Bye Bye, Earth smashes Tolkien’s blueprint for fantasy with a massive, living pet sword. And furries. It’s refreshing.
The anime tells the story of Belle Lablac (Fairouz Ai; Megan Shipman) and her quest to find others like herself. She’s the normie. The only normie — a regular human living in an all-furry world. She’s willing to sacrifice her peerless sword skills, her relationship with her teacher, and the only family she knows to meet other normies. Let the quest begin!
A Fantasy Story Worth Arguing About
And speaking about duels, I’m about to fight one. Yes, dueling is illegal, but the honor of a critical Lord of the Rings character is at stake. See, my friends and I are that type of fantasy geek. The kind who argues about boobs on centaurs (“budders?”) and the worth of seldom mentioned but nevertheless critical Tolkien characters like Tom Bombadil (may movies never cut him out again). Media such as Elden Ring and Delicious in Dungeon are fuel for the heated arguments we have. Although these arguments wouldn’t stand if they had any basis in reality, they prove fantasy has substance. A land born on a page becomes a shared world, meaningful to fans who’ve experienced it.
Bye Bye, Earth is a fantasy story worth sinking teeth into. Or argue about. Pet swords growing and wilting? Yes, please. Flower sea dragons spreading their seeds to live on? Gimme! A monster king with two faces — one beautiful, the other grotesque (Kenjiro Tsuda as Justice and Setsuji Satō as Evil)? Sounds like a Dark Souls game. Let’s go!
These fantasy elements flesh out Bye Bye, Earth’s fresh take on the exhausted orphan-becomes-the-hero plot and stabs a magical sword through stagnant Lord of the Rings clones. Belle Lablac is a “featureless” outsider in a world of furry tails and animal ears, not a hobbit in a world of men. In the ultra-connected but disconnected hypermedia world of 2024, we can relate to Belle because we sponge up social media without touching its physical reality. We’re the normies, hooked on the weirdos who live by the rules of likes and views. Bye Bye, Earth might be the fantasy story we need in 2024.
Power of the Sword. Or Pen
Don’t let Bye Bye, Earth’s modern take on fantasy fool you. The story didn’t just step out of some web novelist’s brain. The anime is based on the work of fantasy masters.
Heavyweights Tow Ubukata (Mardock Scramble, Psycho-Pass 2 and 3, and Ghost in the Shell: Arise) and illustrator Yoshitaka Amano (Final Fantasy, Vampire Hunter D) created Bye Bye, Earth (ばいばい、アース, Bai Bai, Āsu), the novel series, nearly a quarter of a century ago. Its first publishing was in December 2000.
While the age of their tale shows, with strange names like Haggis the barkeeper (Tsuyoshi Koyama; Brent Mukai), Kitty the All (a Rabbita, voiced by Natsuki Hanae or Brent Mukai in the dub), and Adonis the Question (Koki Uchiyama; Daniel Van Thomas), don’t let the names put you off. The characters running around Under Vest… ahem… Under West are as intriguing and developed as you might expect from the power duo.
And Bye Bye, Earth has the weight of a novel. Expect the plot reveals to come in hot and fast. Faster than Belle’s parries and thrusts. If only they’d thinned the plot with some “plot.” My blank stares result from the plot’s tempo and frequent digressions. It’s the old anime curse of trying to fit three novels’ worth of story into a season of 20-minute story chunks.
Is Bye Bye, Earth Worth Watching?
Although it’s hard to spot Amano’s influence in the anime, Bye Bye, Earth is brim-full of enchanting setting shots and charming character designs. The art (like every other aspect of the show except the weird names) sells a rich and evocative fantasy story. If you’re bored of the Rings or snore through Sword Art Online, take a refreshing sip of Bye Bye, Earth.
Refreshing. Like Tom Bombadil, the most important of all Tolkien characters.
My dueling dice are ready to crush all arguments.
Crunchyroll co-produces the anime series with Linden Films, Sony Pictures, and WOWOW. Director Yasuto Nishikata and assistant director Sōta Yokote worked off scripts and character designs by Hiroyuki Yoshino and Yūki Hino, respectively. Kevin Penkin composed Bye Bye, Earth’s music.
Bye Bye, Earth streams on Crunchyroll with English subtitles and dubbing. Belle’s adventure gets a solid four out of five Chibi Megumis. Forgive its few faults and enjoy a fantastical feast of furries and flower-sword fencing.
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Are you watching Bye Bye, Earth? Would Belle’s gigantic sword make a great dakimakura (hug pillow)? Tell us in the comments or on social media.
Bye Bye, Earth missed the opportunity for bunny-girl and catgirl fan service. But never fear, Your Friend in Japan is here. We have all the bunny-girl characters and catgirl figures you could need for your fantasy army.
