500https://starcrossedanime.com/wpcontent/uploads/2024/09/ByeByeEarthBanner.png One of the main reasons I prefer novel adaptations to manga or light novels is that usually its harder for a novel to get picked up for one. To get that kind of attention to get noticed its hard. They dont have the same mainstream reach. Why Im not sure maybe people just dont like reading. Whatever the case the point is that novels dont seem get anime as often and when they do they tend to be rather well written. Think The Great Passage Run With the Wind or Tatami Galaxy. So when I saw that one such novel was getting adapted this season I was pretty excited Everything about it seemed interesting from the musical aesthetic to the named swords it seemed fun Little did I know what I was in for with Bye Bye Earth originally written by Ton Ubukata directed by Yasuto Nishikata and animated at LIDENFILMS. Be warned this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for Bye Bye Earth. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents. https://starcrossedanime.com/wpcontent/uploads/2024/09/ByeByeEarth4.2.jpg Narrative Lets start with both the most important and most confusing part of Bye Bye Earth the narrative. To say this story was contentious would be an understatement. Not because of any concerning content or questionable depictions though for those concerned there was one attempted rape scene near the end so be warned but because it was confusing as all hell. From music effectively being magic and all of the terms that come along with that like Composer or Soloist taking on new meanings to swords embodying the dreams and ideals of individuals and being able to grow along with them Bye Bye Earth can be very dense. Think Through the LookingGlass. On its own this isnt an issue if you buy into the world and story early youll probably have a decent time. The problem will be those who dont. Simply put Bye Bye Earth puts zero effort into explaining itself its setting or anything thats going on. At no point do you get any sort of explanation it doesnt try to walk you through anything or help you connect the dots. It simply throws everything at you and whether or not you get it is up to you. To some this is great It makes Bye Bye Earth like a puzzle to be solved theres a lot of discussion you can have as you try to figure things out and piece together the symbolism. And make no mistake theres definitely something here to figure out Bye Bye Earth isnt just a shotgun of random bullcrap theres clear purpose and meaning behind all of it. The way swords can become corrupted taking their owner along with it or their connection to Yggdrasil and the twofaced God. It all means something my interpretation of which Ill talk about later. So to find out if Bye Bye Earth is for you ask yourself this: How much are you willing to work for it? Do you want to be told what Belle being the Girl of Reason means or figure it out yourself? What about why Belle is the only human the reason behind the sword names or what the special salts are made out of? All of these questions have answers if you look for them or at least hints and promises leading into season two. For me that made Bye Bye Earth pretty satisfying if a tad nonsensical and frustrating at times admittedly. If you can get past that initial frustration stick with it and enjoy the process enjoy whats happening in the moment and try to piece it together as you go youll have a good time. Just... It definitely requires some work. https://starcrossedanime.com/wpcontent/uploads/2024/09/ByeByeEarth8.1.jpg Cast All that said there is one thing that makes Bye Bye Earths narrative a bit more digestible and thats the cast. While rather large there are a lot of named characters there are only a select few you actually need to remember and pay attention to. From our lead Belle Lablac and her compatriots like Benedictine and Adonis the Question to antagonists like Tiziano and a few others the core cast of Bye Bye Earth is actually pretty closeknit and solid. In the 10 episodes the series has most of them get some kind of development as well. Its not always positive while Belle may become more selfactualized and sure of her goals others may fall deeper and deeper into their own head and issues. Whats important though is that the cast does change they do grow and react to the events around them and those reactions are just as important to figuring out the narrative. In fact much of the cast is just as in the dark as we the audience are. At least insofar as major plot mysteries the wider setting not so much. They are asking the same questions seeking the same answers and piecing together the clues along with us. Much like the narrative at large this may be annoying to some as it means a fair amount of time spent working things out inuniverse. Personally though I liked the way these questions and themes were connected to each of the characters giving the audience more clues as to what is going on and what Bye Bye Earth is trying to say. Again it can be very obtuse you will have to work to figure out what it is trying to say or do with these characters and you may not like the answer you get. Thats totally valid. But its undeniable that there is a purpose to them. https://starcrossedanime.com/wpcontent/uploads/2024/09/ByeByeEarth6.2.jpg Production With that we come to the production. Overall I wouldnt say Bye Bye Earth looks particularly great. Fine maybe. Character designs are clean with strong silhouettes and interesting quirks setting them apart. Scenes are also directed and composed nicely enough the camera rarely sits there doing nothing theres always something for you to focus on and look at. Backgrounds also tend to be well made and unique. I also like the colors Bye Bye Earth is often bright though it can appear a bit desaturated at times. The biggest thing youll notice though are the effects the show has a lot of magical glows diffused light and special effects. Not all of them are good but they are there. By most metrics the show looks just as I said fine most of the time. The only issue is that it doesnt actually move very well at all. Characters in Bye Bye Earth dont do much outside of fights and the fights themselves vary wildly in quality. Most shots are nothing more than panning stills and awkward closeups where they dont need to show much of the body or their movements. This results in characters feeling like they are swinging around each other rather than at each other and arent very fulfilling because of it. The previously mentioned effects work tries to cover for this a bit sprucing them up with shiny glows and pretty lights. But that still doesnt make them very fun or interesting to watch. There are some expectations to this set piece fights that are given a bit more oomph so to speak but even at its best Bye Bye Earth isnt an action show. If you enjoy the fights it will be because of the narrative meaning of them not the animation. https://www..com/watch?v=aUcUvsS9wlist=PLRW80bBvVD3Uu4rV8cL7ULJCaN5hy0AYC OST Finally we come to the OST composed by a name Im certain youve all heard before Kevin Penkin. Penkin is well known for his fantastical ethereal and occasionally alien sounding music from anime like Made in Abyss with tracks like The Rumble of Scientific Triumph and Tower of God with tracks like Irregular God. As you can tell hes a big fan of large grand sounds and fauxlatinesque vocals meant to sell the fantasy nature of the world. Those tendencies carry over to Bye Bye Earth as well but here everything has a bit more of a classical style to it due to the series aesthetic with some exceptions of course. And while I think that causes some loss of Penkins personality and style resulting in a few boring or outright disappointing tracks by and large Bye Bye Earth sounds... Fitting is I think the best word. Belles Past is a great example of what I mean. It still feels very Penkinesque with the grand scale and operatic backing vocals in the second half while still feeling unique with this initial washed out sound of a halfremembered memory. Kitty is another quintessential Penkin track both ethereal and mysterious just like Bye Bye Earths world. Even something like Eyes of Belle which starts to separate a bit with its soft piano and string accompaniment rather than any big orchestral backing still contains things like strong proud vocals Penkin likes to use. Its only when we get into tracks like Forrest of Quartz and Forrest of Moon which sound like generic background music I could find anywhere that it feels like Penkin starts to lose his voice a bit. And dont get me started on Nowhere which is just... Its not good. Over all despite tracks like Nowhere that make you want to shut it off or Drambuie and Belles Room which are kind of just forgetful I think Penkin does a good job. Theres a reason hes become so present in the anime industry in the past few years the man is good at what he does and has developed a sound of his own. Its not always present in Bye Bye Earth and thats occasionally disappointing but when it is its memorable and accentuates the scene well. If you like Penkins sound have enjoyed it before then youll have a fine time here. Just dont expect it to be quite as good as his work on Made in Abyss. https://starcrossedanime.com/wpcontent/uploads/2024/09/ByeByeEarth9.4.jpg The Numbers Mason What Do They Mean? With all that done we come to the personal section of the review. This is mostly where I ramble about my personal experience with a show not really trying to review it in any way just communicate how watching Bye Bye Earth felt. This of course is noholdsbarred spoiler territory Im going to talk about the ending some of my interpretations of the show and everything that entails. If you havent watched the show and want to figure it out yourself or dont want to know the ending then feel free to skip. Otherwise read on https://starcrossedanime.com/wpcontent/uploads/2024/09/ByeByeEarth8.5.jpg Conclusion So yeah all in all Bye Bye Earth is interesting engaging but woefully incomplete. A large portion of my enjoyment of the show came not from the show itself but from conversations with friends around what was happening and what it could all mean. Without that and without some assurance that it all goes somewhere and there are answers to the questions it becomes difficult to recommend. A season 2 is on the way at the time of writing this which is a good sign. But until it comes out unless you enjoy the process of solving puzzles and putting the pieces together like you would say a mystery show or dont mind feeling confused as everything unfolds I dont think Bye Bye Earth will be a good fit for you. It was fine enough for me but Im also weird like that. Thanks for reading If you want to leave a comment positive or negative you can leave it herehttps://anilist.co/activity/794691203.