Thunderbolt Fantasy

[Shadow Skill]

I can't seem to find any info on this from anime sites. Maybe due to it being marionettes and not really anime. I think it could be sort of anime with the special effects.

I just saw the first episode. I actually enjoyed it.

Anyone else see this and think it could be good or better than good?

[Buffalobiian]

Official Title: Thunderbolt Fantasy 東離劍遊紀[とうりけんゆうき] (Touri-ken Yuuki)

Tags: action, fantasy, martial arts

Original Plan: Urobuchi Gen

Character Design:
-Chuuou Higashiguchi
-Mimori Shinobu
-Nishii
-Nitroplus

Music: Sawano Hiroyuki

In an Eastern-styled fantasy setting, a brother and sister team of sacred guardians is beset by the Xuan Gui Zong, minions of Miè Tian Hai, who seeks the Tian Xing Jiàn sword that they possess. Hai's appearance leads to the defeat of the brother, but his sister, Dan Fei, jumps off a cliff to temporary safety. Later, a wandering swordsman comes across a ruined temple, where a statue of Buddha is protected by an umbrella against the rain. When he takes the umbrella for himself, a man resting under a tree nearby informs him that he must be compassionate to the next traveler he meets as a trade-off for taking the umbrella. That next traveler is Dan Fei, still being pursued by the Xuan Gui Zong minions. Both his promise and the enemy's sorcery leaves the wanderer unable to avoid getting involved. Thunderbolt Fantasy is an original production made with puppetry and stop-motion animation.

Resources: AniDB, ANN, Official, Wiki


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So it seems that Urobutcher went to Taiwan, saw this this longrunning puppet TV show that actually uses high production values, and went ahead with a collaboration project.

I watched this by accident and it's great.

Ancient Oriental Martial Arts Fantasy -check
Japanese VA -check
Urobutcher for the story -check (The first half of his series' are usually great. 2nd half can be lackluster)
Sawano Hiroyuki for music -check

Yeah, I'm in. The "animation" is very smooth.

What's crap is that HorribleSubs is using what appears to be romanising Chinese names, which makes no sense when the voices are using Japanese names.

[MasterOfMoogles]

Had no idea what I was getting into - ended up being very impressed overall.

The dolls look pretty good. The effects are pretty cool.

The story so far seems pretty standard wuxia template, but maybe it'll get interesting.

[Shadow Skill]

Thanks Buff!

It is very impressive for a puppet show.

[Buffalobiian]

Thanks Buff!

No problem.

Apparently the stop motion part in the AniDB description is false. The behind the scenes segment here suggests that it's all in motion as well.

[shinta|hikari]

How is it possible that a puppet show has better fight scenes and music than Berserk? WTF Japan? Well, at least Berserk had slightly better facial expressions...

That said, I don't like everything else. I'm not a fan of Wuxia, where girls are few and just damsels in distress, villains actually do the villainous laugh in 2016, people all sound like damn philosophers, and chi powers make no logical sense whatsoever. The emotionless faces really bother me too.

Add to that a dumb as bricks protagonist, and I'm doubtful I could watch this to the end.

[Buffalobiian]

That said, I don't like everything else. I'm not a fan of Wuxia, where girls are few and just damsels in distress

That's what made Legend of Condor Heroes so good. Huang Rong makes a joke out of everybody and anybody.

chi powers make no logical sense whatsoever.

Find legendary scroll (or appeal to an eccentric hermit who learned one)
Master sacred chi technique
????????
Profit.

[David75]

Ditched after 2 minutes.
Not my thing.
For reasons, shinta wrote it better.

[Shadow Skill]

I get that the story and character traits are not for everyone. Plus I think the marionettes have more to do some people not watching. I am just in amazement of this whole new take on the puppet genre.

I for one hope the episodes keep getting more exciting.

[Buffalobiian]

Episode 02

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There's no mistaking it. With that level of prediction, he could only conceal a Geass under that eyepatch.

Other than that, it's clear this is a casual watch. Don't take it seriously. Laugh at the Wuxia antics and enjoy the action.

[Shadow Skill]

I'm really enjoying this show. The action scenes are pretty good for puppets IMO. The dialogue is pretty good to me. The names sounds Japanese to me but the subs are showing Chinese. I don't get this from HS.

I just read they want to do a Manga off this show now. In a few years an Anime will probably follow. This puppet show is popular in Japan after 2 episodes? I can't see them doing that if it didn't have viewers.

[Buffalobiian]

Episode 03

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I'll put 1000 bucks on our white haired friend being said wandering wizard. He's going out of his way to not expose himself however, if he's recruiting other people to break his own traps.

[shinta|hikari]

The MC's tsundere act is getting old.

[Shadow Skill]

This episode seemed really fast for me. I blinked and it was over. Am I enjoying it this much? Lol

Ya I was wondering that too if the white haired guy is the Wizard. I dunno, for a Tsundere she can kick ass with her sword skills.

[MasterOfMoogles]

Hopefully that was the extent of the exposition dump we'll get.
Pretty decent episode regardless.
I do not expect their little raiding quest to go as planned, though.

[Shadow Skill]

What happened to all that cool special effects and awesome fight scenes? Seems like every show, anime included seems to want to drag story lines out.... which makes it fucking boring. :/

[shinta|hikari]

It's a standard in Wuxia and even LNs, unfortunately. You get super interesting first parts to grab readers, then you get repetition to milk those hooked udders, I mean, readers.

[Shadow Skill]

It's a standard in Wuxia and even LNs, unfortunately. You get super interesting first parts to grab readers, then you get repetition to milk those hooked udders, I mean, readers.

I was expecting some awesome fights. :/

[Buffalobiian]

Episode 06

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Demon girl is pretty cute. This was even before she started showing leg. (here I thought this show would never do fanservice).

[shinta|hikari]

Fanservice? Wtf? You trolled me so bad with that comment.