Anime Summer 2024: BYE BYE, EARTH, A Girl and Her Sword

Life as a single person can be challenging, but life as the only human in a world full of animals? That can be downright dangerous.

Bye Bye, Earth
The first three episodes are now streaming on Crunchyroll. Subsequent episodes will debut every Friday.

No doubt, Belle knows it's tough to be 'just a girl.'

Her best friend is a sword, dubbed Runding. Now, it's definitely not 'just a sword.' In reality, it's an enormous sword with tremendous power. Coupled with her own superior fighting skills, Runding enables Belle to defend herself and to defeat enemies on a world in which she is the only human, surrounded by endless varieties of talking animals.

Because they can talk, Belle must listen to them wherever she goes, as they openly question her origin and purpose in life. Usually, she can silence them with her sword, as needed. Yet she yearns to answer those questions for herself: is she really the only human on the planet? Do others of her kind live somewhere on the planet? What must she do to find them and find her own true purpose in life?

Belle's existence has been defined, so far, by those types of existential questions. Based on a fantasy novel series written by Tow Ubukata, who wrote a story that served as the basis for Le Chevalier D'Eon (2006) -- a series that I remember fondly -- the premise enables existential questions to be framed within an action-adventure structure that takes the issues seriously while linking events together with an endless series of entertaining fight sequences.

As one might hope, more questions are asked as the series progresses. After watching two episodes, I thought I had the show figured out, but then the third episode deepened Belle's quest considerably. Ha!

I'm a typical newbie, I suppose, in that I miss things that a more seasoned viewer might spot much earlier. On the other hand, my continual newness over the years has also been continually rewarded by series that are well-done, even if they cover familiar ground.

Summary: As a (primarily) live-action viewer, I find the series to be quite good and enjoyable so far. It's sympathy for the outcast lone traveler sparks empathy within my own cold, dead heart.