brain-Computer World".

"Ghost in the Shell" actually only talks about the cyberpunk world in the near future. Although the whole world is connected by a huge information network , the protagonist group is not a virtual world police, and the heroine Motoko Kusanagi is more artificial People, machines on mission, human flesh and blood face crime in a future world, a philosophical exposition of the cyber world.

"The Matrix" is about various battles between humans and robots in the end of the world. No matter what the truth is, the machine world created a matrix, a network virtual world in the late 20th century, and then various battles outside the virtual world and within the virtual world, and virtual The world had a lot of knowledge about computer network settings that were popular at the time.

Are the settings of "Black Gate" similar? There are certain similarities, but they are actually completely different. It is completely about the brain-computer world, not the artificial humans in "Ghost in the Shell", nor the cyber world in "The Matrix". How to describe it?

It talks about the scientific problems that the protagonists of "Ghost in the Shell" and "The Matrix" may encounter when connecting the brain-computer device network to the virtual world. It is also created by current brain-computer science. Brain-computer systems, mental universes, to brain space stations, bee swarms, and so on.

Based on this setting, it will be easy to understand the background world view, characters and plot of this work.

Its background world view is that with this science and technology in 2058, there are currently two forces. One is the enterprise Oasis that supports the brain-computer interaction of the entire Baiyang City people, and the department responsible for supervising this technology is called Aisa, and the other They are the male protagonist Tu Yi who is currently an experimenter with epilepsy, and his so-called sister Gu Li who leads Tianze who may be against the brain-computer world.

And by combining these three forces with the characters, the plot can basically be extended. The plot is that the two doctors at Oasis, the master of the second male lead Lang Ning, seem to know Tu Yi, and they caused the bus crisis for unknown reasons, which led to Master Lang Ning becoming a vegetative state and being suspected, Lang Ning To prove Master's innocence.

Tu Yi has many doubts, and because of epilepsy, he became an experimenter in the brain-computer world.

A line is their exploration and display of brain-computer interaction and human brain nerves when they enter the brain-computer world. Behind the scenes is the game between the two major forces regarding this accident, as well as the intervention of third-party forces in this incident, etc. The plot of the story cannot be explained clearly in a few words. It is highly recommended to watch this science fiction animation.

's production failed, but the plot surpassed "Spiritual Cage" in an all-round way? Why is this domestic science fiction animation

In fact, we can see at a glance that the investment in "Black Gate" is limited, which results in its production level being far behind. It is obvious that money has been spent on the creation of science fiction scenes in the brain-computer world. The actions, pictures, world view, and creation of mental fish schools in the brain-computer world are all very imaginative, and the production level is not bad.

However, character modeling in the real world, especially the modeling of passers-by, and a large number of other unimportant buildings are very rough. This is obviously a manifestation of insufficient money, and there is no way to spread it out in all aspects. It can be said that at present Comparison of "Spirit Cage" on the ceiling of domestic serial animation.

But there is one thing about this animation that "Spirit Cage" cannot match, and that is the level of storytelling.

The literary and drama level of "Black Gate" is definitely considered to be the T0 level of domestic online animation, and it can definitely compete with " Chronicles of Nations " and "My Three-Body Problem". The plot arrangement, line design, and even the deeper logic of character behavior are all perfectly integrated and watertight.

It can be said that this cancer animation is the most surprising domestic drama for me since "Spirit Cage". "Spiritual Cage" is mainly a breakthrough in all aspects such as subject matter, technology, content, expression, etc. In fact, apart from technology, there are also obvious shortcomings in many other aspects, such as the level of storytelling.

The level of story telling and character creation in "Black Gate" are really better than a little bit better.

At the same time, this animation also has an advantage that many people ignore, and that is what many people complained about in the early stages of "Spirit Cage". It was not until the appearance of the ground forces in the final "Special Episode" that Bai Yuekui appeared that the reputation was completely changed. That is the extension of Chinese culture in Chinese science fiction and having its own thing.

There is a sculpture in both the title and the main film of this cartoon, which is the "three evils eliminated by Zhou Chu" in Chinese culture. This can completely replace the sculpture of a curly naked Laxi man shooting a bow and arrow in a certain art academy. Their sculpture The gang also said that this was "Hou Yi shooting the sun".

The characters and various human-computer graphical interactive interface designs in this work can still be Chineseized, and they are more Chinese culture. In fact, Westerners have always had a typical Chinese face and physique, which is also the only aesthetic pursuit goal of human society. The only healthy and strong characteristics of the face and physique are ugly.

In foreign works, either clowns or villains are played, or the stories use vulgar and short images to isolate them, making people, especially Chinese, disgusted when they see such images (this is also the case with squinting makeup) ), Chinese people pursue red and phoenix eyes, which are particularly good aesthetic features. They are just right and are particularly good-looking and handsome.

This is just a superficial cultural and aesthetic issue. The "Japanese-Japanese" turmoil a while ago is also very serious.

What’s more serious is that various cultural expressions and connotations have nothing to do with our own. Not all cultural works must express traditional culture, even science fiction works.After all, China is also very modern and needs to exchange various cultural ideas. The problem is that others have reached the pinnacle of these things.

If you learn step by step, it will be difficult to find your own unique path. If "Black Gate" was not about the brain-computer world and continued to talk about the same thing as "Ghost in the Shell" and "The Matrix", do you think it would still have such praise? .

Therefore, "Black Gate" expresses the science of brain-based computers, which is different from other similar foreign works. This philosophy uses the traditional Chinese method of "eliminating three evils" and has its own cultural genes. Chinese science fiction works really need such works.

is hard science fiction but not popular, with a premiere score of 9.6? It’s a pity that this domestically produced science fiction

"Black Gate" is not popular, but there is a reason for it. From the most superficial picture and modeling, it is a bit discouraging to passersby. The scenes and pictures are relatively simple and cannot catch people's attention from the beginning; the character modeling, regardless of style, is not very precise and the movements are not natural and smooth, which is directly related to the production cost.

Then there is the basic setting of the science fiction work, whether it can shock the audience or not. At least the first two episodes have not made me understand that this brain-computer system has no refreshing functions. I just feel that it is obscure because the brain-computer system is not explained at all.

As for the mecha, I have seen an exoskeleton-like auxiliary robot so far, but it only appeared briefly in the car accident scene.

Then the plot is currently a bit suspenseful, with various forces appearing one after another, each with their own purposes. But I don’t know if it’s the scheduling of the scene or the logic of the narrative that’s a bit too suspenseful. Of course it’s not a problem for the audience, but it’s a bit dissuading for ordinary viewers.
In fact, animation is the same as other film and television works. If you want to be popular, you must have cool pictures, attractive plots, or even handsome guys and beautiful girls. At present, "Black Gate" can only be considered a niche game, and it does not have the capital to break out of the industry. I hope there will be enough surprises in the future.

In addition, the promotion of this animation is not strong. I personally think that this animation currently has no gimmicks, no explosive points, and no platform official intentionally or unintentionally guides everyone to dig out and analyze the details. In the current cultural communication environment, this " second creation " has a strong blessing on popular cultural works.

This popular culture environment is actually not suitable for a serious storytelling film like "Blackgate" because there are no gimmicks to analyze. There is only a large amount of analytical video production line output, which feeds countless Guochuang viewers to the point where details and gimmicks are the highest standards for evaluating animations. Now when encountering a film like "Black Gate" that truly tells a story in a down-to-earth manner, many people can only silently say "I don't understand", or they will be confused even after analyzing it.

For example, someone released a PV of "Spirit Cage" more than ten minutes in advance. Its quality can be said to be inferior to all domestic animations of the same period. It earned enough popularity while retaining great suspense.

After the release of "Spirit Cage", if we only relied on the extremely procrastinating plot in the first half of the season, it would be impossible to maintain such high popularity until the second half of the season. But has a simple and crude plot of fighting monsters, as well as the doomsday wasteland theme that everyone loves to see, various team CPs of handsome guys and beauties, and various foreshadowings. These can make the audience wait for the next episode with great expectations. This is absolutely It can be called a classic publicity success story.

"Black Gate" is really more hardcore. It tells stories honestly, sets things up honestly, and is science fiction without many of the gimmicks that are popular nowadays. Although is limited by subject matter, plot, modeling and other issues, it should not be able to become popular, but this does not prevent it from being a niche science fiction masterpiece.

In the end, I just hope that it will not be unfinished. Another work "Heart of the Galaxy" will be launched as soon as possible like the animated version of "Three Body", and there are more and more domestic animations like this!