Thunderbolt Fantasy

The 36 Swords - Part 2/3

> 12.妖姬・七殺天凌
Demonic Princess・Seven Killings in the Heavens
This is also the name of the sword from Chaos Dragon.
> 13. 須彌天幻・劫荒劍
Illusory Skies of Meru・Plundering the Abandoned Sword
須彌 refers to Mt Meru. According to wikipedia, it is a sacred mountain with five peaks in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the centre of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes.
>14.青燈孤照
Green or Young Light Shining in Solitude
This is also the name of a sword from another pili puppet show.
>15.鳳刀蝶殺
Phoenix Blade Butterfly Slaying
This is also the name of a sword from another pili puppet show.
>16.炎殺・雷岳
Killing Blaze ・Thunder Mountain
>17.斬・日月
Slay・Sun Moon
>18.炎邪黯刃
Blazing Evil Dusk Blade
>19.霹雷鳴劍
Sword of Thunderbolt's (here's your obligatory studio namedrop) Roar
>20.靂降風雲
Descend of Crashing Thunder, invoking the Unforseen
風雲 literally means Wind and Clouds, but the implication is supposed to be unpredictable changes or tidings.
>21.狂鳳玄牙
Enigmatic Fangs of the Wild/Arrogant Phoenix
>22.刀影破
Broken/Breaking of the Blade's Shadow
> 23.舞羽孤蝶
Dancing Feathers Lone Butterfly
>24.東風瀾月
Eastern Wind Rippling Moon
>25.離寒破辰
Leaving the cold, breaking dawn
>26.劍皇破佛
Sovereign/Royal Sword Denouncing the Buddha

The 36 Swords - Part 3/3

>27.畫影空騰
Drawing Shadows (and) Taking Flight into the Void/ Nothingness
>28.鎮嶽尚方
Suppressing (the mountain) Peak, Sword of State
尚方is a reference to尚方寶劍, the sword that symbolizes the rule/power of the monarch.
>29.龍淵
Dragon in the Deep/Abyss
>30.荒夢赤霄
Forgotten Dream, Scarlet Mist
>31.六道殊月
Six Paths of the Peculiar Moon
The six paths is yet more references to Buddhism. Wiki Samsara for more details.
>32.流光劍
Chronos Sword; literally means 'flow of time sword', so I'll put it as Chronos Sword to make it more chu2
>33.古龍青雀
Ancient Dragon, Green Sparrow
>34.日月神息
Unending Pulses of the Gods
>35.九天玄冥
Nine Days of Xuan Ming
Xuan Ming historically refers to a type of northern god/deity of winter, implying the lack of sun
>36.六問虛空 Prashna Upanishad Voided
六問 literally means 6 Questions but is a reference to the Prashna Upanishad
Here's the gist:
>How did life begin
>What is a living being?
>What is the nature of man, and how is it so?
>What establishes man?
>What is meditation, and why meditate?
>What is immortal in man?
虚空 Empty Air / Void / Meaninglessness, Figuratively, an existential crisis

>13. 須彌天幻・劫荒劍
To add to that, in buddhism there's a phrase/concept of "納須彌於芥子", or "containing mountain Meru in a speck of dust". Considering the theme of the sword is space-time manipulation, it's oddly fitting.

Part 4/3 - Easter Egg Bonus
So the top characters put together reads 霹靂狂刀舞東離劍

霹靂狂刀 = the name of other pili shows
舞 = dance or wielding/ executing
東離劍 = this show

It can also be read as 霹靂狂刀舞東離 (omitting the sword 劍 at the end), which means the Wild Thunderbolt Sabre Dances/ rampages through Dongli/ Touri. Or the meta meaning of "Pili's other shows" waltzing around Thunderbolt Fantasy's setting.

Best thing about TBF is that it keeps one upping itself with every episode, and even managed to end perfectly.

So Shou turns out to be the ultimate sword collector. But in episode 1 why was he in such hurry to ditch TanHi and run away? Or was that just an act?

The last episode felt really anti-climatic. The main bad guy literally just kills himself, the demon-god gets sucked into a fucking space vacuum, and everyone just fucks off at the end? What even happened to Kei Gai?

Glad there's a sequel though.

what are you talking about? It's anticlimatic. It's a fucking letdown after ep 12 which was hype as fuck.

I was expecting some mindfuckery-to-end-all-mindfuckeries out of the duck. Never happened. Instead he seriously just won by brute strength? WTF?

Also, the final boss is an oversized hydralisk. That didn't even do anything cool. And the protags revealed to have uber powerlevels all along which means they were never in any serious danger. So not only was this anticlimatic, it retroactively made all the previous fights anticlimatic too. Worst final episode ever.

For his opponent that was the ultimate mindfuck.
Dude who doesn't seem to even give a fuck about sword skills is way good with them.
But then duck got rused also, which was the real best part.

Thunderbolt fantasy has lots of twists, but instead of the "you are in coma and I'm the ghost of your father" -type they are more of "Character is more than meets the eye" -type, where almost everyone had hidden side, or few in them.

It's only anti-climatic if you haven't been paying attention to the characters' interactions, the themes in the stories etc. TF, like many wuxia novels (particularly Gu Long's aka the author the Butcher likes), was never really about the fights, rather it's more about the philosophy behind the fights. It's the best final episode if you actually looked beyond the flashy effects.

But the flashy effects were also really good.

That was more

>not muh fucking business

until it turns out TenGai's followers have him marked for death.

Ken is the real winner of the year.

Yeah, they are, not saying they aren't. What I was more trying to get at was that TF isn't really a standard shounen action type of show. The fights itself aren't all that there are and the characters aren't just the standard heroes, villains archetypes you see in battle manga. While the fights are good, they are, ultimately secondary to exploring the characters' philosophies.

>Instead he seriously just won by brute strength? WTF?

But he didn't win. He loses. Ten Gai kills himself and destroys the holy sword and deprives the troll of the satisfaction he desired for the entire season.

>if you go back and watch everything five times and overanalyze the shit out of everything it actually turns out to be pretty good

I call this the 'Prometheus was actually a good movie' argument. And it's fucking bullshit.

If I can't honestly say 'that was fucking awesome' ten minutes after the first time I watched it, then it is shit. It can go into the philosophical BS and rewatchability etc, but that's just the icing on the cake. It has zero value if the cake itself is made of shit.

>your opponent dies humiliated.
>you are put into a temporary bad mood. for literally one scene. Lasting ten seconds.

I'd like to lose like this every day. Twice on sundays.

>And the protags revealed to have uber powerlevels all along which means they were never in any serious danger.

Sho having powerlevels was obvious from the start. The question wasn't if he'd survive, but when he would start getting serious instead of holding back.

your argument would have actual weight if the demon god actually ends up destroying half the world or something, so that the duck has plenty of time to reflect on how much he fucked up. Instead, it turned out to be the biggest jobber in jobbing history.

A victory by luck is still a victory. You can tell because you're alive and in one piece and can crack jokes afterwards.

>if you go back and watch everything five times and overanalyze the shit out of everything it actually turns out to be pretty good
Thanks for twisting my words. I said none of that shit.

You don't have to go back and watch it if you paid attention in the first round. And there's no over-analysis. Even in the very early episodes, anons were already speculating left and right about sho fukan, like people pointing out how he crossed the dessert which was said to be impossible to cross. Or his commenting on having come across super special weapons. Because the characters flat out say it, you just didn't pick up on it and dismissed them as nothing.

What are you talking about? The ideals of the villain are shown to be foolish in the end, Duck almost gets his victory and he kills himself to deny him that. Duck admits he may have gone too far in a few places, Shou who was foreshadowed to be a holy sword collector promptly solves the problem despite being a man who never wants to pick up a sword.

You don't need to rewatch it to notice the themes here of both Shou and Duck living beyond the sword, and all the other characters being corrupted by it.

The world is in danger and Tanhi was busy getting creampied by the frozen wonder.
I expected a little more from a guardian.

how does having previous hints of his power levels contribute to whether the final was a letdown? If anything, being spoilered on this makes it even MORE boring.

Stick to AZ faggot. TBF is too deep for you that even after all those times the characters EXPLAIN OUT LOUD their thoughts, you still have the balls to claim "go back and watch everything five times and overanalyze the shit out of everything". Sorry, you are literally just too dumb for this shit. Most people got it upon the first viewing during the weekly threads. It's your own fault for failing to get such a basic show.

Go watch DBZ instead where the dialogue don't matter and it's just beam spam so it won't confuse you.

It's only a letdown if you didn't pay attention and thought he was some rube that could be easily killed by mooks. But from the start it was always being that he was a cut above his opponents.

again, how does this actually contribute to whether the final episode being a fucking letdown?

I can understand maybe if the 'hidden content' actually turns the story on its head or something, but this is just saturday morning cartoon level aesops. Tacking it on seriously doesn't make it less of a disappointment.

Just relax and let the man have his opinion.

Well, you are carrying 36 of the world's most dangerous swords, you passed by and you heard about this insane sword collector.

The best course is GTFO, ASAP. If they didn;t mark him for death, he would not have been involved.

It doesn't since his entire purpose for the season was to troll him and to break his spirit. Instead TenGai doesn't break and trolls the Duck back.

How is it disappointing, who cares about Bones of Creations memery or some stupid Mantis Demon lord? The two main characters certainly didn't and wanted to move on in their lives. The whole point of the quest for Duck, as he yells to your daft head many times is to humiliate Bones of Creation. The point Shou is trying to follow is to collect the sword so it will no longer be a danger to people. Ultimately the rest of the party is played into their interests.

Their practical goals and capabilities are shown to trump the combat, and glory obsessed cast.

If you didn't find that satisfying you are just being contrarian or have some mental deficiency cause you have yet to make a convincing argument that it was poorly concluded.

He 'trolls back' by breaking his prized sword. and then killing himself. and then the world doesn't even end because the demon god turns out to be a jobber. The only way he could be MORE humiliated is if he was somehow around to see the demon god job it after he died.

The duck is slightly miffed of having lost a couple of weeks' work, maybe. And he's found his next project (follow the dude with the many swords).

which of these two came out ahead?

Because again, this puppet show's main point isn't the fights. It's the characters' interactions. I really don't want to bring Nisio into this since it'll bring in entirely different type of bitching but it's actually appropriate this time. Nisio's works are about the characters' interactions. That there are occasional fights are just the icing. People like to mock Nisio for that when it's because they got it the other way around. Same with this puppet show; it's like how some people being frustrated over that one preview from katanagatari. Because they missed the point and went into the show thinking it's just another action show like they've watched. It's only a let down because you think that like a standard action show, you're supposed to get a finale involving some grand boss fight. When you aren't.

In fact, this is another reason why I bring up Nisio. See, his writing style is very similar to the aforementioned Gu Long. Where other wuxia authors like Jin Yong will spend chapters elaborating on fights, the technique, martial arts etc, Gu Long instead prefer indulging in character interactions. Because that's the main point. That's what people dig about his works.

He's just an idiot who cares about the physical outcome instead of reading further into things. I'd not be surprised if he was American.

Let me get back to the original point, which is that episode 13 is a fucking letdown.

- there were no particularly clever plot twists. even though ep 12 made it look like there would be. instead you get saturday morning cartoon aesops.
- the final boss fights were anticlimatic curb-stomps.
- curb stomps in the final fucking episode are you fucking serious.

all of my disappoint.

>"WAAAAAH I WANTED MY EPIC AS FUCK FINAL FIGHT THAT INVOLVES ALL THE CHARACTERS AND THEN IT ENDS WITH THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP AS THEY DEAL THE FINAL BLOW ALTOGETHER"
You're on Cred Forums and you get flustered by simple trolling? Get the fuck out.

Why does it have to have a twist? Are you M. Night Shamalan? The point of the story wasn't about a battle against a demon god, it was like a tertiary event that happened during the character's conflict.

Basically you missed the point

If puppet shows become semi mainstream, it would be great.

I've always preferred live action and tokusatsu over 3D or 2D works. One thing that live action lacked is the beauty of ideal fantasy characters as getting a normal real person in a fantasy costume just doesn't work.

Puppetry is able to realise fantasy faces with physical presence and action.

The behind the scens actually said it was revolutionary to sculpt puppet faces in a pop culture Japanese manga style(bishounen, moe etc) as it deviated from the traditional Taiwanese opera puppet look.

Tan Hi's face was the first to have large eyes.

That guy is retarded. They were not meant to fight the demon god, they spent like two episodes discussing that they can't be killed, only banished. Sho had the tools for that and did it.

...

Seriously, if you are too dumb for show like Thunderbolt Fantasy, maybe you should try those picture books for childen.

Because the finalle wasn't let down.
It had cool sworfight, with biggest effects so far. It had multiple twists and revelations. It wrapped up the story. Naive boy got the naive girl and lived happily ever after.

The finale had just everything it needed to have.

...

Anyone knows what's redhead instrument called?

I'm already hype at how he intends to use that as a weapon.

It's called a Pipa
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipa

Pipe?

Are you retarded? The final two fights were hype af. You don't need to have the characters go blow for blow for days on end and have similar powerlevels or whatever the fuck to have a cool fight like you seem to think.
>t. everyone loved OPM and all fights end in 1 move.

>Pipe
Pii-Pah. That's how to pronounce it.

THE LAND IS CLOAKED IN DEEPEST BLUE

need a compilation of the poems

But wasn't that how he got those swords to begin with? He must've been beating up idiots like TenGai and taking their swords.

The holy site needs to be guarded and that will depend on the survival of the clan. She was thinking of the future.

SHADOW OF EAGLES ACROSS THE MOON

ENDURE THE PAIN, ITS EASY NOWWW

So, he's actually in the next season?

Would he be called T.M Revolution in the sequel? Please let it be true.

IN WORDS, CAN I SAY ITTT

I'm expecting his name to be a pun at least.
I'm excited to see the new characters' designs, hopefully they reveal that shit soon.

He was probably wary this was all a trap to get his swords, but when Tanhi was in actual danger, he went into hero mode. Shou is just your classic male tsundere.

He's bound to have 革命 or something along the line in the name. I'm guessing on his epithet having a reference to Heart of Sword.

Robot chicken is better t b h

the show is great, the only thing that i 'am bit disappointed is that there is not enough fanservice and female characters fight scenes
Taiwanese puppeteer has prove that they can do vary good female fight even with lower budget.
A comapny like pili and show likeThunderbolt Fantasy with high budget could have even do better

youtube.com/watch?v=391y4qDcr0k

Here's the source of those comics from last thread:
pixiv.net/member.php?id=3608556
He was drawing new ones week by week for each episode. They were nice to look at, even if I couldn't read them.

Do they plan to release more of the characters? I am tempted to get the duck but I don't want him to be alone

They've shown a prototype of 10guy. I'm 100% sure we'll get Shoufukan too.

I hope Ken in the second season changes from sword to spear when the situation needs it.

I highly doubt that they'll show Ken or Tanhi in S2. Their purpose is over.

I would like to think that if shit did hit the fan and they need help in the sequel they will come back and help. Ken would do more than Tan hi because she has their kid to raise. Either way I'm expecting them to come back even if it is for like a scene or two.

Episode 13 was a let-down because it had an epic fight in it.

I was surprised they announced a sequel. I love this shit but didn't know japanland did too.

I hope she will be back for S2.

Oh, fathers don't get to take paternity leave in the jianghu?

Maybe they will reuse her parts for a different character, same as everyone else who died.

I'm not sure any parts of her are left.

So this show was all about the reveals, but how is season 2 gonna keep the tension when we already know both Shou and Lin are broken as fuck?

By adding more broken as fuck characters.

This is just a guess, but Shoufukan is the type that has no qualms about killing if his opponent can't be convinced, and seeing how he said in episode 13 that there is a group after him, then it only means he's too powerless to stop them and can only avoid them.

I'd say delusion, but knowing that these dolls cost a lot and they tend to reuse them since it's better than let them gather dust in a closet. I have hopes as well.

This is a Wuxia series my friend.
There are people way more broken out there.

I think it's less that he can't kill them, but rather he's unwilling. Remember, he's deliberately using a very exhausting style to remind himself of the weight of taking a life. Most likely, he'd be involved in endless slaughter, were he not fleeing his pursuers

>Shofuku was part of a guild that collected imba swords to take over the world
>he stole their whole stash and fled through the death zone
Knowing Gen, we still don't have any idea about the MC. Big reveals incoming.

It's cheaper to make than anime so pulling numbers that usually are considered failure level would still be a success in this case.

How would Shou with a stick fare against Duck or Bones?

Bones: one-shot
Duck: a quick battle in FATAL

>If puppet shows become semi mainstream, it would be great.
It'd be cool if some of the older Pili shows got localized because of TBF. Japan does the dubs, Amercia does the subs - though an English dub could be good if they play it straight and don't pull another Wulin Warriors.

You're trying too hard, man.

Which one from those was the wormhole sword?

It's not that different from b10guy's henchmen wanting him dead, instead of running away, he chose to go after their boss.
I bet where he came from, the wuxia puppets are all too OP, he wouldn't stand a chance against a whole syndicate all by himself.

Did anyone else like how the wormhole sword, compared to the rest we've seen, looked like a clunky crystal?

Bones would literally die from laughter. Shou shrugs and thinks "At least he didn't explode."

The sword looked regular; Shou just sealed the sword in some kind of crystal. I assume there's no known way to stop the sword from keeping the rift open.

Oh, I didn't even realize.

Isn't it a little gay for 2 guys to travel together in puppet land?

Not when one doesn't want the other following him.

Thing is, this side of the desert Shang and his swords are unknown, while he's a known quanity on the other. I'd say, rather than have a lot of gangs and their mooks coming after him, it's individual people on Bones' level and up that are after him. This side of the desert, he only needs to take out Bones to be rid of his minions constantly pestering him, which won't work if all his pursuers are unafilliated/rivals.

...

What if you set the stick on fire?

Then you can burn people with it.

People like you are the reason we can't have well written anime. I haven't even seen any other Wuxia works and this story made perfect sense to me on the first go.

Shou's side sounds like it's in complete chaos.

You don't even need to bring Nisio into this. It's been Urobuchi's style for a while. You could remove 90% of the fighting in Madoka and have the same exact story.

>Shou just browses through the scroll like a tablet.
Reminded me of trying to find a weapon in an RPG.

Another thing to note is that with Madoka and Thunderbolt fantasy he didn't write the fight scenes and left it to directors.

Interesting. Thanks.

Seconding this.

Inu Curry disbanded some time ago, user.

So, how badly will Shou be bullied next season?

not a true compoilation, but I think I got all of them.
They 're all from the same youtube channel, but I think some of them are from different dubs. (Impaler's video has Ryou Mei/Lie Mie talk Mandarin, for example, and I can't remember but it sounds like Tan Hi/Dan Fei's poem narrator has a different voice, possibly mandarin instead of Hokkien)
youtube.com/watch?v=VqgPEY1z_bk
youtube.com/watch?v=7PaBnwnq54E
youtube.com/watch?v=Qb7cJNoJCX0
youtube.com/watch?v=fwapZOpbCLw
youtube.com/watch?v=Fxpz4jqXESs
youtube.com/watch?v=KaEDbYh-0T4
youtube.com/watch?v=ScnSGbV8bzc

Also, dat bookending with Shang's poem.

Oops, forgot to link Tan Hi/Dan Fei's poem.
youtube.com/watch?v=wifY9iTTXQE

In pleasure

>Also, dat bookending with Shang's poem.

A more perfect way to end the show doesn't exist. They nailed it.

Who knew a demon god would have such a cute voice.

But Robot Chicken is stop motion, not live action.

I want full uncensored puppet sex.

Buy the puppets and do it yourself.

Watch Team America.

I figure it'll be a while before Season 2 is ready. Anyone got other wuxia works they'd recommend?

fansub.d-addicts.com/Jiang_Hu

Here is a wuxia fansub group.

To be honest, I'm not well versed in Wuxia, and TBF could be considered my first. I might pick up some of Gu Long's books though. Anyone know where I can get them EN Translated?

Post more fan art pls

...

Just go on Pixiv

...

>"Come here Ken, and perform that highly penetrating stab I taught you before!"

So, does Vapeduck just want a cool friend? Is that why he's really following Shou?

>watchable subs doesn't sub the poems
Fuck
Anyone have a script of what the poems say?

Of course, there are villains everywhere, he doesn't have to follow shoufukan to meet them.

Shoufukan also secretly wants a friend, but he's even a bigger tsundere.

Even though it's not Gainax, Thunderbolt Fantasy needs a gaijin 4koma episode edit.

Thanks friend.

is there a reason the taiwanese never incorporated making the mouth open and close in time with the speech in their puppet shows?

Probably because it looks stupid and is a huge hassle.

Too much work.

here's how I would have done episode 13:

Bones and duck fight. Duck curbstomps. Bones breaks the sword and stabs himself. Duck does his 'oh noes' speech and turns to leave. He gets stabbed in the back - turns out Bones turned the blade in just the right way so as to not kill himself.

Then Bones uses the veil Shofukan dropped to turn into Duck.

Then the rest of the episode plays as normal.

Mind Fuckery achieved.

Let's discuss power levels. Sword collection aside, is Shou really on the same level as Duck and Bones? His reluctance to fight Screaming Phoenix because "one of them would die" seemed to imply he thought of it as a potential danger to himself (especially considering he has no trouble slaughtering mooks in gruesome ways by the dozen when he has to). On the other hand, Bones was predicting accurately how many moves it would take him to beat Phoenix.

next season he'll probably pull some Gate of Babylon shit.

Shou has a bunch of cool swords, the power lies within them and not his ablity. He's a great swordfighter (stickfighter?), but he's nowhere near 10guy or VapeDuck's levels.

>source: your ass

Its hard to tell with Shou since he exhausts himself on purpose.

Do you really think he can send things to space on a whim?

That would be a nihilistic Urobutcher ending.

>here's how I would have done episode 13:
>Bones and duck fight. Duck curbstomps. Bones breaks the sword and stabs himself. Duck does his 'oh noes' speech and turns to leave. He gets stabbed in the back - turns out Bones turned the blade in just the right way so as to not kill himself.
>Then Bones uses the veil Shofukan dropped to turn into Duck.
>Then the rest of the episode plays as normal.
>Mind Fuckery achieved.

Good alternate ending, a not so happy one.

Why didn't Duck take the magic sword from Bone's "dead" body?

Bones wouldn't have the will to live in a presumably soon to be destroyed world, unless he could repair the sword. He would rather have Lin being a loner.

>Shou escaped his country due to magical sword bullshit.
>Has to get involved in magical sword bullshit in the country he runs to.
Poor Shou.

3. 須彌天幻・劫荒劍, I believe.

Novels
wuxiasociety.com/translations/
wuxiatranslations.wikispaces.com/

I can't guarantee on the quality though.

Anyway, the big 3 authors are Jin Yong, Gu Long and Liang Yusheng

Jin Yong = seinen action, more focus on plot and crazy kungfu fighting and scrolls containing insane martial arts.
Gu Long = seinen drama, more focus on character interactions, tend to be more melancholic
Liang Yusheng = josei (sort of) romance/ action, features more heroines than the other two authors, more focus on plot

Shou's would just break his swords.

>3. 須彌天幻・劫荒劍,
13, not 3. Oh, and rather than Plundering the Abandoned Sword, it might be more accurate to say The Sword which Plunders the Abandoned/ Forsaken.

Best part was Shou's reason for not telling everyone who he was or what he was doing was because he was literally walking around with a suitcase nuke in his pocket.

So when are we getting a Thunderbolt Fantasy game by Vanillaware. With names like this I'm really getting a Muramasa vibe.

youtube.com/watch?v=G4A-g1aiYs0
The soundtrack really was what brought the mood of the show together.

One of the weakest Sawano OSTs to date

>But is used in a butcher puppet shit so it is good
lol hipsters

Love the theme, but they should have hired someone else to supplement Sawano

The way it plays softly in the background until Sho walks off was pretty great. I'm a huge sucker for that stuff.

Is this ok if they are puppets?

This. It just completed the whole scene and brought it all together like user said.

Did you guys know that the valley is cloaked in deepest blue?

I don't know enough about music to comment on the power of the song itself but the soundtrack has if nothing else been used masterfully.

Next you'll tell me the shadow of eagles across the moon.

>illusory Skies of Meru
>The Sword which Plunders the Abandoned/ Forsaken
That's quite a far cry from what we got.

Listen buddy, endure the pain, its easy now.

Actual question, what do the puppets look like without clothes?

I don't know for sure, but I would assume they don't even have what you would normally consider as bodies. Probably just some wire frames to hold the clothes up. Not actually have bodies also makes getting stabbed easier to film.

Wire frames, usually. They're kind of like more complicated hand puppets.

when do you guys thing season 2 will be released need my puppet fix

Pervert.

So, why did all the badass wizards live on one side of the country?

Someone delivered them technology on the one side only.

And by technology, you mean bigger anvils, right?

I think there are just more around there as there is one less weary swordsman out to kill them for every artifact of power they make.

Same reason all the intelligent people in feudal Japan lived on one side too. Intelligence isn't distributed unless you have a governing body that goes out of their way to do so.

They delved too greedily, and too deep.

10guy would have creamed his pants if he saw Shou's collection.

BJD's can have pretty realistic bodies, but these aren't BJD's.

I'm late but could it be you have an issue with kishoutenketsu? Thinking about it, a Taiwanese production is probably more heavy on it than usual.

The stick becomes one with the air, and if you stop air you die, so the stick wins.

I want to watch this so bad, but puppets give me the creeps. Even just watching a short clip, I felt really uncomfortable...

You'll get used to it user, trust me.

More like it was used in a show that had the appropriate tone for his style. SnK might have had the better tracks but fuck if the music didn't clash with the tone of the story.

Give it a chance. It's quite expressive with the puppets' body language.

Honestly, you won't forget these are puppets, even by being fully immersed. But you'll start to really love those puppets soon. Also, fighting choregraphies are top-notch, dialogues are pretty clever and full of characterization, and the music at least does a good job at offering a fitting support for the scenes. There's also this touch of poetry that is very characteristic of fantasy, yet not found in most modern works because nobody really knows what made fantasy so successful.

What is so important about the poems?

Come for the sculptured puppets, stay because of Urobutcher pottery.

This was my first puppet show and I found the first episode easy to watch because it was so zany with CGI and the most epic decapitation of all time. It was amusing in a similar way to Team America. It gradually got weirder as I got more invested in the story and was taking puppets seriously. In the end I gained some appreciation for the artistry of it, though.

it is nice because it describes the characters beautifully. There is actually no importance at all to the poem, it is simply a nice touch.

Traditionally, the poems are read in the character introduction, describing nearly everything about them motivation, personality, etc.

Urobutcher wanted to make the show more broad and appealing and uses the character poems as a why to emphasize a character moment, like playing the OP during a fight scene.

Doesn't Jin Yong have romance too? I mean Return of Condor Heroes and Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber both have romance elements iirc.

About the poems, is what you meant about how it adds flair to the style of storytelling that fantasy does so well? Like how I can't recall any of the poems/lyrics in LOTR but it establishes a certain mood befitting a fantasy setting. There's more that goes into good storytelling and the poems are just one example that it's being skillfully executed.

I have never heard a poem in modern JRPG/MMO style isekai. That isn't a huge loss, but the real problem is that it's indicative how the fantasy aspect is unimaginatively treated in general.

My bad. The sword is crystalline. The blade only turns into serrated metal-like once the spatial tunnel was opened.

Pilli is releasing a Complete box set with dual audio along with subtitles in Chinese(tradtional and simplified) and English. It will also include some backstory episodes on Setsumusho and Lin Setsu A, Shyu Un Shou and Ken, and the Tan siblings.

Sadly, this is only in DVD, but I hope a dual language BD version will be released in the future.

Why simplified though? Is there a lot of viewers in China?

would china watch taiwan stuff? i thought they hated each other. im more concern how it did in nipland. i need more chinks kung fu in my chinese anime.

Yes, but Jin Yong's romances aren't quite as prominent compared to the batshit martial arts. Liang Yusheng doesn't quite have all that batshit martial arts so there's somewhat more aspect of the romance.

>hated each other
Only politically and only when someone mentions merger. Otherwise, the people are chill with each other. Musicians and actors from Taiwan frequently swing by mainland for performances and projects. And wuxia series in particular often have Taiwanese actors collaborating with Mainland. Taiwanese celebrities have their fans in China as well.

>would china watch taiwan stuff?
Of course they would, they lay claim to everything Taiwan has so part of that involve pretending Taiwanese shows are Chinese. To claim Taiwan shows are foreign would be treason and the CCCP would be on their ass.

> CPC

Got my political parties mixed up.

It's all a metaphor,
The west side is Taiwan and the east side is Japan, Shoufukan symbolizes Pili, a lot of people were skeptical about how OP he is, but turns out he's the real deal.

>It's all a metaphor,
>The west side is Taiwan and the east side is Japan
Actually even in the main Pili universe, occasionally a Japanese warrior or two show up from across the seas. However there is really no point trying to pin down the country since the governments are non-existent in these shows, and as such nationality is meaningless.

Do the Pili puppets get to fight in space? Why do they need a wormhole sword?

I wonder how much it has to sell to break even. Would the budget even be that high considering they're just filming puppets and not animating much?

We don't know how well it sold in Taiwan/China, but last I checked, the Taiwanese fans seem to be generally positive towards it. Throw in the GSC merch and honestly, I don't think you need to worry about it. The only thing is whether Urobuchi wants to continue with it beyond s2 or not.

Am I the only one disappointed about how vapeduck is a fucking gary stu?

Pretty much all projects break even eventually no matter how much they flopped, but it takes a long time to do.
I think marketing these shows to animefags is a deadend, no matter how amazing it is, they just ignore it. Since episode 1 the number of people watching was half of the most unpopular anime.

I'm curious to see what they're next move after TBF is.

Both Lin and Shou are gary stus, and I really don't mind. Because their characters was the show itself, we got to know more about them as the story unraveled, so it's totally plausible.

Also, my guess is that they need to be powerful because S2, will have equally powerful opponents.

>number of people watching was half of the most unpopular anime.
Going by the nip BDs, it still managed to outsell quite a few number of series. That's pretty impressive for a thing that barely anyone outside Taiwan even knew or cared about until Nitro+ came aboard.

>Am I the only one disappointed about how vapeduck is a fucking gary stu

Lin lost. The entire show was about him setting up a con to humiliate Bones, and his con failed. Lin's cunning plan would have released a demon god upon the world if one of the guys he tricked into being part it just happened to be vastly more capable than Vape Duck.

He's just a deceptively good fighter. He was outwitted repeatedly and ultimately helpless in the end. The real Gary Stu is Shoufukan.

Shou being a gary stu was fine because he was reserved about it. Lin being a gary stu kinda doesn't make sense because he could've just taken 10guy's swords by force in the first place, or even just stormed his fortress and clear the 3 obstacles by himself.

>doesn't make sense because he could've just taken 10guy's swords by force in the first place
Not this shit again. It's like some of you really never pay attention to the dialogues when they watch something. Read the thread. Other posters have already explained this shit to another pleb.

The final piece of characterization Lin got was that he hates swords, because they lead to villainy, he pegged 10guy as someone who held pride in his possessions, but his biggest source of pride was his skills, so it only required brute force. It's all pretty logical.

Lin isn't a gary stu, he's flawed, he makes mistakes.

Shou isn't a gary stu because it's like a level 20 character in a campaign full of level 6 characters. It doesn't break the rules of the settings.

Yeah and he didn't need to try con him, he could've outright mugged 10guy.

See above. If 10guy's pride was his intelligence then it would've made sense to try con him, but first he only wanted to steal his sword and then later stole his swordsmanship pride through force.

Because vape has no interest in swordplay. He flat out said his thrill is in deception and stealing shit. This really isn't difficult to understand, because again, he blatantly said that.

This. It's like asking why does Lupin bother leaving a calling card when it would have been easier if nobody knew.

Some taiwanese fans made these a while ago, its really cool, i just can't wait for season 2
youtube.com/watch?v=ohNT3tMcDqw
youtube.com/watch?v=l2Su1S-W750
and here is the op song of newst pili serise coming out next week.
youtube.com/watch?v=EjG0F0HabgY

>Yeah and he didn't need to try con him, he could've outright mugged 10guy.
I will spell it out to you; Vapeduck doesn't steal money or treasure, he steals PRIDE. Specifically, he steals pride from villains who are full of themselves. This means he needed to find out what a villain is most proud of, and steal THAT. In the case of 10guy, his pride is in his own invincible swordsmanship, and that means in order for Vapduck to steal his particular pride, he needed to beat 10guy in swordplay outright. And to rob it in, Vapduck told him that Vapeduck is so talented, he is still able to beat 10guy despite not being a fan of swords anymore.