Shout Out / ENA

• According to Joel himself in the description for the self-titled video, ENA's design is inspired by a mix of Girl Before a Mirror by Pablo Picasso and the works of Brazilian pop artist Romero Britto.
• Most of the videos uses stock sound effects from RuneScape Classic.
• Many of ENA's animations are references to or re-enactments of dance moves from the music video for Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime".
  • In "Auction Day", these include ENA swooping around in her first scene, flicking her temple when her sad side first emerges, and rubbing her head on the ground at the end after she pukes.
  • In "Extinction Party," her very first motions references those done alongside the first verse, and the jittery way she bows shortly after reflects some of the background dancers shortly after the line "My God, what have I done!?".
  • In "Temptation Stairway", she zooms towards the screen as Byrne does in the line "How did I get here?" after Brick Frog kicks her out of her Heroic BSoD, and ENA's exchanges of the turrón with the Merchant and the Shepherd feature them as background dancers recreating the iconic squatting and stepping dances from the first chorus respectively.
• The 3D Maze in "Extinction Party" is one to The Backrooms. Which makes a lot of sense why Merci and Robert were trying to tell ENA to get out of there.
• As stated in a reply on Twitter, Robert is based on Hiroshi Uchiyamada from Great Teacher Onizuka.
• During her breakdown in Act 1 of "Temptation Stairway", ENA momentarily gets switched with the Vanity Plate for Toei Company.
• Brick Frog's voice is an audible nod to Kermit the Frog, and the frog parts of its body visually resemble Vibri.
• At the end of "Auction Day" the PlayStation 1 booting chime can be heard when ENA pukes and her vomit morphs into the Hourglass Dog.
• Ulysses' particular speech patterns in Temptation Stairway are a blatant send-up to The Master.
• Shortly after the publishing of "Temptation Stairway", and in recognition of ENA's in-universe birthday, Joel made a thread on his Twitter account listing the various inspirations that went into the first three videos, which includes a number of nods to other works:
  • The aesthetic of "Auction Day" was directly inspired by The Town with No Name.
  • Drunk ENA's animations were inspired by the Jackie Chan film Drunken Master.
  • The visuals in "Extinction Party" are a nod to those of Middens, a personal favorite of Joel's.
  • Gabo's line "drink the blood and smoke the banana" is a nod to the conversation with Dracula in Space Funeral.
  • The Shepherd's appearance seems to be inspired by a Cubist-style painting of a cat, appropriately named "Picasso's Cat".
  • A good chunk of the character designs, such as those for The Great Runas, were based on the works of late Polish surrealist Zdzisław Beksiński.
  • Another reply from the thread confirms Xavier: Renegade Angel as another source of inspiration.
  • Last but not least, the series as a whole was directly inspired by LSD: Dream Emulator.
• Hidden within Joel's official website is a secret animation inspired by Gobou, a Japanese animator famous for his Yume Nikki fan animations.