Thunderbolt Fantasy + extras
I spent maybe 2 months on this but I watched all of Thunderbolt Fantasy. It was amazing. The action and writing and character designs and music and literally everything. The first season was extremely solid, constant plot progression and reveals. There's never a dull moment!! Even if the opening kinda doesn't fit the actual show. Shang Bu Huan is an amazing protagonist, being humble and laid back but very capable. Sha Wu Sheng was my favorite but mostly because of his design and Hiyama voice. Lin Xue Ya is always on some fucking bullshit and it's fun to watch his little plots play out.
The first movie was incredibly good. Seeing Wu Sheng and Lin's backstory was really fun, and gives Wu Sheng more screentime, which I greatly enjoyed. It also helps that this section of the movie is quite short, making it consistently progress without feeling dull or slow.
Season 2 was a logical progression to season 1. The new characters were all interesting and incredibly well designed. Shang continues to be a very strong protagonist as the new character Lang Wu Yao comes in and joins the main cast. Lin clears as usual. The Sorcerous Sword Index is a really good plot point.
Movie 2 was really funny. Narratively it's very strong and consistently moving. It doesn't get boring either. But I think it's funny that TM Revolution's self insert gets a whole movie about how cool he is.
Season 3's focus on the Divine Swarm was neat even though I think it was weaker than seasons 1 and 2. However, the last few episodes really make up for it. The reveals and plot twists were crazy good. Constantly making me grab my head and go "wow!". But you can really tell this season has a lot of build-up to future plot points. Lou Zheng Jie was very cool this season and I like how the main antagonist relates to him in the fucked up lovers way. She was a really good final encounter.
However I think season 4 was quite weak. I don't like how it focused mostly on Lang Wu Yao, as I honestly expected him to be a season 2 only character. He took over the show and didn't let Shang do much. It's a shame because I LOVE Shang Bu Huan as a protagonist. I heard this season was rushed because they didn't get a season 5, so they had to fit everything into this one and the final movie. It really shows.
As for the final movie, because of how weak season 4 was, a lot of the big moments didn't really hit as I would want them to due to lack of proper build-up. The Wu Yao plot felt weak because I already wasn't that fond of him. Lin subplot was cool in concept but I feel was lackluster. The last 30 minutes were incredibly cool though, great to see Shang back in the spotlight. Chao Feng's new outfit was great and Huo Shi Ming Huang was a very cool villain!!! Nice to see the Takehito Koyasu guy show up again, as I assumed he would only show up once in the entire show. The final encounter with Shang and Lin was really cool they're yaoi 🫶
Because of this show, I watched Legend of the Sacred Stone too. The action in it was very good, and it's cool to see the same puppet mannerisms. But besides the puppets being less detailed, I found that movie's plot and dialogue to be very lacking, which makes the movie super boring outside of the action scenes. At least Koyasu voices the main character so hearing him talk was pleasant.
Onto the next show !!!