History Series / ThunderboltFantasy

** Nitro+ introduced in more detail, a couple of snacks that appeared in ''[=TBF=]'' through twitter. Such as [[TrademarkFavoriteFood Shang Bu Huan's Shao Bing, Dan Fei's Walnut Biscuit, Juan Can Yun's Dried Tofu, Sha Wu Sheng's Stir-Fried Watermelon Seeds, Mie Tian Hai's Roast Chicken, Diao Ming's Stir Fry Sweet Mui Choy and Pork Belly]], and Lin Xue Ya's...''[[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Cheesecake?!]]'' [[note]]East-Asian style cheesecakes are made in a more lighter, spongy, pound-like texture than typical western styled cheesecakes. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheesecake Check the other wiki for more details.]] Even with that explanation, having cheesecake in a Wuxia universe is definitely odd.[[/note]]

[[caption-width-right:350: [[labelnote:This is the poster of season 1. Click to view poster for season 2.]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/main_tbfs04.png[[/labelnote]]\\
[[labelnote:Click to view the teaser posters for season 3]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/p_season3.jpg\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/p_season3_2.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]

* ShoutOut: A flashback via a tapestry to the events of the war with the demons 200 years ago shows a dragon which looks extremely similar to Godzilla Earth from the [[Anime/GodzillaPlanetOfTheMonsters Anime Trilogy]] of films, which GenUrobuchi worked on as a scripwriter.

'''''Thunderbolt Fantasy: Sword Seekers''''' (Thunderbolt Fantasy 東離劍遊紀)[[note]]''Dōng Lí Jiàn Yóu Jì'' / ''Tōri Ken Yūki''; lit. "Record of the Dong-Li Sword Journey"[[/note]] is a {{Wuxia}} [[PuppetShows Puppet Show]] TV series, spearheaded by Japanese screenwriter Creator/GenUrobuchi of Creator/{{Nitroplus}} after he fell in love with the ''Pili'' (''Thunderbolt'') [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glove_puppetry glove puppet]] show(s) produced by Taiwanese production studio Pili International Multimedia (known in the west as the creators of what became ''Series/WulinWarriors'') after stumbling upon their works at a Taiwan anime and comic fan convention he attended; Toys/{{Figma}} creators Good Smile Company assists the show in character creation alongside nitro+'s stable of artists. Music/HiroyukiSawano (later joined by Takafumi Wada) scores the show's soundtrack, while Music/TMRevolution a.k.a. Takanori Nishikawa sings the theme songs and joins the Japanese AllStarCast in season 2.

* WeaponOfChoice: Expected from weapon designer [[Anime/PsychoPass Makoto Ishiwata]], each weapon is direct reflection of its wielder. A behind the scenes video about each character's weapon can be seen here. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiGNha5KWHs]]

* NiceShoes: Considering the usual close-up on the puppets' boots which is to show that they are walking, the boots design is very stylish with sets of gems particularly on [[http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire2/cc1bdfcb605983e585190cadac4e41a71462211426_full.jpg Sha Wu Sheng]], [[https://farm9.static.flickr.com/8623/28852185636_6264488498.jpg Mie Tian Hai]] and [[http://i.gzn.jp/img/2016/02/07/thunderboltfantasy-wf2016w/P3440813.jpg Lin Xue Ya]].

* SwordSparks: [[UpToEleven Littered like fireworks.]] They're so spectacular, you need to wear goggles to prevent them burning your eyes.

* RapunzelHair: ''Everyone'', in fact, it might easier to list characters who don't have hair that reaches beyond their waist.

* DueToTheDead: Used as a final contrast for how the heroes feel about the two secondary villains of Season 2. [[spoiler:Shang Bu Huang gives Xie Yingluo a modest but dignified grave after discovering her body. Xiao Kuang Juan, meanwhile, ends up with his corpse strung from a tree as a gory signpost left by the BigBad, and nobody is remotely inclined to take him down.]]

* RiddleForTheAges: Xing Hai intends to use these to her advantage in order to thwart any TemporalParadox or ButterflyOfDoom in her goals to resurrect her sister Zhao Jun Lin [[spoiler:from her imprisonment in the Seven Blasphemous Deaths]]. In order to keep the flow of history as it has gone, she notes that no one knew what happened to Zhao Jun Lin's body after her apparent slaying at the hands of early Xi You Hu Yin Shi, so once she is able to travel back in time she will retrieve her sister's corpse, travel back to her present, and then use her magic restore Zhao Jun Lin back to her original body.

* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: Lin Xue Ya has the right idea to stop he rampaging demon god. Just get a new legendary sword to seal it again! Trouble is, where do you find one in a jiffy? It's a good thing Shang Bu Huan has 36 of those and he's thinking that's a good solution as well.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:In the season 3 finale, Zhào Jūn Lín is re-sealed in Seven Blasphemous Deaths for good and Lou Zhen Jie dies in the vastness of space while holding the Seven Blasphemous Deaths in his arms, and the Void Junction is sealed, but Wan Jun Po is killed by Huo Shi Ming Huang, who was also the Emperor of Xī Yōu along. Lang Wu Yao decides to leave Shang Bu Hua and the others and re-enters the Void Junction in order to confront his father in the Demon Realm.]]

* ButterflyOfDoom: Azibělpher brigns Lang Wu Yao back in time to the fight he, Shang Bu Huan, and Mu Tian Ming had against Huo Shi Ming Huang. Lang Wu Yao can decide to interfere, preventing Mu Tian Ming from being blinded, but that has the effect of preventing Shang Bu Huan from ever travelling to Dong Li and getting involved with the Xuan Gui Zong's attempts to retrieve the Tian Xing Jian, allowing Yao Tu Li to be resurrected and lay waste to the world unhindered as Shang Bu Huan and the Sorcerous Sword Index are all that stands in the way of her defeat. [[spoiler:He ultimately decides to let history take it's course.]]

* CastFullOfPrettyBoys: While Creator/{{Nitroplus}} did provide a bit more variety with their original 2D character designs, Pili Co.'s physical puppet renditions are notorious for beautifying '''every . single . darn . character''', including our token old pops Lian Qi. Seriously, ''just look at all those lavish eyelashes!''

* AnyoneCanDie: [[BirdsOfAFeather Urobuchi and Pili International Media]] are notorious for killing off main characters in the masses and with little forewarning (to the point where the latter ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAVJhuuz1Vs caught the former]]'' ''[[https://twitter.com/butch_gen/status/439864674708754432 off-guard]]''), and ''Thunderbolt Fantasy'' is no exception. Of the thirteen named characters in season 1, only four survive in the end and a fifth is not revealed to have survived until TheStinger of season 2.

* AnyoneCanDie: [[BirdsOfAFeather Urobuchi and Pili International Media]] are notorious for killing off main characters in the masses and with little forewarning (to the point where the latter ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAVJhuuz1Vs caught the former]]'' ''[[https://twitter.com/butch_gen/status/439864674708754432 off-guard]]''), and ''Thunderbolt Fantasy'' is no exception. Of the thirteen named characters, only five survive in the end.

** Some characters have been shown have additional fights between certain characters in the manga which wasn't in the show.
** Some of the character's personalities expanded to learn more about them that wasn't explored or shown much in the show.
** Flashbacks that wasn't seen in the show like when Lin was Lian Qi's student and watched his master making the Soul Echo Flute, and the time, Juan Can Yun reminiscing cherish memories with his sworn brother together when he's fighting Yun Xiao.

* ActOfTrueLove: In the manga, even though Juan Can Yun lost Dan Fei's trust after he was forced to abandon her, but he is willing to risk his life to regain her trust by letting her injure him. He even risks his own life protecting her from being crushed by a boulder caused by Youjyarei.

Season 3 features Huo Shi Ming Huang and his Order of the Divine Swarm joining forces with Xing Hai to fight Shang Bu Huan for control of the Sorcerous Sword Index. Huo Shi Ming Huang wants it so he can take over the human world, and Xing Hai wants it out of the way so she can lead the demon realm into a new, more diplomatic, incursion into the human world. The Divine Swarm's Wan Jun Po and Yi Piao Miao are sent to help Xing Hai track down Shang Bu Huan and his comrades in her Void Junction, a magic location that produces portals to other locations and worlds. The Xi You Imperial Princess Chao Feng makes an appearance once more, Lou Zhen Jie finds himself without the Seven Blaspheous Deaths in another world with the machinist Gui Duo Tian Gong, and the mysterious demon Zhao Junlin returns to Xi You once more.

'''Important Note:''' [-'''For the convenience of editing, all names in this work use the Hanyu Pinyin transliterations as used by the English language editions released by Crunchyroll, but without the diacritic marks to mark tones, or English translations from the same source. More details for the names, including the Japanese pronunciations, can be seen on the character pages.'''-]

** Flashbacks that wasn't seen in the show like when Lin was Lian Qi's student and watched his master making the Soul Echo Flute, and the time, Juan Can Yun reminiscing cherish memories with his sworn brother together when he's fighting Un Syou.

** '''Lin Xue Ya and Sha Wu Sheng:''' Both shared bird motifs, sporting elaborate feather accessories, [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eye colors]], contrasting long ponytail hairstyles, and the name "Setsu" within their Japanese names.[[note]]"Setsu" is Musho's surname, meaning "to kill," while the "Setsu" in Lin Xue Ya's given name stands for "snow."[[/note]] Sha Wu Sheng is a strong swordsman [[KnightOfCerebus feared by everyone day-in-out]] due to his reputation as an antisocial, [[ImplacableMan merciless assassin;]] but he only targets those who have potential relations to [[ItsPersonal Lin Xue Ya]] and seems to be a [[SourOutsideSadInside decent person deep down inside.]][[note]]See his character sheet for more details.[[/note]] He is also one of the the most [[BrutalHonesty straightforwardly honest]] persons of the team aside from Fu Kan, Dan Fei, and San Un, who's true to himself and of others; and has no problem in keeping promises and speak out whatever is on his mind. On the other hand, Lin Xue Ya is a friendly and social NonActionGuy, but with [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder sly intentions]] hidden from the public eye; his words are not to be trusted, no matter how genuine he may sound like.

* WhereItAllBegan: The final battle of season one is set near the Shrine from where Tanhi was escaping from the beginning.

* WhereItAllBegan: The final battle is set near the Shrine from where Tanhi was escaping from the beginning.

* InfinityPlusOneSword: All of the Shen Hui Mo Xie (Magic Weapons of Divine Teaching) are considered to be this in every way, but the Tian Xing Jian is believed by Mie Tian Hai to be the most powerful of them all and that is why he wants it for himself. He surmised this because he has studied the records of the War of Fading Dusk and listened to the communications of the Demon Realm, and the only Demon God not accounted for is Yao Tu Li, who he believes was actually slain by the wielder of the Tian Xing Jian. Throughout season 1, Shang Bu Huan constantly doubts the veracity of the myth, and he is proven right when Mie Tian Hai finally steals the sword and releases a spell that has been keeping Yao Tu Li sealed under the Dan Clan's sacred grounds. Up until this point, Shang Bu Huan's skepticism is seen as unusual in a world of might and magic, until Yao Tu Li awakens and he faces her solo, unsheathing one of the '''''thirty-six''''' even more powerful magical swords he's been keeping hidden the whole time, when he's been using an intentionally dull piece of wood painted silver to look like a sword for the entire season.

The sprawling series of 2 (soon to be 3) seasons of the TV show and 2 movies is set in a fantasy world of swords, wizardry, and demons in the nation of Dong-Li, which in the past was ravaged by an invasion from the Demon Realm that split it from its neighboring nation Xi-You by the impassible Wasteland of Spirits, full of dangerous dragons and demon-worshipping barbarians. The main cast comprises the illusionist and GentlemanThief Lin Xue Ya and the wandering and taciturn swordsman Shang Bu Huan who has somehow crossed the Wasteland of Spirits unscathed; Shang Bu Huan's compatriate Lang Wu Yao, a wandering minstrel with an enchanted voice and a magical talking pipa named Ling Ya, joins the main cast in season 2.