) Ling Long Incarnation is a fully CGI post-apocalyptic Chinese donghua series made by YHKT (Yì Huà Kāi Tiān) Entertainment.The golden era of humanity came to an end when all of a sudden, a foreign biome erupted from beneath the surface and engulfed the planet. Known as the Manna Ecosystem, a horde of mysterious flora and fauna of Biblical proportions spawned all over the Earth and ended human civilization. Attempts to escape into space failed, and those who did not die from the toxic effects of the Manna's presence were slaughtered by extremezoans, horrific beasts that move like the wind and butcher all they see.
Many decades after the catastrophe, the last survivors of humanity have hidden themselves in a massive flying city known as the Lighthouse. Life on the Lighthouse is safe under the rule of City Lord Morgan, but brutal: a strict class divide exists between superior and inferior citizens based on their genetics, the bonds of love and family are forbidden under pain of execution, and the religious order known as the Light and Shadow Society led by Morgan's son Charles constantly polices the population to ensure compliance and maintain belief in the Lord of Light and Shadow.
In this story comes Mark, Captain of the Hunters unit. The mission of the Hunters is to descend down to the Earth's surface, now a global wasteland of desert and Manna-transformed terrain, and scavenge whatever supplies and technology they can recover from the ruins of the old world to keep the Lighthouse flying for another day. After surviving countless suicide missions and losing so many friends and comrades to the extremezoans, Mark cannot deny a quiet longing within himself to escape the confines of the Lighthouse's dystopian laws and find some measure of freedom.
And even within the tightly-controlled realm of the Lighthouse, quiet whispered rumors abound of a mysterious white-haired woman who walks the surface, somehow able to survive against the monsters that roam the Earth...
The series began broadcast from July 13, 2019 to September 21, 2019 for its first 6 episodes, followed by a "middle chapter" episode released on November 17, 2019 before going on break. The second half aired from July 2020 to October 2020 for another 6 episodes. This was then followed by a 2-episode "final chapter" that released on May 1 and 5, 2021, and then a special last episode on May 15, 2021 serving as the first season finale, totaling 16 episodes.
On November 7, 2023, a 30-minute episode titled "The Long Night is Coming" was released, serving essentially as a Prequel Episode 0 for the second season. Season 2 officially aired from May 23, 2025 to August 1, 2025 for 12 episodes. The series is planned to continue in 2026, though it is currently unknown whether the release will be a third season or special episodes.
In June 2025, the series became freely available for Western viewers on Bilibili's Youtube channel with English subtitles. For Season 1, the channel uploaded a specially edited version that combines two episodes per video into a playlist of 8 videos that can be found here (or a single marathon video containing the entire season here). The 30-minute special inter-season episode is here. Season 2's playlist is here.
This series contains examples of
- After the End: The world is a barren wasteland, covered in the ruins of once advanced cities.
- All-CGI Cartoon: It's a completely computer-generated Donghua.
- Anyone Can Die: Quite a few named characters don't make it through the series. Many characters meet their end suddenly and with little buildup.
- The Beautiful Elite: Most of the prominent cast are very attractive, with the few exceptions all being the "Lowborn class".
- Crapsack World: Oh boy, where to start?
- The land swarming with deadly eldrich horrors and the only remaining haven for humanity left is, seemingly, a cramped flying city, which enforces a strict Fantastic Caste System between those with damaged and undamaged DNA, who all live under the sway of a faith based around the ominously named "Lord of Light and Shadow" led by a very Smug Snake named Charles.
- Due to the limited space, reproduction is entirely controlled, and traditional relationships—i.e., those based on love—are harshly punished, as they're seen as frivolous, especially if its between a Highborn and Lowborn.
- If a child is born with genes considered unimpressive to those of the Highborn parent, the child is immediately taken from them and sent to the slums, and a Highborn doctor actually providing treatment for a Lowborn is a considered a waste of resources, and thus a crime worthy of imprisonment.
- With scarce resources, teams of Hunters must risk searching the wilderness for supplies while under constant threat, and even with the advantages of Powered Armor, advanced weaponry and experienced warriors, few return alive.
- Cast of Snowflakes: Impressively so, given that it's CGI, where recycling models is a commonly used short-cut.
- Crossover: Bai Yuekui and Marc appear as recruitable characters in the Chinese version of Tower of Fantasy.
- Detonation Moon: In the backstory a sudden shift of the moon's alignment caused a ripple effect that devastated the world just as a massive evacuation was underway, destroying civilization and preventing the exodus to the stars.
- Downer Beginning: The show opens with a couple being executed for getting together romantically and thus breaking the law of the Lighthouse.
- Emotion Eater: The extremezoans sense human emotions and attack based on that. One incident long ago had a City Defense soldier get shot in the head, leaving him braindamaged but alive; when extremezoans attacked, they completely bypassed and ignored him despite his being helpless and out in the open.
- Empire with a Dark Secret: The Lighthouse. Why is a supposed haven such a tyrannical society? Midway through the first season, Morgan reveals to Charles that the Lighthouse was never meant to be a safe haven: it was originally constructed to be an inescapable flying prison, and its actual name is Tartarus. The very design of the structure lends itself well to creating an underclass of citizens to abuse and mistreat.
- Fantastic Caste System: The remaining humans aboard the Lighthouse are split between two groups. Those with desirable generic traits are given the most important jobs and best living conditions, while those born with average genes are regulated to squalor and "less important" work, and are not even permitted names.
- Layered Metropolis: The Lighthouse is an airborne city with multiple levels, so they don't exactly have much room to build upon it. Instead the Lowborn built their shacks dangling from it and connected them to each other with wire and rope, like this◊.
- Mysterious Waif: Throughout the series there are rumors that a female warrior of great skill with Mystical White Hair still lives on the surface armed with a sword. Some characters believe she rescued them once, years ago, during a near-disastrous monster encounter. Most members of the Lighthouse leadership dismiss the legend on principle, since no one is supposed to be able to live there anymore. It is eventually shown that she is indeed real, and she's not alone, as she is part of a whole group of surface humans. Season 2 confirms the rumor that she did indeed save the Lighthouse long ago when Morgan was still young.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Marc delivers an impressively brutal one on Sharif when he tries to prevent him from rescuing Ran Bing from the "golden room."
- Only One Name: Even among the Elite Citizens of the Lighthouse, people only have a given name; with family bonds illegal, surnames do not exist (some characters' Chinese names may look like two names when romanized, but these are all actually only one name). The surface dwellers of Dragonbone Village completely avert this with marriage and families still preserved, and everyone has a last name.
- Power Armor: The backbone of the expeditionary hunter forces' armory are advanced power suits which protect the water from the most vicious monsters on the surface.
- Released to Elsewhere: On the Lighthouse, those who reach the age of 70 are expelled to the surface.
- Scam Religion: It is revealed in S2E11 that the Light and Shadow Society was originally a judicial division. It was reorganized by Morgan as a religion to ensure compliance with the mandates to end family bonds on the Lighthouse.
- Shout-Out:
- The show has chainsaw swords and massive guns. One of the characters is a large armoured man in a hood carrying a staff, making him resemble an Astartes by way of the Adeptus Mechanicus, whose working as an enforcer for an Inquisition-like organization, its a similarity others have noticed.
- The premise of a group of secluded humans in a wasteland, who must head out in Powered Armor to gather supplies leftover from before a world destroying event, brings to mind the Brotherhood of Steel. Just with a flying fortress instead of bunkers.
- The show has chainsaw swords and massive guns
- Title Drop: In the second season finale (the first Chinese character in the show's title can be used interchangeably for "spirit" or "soul").Mark: "Perhaps I am about to find out, whether the body is a cage for the soul."
- You Are Number Six: Those unfortunate souls who are born into the inferior class do not even get the dignity of having names, only numbers assigned to them as distinguishing marks.
