Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Thunderbolt Fantasy
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FilthyCasual
Posts: 2184 |
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I never thought I'd love puppet Wuxia, but I love puppet Wuxia.
I'm looking forward to seeing Lancer actually fight! |
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Shadowrun20XX
 Posts: 1935 Location: Vegas |
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This is many styles mixed together, absolutly none of it new. I had 3 sets of the puppets they are using in the early 80s, An Italian clown and two boxers. Same weird long arms and everything. The narration jumps from mandarin to nihongo , the chinese warlord period clothes and outrageous move names are more welcome at this point compared to what we have been seeing. The skill of the puppetryand the gore is what is keeping me coming back. This got a manga recently, it might get an anime as well.
Thunderbolts are go! |
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vonPeterhof
Posts: 729 |
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Knoepfchen
 Posts: 698 |
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Beyond on board and hyped for this. Thanks ANN (and Crunchyroll), for covering this show even if it's not anime. Gabriella, looking forward to the journey.
I adore wuxia and bunraku, so I'm already biased in the most positive way, but dear puppet master is the editing glorious in this show. It has to be, of course, as it has to substitute for the "lack" of movement the puppets are, by nature, defined by. Using air quotes here, as their expressiveness is quite stunning. Hail the camp, drama and tongue-in-cheekiness. I'm so glad Urobuchi is finally writing a whole show again and not just having his name attached to some half-assed side project. As this is a passion project of his, I have zero doubts this is going to continue on its already awesome path. The only downer is the Chinese romanization of names in the subtitles, contrasting painfully with the Japanese audio, making it unnecessarily difficult to memorize character names and fantasy vocab for no apparent reason. Other than that, I find myself smiling like a little girl at Christmas. Keep it coming. |
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chex mix
 Posts: 415 |
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This. YMMV, but I don't care what the production- or culturally- relevant reason for this is if it makes the show harder to watch and enjoy without putting unnecessary work in. I don't want to have to write down names on a chart for a show like this. I have a hard enough time remembering names in my day-to-day life; ffs, television is meant to be enjoyed, not stupidly frustrating for the sake of being frustrating. I hated this in Kingdom as well. I generally hate fansubs because of people's inability to make any kind of effort towards correct spelling or sentence structure, but I'd almost rather deal with that nonsense than this nonsense. Maybe. Anyways, I'm going to try to observe the one-rant limit rule on this and leave it at that. Maybe someday whoever the ultimate arbiter in charge of poor decision-making in subtitles will change their mind and we'll stop getting Chinese names that make no sense in shows, but until then, stuff like this and Kingdom are too good to rage quit over pissiness about the subtitles, sooooo... /rant. 
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5502 Location: Mexico |
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^I'm pretty sure it's not an issue with subtitles, but an issue with how Chinese is conventionally romanized. I don't know much about the language, but I do know it has very different phonetics from Japanese or English, plus the fact that Chinese names are pronounced differently in Japanese. Kind of like how Smith is said Sumiizu, but the contrast is a lot harsher when it's a Chinese name, as far as I know. I have a Chinese friend whose name is romanized as Fei Fei, but our Japanese classmates and teachers called her Hi Hi
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sunflower
 Posts: 1080 |
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At one point in the "making of" show they're adjusting the costume of the wizard while he moves and I think, "Cute, he has a sense of humour about-- IT'S A PUPPET! IT'S NOT ALIVE!"
I freaking hate Western puppets of any kind (except Muppets because only Bond-level villains hate Muppets) but these are amazing. Asian puppetry, like this and shadow puppets, is incredibly beautiful. |
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vonPeterhof
Posts: 729 |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8459 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Shāng Bù Huàn is a great main character because he's sort of just goaded into being a hero.
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OberonBob
Posts: 4 |
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I also want to thank ANN for covering Thunderbolt Fantasy, I never would have taken a look at the show if it wasn't in the preview guide.
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NeoStrayCat
 Posts: 610 |
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Same here, the puppet action is where its at for me! \^^/ |
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explosionforgov
 Posts: 80 Location: United States of America |
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"What counts as anime/manga" is always a thorny question. I've seen light novels, American adaptations of Japanese properties, and manhwa all lumped in with manga, live-action adaptations of anime, manga, and/or video games considered anime, etc. At this point, it's all semantics. It's anime, in my book.
I haven't watched the show yet, but anything that crosses Yoshitaka Amano, The Muppets, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure certainly gets my attention. |
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DrunkAyanami
 Get off my lawnPosts: 88 Location: The great state of Vermont |
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MyAnimeList refuses to list it as it's not technically animation (freakin pedants...), and reddit is apparently completely denying its existence (I cannot find a single thread on it in /r/anime). As I do not usually frequent crunchyroll, it is absolutely because of ANN that I discovered this series. I am super grateful that I did find it though: it's a jolt of originality (despite the very rote plot so far) in the midst of what I consider to be a somewhat lackluster season. Last edited by DrunkAyanami on Sat Jul 23, 2016 12:21 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Knoepfchen
Posts: 698 |
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Loving the review style. Fits the series perfectly.
And yes, Urobuchi is great at this so far. I always thought that, while he excels at endings, exposition was his weakest point. But there's nothing to criticize here so far. Every minute oozes passion, and it's simply infectious. The cliches all feel so honest that I can embrace them rather than be put off by them. I wouldn't want this to turn into anything resembling a deconstruction of the genre, and I don't think it will at this point. I'm still unable to memorize the romanized Chinese names, and because I don't feel like using a cheat sheet while watching this glorious swashbuckler JRPG, I decided to focus on the audio and, if in doubt, simply refer to them by their class. Luckily, these are well-defined. What I find interesting about the puppets is how Shāng Bù Huàn (whose name I will probably have to C&P every time)'s movements are instantly recognizable and even more expressive than those of the other puppets. By expressiveness alone, it's clear he's the main character. I have no knowledge about how Pili works, but if this was Bunraku, he'd be controlled by the omozukai. I'm glad even Hiroyuki Sawano's music doesn't bother me here, as it's a perfect fit - who would want a subtle score for epic puppet wuxia fights? Also, Kenichi Suzumura. No, I have no complaints whatsoever beyond the subtitles not matching the audio, no matter how culturally and linguistically correct this choice might have been. |
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Brand
 Posts: 1028 |
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I feel like MAL has had their guidelines for years now, people should know. I knew it wouldn't get in the DB I in fact waited for people to start posting threads suggesting reasons that don't match up in the guidelines at all for it to be in. So, not really shocked there. I don't frequent r/anime as much so I was kind of surprised when they said no. There was a thread for it early on but I guess it has been removed. If you are interested someone did make a r/ThunderboltFantasy. Yeah, I'm enjoying the show and tropes and clichés they are very well excited but I also feel I am waiting for that "WHAT A TWIST" moment also. It is interesting to see puppets do some of the silly and goofy anime stuff. Somehow, I feel they work better for the action. |
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