Hey Veeky Forums, you guys sometimes talk about wuxia, what did you think about Thunderbolt Fantasy? I've made threads on /tv/ but they are mostly ignored. Or lets just have a wuxia thread, this show left in the mood for it.
For those who don't know, it's a literal Taiwanese puppet show that's currently airing and being subbed. Check the webm, if it doesn't get you watching nothing will.
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Alright.
You have my attention.
He, I'very seen someone mention this in the Wuxia thread I made a few weeks back, when we had Wulin Sage posting.
This looks kinda exciting, but also hilarious. Martial arts antics with Thunderbirds style marionettes, who even thinks of that?
Do they play it straight/serious, or is there a degree of self-awareness?
Wait. What the fuck.
I'm pretty sure it's the most amazing thing ever that not enough people are talking about, but it's not particularly Veeky Forums related
I don't even know what the fuck I was expecting when I went in, but the self-decapitating bird fly-away move pretty much sold me on that.
Yeah, that's pretty much the hero's reaction too.
>"Wait...what...what the hell was that just now?"
>Martial arts antics with Thunderbirds style marionettes, who even thinks of that?
Actually, apparently marionette shows are still relatively well-known and popular in Taiwan and China compared to everywhere else.
Likely this stems from their relative lack of an animation industry compared to places in Japan and America and China's fairly strict laws on what you can important...you know, so the PROC government can't even possibly look bad.
youtu.be
We can make it Veeky Forums related.
Like: would Legends of the Wulin (Wuxia) be more appropriate, or Weapons of the Gods (Xianxia)? The webm and the opening suggest some supernatural elements are involved, while traditional Wuxia is somewhat more "grounded"
>Do they play it straight/serious, or is there a degree of self-awareness?
It's almost a straight high-power wuxia story (laser chi absolutely everywhere) except it doesn't actually take place in China as far as I can tell, though the main male lead's name suggests he's actually from the Ryukyu Kingdom, as do his clothes and choice of weapon.
It could be both, honestly.
There's magical shit, but the most magical aspect of the series so far is the main villain (who also could be replicated with insanely powerful corrupt or weird kungfu) and (I suspect) the white-haired dude.
It's got a spectacular fucking soundtrack by the way, each of the scenes has some seriously blood-pumping battle music.
How does that even
Clearly you're not trying hard enough if you can't pull off the 180 degree self-decapitation sword throw move.
Must be a pretty hard art to master
Practice is difficult, I imagine.
Once of those things you have to get right the first try, I'm guessing.
I gotta admit, I enjoyed the bizarre situation setups that are fairly akin to classic wuxia even though it's all dubbed in Japanese with English subs.
>Shāng Bùhuàn: "Well...you see....there's a stone Buddah over down that road getting drenched by the rain, and because of that I have to stop all of you guys from doing anything to the little lady there."
>Evil Thugs: "....what the hell are you TALKING about?"
I feel like you could do it with Tome of Battle and some creative use of the highest level diamond mind maneuver, but aiming the head would be tricky
Apparently Buddha's interest fees on umbrellas is outrageous
>I've made threads on /tv/ but they are mostly ignored.
Go to the /a/ threads when the new episode comes out.
There's at least one Taiawanese dude there, too, who is familiar with similar puppet shows.
Seven dead guys? Yeah, it's a bit steep.
Watching the second ep now.
Upon further observation of the story, the evil villain leader guy isn't an Immortal or anything, just a super-powerful lunatic who's obsessed with Heavenly Weapons.
That's actually a fairly common character archetype in classic wuxia.
I was wondering about the language. Taiwanese people speak Hokkien or a variant of Mandarin, no? Why did they dub it in Japanese, then?
Speaking of the villain guy, his name Miè Tiānhái if I'm reading this right is "Corpse/Skeleton-Scorning Heaven/That Defies Heaven".
The language basically couldn't be a more explicit "villain" name if it was in English and his name was "Satan Jones".
Well it IS a dub and they don't need to worry about lipsynch. I'm guessing Crunchyroll just gets the Japanese dubs first since it has stronger links to Japanese stuff then Taiwanese stuff.
There's a new female character that will be introduced next episode (i.e. best girl), she uses a whip, is voiced by Sayaka Ohara in the Japanese dub, and her name apparently means "final punishment."
As subtle as a sledgehammer to the face.
Then again, wuxia isn't famous for its subtlety, is it?
Holy Fuck the white haired chick's actually a guy.
Names tend to have strong and often entirely deliberate meanings in Mandarin in general (I tried as hard as I could to replicate this for WHQ, and at least succeeded with Sky's name), with the only names that don't being ones from prestigious families where the name itself holds meaning for the culture.
Shāng Bùhuàn's name means (and I love the shit out of this) "Doesn't Care If He Dies Young", or "Unconcerned With Youthful Death". "Guǐ Niǎo" means "Phantom Bird" and is kind of an obvious pseudonym since Miè Tiānhái called him something like "Thief of the Wind Sand" or something like it last episode, which sounds suspiciously like an important Wulin title.
Also?
>Uses whip
>Wears red
>Sayaka Ohara
Damn, kind of a checklist there, isn't it?
Gonna need to get used to that.
Okay, Juǎn Cányún is freaking hilarious.
...
He's right about Shòu Yúnxiāo ("Sky Hunter", there's a straightforward name), stealing the spotlight.
Very Archer-like, even if Bùhuàn is the guy who's actually VOICED by Archer.
Are all the characters left-handed, or has the footage been mirrored for some reason?
Probably mirrored, but than again the archer dude aims with hid blind eye, so anything's possible.
The show is written by Urobuchi and that's its main selling point, probably the reason why CR picked it up. I heard he wrote the script, they translated it and filmed in Taiwan, then it was dubbed back to Japanese.
>Speaking of the villain guy, his name Miè Tiānhái if I'm reading this right is "Corpse/Skeleton-Scorning Heaven/That Defies Heaven".
In the second episode, pipe guy calls him "The Bones of Creation".
I've been looking a bit more in the production of this show. Rather than marionettes, these are glove puppets. Rather than a lack of a strong animation industry, this specific style of puppetry is a traditional art performance in Southern Chinese regions, and Taiwan.