You spend the first episode remembering that these are puppets, and the rest of the season forgetting it entirely. Sword Seekers 2 is Urobuchi Gen handed a stage of hand-carved Pili budaixi figures, real fire, real water, real silk sleeves whipping through frames no CG artist would bother to fake, and he uses it to write a heist where nobody at the table is telling the truth. Shang Bu Huan is dragged back into a job he already paid for once, and Lin Xue Ya is right there beside him, grinning, having already sold everyone out in season one and expecting you to fall for it again. That is the trick: the pleasure here is not the swordplay, it is watching a con reveal a con inside a con, with Tomokazu Seki and Junichi Suwabe carrying every ounce of it in the voice work. Then the Screaming Phoenix Killer opens his mouth and the whole thing tilts sideways.

Thunderbolt Fantasy Sword Seekers 2 is the second season of Thunderbolt Fantasy, a 13-episode TV series from 2018 that continues the story begun in Sword Travels in the East. That first season introduced an Eastern-styled fantasy world where sacred guardians protect a coveted sword from the minions of Miè Tian Hai. This follow-up blends action, drama and fantasy.