Three-Body Problem: Animated Series Makes China Debut, Beats Netflix

The animated TV series of Liu Cixin‘s epic Science Fiction series The Three-Body Problem has premiered on the Chinese animation streaming service BiliBili this weekend as well as on YouTube. Called The Three-Body Animation, the series beat out the live-action Chinese TV series and upcoming Netflix version to broadcast.

The Three-Body Animation was said to be five years in the making with a large (but undisclosed) budget, and it shows. The first two episodes start with the second novel In the trilogy, The Dark Forest, set in a mid-21st Century where Earth’s governments are already aware of the Trisalorians’ impending invasion of Earth, where they would exterminate all life to reform the atmosphere into one they can survive in. Even though it would take them four hundred years to reach Earth, the Trisolarians have already recruited a cult of human agents on Earth to prepare for their arrival, including assassinating key scientists and figures that might put up resistance to the impending invasion. This allows for major action setpieces and sidesteps thorny issues like how the brutality of the Cultural Revolution might be portrayed.

The first two episodes of the 15-episode first season of The Three-Body Animation launched in China on BiliBili (but region-locked) and related platforms like YouTube on December 10^th. One episode will be released every Saturday. The first two episodes quickly generated more than 100 million views on Saturday and attracted more than 5 million users on the platform. Two more seasons are currently planned. BiliBili is represented by CAA in the US and hopes the animated series will get an official release in the West. The series is such a big deal that they even got Chinese pop superstar G.E.M. to sing the end credits theme.

The Chinese live-action version of The Three-Body Problem still doesn’t have a release date despite having been completed for months. There’s talk that it will be broadcast on CCTV, the official Chinese state-run TV network, next year instead of just streaming services. There is still no release date for the Netflix version, which features a larger percentage of Western actors in the cast, prompting many Chinese fans to wonder if the Netflix version whitewashes the story.