Thunderbolt Fantasy Season 3
Jul 03 2021
The third season (I'm truly amazed it's made it this far) finished recently and it was as fantastic as the others. There was noticably less swordfighting, which is good because it left plenty of room for a really complicated plot. I think there are few shows of any genre that can juggle each character having a completely different motivation for doing what they do in a way that is logically consistent and still manages to move the story along. Thunderbolt Fantasy manages to do that really well without being predictable even with sometimes less-than-subtle foreshadowing.
I'd go so far as to say that the battles are the weakest part of the series, since they're all about the same: lots of sound effects, flashing lights, and spinning. And since all of the characters have over-the-top designs, you can't really tell who's limb or sword belongs to who, anyway. No one gets any power-ups or secret moves or anything either. But they did well to use these fights strategically this season for the most part, which I think is an improvement over the last two.
Lastly, the ending was perfect. An appropriate comeuppance for the villians with a cliffhanger that isn't annoying. I'd have like to have seen Rin Setsu A have his 4D chess game ruined again, since that's been fun, but having it all wrap up nicely without too much inconveniences nice too, since the protagonists spend most of the season struggling. It was very good, but I don't think anything will ever top the ending of season 1.
Honestly, I think Thunderbolt Fantasy is criminally underrated. Understandably so, because even as huge fan of dolls of this style, if someone else had tried to sell wuxia puppet anime to me, "hmm sounds kinda lame" would have been my exact reaction. I haven't really sought out anime in years, so if it wasn't a topic of discussion in the BJD threads on /toy/ when it was first airing, so not only would I have not given it a chance, I might not have even heard of it.
Anyway, I hope Thunderbolt Fantasy continues on for a little while longer. Though I was able to get Rin Setsu A Nendoroid during its initial preorder, I hope there's another run of the whole set since they're literally impossible to get now aaand I kind of want the whole crew now that Nendocellphones are canon (and also because mine fell off my shelf and broke and maybe I want a backup for when it inevitably happens again). I'd even kill for a Volks collab but that'll never happen. Looking forward to Season 4 since it doesn't seem like they're out of ideas yet!