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EP. REVIEW: Thunderbolt Fantasy Sword Seekers 2


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XerBlade
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Joined: 11 Jul 2005
Posts: 162
Location: Depletion Garden, Nashville, TN
PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2018 8:59 pm Reply with quote
- T.M.Revolution fights a dragon known as the King of Death by singing at it, easily the most badass thing ever and something I would be calling shenanigans on if it were literally any other J-rocker doing it.
- Gabriella gives the episode a B.

What do you even want out of this show anymore?
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AholePony



Joined: 04 Jun 2015
Posts: 330
Location: Arizona
PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2018 1:58 am Reply with quote
Epic Murder Puppets vs guy in a DRAGON SUIT. 11/10 will watch again. Giving this a B score is just someone over thinking things.
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Merida



Joined: 21 Feb 2012
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2018 2:09 am Reply with quote
Yeah, i'm honestly unable to comprehend what this ep. could possibly have been lacking, it's a straight A for me! But since Gabriella's reviews of this show are always so entertaining to read, i'll forgive her. Wink
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Zeino



Joined: 19 May 2017
Posts: 1098
PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2018 5:09 am Reply with quote
Anyone else think that the reason that Season 2 has felt much slower and a bit less bombastic than the first series up until fighting the dragon now is because Urobuchi and the rest of team doesn't have to worry anymore about trying to sell Thunderbolt Fantasy to audiences anymore? Season 1 of TF had to go out of it's way to really convince people that the art of Taiwanese Glove puppetry could be totally awesome with as many action scenes as possible. Now, they can afford to be a bit more leisurely in pacing and fights.

Last edited by Zeino on Wed Dec 12, 2018 11:43 am; edited 1 time in total
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SheRrIs





PostPosted: Mon Nov 05, 2018 4:13 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
But on the other, why can't we have a female Screaming Phoenix Killer or Shougo Makishima or Kotomine Kirei?


I'm not sure if it counts: Kasei Joushuu from Psycho Pass spoiler[even though they are revealed to be a brain collective later.]
And of course Akane, the true villain of Psycho Pass.
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Merida



Joined: 21 Feb 2012
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 4:01 pm Reply with quote
We sure got some nice and bloody puppet killing in this episode, that sword had been sealed away for good reason...

The preview and the title of next week's episode somehow make me worry for Lang's safety...i know it's bound to start happening eventually, but i hope it's not yet time for killing off sexy main puppets?! Sad
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SheRrIs





PostPosted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 4:14 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I'm not sure whether masculinity as we know it can be said to exist in the world of Thunderbolt Fantasy


??? What kind of masculinity do YOU know? The show is filled with testosterone and GAR! Being delivered by individuals with long hair and baroque robes doesn't make it any less manly. Thematically it's all about SWORDS, with all Freudian implications.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 4:18 pm Reply with quote
What I'm looking forward to is a battle of droll wits between Lin and D. Kong, if the latter really is deliberately manipulating people for his own ends, and not just being carelessly nihilistic around others.
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Neko-sensei



Joined: 19 Jan 2007
Posts: 283
PostPosted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 9:58 pm Reply with quote
I'm probably the only human being who voluntarily finished Chaos Dragon (which was Thunderbolt Fantasy without the puppets, but everyone seemed to think was supposed to be serious for some reason), but has anyone else noticed that the Xiē Yīng Luò/Seven Blasphemous Deaths combo is exactly the same as the Lou Zhenhua/Qisha Tianling combo in Chaos Dragon? The only real difference is that Lou Zenhua can pretend to have some control (she keeps the sword in a coffin between fights to prevent it from bewitching people), but inside she's just as much of a slave to her sword's bloodlust as Xiē Yīng Luò is.

Both characters were created by Gen Urobuchi, so this is a particularly blatant instance of borrowing from oneself. I guess he figured that so few people saw Chaos Dragon he was probably in the clear to lift his favorite character (Lou Zhenhua was pretty great).
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seika



Joined: 29 Sep 2004
Posts: 3
PostPosted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 11:55 pm Reply with quote
Neko-sensei wrote:
I'm probably the only human being who voluntarily finished Chaos Dragon (which was Thunderbolt Fantasy without the puppets, but everyone seemed to think was supposed to be serious for some reason), but has anyone else noticed that the Xiē Yīng Luò/Seven Blasphemous Deaths combo is exactly the same as the Lou Zhenhua/Qisha Tianling combo in Chaos Dragon? The only real difference is that Lou Zenhua can pretend to have some control (she keeps the sword in a coffin between fights to prevent it from bewitching people), but inside she's just as much of a slave to her sword's bloodlust as Xiē Yīng Luò is.

Both characters were created by Gen Urobuchi, so this is a particularly blatant instance of borrowing from oneself. I guess he figured that so few people saw Chaos Dragon he was probably in the clear to lift his favorite character (Lou Zhenhua was pretty great).


The sword is Qisha Tianling! The name is exactly the same in kanji (and design too, except Pili made it more ornate). Qisha Tianling is the Chinese pronunciation. The Crunchyroll translation attempted to translate it into English and the result is Seven Blasphemous Death. Actually, the thing goes a bit deeper than this.

Chaos Dragon is actually derived from Red Dragon, a Japanese role playing game. Guess who was one of the original creator and player? Yah Urobuchi. Urobuchi and a bunch of other known authors played the Trpg, and their campaign sessions were eventually released as books. The character Urobuchi created and role played was....yes you guessed it again, a male monk named Lou Zhenjie who weilds a bewitching, female sword named Qisha Tianling. He pretty much did everything in his power to satiate her thirst for blood, and was enamoured of her. For Chaos Dragon, Lou's name was slightly changed, and turned into a female, and the sword into male. But due to this connection, fans have been widely expecting Di Kong to end up with the sword since the swords name was introduced. It would bring everything full circle. Then again, Urobuchi could be playing with this exact expectation. We'll just have to wait and see. But there's no denying Urobuchi really loves this character since he used him/her three times in three different series.
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Neko-sensei



Joined: 19 Jan 2007
Posts: 283
PostPosted: Wed Nov 14, 2018 7:48 am Reply with quote
seika wrote:
...a truly enlightening post.


My eternal gratitude! I can but bow to thee, O master of the Urobuchi Lore Esoteric.

But seriously, thank you for the info!
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Netero



Joined: 10 Jun 2018
Posts: 159
PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2018 3:09 pm Reply with quote
Should you just kill an obvious villain the minute that you see them? Well, if you should kill the Buddha the minute you see him, what chance does a villain have?
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Tue Dec 04, 2018 9:24 pm Reply with quote
I've seen the "release the beast hair" trope many times before (most notably in the Kenshin/Saito duel), but leave it to puppets to turn that up to 12! Glorious transformation!

And I couldn't stop laughing the moment Lin showed up wearing the glasses. He must've known about them for some time to get the refraction close enough so it would go unnoticed (and the frames aren't exactly off-the-shelf either). I'm pretty sure I'd notice if someone swapped out mine, since I know where all the scratches are and exactly how the frames are bent to suit me. Wink

Shang didn't say what his errand was, did he? I'm expecting that to be the fly in everyone's ointment, except maybe Lin's.
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Merida



Joined: 21 Feb 2012
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 1:17 am Reply with quote
Though i was a bit disappointed that he went 100% Evil all of a sudden, Diddy Kong's transformation was glorious! Also his flirting with the sword is pretty funny. So next week he's going to to fight Lang and Shang won't be around which makes me fear the worst for our gorgeous redhead and his sassy lute...
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Merida



Joined: 21 Feb 2012
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Wed Dec 12, 2018 2:40 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
But this episode's real highlight was the long-awaited payoff to Lin's scheme against the Hunting Fox. I've got to admit that I didn't see this outcome coming. The Vape Wizard once again fails in his quest of comeuppance because the figure he's targeting turns out to be quite different than he initially anticipated.


Yeah, it was so awesome because everybody, including himself, believed Lin had "won" and then Xiao just goes "Oh well, who cares? Thanks for helping me to completely embrace my scumminess~!"

Fortunately for Lang, that put Lin in a shitty enough mood to actually help him (accidentally). The fight bewteen Lang and Lou was the best-looking of the season so far, btw!

Gosh, i can't believe this is almost over again, really hope we'll be getting more puppet goodness in the future!
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