Genre is first and foremost a social convention as well as a marketing one, but for a long time, I struggled with how to describe Thunderbolt Fantasy because it's so sui generis (at least for the moment).
I usually settle for "wuxia fantasy puppet epic" because it gets the main points across - there are puppets in a historical Chinese fantasy setting kicking ass and it rocks - but even that doesn't really even begin to capture it. Faced with this same challenge, the NeuchĂątel Fantastic Film Festival classified it as "wuxia baroque", which is a little pretentious, but covers similar ground.
However, it recently occurred to me that there was a different but equally valid answer that approaches the problem from a different angle: "pulp". This word is usually used in a derogatory sense for lurid, shocking, or low-quality writing, but here, I'm specifically using the definition in this post, namely "fiction that prioritizes the pleasure and enjoyment of the reader above all else". This perfectly encapsulates my experience of watching Thunderbolt Fantasy, which is zany, bloody, over the top, and above all, fun - the most enjoyable media experience I've had in years, hands down.
Thunderbolt Fantasy is pure unapologetic pulp in which the creators are having the time of their lives and taking the audience for a ride along with them. Every plot twist and explosion, every snarky one-liner and villainous swagger, every dramatic reveal and insane action sequence, is for the love of the game in a way that other genre descriptors don't even begin to cover. There's a fire-breathing dragon played by a man in a kaiju suit, skeletal birds summoned by tossing special boomerangs, and a bard whose weapon is singing the opening song. A con man talks his way into and out of trouble and gets away with it every time - except when it backfires and blows up in his face. There are time-traveling demons, duels to the death, and more magic swords than you can shake a stick at. It's not trying to do anything or be anything other than what it is, and it does it with style.
We joke a lot about how the puppets cured Urobuchi's depression, but the truth is that while pulp can be messy, violent, and unrealistic, it's also a necessary and vital part of the human experience and can be healing, cathartic and transcendent. It's not that Thunderbolt Fantasy has nothing profound to say - it totally does! - but it never lets its messages get in the way of having a damn good time. All art invokes a reaction and sometimes that reaction is hooting and hollering and yelling "THAT WAS SO COOL!!" at the screen.
I started out with a discussion of genre, and while pulp is often associated with specific genres and eras (i.e., 1940s science fiction and detective fiction), the broader definition that I've been using transcends them, and is more of a style, philosophy or a vibe than pure genre - although since genre is socially determined, it's always a little fuzzy around the edges and constantly in flux.
tl;dr - Thunderbolt Fantasy is a wuxia fantasy PULP-et epic (laudatory) and that's exactly why I like it so much.
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