When it comes to intentionally complicated storytelling, there's "good confusing" and "bad confusing." Complex works like Gene Wolf's celebrated SF novel The Book of the New Sun, David Lynch's legendary TV show Twin Peaks, or Hideaki Anno's incomparable Neon Genesis Evangelion all deliberately obfuscate essential information, using mystery to drive intrigue and even obsession in their fans. Entertainment as puzzle boxes is a valid way of engaging and maintaining interest in a story, and if done well, drives fandom discussion and theorizing for decades after release. Unfortunately, LIDEN FILMS' Bye Bye, Earth, an adaptation of Tow Ubukata's 2000 novel duology, is not "good confusing." It's plain baffling.

It's hard to say whether Bye Bye, Earth's unwelcoming inscrutability is a function of its source material or because of adaptation choices. Over the past few weeks, I have agonized over what to write for this review. I almost considered submitting a document containing nothing but the acronym "WTF?" one thousand times over, which I doubt my lovely editors would have appreciated. Even now that I've re-watched the entire first ten episodes for the second time, I still struggle to explain what this show is about, let alone the reasons that anything happens in it.

On the surface, Bye Bye, Earth depicts a vibrant and colorful fantasy world – no one could ever accuse this of being a bad-looking show. From rolling fields to crystal outcrops, glistening palaces to festering catacombs, Bye Bye, Earth's many locales are full of personality and a sense of place. Character designs are gorgeous and varied, with much higher quality than average animation, especially during the many spectacular battle scenes. Although featuring primarily a glorious hand-drawn 2D animated style, LIDEN FILMS wisely uses some smooth, classy, unobtrusive CG for the larger set pieces.

At least at the beginning, Belle Lablac drives her own story with her determination to uncover her origins and find others like her. She's a driven, competent woman with excellent combat skills and a strong moral compass who has been raised as a swordswoman by her cat-eared "Enola" (master) Sion. In this world, swords seem to be semi-sentient magical weapons that bond to their wielders and grow in power with use. Losing or breaking one's sword is a tragedy. Swords are named but also engraved with a spell that determines their abilities. Belle's sword is the unfeasibly enormous (almost Berserk Guts-like) "Runding," engraved with the spell "EREHWON." That another character later obtains a sword with the corresponding spell "NOWHERE" is hardly surprising. What these spells actually mean for the narrative, however, is frustratingly unclear.

Sword wielders, you see, can also have "curses" passed on through "Nomad Blood" through direct contact or familial inheritance. Belle's curse forces her to forget Sion (I've no idea why; the explanation is lacking) and prevents her from cutting and, therefore, killing living creatures. Why such a curse is necessary for her to become a "Nomad" also goes unexplained. In fact, the vast majority of seemingly essential world-building in Bye Bye, Earth goes unexplained. Well… that's not quite true. There's a huge volume of confusingly verbose exposition spouted from one character to another on multiple occasions. Still, these instances are couched in such obscure in-world language and vague allusions that none of them make sense. At all. For example, one character's ability is said to "destroy the future," but what does that even mean? We're not shown an example of this; they are just empty words.

Bye Bye, Earth's battle mechanics are fascinating, however, built as they are on musical terminology. Battles are split into "acts," with tactics/scripts written by a "Libretto." Soldiers walk into battle not only wielding swords but also trumpets and violins. Other soldiers include "directors" and "pianistas," though their roles remain ambiguous. This is even worse in the dub version because the reams of on-screen explanatory text go untranslated, making these big action sequences hilariously confusing. At least the music is superb, as one might hope from such a music-focused series – from piano-heavy tunes to full-on orchestral grandeur, this is another winning score from celebrated composer Kevin Penkin (Made in Abyss, The Apothecary Diaries).

A major highlight is the mini-arc from episodes 4-6, covering an exciting and varied underground battle as Belle and her new friends fight for their lives against an army of zombies led by a grief-crazed mermaid. Unfortunately, following this, the show slows right down and moves much of the focus from Belle to the supporting cast, and Belle becomes less of a driving force in her own show and rather someone who things happen to. While deuteragonist Adonis is indeed an interesting character, his odd heel-turn in the penultimate episode leading to potentially triggering behavior (attempted sexual assault) leaves a nasty taste.

Many of the other supporting characters are fun, such as shape-shifting, teleporting, fire-spewing bunny boy Kitty (why is his name not Bunny? So confusing..), who in kid form even manages to share a bath with Belle, not that she ever learns kid Kitty's the same as adult Kitty. Gender-switching merperson Bennet is a fascinating thought experiment – merpeople shift genders according to whom they are most emotionally attached to – their minds are like mirrors, apparently.

Unfortunately, most of the rest of the show is frustratingly both under-explained and over-elaborated. I don't know what the hell is going on with the creepy dual-personality monarch King Rawhide (what a name!) Nor do I get how Belle can tell if god-tree Yggdrasil/Deus Ex Machina is "looking" at her or not. It's a tree. What is the "Army of Insatiable Emptiness?" What is its link to haunted-looking mermaid swordsmith Dram? And why is Sian involved with her? Just what is the deal with swords anyway? There are so many unanswered questions, but many of them relate to the most basic story premises. It's hard to stay engaged when so much random shit is happening, and the viewer is given next to zero context about its relevance.

I still have no damned idea why the show is called "Bye Bye, Earth." My theory is that the glowing bauble in the sky isn't a moon (the characters don't even know what a "moon" is), but is in fact the Earth. What this has to do with Belle is unclear, but she wonders if that might be where she is from. I guess answers might be forthcoming in 2025's second season, helpfully announced recently. I'll probably stick around because I want to know what the hell's going on, but I don't have much confidence anything will be explained with any clarity.