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Thunderbolt Fantasy |OT| From the writer of Madoka & F/Z, Sword Travels from the East

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Qvoth

Member
not sure what's going on with this episode
a bit too light hearted?
not sure why everyone's picking on shang bu huan as well

strange episode indeed
 

Narag

Member
I imagine a lot of it was just having fun with some trials that'd be fairly boring if played straight.

Or Gui Niao was lying about the solutions all along but knew Shang could handle shit which allowed him to gather his crew for a far more nefarious purpose dun dun dunnnn
 

massoluk

Banned
I wonder what an episode of this will look like if we run it through filter program like Prisma, anime look filter that is.
 
I imagine a lot of it was just having fun with some trials that'd be fairly boring if played straight.

Or Gui Niao was lying about the solutions all along but knew Shang could handle shit which allowed him to gather his crew for a far more nefarious purpose dun dun dunnnn
I imagine hawk guy and witchy woman might be in on the nefarious plot, but hawk guy is only the sidekick and seems good hearted underneath the act.
 

Zalasta

Member
I've been out of the anime scene for a while and actually heard about this series via the Giant Bombcast from yesterday. I grew up watching these puppet shows in Taiwan and I'm glad to see the medium being well received. I sure hope the series will not disappoint in the end!
 
I've been out of the anime scene for a while and actually heard about this series via the Giant Bombcast from yesterday. I grew up watching these puppet shows in Taiwan and I'm glad to see the medium being well received. I sure hope the series will not disappoint in the end!
I don't think I've ever heard them discussing Anime, cool. Guess I'll be hearing their comments in a week or two.
 
I've been out of the anime scene for a while and actually heard about this series via the Giant Bombcast from yesterday. I grew up watching these puppet shows in Taiwan and I'm glad to see the medium being well received. I sure hope the series will not disappoint in the end!

Giant Bombcast mentioned this? What were they running a Crunchyroll add or had a guest?

I don't think I've ever heard them discussing Anime, cool. Guess I'll be hearing their comments in a week or two.

Jeff likes Golgo 13 and Polar Bear Cafe
 

Narag

Member
Thunderbolt Fantasy 8
u5Yft5zl.jpg

Everything in this show is fabulous. Even the misdirection is fabulous af.

:lol @ gui niao being wuxia lupin too. shou yun xiao trusted xing hai as much as jigen trusted fujiko
 

duckroll

Member
Wow episode 8 was really good. The fight was so well shot. If only Kingsglaive had battles like this, lol. The plot "twist" is pretty expected after last week, but not in the way it actually turned out! It really does look like Ghost Bird's little rogue party is just a wuxia Lupin team. This is fucking hilarious and AWESOME.

Hope the remaining episodes are all about double crossing and triple crossing while they try to pull off the greatest wuxia heist of all time. <3
 
So Shang might well be a martial arts master posing as a swordsman (maybe as a means of restraining his power?), while
Lin's a master thief...

Wait...

Does that mean the old man was a super thief too, and that's why he had the Soul Echo flute?
 

Narag

Member
Well, that's if you want to take his statement about him being his master at face value which seems like a really bad idea at this point.
 
Well, that's if you want to take his statement about him being his master at face value which seems like a really bad idea at this point.

This is true. Everything about the group relations is slightly thrown now - I mean, Setsumusho may actually have a point in his burning hatred.
 

duckroll

Member
Well, that's if you want to take his statement about him being his master at face value which seems like a really bad idea at this point.

No I really do think he was his master, but that doesn't mean he was a thief. He is clearly a pretty skilled martial artist himself, so he had to have trained under someone before. That doesn't mean the person who trained him follows the same occupational path he does!
 
Thunderbolt Fantasy 8

That twist was too obvious to be my Urobutcher twist. Hellen Keller saw that shit coming.

As to the comments on our protag, can someone clarify if I understood right what they were saying about his sword play? From what I gather
He's a very skilled fighter but not a sword user, but a blunt weapon user?
 
Thunderbolt Fantasy 8

That twist was too obvious to be my Urobutcher twist. Hellen Keller saw that shit coming.

As to the comments on our protag, can someone clarify if I understood right what they were saying about his sword play? From what I gather
He's a very skilled fighter but not a sword user, but a blunt weapon user?

The way it works is
they know he can hit pretty hard - incredibly so - but isn't able to properly apply that with his sword like an actual, trained swordsman would. This means that despite his power with it regardless he isn't actually a swordsman and is just pretending to be one for whatever reason. Given the genre and what we've seen my bet is on Shang being a martial artist, possibly a monk, but one who gave up his ways for whatever reason and took up the sword to mask his true abilities. Maybe killed someone he didn't mean to, and so he handicaps himself to ensure that can't happen again - plus ties into his general refusal to kill.
 
The way it works is
they know he can hit pretty hard - incredibly so - but isn't able to properly apply that with his sword like an actual, trained swordsman would. This means that despite his power with it regardless he isn't actually a swordsman and is just pretending to be one for whatever reason. Given the genre and what we've seen my bet is on Shang being a martial artist, possibly a monk, but one who gave up his ways for whatever reason and took up the sword to mask his true abilities. Maybe killed someone he didn't mean to, and so he handicaps himself to ensure that can't happen again - plus ties into his general refusal to kill.

Makes sense. I mean we've seen plenty of times of him using
karate chops
 
Not a single episode of this show has been anything less than stellar and this week was no exception---if anything, it seems they are in a great place to really kick it all up in these last few eps.

Even if this doesn't get a direct second season or something, I hope we can at least get some additional doings in this setting in particular, as the world building aspect paints it pretty lively on the little snippets of local history and geography.

Just never stop, that's all they have to do~!
 
Oh shit forgot to ask, does anyone feel that Urobuchi is a Lord of the Rings fan?

Because the comment when
they were flying on the birds
was like a direct joke from the fandom. It seems too coincidental.
 

Voror

Member
The way it works is
they know he can hit pretty hard - incredibly so - but isn't able to properly apply that with his sword like an actual, trained swordsman would. This means that despite his power with it regardless he isn't actually a swordsman and is just pretending to be one for whatever reason. Given the genre and what we've seen my bet is on Shang being a martial artist, possibly a monk, but one who gave up his ways for whatever reason and took up the sword to mask his true abilities. Maybe killed someone he didn't mean to, and so he handicaps himself to ensure that can't happen again - plus ties into his general refusal to kill.

Yeah, this sounds like it could be it. I feel like Shang is the ace in the hole for all this and will be forced to show off his true skills and surprise everyone.
I'm sort of expecting him to do something like catch a blade with his own hands or flat out break the thing.

So, I'm guessing the guard is a fake hence the amusement? I'd imagine Lin may have switched it out as early as that first time that he asked to see it way back when.

I kind of find it hilarious about how suspicious the others were of Shang and then they ridicule him not knowing anything that was going on, despite him asking several of them what the deal was. I guess they just never thought he was simply an unwitting pawn.

I do have to wonder if there's another twist to it. Despite obviously fooling everyone around him, he seems like he tries to keep those he runs into alive when possible to call on later should he need them for something.
 

Totakeke

Member
I just stumbled on to this and all I can think of when watching through all 8 episodes is why am I not playing a JRPG with this script. Characters that are mostly tropes, a decent world and setting, sprinkle in some mystery and intrigue, a badass antagonist, and a straightforward general plot of revenge or saving the world to move things along. That's all it needs! Feels like such a simple formula yet most stories in JRPGs nowadays suck, why. :(
 

duckroll

Member
I just stumbled on to this and all I can think of when watching through all 8 episodes is why am I not playing a JRPG with this script. Characters that are mostly tropes, a decent world and setting, sprinkle in some mystery and intrigue, a badass antagonist, and a straightforward general plot of revenge or saving the world to move things along. That's all it needs! Feels like such a simple formula yet most stories in JRPGs nowadays suck, why. :(

Because the reality is the wuxia genre has always had a stronger grip on using tropes to create compelling human drama and fantasy settings compared to the average JRPG. Take any semi-popular wuxia series story and you have the framework of a JRPG which could kick ass!
 

Chaos17

Member
Episode 8

I liked the little twists specialy the one about magician-thief class, hehe.
There're a lot of mysteries about the hero, I would like more backstory about him. He couldn't have survived the desert of spirits with just pure strength to get into the new country he is now, imo.
That's probably why the rest of the group tested him, wanting to know if what he said was true or not but a part of me doubt he faked it during the trials. I also like his chill attitude in general.

I just stumbled on to this and all I can think of when watching through all 8 episodes is why am I not playing a JRPG with this script. Characters that are mostly tropes, a decent world and setting, sprinkle in some mystery and intrigue, a badass antagonist, and a straightforward general plot of revenge or saving the world to move things along. That's all it needs! Feels like such a simple formula yet most stories in JRPGs nowadays suck, why. :(

The problem of most Wuxia stories that I watched is they're too long (50 eps! So it drags a lot, to much to my taste) and the hero/heroine is always SUPER masochist because he/she has to be always (chatoic) good and will never harm the "good" side even if there're assholes, lol
 
The way it works is
they know he can hit pretty hard - incredibly so - but isn't able to properly apply that with his sword like an actual, trained swordsman would. This means that despite his power with it regardless he isn't actually a swordsman and is just pretending to be one for whatever reason. Given the genre and what we've seen my bet is on Shang being a martial artist, possibly a monk, but one who gave up his ways for whatever reason and took up the sword to mask his true abilities. Maybe killed someone he didn't mean to, and so he handicaps himself to ensure that can't happen again - plus ties into his general refusal to kill.

I was thinking that maybe he is too strong, he doesn't even know he is that strong (compared to other warriors). Phoenix killer commented how he was using around 3x times more power than needed when fighting the undead, so I was thinking that maybe that force for our MC was actually 'weak', already at only 30% of what he can do, appropriate for fighting undead mooks.
 

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
Caught up to ep 8 and still really really enjoying it. I like that Shang straight up says "I hate this group because everyone thinks everyone else is up to something".

He MAY be the only one with no agenda (aside from the shrine maiden). It's going to be interesting to see how things play out from here.

I also do like that they continue to come back to "no dude, you did not come from that side of the undead forest because that's totally impossible. Stop lying to us!" There's clearly much more to Shang than meets the eye (and he himself may not even know it).

While I'm always happy for a fast paced series that ends in less than 20 episodes, I'm enjoying this so much I wish it was 26 eps.
 

Rymuth

Member
Finally caught up - turned out to be a good decision on my part because this is a damn good romp.

Only criticism I have is that the main group is very OP - with no one on the evil team to match them. I mean, sure, Mie-whatever is pretty strong for a main antagonist but we need more named henchmen to make things interesting.

While I'm always happy for a fast paced series that ends in less than 20 episodes, I'm enjoying this so much I wish it was 26 eps.
How long is this? I went in with the expectations that this is a 13 episode production.
 

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
Finally caught up - turned out to be a good decision on my part because this is a damn good romp.

Only criticism I have is that the main group is very OP - with no one on the evil team to match them. I mean, sure, Mie-whatever is pretty strong for a main antagonist but we need more named henchmen to make things interesting.


How long is this? I went in with the expectations that this is a 13 episode production.

Someone in the thread said 12.
 

Narag

Member
Thunderbolt Fantasy 9

Holy shit. While the show's been fantastic, that first episode had a certain magic to it that later episodes never really lived up to until now. This is the best thing Urobuchi's ever done.
 
I can't believe how much of an asshole everyone in this party is. It's hilarious. There are RPGs where the party has massive amounts of inner turmoil like Nier or Mass Effect but they wouldn't see people locked up in jail and just go "nah"
 

duckroll

Member
ALL THIS BLOOD! ALL THIS VIOLENCE! YUM!

This was definitely the "in case the audience still doesn't get it, let's spell it out that there are no good people in this show except for the main character who is a dumb Ryu and the naive helpless maiden. The fights in this show are sooooo good though. Can't wait for the eventual proper showdown between Ryu and Lupin.
 

Voror

Member
What I don't get ultimately is what Sho Fukan's role in all this is supposed to be
unless he really is just some random patsy. I have to think there's more to it than that and he was brought along as some sort of trump card.
 

duckroll

Member
There are some interesting connections between episode 9 and the first episode. The first interaction between Lupin and Ryu parallels a lot of what Lupin says to Badguy666 this week.

- Ryu was in a hurry in the first episode, and he didn't want to get caught in the rain, so he stole the umbrella from the Buddha statue. That's what started everything. Where was he going?

- This week Ryu mentions that from the moment he saw Lupin he suspected something was wrong with him. If the same is true for Lupin, then he must have sensed who Ryu truly was when he first saw him, which made him interested enough to intervene. He certainly doesn't give a crap about any old umbrella, that's for sure.

-Did Lupin already hear about what happened to the sword before this? Did he know the girl was headed this way? Or... did all of that simply fall into his lap by luck? If so... could Ryu have been his -real- mark?

- He talks about things which "have no form" and "can only be stolen". This suggests that in his grand scheme of things, he does it for the thrill, rather than the material rewards, and that what he has his sights set on this time is more than just money or even the sword itself.

- What is the nature of a champion? Who is Ryu? Is he a true hero? If so, how who he really is be "stolen"? And where is Ken and Chun Li?

Deep thoughts.
 
So good---even the anti-climactic part was done with enough style and flourish that it didn't even matter.

Even the bit at the very end---there's so many layers to the worldbuilding on this is it like some sort of magnificently spiteful matryoshka doll.
 

Chaos17

Member
Thunderbolt Fantasy 9

In the end Assassin seemed the more "honest" guy in that group except for Mc and heroine. But unfortunaly for him, thief knew that his thirst for battle will come before killing him and thief bet on it.
Betting that bad boss will become his temporary shield to avoid death from the assassin was really daring bet!

Which explain why Thief told the bad guy that what he likes stealing because he can manipulate people.
Also this ep showed some higlight about everyone personality; necro was normal but archer surprised me here how he was not was he seemed and Spearman showed his weak "will".
It seems Hero is finaly going to show his "real/final" form by becoming serious with his sword. Dan, I wish we could've seen his skill a bit with Assassin.

I can't believe how much of an asshole everyone in this party is. It's hilarious. There are RPGs where the party has massive amounts of inner turmoil like Nier or Mass Effect but they wouldn't see people locked up in jail and just go "nah"

Actualy, it's what always bothered me in none mimitary story of anime or manga. People bonding together without no hidden agenda is bad point for me. That's why I loved that twist, haha.
 
Duckie you're going to confuse people by changing names to my already changed names.

This would all be solved if they had easy names to remember and pronounce. Like my regular western anime.
 
I don't know why they have such contention over the name wranglings.

I mean, we've already been through this back in the day with Season 1 of Condor Hero(shame they never did the rest...)---It Worked Fine Enough with *Shoryuujo* and whatnot to keep things in line~
 

Grexeno

Member
Thunderbolt Fantasy 09

Everyone is such a gigantic asshole that the fucking serial killer is one of the more honest and trustworthy characters in the show. Bravo.
 

shaowebb

Member
Got a Roku 3 and I'm finally watching this. Great show. It is HIGHLY reminescent of the jade dynasty publishing and Kung Fu comics stories like Saint Legend, Story of the Tao, Legendary Couple, Weapons of the Gods, and Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre.

The pacing, the way martial arts work, the names...all VERY similar to the works of Tony Wong, Andy Seto and all the rest. If you like Thunderbolt Fantasy try to pick up something I mentioned. It's pretty familiar in style.
 
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