Jae Johnson

The Story is from Gen Urobuchi of Madoka Magica and Psycho Pass. The Soundtrack is from Hiroyuki Sawano of Attack on Titan, Blue Exorcist, Seven Deadly Sins, and Guilty Crown. Voice actor cast is also top of the industry. Needless to say, the story and soundtrack are absolutely amazing. The use of Chinese names takes some getting used to and the ironic meaning of their names is a bit lost in that translation choice. The show is done by traditional taiwanese puppets from Pili, so facial expressions and mouth movements are a bit lacking. But the action scenes would put any live action and even many anime to shame. As with any Urobuchi script, the story seems ordinary but quickly builds without disappointment. If this was done as just an anime it would have been one of the top releases. The unfamiliar format is simply new, but after a while it is of course not bad. Think back to your first anime. When you didn't know what a sweat drop meant, and the large hair, heads, and eyes, paired with barely there noses and barely moving mouths that somehow made sounds even when just sitting were distracting. Do you notice them now? Of course not. So give the new format at least a few episodes to get yourself used to. More of these types of shows are needed. Shows that use stories for a modern audience created by humanity's rapidly disappearing crafts and performance arts. I was very happy to see Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, and I was even happier to see this. Thunderbolt Fantasy is not just another show. It's the triumphant and skillful culmination of hundreds of years of perfecting their craft of puppetry.