Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning to the bombastic battles of Thunderbolt Fantasy, as Shang and his allies attempt to thwart the various schemes of Xing Hai, the Divine Swarm, the Murder Princess Chao Feng, and presumably the newly introduced Count Azibelpher. Having tracked Xing Hai back to her time-manipulating portal-ridden Void Junction, Shang and Lang swiftly found themselves flung into the demon realm itself, where they were forced into battle with resentful survivors of the last demon war.

Not a great situation, I gotta admit. Fortunately, while their enemies are vicious and great in number, they are not exactly unified in their intentions. Jun Po’s alliances to both the Divine Swarm and Murder Princess are unstable at best, while Xing Hai and her sister are clearly only aligned with the Divine Swarm out of momentary convenience, and both Lou Zhen and Azibelpher possess distinct secondary motivations. While the straightforward Shang likely can’t make much use of this fragility, this whole situation is basically catnip for Lin, who Xing Hai rightly defined as a “sadist who takes sick pleasure in the suffering of villains.” I’m thus expecting some gleeful machinations from the Enigmatic Gale as these forces collide, and am eager to find out who he gets his kicks from next. Let us return to the battlefield of fate!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am delighted to be returning to a long-dormant adventure, as we continue to navigate the dramatic twists and turns of Thunderbolt Fantasy’s third season. Having dealt with death cults, demon lords, murder princesses, and even a goddamn dragon over the show’s first two seasons, Shang and his allies now stand in dangerous disarray, ill-prepped for the simultaneous machinations of Ming Huang’s divine swarm, Xing Hai and her sister-sword, and whatever the fuck Murder Princess and her new cyborg ally are up to.

Fortunately, we’ve still theoretically got Lin on our side, and boy is he having fun with this one. The Enigmatic Gale is fully in his element at the moment, forging bonds with fresh would-be villains and utterly infuriating Xing Hai in the process. The delicate alliance of convenience between the Divine Swarm’s allies makes it easy for Lin to play characters like the genuinely honor-driven Jun Po and utterly malice-driven Xing Hai against each other; if anything, I assume he’d complain that such foes are too simple, lacking the complexity of motivation necessary for him to really yank the floor out from under them. Nonetheless, he can at least console himself in the knowledge that his vile Nendoroid is pissing off Shang and the others, who have enough trouble as it is without suffering through Lin’s pint-sized provocations. With alliances forging and crumbling by the second, let’s see where today’s adventures take us!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to journey back into the harsh lands and bitter grudges of Thunderbolt Fantasy, as Shang finds himself with not one, but two separate demonic entities intent on his destruction. With Xing Hai and the Seven Blasphemous Deaths now reunited in form and focus, the Sorcerous Sword Index has never been in greater peril, to say nothing of the continuing efforts of the Divine Swarm, our recently cyborg-upgraded monk, or the murder princess and her courtly underlings.

All of this is nothing but a source of aggravation to our reluctant hero, though I imagine Lin is absolutely in his element. After so recently lamenting the lack of any good villains lately, he now finds himself at the fulcrum of a conflict featuring no less than four nefarious factions, and cozying up to an organization whose ambitions are only matched by their inflated sense of righteousness. Let’s see where his schemes lead him next as we check out a fresh episode of Thunderbolt Fantasy!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’d like to hop back into the ongoing theatrics of Thunderbolt Fantasy, as our heroes find themselves drifting far and wide in their variable adventures. From an initial cleanup job tracking down the Seven Blasphemous Deaths, Shang and his companions’ quest has evolved and splintered in all sorts of nasty directions, incorporating both old nemeses and onetime friends in a conflict of national and multiplanar scale.

While Shang is finding all these new complications a bit much to bear, Lin is unsurprisingly in his element, delighting in both the general chaos and the delectable righteousness of Wan Jun Po. Lin delights in either toying with the earnest or toppling the arrogant, and Wan is actually both – a man driven by earnest love of country into a dangerous certainty regarding the Sword Index’s proper use, and one who promises to lead Lin towards an even more tantalizing prize: the leader of the Divine Swarm. With evil cyborg monks, cursed sword-bearing demonesses, and murder princesses also in the mix, the ultimate clash of these forces promises to be spectacular indeed. Let’s get to it!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to check back in on the explosive theatrics of Thunderbolt Fantasy, as our gallant hero Shang faces off with his former ally Wan Jun Po. Having been disillusioned with the selfish, chaotic orders of our murder princess, and with Shang refusing to use his sorceress sword index to interfere with the affairs of the mortal plane, Wan Jun Po made the most sensible choice he could think of: join forces with the Order of the Divine Swarm, that his evil master’s cleansing light might bring peace to this world.

Yes, it does indeed seem a little extreme, but I’m happy to see Wan Jun Po taking his place in the extensive pantheon of “I’ll take this evil upon me for the good of the world” Urobuchian heroes and anti-heroes. Season three had up until now been pretty light on Urobuchi’s usual moral quandaries, and if we can jumpstart the themey-wemey stuff while getting a duel between friends turned rivals in the process, all the better. Let’s jump right into the swordsmanship and sorcery of Thunderbolt Fantasy!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am pleased as punch to be returning to Thunderbolt Fantasy, as its third season most recently introduced one of the franchise’s most delightful characters: Chao Feng, the sadistic murder princess of Bewitching Melody of the West. Chao Feng effortlessly won my heart through her twin enthusiasms for music and murder, and I am thrilled to see her getting upgraded from a side story antagonist to a main series threat. While I can’t imagine we’ll be getting a repeat of Bewitching Melody’s guitar duel murder brawl, simply having her around and craving Lang’s performances is sure to add a delightful note of chaos to our proceedings.

So far, our heroes have spent this season mostly stumbling into beehives, seeking one enemy only to trip headfirst over another. They’ve attracted the ire of evil swords, corrupted monks, malevolent cults, tyrannical rulers, and the entirety of the demon realm, making Lin Xue’s yearning for a decent nemesis seem perhaps a touch premature. I’m eager to see what our terrible princess makes of these new arrivals, so let’s dive back into Thunderbolt Fantasy!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to jump back into Thunderbolt Fantasy, and see how our heroes are faring against the combined forces of the demon realm and the Order of the Divine Swarm! Gosh, even just describing the literal events of a given episode feels like hyperbole, but that’s simply how it goes with Thunderbolt. It is an exercise in cinematic maximalism, and all the greater for it.

Of course, the show wouldn’t be nearly so satisfying if all those lofty titles and action theatrics weren’t grounded in strong character dynamics and driving themes. Fortunately, Thunderbolt is also Urobuchi’s warmest, most character-rich show, offering both delightful curmudgeons like Shang and a revolving cast of endearingly terrible villains. Among these, the incorrigible Xing Hai is one of my favorites, and her newly developed Void Junction seems like it’ll prompt all manner of problems for our beleaguered heroes. Let’s see how Shang and the gang escape yet another gruesome fate, as we rally the troops for a fresh episode of Thunderbolt Fantasy!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m happy to announce our commencement of a new project, which is also technically a return to an old favorite. Having brushed up on Lang Wu Yao’s history with the altogether excellent Bewitching Melody of the West, today we’re breaking into the third season of Thunderbolt Fantasy, and seeing what the long-suffering Shang Bu Huan has been getting up to.

It certainly hasn’t been an easy pair of seasons for our curmudgeonly sword-snatcher. Thunderbolt Fantasy’s first adventure saw him handling basically all the legwork for Dan Fei’s mystical journey to the aptly named Demon Spine Mountains, all while suffering the persistent mockery of weed wizard Lin Xue Ya. Season two only ladled on more sources of frustration and indignity, ranging from that smarmy hunting fox Xiao Kuang to a sentient, malevolent sword known as the Seven Blasphemous Deaths. It’s been a bumpy ride, but also a highly entertaining one, offering dazzlingly realized battles and plenty of Urobuchi’s reliable wit. I’m sure our Edgeless Blade will have ample new troubles awaiting him this time, so let’s dispense with the recap, and dive right into Thunderbolt Fantasy’s third season!

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