Category: Thunderbolt Fantasy

Wow, this episode is way better than I would have expected. Remember last week I mentioned that the demon girl might have a deep appreciation for Gui Niao (I called him Lin Xue Ya previously, but consider that he himself prefers to be called as an alias Gui Niao, I will stick with it from now on) and I expected the clash of light and dark arts between the two girls? Well, I couldn’t be more wrong this time, since the show went in a completely different fashion. Xing Hai hated his guts, because she felt manipulated by him in their last encounter. Many people suggest that it was a romantic tension but I don’t buy that at all. She quickly changes her mind though (way too quickly) after she heard about Tiang Xing Jian sword; and guess who’s the only one she gets along well? This is none other than Dan Fei. I really enjoy how the characters bound off each other, particularly the skeptical remarks from Juan Can Yun the spear wielder to the demon girl, and the venomous words from herself towards Gui Niao. Those arguments actually raise an interesting point about the very notion of hero/villain in the show. The two addition members this week (Xing Hai the demon lady and Sha Wu Sheng the Roaring Phoenix Killer) could very well be the ultimate villain in another series, yet here they will have to become “good” guys, joining up with the group to kill a villain. Gui Niao is another perfect example of this concept, we see him as cool and excellent strategic thinker, but we don’t know his motives in this quest at all. He mentioned that he is acquainted with the antagonist Mie Tian Hai so he feels responsible for stopping the guy, but he might as well just want to get control of the sword himself. Both Xing Hai and Sha We Sheng despised him to the point of hunting him down, plus the fact the he has little remorse when hearing about his master was killed because of him. I say this ambiguity makes his characters somewhat compelling and I can’t wait to see how far he plan ahead and what his true intention will be.

Another bit that goes against my expectation come from the second half. When we heard about the master who has a magic flute, plus the fact that he’s a skilled swordsman, we immediately think he could be a great addition for the group, using his wisdom as a voice of reason for the group to avoid any potential danger, right? WRONG. He was immediately killed off by the Roaring Phoenix Killer Sha Wu Sheng, who his purpose was simply to hunt down any connection to Gui Niao, in order to find him and kill him off. This development takes me completely off-guards, kudos to the writing of Gen Urobuchi. The Roaring Phoenix killer is by far the most skilled and deadliest character we encounter so far. Judged from him having the magic flute that the group desperately needed, I don’t know for sure what will happen in the next episode. Will the gang fight him to death to get the flute? Will Gui Niao negotiate with this guy so he would join the group? God knows. Finally, to the “most whimsical lines this week”, we have Xing Hai hesitating to enter the temple because the “smell” was too offensive. I guess being devil is not easy to get along, even if they really try to. If the show can keep up with those qualities that made it so refreshing: its elegant characters; its campy sense of humor and its stunning fights, I think Thunderbolt Fantasy is up there as one of the most entertaining show this season. The fun just about to begin and I really can’t wait for the next episode.

~SuperMario~

With this episode we basically get an idea where the show will head for the rest of the series and I pretty much enjoy the direction they taking so far. Of course it makes sense that in order to get past those obstacles, the band needs to ally with others who are most suitable for the jobs, even if it happens to be a female demon who practiced necromancy, oops. Well I certainly don’t want anything to do with the demon in my group but I have an impression that she has been frightening people so that they would just leave her be herself. From what I see in the opening intro the other guy (I presume to be the guy who has that Soul magical blah blah blah Flute) looks even more peculiar. Lin Xue Ya proved again to be the mastermind who really plan everything ahead and it would be boring and cliche if he were the master sorcerer, so I hope the show avoids that. But he seems so confident to deal with the demon Xing Hai here, so I guessing Xing Hai has deep appreciation for him, just like Shou Yun Xiao the archer. I like the fact that this series acknowledges that not all demons are necessarily evil, which would add a little bit of context to our demon lady next episode. I also like the whimsical reverse-gender role of her “cutting off parts of 100 beautiful men to make a perfect living doll”, it’s just fantastic when you try to imagine her doing that.

The most interesting bit is of course the three obstacles the cast have to overcome. Well, setting up the Seven Sin Tower in the borderline of human and demon realms is a nice touch, because the show can dwell into dark magic and devil territories. I can see the clash of light and dark arts between the girl Dan Fei and the demon Xing Hai, and I hope they can explore that tension a bit in coming episodes. The three obstacles: The Village of the Dead, The Valley of the Doll, Labyrinth of Darkness; are not at all unique, instead we have encounter some of these before in other anime, but for this one I have high hope that Gen Urobuchi could make those materials interesting.

For a wuxia-action show, this episode in particular surely takes its time, as the first two-third of this episode was dominated by these characters talking to each other. But when the action kicks in, it sure looks wonderful and fun. I have said it before but there is certain charm of practical effects in puppetry that we can’t see in animation, like the body-exploding last episode. With this episode it was head-chopping. But the action is not even the highlights of this episode, it is the dialogues that maintain the campy sense that so entertaining to watch. There are many silly moments like when our main character Shang Bu Huan frustrated of the idea of him tagging along with the group, but get slightly annoyed when those characters proceed to introduce themselves and ignoring him (“Quit trying to move this conversation without me”); or when Dan Fei confronts him on the importance of protecting the legendary swords, instead our main character just ranting about the very idea of putting your own lives to protect the swords (which actually a very valid argument); or even the two most silly guys of the show Juan Can Yun and Shang Bu Huan talk about picking up girl and accuse each other of being pervert. Those moments create a weird chemistry between the cast but I hugely enjoy them that way. Like a puppetry show, these characters are just there to perform their larger-than-life roles, but they perform it so goddamn well that I have no complain whatsoever.

~SuperMario~

Sometimes there’s a show that so campy and fun that you just can’t help but enjoy watching it, and then sometimes there’s a show that completely takes you by surprise by how unique it is. Thunderbolt Fantasy offers both of these in a neat package and further showcases the richness of animation as a medium too. As a guy who always support diversity in animation, the show like this is all I could ask for. The fact that Thunderbolt Fantasy got made in the first place is nothing but astonishing, but for me the most fascinating fact is how on earth this show falls into anime radar in a first place, because this is surely not an anime show (I suspect it’s all because of Gen Urobuchi here). Damn, it is not even technically ANIMATION to begin with. Theoretically speaking, animation requires photographing successive drawings or positions of models to create an illusion of movement, whereas puppetry usually recorded live so there’s an actual movement in puppetry. Here’s an example to illustrate the difference: to make 1-minute of a stop motion animation, it could take hours even days for a shot-to-shot sequence, since there’s usually 15-24 frames per second and you can do the math. But for 1-minute of puppetry it would take just that- a minute of actual filming.

Now let’s get to the actual episode. This second episode offers a much slower pace than the first, with the main storyline here concerns our main character Shang Bu Huan chit-chatting with the helpless girl Dan Fei, and the mysterious Lin Xue Ya, he then gets ambushed by the bad Xuan Gui Zong clan, and escaped with the help of the brothers Juan Can Yun (kind of show-off comedic relief guy) and Shou Yun Xiao (the one-eye archer. Look, I’m trying to familiar myself with those names here). So far this is a very standard wuxia affair, with the plot so far ticks all the boxes of many wuxia’s conventions. The villains of this show so far are sadly bland and over the top. But what the show succeeds is how it still maintains the sense of exciting, the staffs clearly had fun while they were making this and we can feel it too, from the way each of character has their own mannerism, the practical effect (the feeling that you can sense the weight of blood dripping and body exploding (no sh!t) is refreshing), to the utterly ridiculous dialogue; all in the service of making this show as unique and entertainment as ever. This is, after all, a very different medium so I really treasure the experience that I can only find in puppetry. My only complaint from the technique itself is how the camera tends to keep too close to the characters. There are very few long shots in these first 2 episodes, mainly medium shots and lots of close up. That is understandable since the staff has to create all the models, set decorations by themselves; but sometimes the lack of establish shots confuse the hell out of me.

On last note, I have watched many wuxia shows before, but all of them are 30 plus episodes based on already established franchise materials, so I’m eager to see how Gen Urobuchi pull this off: an original wuxia that condensed into 12 episodes. Although Gen Urobuchi is not my favorite writer, I have to tip my hat off to him on this series. Without him, Thunderbolt Fantasy couldn’t exist. Without him, the Taiwanese puppetry will always be a mystery outside of its homeland. Damn, I haven’t even heard of them before this show. That fact alone is already something worth celebrating.

~SuperMario~