The award-winning science fiction novel The Three-Body Problem has been adapted into an anime series by the Chinese online video and anime platform Bilibili, and the first episode is set to premiere on December 3, 2022.

Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem, which is the first book in his Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy follows Ye Wenjie, a Chinese astrophysicist who, after suffering political persecution for supporting her father during the Cultural Revolution, is assigned to what appears to be a dead-end job of using radio waves to destroy other nations' spy satellites. However, after learning from one of the leaders of the effort to destroy satellites, that the project's real goal is to contact extraterrestrial life, Ye throws herself into the work. Years later, depressed and convinced there is no hope for a world filled with corruption, manipulation, and oppression, Ye receives a message from an alien on the planet Trisolaris, describing the chaos and tragedy of its planet. The alien warns Ye not to respond as that will lead to the invasion of Earth by the Trisolarians. Fearing that humanity will never be able to correct its problems, Ye responds, hoping the Trisolarian will invade Earth and remake it into a better place. However, after sending the messages, Ye soon finds that it will be 450 before the first Trisolarians will arrive. In the meantime, once news break that the Trisolarian's are on their way, factions form on Earth in support and opposition to their arrival.

Liu's The Three-Body Problem, won the prestigious science fiction and fantasy-focused Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2015. It is widely seen as the novel that introduced the world to the dynamic universe of Chinese science fiction literature. Indeed, it has attained a near cult-like following in both China and the United States. Without a doubt, Bilibili must also see the anime adaptation as a way to popularize the equally dynamic and cutting-edge world of Chinese animation.

What makes Liu's The Three-Body Problem so interesting is that it contains something for everyone. There's deep-dive science fiction, political tension, crime drama suspense, and a healthy dollop of Chinese culture and history. Moreover, the story's premise is not all that farfetched. That is, viewers can contemplate someone starting an as-yet unproven hypothesis that sets the world afire. To be sure, there are few western science fiction works that so integrate the story's myriad subplots so seamlessly. Bilibili is surely betting on this new tweak to the sci-fi genre to help attract a new cohort of western fans of Chinese anime with its adaptation of The Three-Body Problem.