[Anime Central 2025] An Interview with Pili, the Puppet Studio Behind Thunderbolt Fantasy

At Anime Central 2025, I acquired a chance to interview Pili, the Taiwanese studio that co-produced Thunderbolt Fantasy. I hope that followers of Thunderbolt Fantasy, followers of Pili, and anybody inquisitive about distinctive media and leisure can be taught from the in-depth solutions they gave.

1) Taiwan has a celebrated custom of puppet theater, one thing that’s doubtless unfamiliar to a lot of the English-speaking viewers. What are among the particular points of Taiwanese puppetry, and the way do you incorporate them into your work?

Pili puppetry has a singular benefit: puppets don’t have any facial expressions. Which means that all feelings are conveyed by means of the ambiance of the scene, the efficiency of the voice actors, and the affect of the music. Because of this, no matter tradition or language, feelings can nonetheless be conveyed by means of the puppets.

About how we incorporate them into our work, we are able to share how Thunderbolt Fantasy entered the Japanese market as the instance. Though the style is Wuxia fantasy, Urobuchi-san naturally integrated varied parts of Wuxia into the story, which allowed Japanese audiences to simply perceive and recognize it.

2) On condition that Thunderbolt Fantasy has each Japanese and Taiwanese dubs, have you ever discovered it a problem to work with two totally different languages and kinds of speech?

The manufacturing of Pili puppet efficiency all the time begins with the audio. The puppeteers all the time carry out primarily based on the pre-recorded voices. For Thunderbolt Fantasy, as soon as the Japanese script was delivered to Pili, it first needed to be translated into Chinese language, then dubbed in Taiwanese. The puppeteers would then carry out primarily based on the audio information.

Nevertheless, as a result of there are language variations between Chinese language and Japanese, Urobuchi-san would wish to revise the script and talk with each voice actor about how the characters ought to be carried out after watching the filmed model. For instance, in puppet theater there are a lot of actions comparable with Japanese Kabuki actions and gestures. To voice correctly for such actions, Urobuchi-san needed to talk about with voice actors to supply steerage and ideas in particular person.

3) Do the puppeteers deal with their efficiency as akin to reside theater when recording, or is it extra like a film or tv present manufacturing?

Our manufacturing now’s nearer to that of movies and TV dramas. The most important distinction is that historically Pili puppet efficiency was reside on stage. On this case, the puppets’ heads should face the viewers. Nevertheless, now in a studio setting, the puppets’ heads should face the digital camera, so the focus and methods of expression turn out to be totally different. As well as, we use narration, leap cuts, and different methods to alter settings and transition the scenes.

4) I need to ask, how did an enormous robotic find yourself in Thunderbolt Fantasy? It was an surprising selection, however speaks to the enjoyable and unpredictability of the sequence.

Robots are one in all Urobuchi Gen’s private pursuits. He’s additionally a giant fan of Kamen Rider and Tokusatsu, so he got here up with the thought of together with them and designed that robotic. Pili additionally filmed comparable issues earlier than, equivalent to scenes the place puppets battled an enormous gorilla. In our Su Huan-Jen film, we collaborated with Japanese studios to create the monster Qilin. We actually get pleasure from Tokusatsu filming fashion, so Urobuchi-san took the chance to design and incorporate extra of those parts into the work to make it enjoyable.

5) Are there any plans to deliver extra of your reveals to English-speaking audiences? I ask just because I might like to see extra.

After all, we do have plans. We’re working with Urobuchi-san on different initiatives, and each now and sooner or later, we can be engaged on scriptwriting and idea design for works that attraction to a wider fanbase, particularly to those that are usually not followers of the Wuxia style.

6) I’ve learn that one factor you needed to be taught from making Thunderbolt Fantasy is that Japan is extra accustomed to a slower tempo for motion scenes. May you elaborate on the way you modified issues to accommodate this?

From the very starting, we have now been continuously adjusting the tempo. Particularly when capturing the primary episode of the primary season, we studied how you can current the puppets’ physique actions in larger element in order that the viewers may higher recognize their efficiency. We knew that the combat scenes in puppetry all the time change too shortly, like in seconds, and the puppets don’t have any facial expressions. The viewers would wish extra time to course of the knowledge and perceive the plot. That’s why we stored adjusting the tempo. I need to say that we depend on puppeteers’ reside efficiency and improvisation in addition to the director’s steerage and association.

7) How do you puppet the characters relative to the voices? Does voice come earlier than the puppetry, or vice versa? Or maybe there’s a back-and-forth course of between the 2 levels?

First, we file a reference observe in Taiwanese, and the puppeteers carry out primarily based on that. Subsequent comes the official dubbing. Because the official dubbing may contain varied changes and modifications, we have to reshoot and revise the make-up. This back-and-forth adjustment continues till all the pieces is finalized. As soon as finalized, we proceed to the final part of dealing with Japanese dubbing.

8) Are there distinctive points of particular characters that require puppeteering them in particular methods? For instance, is controlling Shang totally different from controlling Lin?

One of many greatest benefits of Thunderbolt Fantasy is that the script and character designs have been developed concurrently. This allowed our puppeteers to think about the personalities of the characters extra concretely and design distinctive gestures primarily based on the script since there was ample data. For instance, Shang scratching his nostril, or Lin carrying a smoking pipe in his mouth, which seems humorous. As a result of we had sufficient conditions and Urobuchi-san may present explanations in time, the puppeteers have been capable of enrich the characters as greatest as they may.

9) Is there something distinctive to the technical course of of creating Thunderbolt Fantasy that differs out of your different sequence?

At this level, Pili’s puppet drama sequence updates each week, like Shonen Soar in Japan, so the manufacturing schedule is extraordinarily tight.

Throughout the technical course of, for instance, creators usually have to design characters primarily based on just a few strains of description, whereas voice actors should think about the voices of the characters earlier than even seeing the precise designs. When these two processes run on the identical time, mismatches are more likely to happen. Simply think about they designed an previous girl, however voice was like Rie Kugimiya’s tsundere tone. 

Producing weekly episodes may be very demanding. Ding Bi, who’s sitting beside me, works on the weekly-updating drama. His crew usually discovered that even after ending filming and wrapping up, they’d nonetheless uncover elements that wanted reshooting, which was irritating and irritating.

Then again, Thunderbolt Fantasy is totally different. Since each the script and pre-production particulars have been prepared prematurely, all the pieces was clear, which made filming a lot simpler. Furthermore, our Pili crew has developed such a robust teamwork spirit over time that we are able to nearly instinctively know one of the simplest ways to shoot a scene, so the entire course of was fairly clean.

10) How concerned was PILI with the general story and the character personalities in Thunderbolt Fantasy? What was it wish to work creatively with NITRO PLUS?

Pili’s involvement may be very excessive. Though many of the character designs from NITRO PLUS are for protagonists, we’re in control of classifying characters by ranges of significance. Pili additionally contributed rather a lot to the character design. For instance, most of the demon realm generals and lieutenants and different organizations have been designed by us after inner discussions. 

NITRO PLUS trusted in Pili’s puppet-making, so their suggestions was typically optimistic with few feedback on issues that should be corrected. For the method of changing 2D character designs into 3D character fashions, we additionally communicated with NITRO PLUS regularly, so our interplay with them has been very shut. 

NITRO PLUS is a extremely disciplined and skilled firm. Although its core enterprise is gaming, its artistic energy and design framework are astonishing. Pili actually must be taught from them as a result of our fashion in designing typically tends to be unfastened and irregular, so working creatively with NITRO PLUS was earlier expertise.

11) Wanting again in your lengthy historical past with Thunderbolt Fantasy, are there any essential classes you’ve realized from making it?

To be trustworthy, ten years haven’t been simple. Collaborating with Japan was an enormous problem for Pili.

The primary lesson is cultural variations in language. For instance, in Japanese texts or messages, expressions like sumimasen can sound oblique or ambiguous for us contemplating the seriousness, however they might be a really clear refusal from the Japanese aspect. We’d suppose the extent of that detest from them was not sturdy in any respect, however in actual fact their rejection was a lot stronger than we anticipated. What’s extra, once we mentioned one thing like “Okay, we are able to contemplate this proposal and possibly give it a attempt”, the Japanese solid typically understood it as a transparent determination to maneuver ahead alongside this plan. 

One other large lesson is within the character market and neighborhood administration. In Japan, these points, in addition to manufacturing particulars, are handled with nice significance, whereas Pili had not given them as a lot consideration earlier than. After we began working along with Japanese folks, we realized rather a lot from them in these areas.

About technical abilities, we additionally realized tremendously. By Thunderbolt Fantasy, we had the chance to be taught from Japanese creators and corporations apart from NITRO PLUS, equivalent to monster design simply talked about, sound manufacturing, and many others. Particularly, the sound director Miwa Iwanami gave us invaluable recommendation on how you can strengthen using voice efficiency to make puppet theater characters extra highly effective.

As soon as the interview was over, one of many puppeteers demonstrated the way in which they management the puppet of yandere princess Cháo Fēng. 

The employees additionally requested me how I acquired into Thunderbolt Fantasy. After which they even gave me the possibility to carry Cháo Fēng’s puppet myself!

It’s actually among the best issues I’ve ever gotten to do.