Tifa. Ace. She/her. Has a multitude of interests such as anime, manga, cosplay, mythology and folklore, horror, Japanese fashion, and travel. Fandoms include Thunderbolt Fantasy, Good Omens, WWDitS, and FMA. Over here, I lurk more than I post, and am actually more active on other social networks!
Plugging Our Thunderbolt Fantasy 10th Anniversary Fanzine!
Features:
- JIS B5 trim size (182 × 257 mm, or 7.17" × 10.12")
- Perfect bound (paperback) with a matte cover
- Approximately 300 pages*
- F
With just about a day left until preorders on our main international platforms close, let me make a last-ditch effort to plug what some friends/acquaintances and I have been working on for the last few months: a fanzine to celebrate Thunderbolt Fantasy’s 10th anniversary!
Preorders are open until 11:59 pm of April 19 (Sunday) UTC-11. this might be sometime on April 20, depending on where in the world you are (countdown timer here).
The zine costs US$32 + shipping from Japan. It features creations from 107 contributors from around the world: fan art, fanfics, and even alternative media like photos of cosplays and fan-made plushies! The cover art is made by our amazing design/layout mod @kimartings .
Almost all characters (with the exception of a few minor ones) are featured, and the works range from heartwarming tributes to the show, to fanmade recreations of certain iconic scenes, to what-ifs set after The Finale. You can check the account @tbfantazine for previews, which we've been posting on a near-daily basis since March!
Shipping will start in mid- or late May. Since the zine will be printed in and shipped from Japan, non-US fans, especially those in Asia, can rest assured that international shipping shouldn’t be as expensive.
Though there isn't much time left to preorder, we hope you’ll grab a copy if you’re interested! If you’re a Thunderbolt Fantasy fan, it will surely be worth your money. Given how niche this fandom is (as well-loved as it is within its niche), we are unlikely to do a reprint, so click on the link above to preorder now while you still can!
Just a day to go until we close preorders for our Thunderbolt Fantasy 10th anniversary fanzine on Ko-Fi and BOOTH! We aren't likely to do a reprint, given how niche this fandom is (as well-loved as it is within its niche), so if you're interested, grab a copy now while you still can!
Thunderbolt Fantasy 10th Anniversary Exhibit Coming to Japan This Summer (July 25-Aug. 9, 2026)!
July 8, 2026 will mark 10 years since S1E1 of Thunderbolt Fantasy was released! In commemoration of TBF's 10th anniversary, there will be an exhibit on the 8th floor of the Yurakucho Marui department store (Google Maps) in Tokyo from July 25 to August 9.
The exhibit's name translates to "A World Exhibition for a Tokusatsu Puppet Drama from Taiwan" (or, more literally, "From Taiwan! A Tokusatsu Puppet Drama World Exhibition"). Exact details, like which puppets will be on display (presumably the ones in the promotional photo, but who knows if there will be more), have not yet been announced.
However, there will definitely be some other Pili puppets on display as well, as Games Glorious (a Japan-based company that Pili has been partnering with) recently held a poll for fans to pick which characters they think would be popular in Japan.
When I attended some events in Taiwan and Japan last year, Pili teased that there definitely would be events to celebrate TBF's 10th anniversary. So unless their plans have changed, there should be more events/activities (and maybe even merch) to come in Japan and Taiwan, especially during the summer months!
7 Days Left Until BOOTH & Ko-Fi Preorders for "Across the Sea: A Thunderbolt Fantasy 10th Anniversary Fanzine" Close on April 12
7 days left to preorder our zine via Ko-Fi and BOOTH! They will close on April 12 at 23:59 UTC-11.
Although this is an international project led by Anglophone fans, this zine will be printed in and shipped from Japan, so for non-US based folks, especially those in Asia, please rest assured that international shipping shouldn't as pricey! We priced the zine such that the price will (hopefully) cover our costs, while still being relatively affordable for fans in as many regions as possible.
In other news, Taiwan 7-11 preorders and reservations for pick-up at "Raimei ni Tsuzuke!" in Tokyo are still ongoing until 23:59 of April 30 UTC+9!
For more information about preorders and the countdown timers until preorders close, please visit our Carrd site: http://tbfantazine.carrd.co
I haven’t checked my Tumblr in a while, but let me take this opportunity to plug the Thunderbolt Fantasy 10th anniversary fanzine that some friends and I have been working on for the last few months!
It’s truly a labor of love: an international project featuring many wonderful submissions in English, Mandarin, and Japanese from 107 contributors from around 20+ different countries.
I’m so excited for my fellow Thunderbolt Fantasy fans to see it; I hope you’ll love it! (You can check @tbfantazine for previews; we’ve been posting them on a near-daily basis for about a month now.)
Preorders on our Ko-Fi shop will close less than a week from now, so if you’re interested in the zine, please don’t miss the chance to grab a copy!
Here’s the Ko-Fi link: https://ko-fi.com/s/164c4fd0e4
Features:
- JIS B5 trim size (182 × 257 mm, or 7.17" × 10.12")
- Perfect bound (paperback) with a matte cover
- Approximately 300 pages*
- F
From an idea I got last year, the zine is now gonna become a reality, and it couldn’t have happened without such awesome and passionate people also being on board with the idea and stepping up!
As I do not have the bandwidth to oversee every aspect of such a large-scale fan project as this zine, I am not the head mod; S./Wu_Ya_Zui is. But I definitely am giving my all as one of the mods
I’m glad to be working with TBF fans on the same wavelength and very excited for how the zine turns out!
Since the character lineup for last weekend’s Pili fan meet in Tokyo wasn’t just Thunderbolt Fantasy characters but also other Pili characters, there were fun crossover moments here and there, like this one:
Leng Jian Bai Hu from the Pili Fantasy series (the reboot that started with War of Dragons, the 2019 Pili show that was viewable on Netflix until a few years ago) got to spar with Wan Jun Po briefly!
From the September 20 霹靂見参 (which roughly translates to “Pili Meet and Greet”) event in Tokyo:
Need to demonstrate how the dān (female character) role / archetype in budaixi puppetry might act, but didn’t bring a female puppet? No problem; let Lin handle it 😂!
On Saturday I said to my partner, as I have said for months, "A ten thousand dollar a year raise would solve so many of my problems."
As of this morning I was reluctantly looking for jobs because I love my job and don't want to leave it, but see: $10k raise problem solver.
As of noon today this was no longer an issue, because my boss called me with the news that I was getting a $10K merit raise.
I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. This is roughly $200 extra per paycheck. Enough to pay off debt faster, rebuild my savings, and spend a weekend a month in Milwaukee getting obscenely laid. The sex I'm going to have on $200 extra per paycheck. You can't even.
May all of you get the $10K raise your soul has yearned for. And whatever level of sex you can be satisfied with for $200.
In a weird twist of fate yesterday when I reblogged this I was interviewing for a job that would pay me $10k more. I just got the confirmation that I got the job.
Please don’t forget to check the countdown timer on our Carrd site to find out how much time you still have left to apply for our zine!
Depending on your time zone, the deadline might actually be early morning or maybe even nighttime of August 19th, giving you actually not one, but around two days to apply!
Still, we encourage everyone who wants to apply not to wait until the last minute. Get those applications in while you can!
Please don’t worry about not being good enough! Yes, it’s a celebration of 10 years of Thunderbolt Fantasy, but it’s not all about who’s the most skilled/talented at art, fics, cosplay, and other creative pursuits.
More than anything, we want this zine to showcase tributes from TBF fans all over the world to show that TBF, despite not being a huge or mainstream fandom, has creative and passionate fans around the world!
Currently, based on the applicants we’ve gotten whose nationalities and/or ethnicities are mentioned in their socials, we have applicants from all inhabited continents except for Africa. 😭
If, by any chance, you are a TBF fan from Africa, come join us!
Surprisingly, we also don’t have many applicants from South America and Oceania. Any fans in Australia who want to apply? And for South America, we currently only have someone from Venezuela…
As for our Asian applicants, most are from East and Southeast Asia (and that’s not yet even counting the ones in the Western diaspora). It would be nice to have applicants from South, West, and Central Asia too if possible!
We can’t thank Ikukurou enough for giving us the opportunity to promote our zine at this year’s summer Comiket! 💖 Here’s a photo of Ikukurou’s table at Comiket, taken and posted with permission.
As huge as Comiket is, sadly, not many people go out of their way to look for Thunderbolt Fantasy doujinshi and other fanmade merch at the event. This is especially true now that for the last few years, Thunderbolt Fantasy fans in Japan have had doujinshi events dedicated solely to budaixi in general, including TBF. With this in mind, we didn’t print too many copies.
But when one of the mods dropped by this afternoon, an hour before the event ended, over half of the flyers had been taken!
Though we don’t expect our promotion at Comiket to generate that much new interest in our zine, let alone last-minute applications from people who’ve just heard of it, we’d be really grateful if this promotion effort did lead to some new followers on our socials and even applications!
We started the fourth week of our Thunderbolt Fantasy 10th anniversary fanzine’s contributor application period with 78 pitches from 46 applicants total after the third week! Here’s a roundup of statistics from Week 3.
Among the 78 pitches we’ve received so far:
47 are for art
15 are for writing
16 are for alternate media
(Note that since we’re allowing applicants to make up to three pitches, some people who pitched multiple ideas may want to push through with all of them, while others might ultimately pick only one to complete. Thus, these numbers are not an accurate indicator of how many pieces our zine will actually have.)
Regarding which volume of the zine these 78 pitches are for:
66 are for the main zine (gen/no ships, SFW)
6 are for the bonus, digital-only SFW ship-focused volume
6 are for the bonus, digital-only NSFW volume
As for the top five characters mentioned in pitches, they are:
Shang Bu Huan (Sho Fu Kan): 33 mentions
Lin Xue Ya (Rin Setsu A): 29 mentions
Lang Wu Yao (Rou Fu Yo): 14 mentions
Sha Wu Sheng (Setsu Mu Sho): 11 mentions
Demon King: 5 mentions
(Please note, however, that mentioning a character doesn’t mean that they’re the main feature of the pitch. In some cases, they’re part of an ensemble piece.)
Once again, thank you very much to everyone who signed up to contribute. Results will be out in late August!
In the meantime, for those who are thinking of contributing but still haven’t applied, applications are open until August 18—we extended the application deadline; we hope this means we'll get more pitches!
While we don't plan to set any limits on how many pitches featuring popular characters we'll accept, especially since the pitches so far have all been quite unique, we would really love to get more pitches featuring characters other than the main trio and Sha Wu Sheng!
In particular, we haven't received many pitches featuring the new characters from Season 4, aside from the Demon King. If anyone could show supporting/minor characters more love, that would be great!
Also, a reminder that we're planning to have bonus, digital-only volumes, too, and we're accepting ships and NSFW art for those! Don’t be shy about submitting ship-focused pitches featuring rarepairs!
It's worth noting that most of the pitches featuring the Demon King are from Taiwanese fans, as he's more popular among Taiwanese and Japanese fans.
I can't help but feel frustrated thinking about how Crunchyroll not releasing TBF S4 on a weekly simulcast basis and not doing any publicity at all for it must have hurt its viewership among Anglophone fans.
If the fan works from the Taiwanese and Japanese sides of the fandom are any indication, Lie Mo Xian (Retsu Ma Gen) and the Demon King are the breakout characters of S4. The Demon King is even the subject of a meme on Japanese TBF Twitter 😂
Meanwhile, I barely see anyone showing appreciation for them—or any new character from S4, actually—on the Anglophone side.
In contrast, back when S3 was released, Jun Po (GUNHA-DONO), for example, got a lot of love even from Anglophone fans, especially from old man enjoyers!
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Anglophone fans still didn't know that TBF S4 and The Finale have been on Crunchyroll for several months now...
Anyway, please keep the applications and pitches coming—we on the mod team really are excited to receive more! And if you could pitch a creation featuring a supporting/ minor/ less popular character, that would be fantastic!