Tow Ubukata's 'Bye Bye, Earth' Fantasy Novel Gets Anime

Crunchyroll, WOWOW, and Sony Pictures announced on Wednesday that they are producing an anime adaptation of Tow Ubukata's Bye Bye, Earth novel. While the companies did not announce a debut date for the anime, they revealed that the anime will run on the WOWOW subscription television channel in Japan, and will stream on Crunchyroll "in more than 200 countries and territories."

The novel's story is set on an Earth where all people take the form of animals. Bell is the only girl in the world without the characteristics of animals. She sets out to discover if there are other beings like her. Bell wields a sword and becomes involved with the struggles between the cities and outside world.

Ubukata's Bye-Bye, Earth fantasy novel first shipped in two volumes in December 2000 with art by Yoshitaka Amano. The work then received a new four-volume edition from 2007 to 2008 with illustrations by Hyung-Tae Kim.

Ryū Asahi launched a manga adaptation of the novels in Shonengahosha's Young King Ours magazine in January 2020, and it only recently ended on July 29. Shonengahosha shipped the manga's fourth and final compiled book volume on September 30.

Ubukata's Mardock Scramble novels have inspired anime film and manga adaptations. Ubukata has also written the scripts for anime such as Ghost in the Shell Arise, Heroic Age, Fafner, Psycho-Pass 2, and Human Lost. Wit Studio and Ubukata unveiled the Moonrise (working title) project in December 2018, and an English prologue novel for the project debuted that month.

Ubukata's debut work Kuroi Kisetsu (The Black Season) won the first Sneaker Taisho Gold Prize award in 1996. His Mardock Scramble novel won the Nihon SF Taisho Award in 2003. His The Universe Revealed historical novel released in 2009 won the Booksellers Award, the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for New Writers, and a Naoki Award.

Source: Press release