San Ti

The latest animated adaptation of China's award-winning sci-fi novel "The Three-Body Problem" has become a quick hit online, adding to the list of popular domestically produced animations. Called "The Three-Body Animation," the 15-episode series is based on the second book of famed Chinese writer Liu Cixin's trilogy and has garnered praise from fans online after being released. The two episodes aired so far have gained more than 130 million views combined on Bilibili, with the video streaming site calling the series its "biggest animation investment" in the past few years. The "Three-Body" series is Liu's best-selling apocalyptic space opera trilogy. The trilogy has since gained a massive following in China and around the world, especially after the series' first installment won the Hugo Award in 2015, a year after its English translation was published.

I was unaware of this attempt to adapt Liu Cixin's Dark Forest until it was referenced on Reddit in a post containing vicious reviews from Chinese viewers. At first, I took this with a grain of salt, as Chinese fans of Liu's work generally impugn on any adaptation that doesn't follow the book to the letter.

I was wrong. These reviewers are spot on.

First, the animation is decent - not the best - definitely underwhelming for something produced in 2022, but was not a barrier for me to enjoy watching.

The problems start in the earlier episodes where small plot points not germane to the larger story are dragged out and expanded to ridiculous lengths. A plot line that should eat up no more than a few minutes somehow monopolizes the better part of some episodes.

The entirety of the final third of the 15 episodes is focused on a ridiculous manufactured subplot that is not in the original books, and can't possibly serve to advance the story in any meaningful way.

The most agreed upon weakness (at least in Western circles) of the original book is not only adapted, but expanded on to nauseating effect.

The cerebral and thought-provoking source material written by Liu being adapted into this cringeworthy amalgam of action and romantic comedy leaves no doubt why the wider fanbase of the Three Body trilogy - Chinese and Western alike, have disowned this monstrosity, and rightfully so.

This animated adaption of the Liu Cixin's book has a surprisingly low rating. I guess, the reason is that many fans of the original story didn't like that it's got too far from the book. What they probably don't know is that this adaptation is actually a mix of two Liu Cixin's books: 'The Three-Body Problem' ('The Dark Forest' to be exact) and less known 'Ball Lightning'. In my opinion, it was a rather interesting idea to take the best of the two stories and create the one with new twists and a fresh ending. Watching apaptations that are too close to the original books sometimes can be boring because you already know the story. For those who still prefer the original, there is a Chinese TV series that started last year. The animation itself is pretty good, the main characters are well elaborated, and the plot twists are fun to follow.

I was skeptical when started it since it is quite challenging to make adaptation to the book (especially with hype background it was created by thye community). But was surprises with very interesting and quality show. Have no idea why the rating of the anime is so low, maybe something wrong I do not know but I liked it very much and waiting for new episodes to be dubbed to see them.

The only problem I see here is fact that if you did not read the book and have no information about it, the plot could be a little chaotic and probably you do not understand a lot of storylines. But I assume in this case it is not a problem because most of the fans read the books:)

It took me a while to track down the English subtitles for the last 7 episodes available via Bilibili, but eventually I was able to view the entire series.

What a rush!

All-around great entertainment, excellent graphics/CGI, on-par music score and good-enough subtitles to get most of the dialogue understood. Compared to most of the animations recently flooding the airways, this series definitely deserves way more than a 10 star rating... at least in my opinion.

The only let-down was to discover that the story seems to start around the second book of the trilogy by Liu Cixin, and also abruptly ends as well. While there has been an announcement by Bilibili that a second season covering the third book is in development, it would have been great to see the first novel (as animation) as well.

Still, with some quick reading up on the gist of the first book, the lack of background information did in no way diminish the viewing enjoyment.

To everyone interested in watching the series: either watch the Chinese TV show 'SanTi' (imdb tt20242042), albeit somewhat long with 30 episodes, or read the book(s); then watch the show. You are in for a real treat!

Enjoy!