Since The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2015, the enthusiasm for science fiction among the Chinese readers has run higher than ever.

It's the first book of the "Remembrance of Earth's Past" trilogy — also referred to as the "Three-Body" trilogy — that tells the story of Chinese physicist Ye Wenjie making contact with the Trisolarans, an alien civilization intent on invading Earth to escape their endangered motherland.

The Three-Body Animation, a 15-episode series based on The Dark Forest, the second novel of the critically acclaimed trilogy, recently premiered on video-sharing platform Bilibili.

The first two episodes debuted on Dec 10, generating over 120 million views within 12 hours and stoking heated debate online. A new episode will be broadcast every Saturday.

With other big-budget TV series and movie adaptations in the works, the animation is the first to air, amid much anticipation from both fans of the books and a general audience. So far, other adaptations have only released trailers.

"The first two episodes fulfilled my anticipation and the story was largely faithful to the original work. I like the thrilling plot and the good combination of scenes and special effects," says Zhou Si, a book fan of the trilogy since 2013.