Tag Archives: hololive dev_is

Juufuutei Raiden Has a Thunderbolt Fantasy Collab?!

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Juufuutei Raden watching a video of herself, which has an elaborate puppet version of her on screen.

I never expected a crossover between the Taiwan-Japan puppet series Thunderbolt Fantasy and arts and culture VTuber Juufuutei Raden of hololive, but it seems the world favors me specifically. 

Raden recently showed on stream a video of her trip to Taiwan and a visit to Pili: the studio behind Thunderbolt Fantasy with a long history of doing elaborate, action-packed puppet shows for TV and film. It’s a perfect fit for Raden, who not only has degrees in art and art history, but whose enthusiasm for the topics has helped drive traffic to galleries, and is even currently doing collaborations with museums around the world. They even made a special Raden puppet, based on the yandere princess Cháo Fěng.

I actually interviewed Pili last year at Anime Central, where they screened the finale of Thunderbolt Fantasy. (You’ll even see some of the same faces that appear in Raden’s video!) I got a lot of insight into their thought process and methods, but this video tour along with Raden’s own commentary provides some awesome new details that help give me an even better understanding. For example, there’s a lot of footage about puppet construction, including how they paint the faces and how they construct the weapons from acrylic. I didn’t know they use 3D printers to make the models either!

The video is only in Japanese, so unfortunately, not everyone is going to be able to understand what’s being said. However, there are a lot of visual details that I think it’s still a learning experience worth watching.

As part of this collab, the Raden puppet will be on display in Yurakucho, Tokyo July 25–August 9, where they’ll be selling limited edition merch! Right now, it looks like the only way to get anything, and I won’t lie when I say I’m really tempted to try, despite tariffs and all the other headaches right now. An exhibition will also follow in Taipei from September 12–October 12.

She also did a watchalong of the first season!

Incidentally, one of Pili’s other works was recently released officially in English on blu-ray: Legend of the Sacred Stone. I hope this opens up a path for a physical release of Thunderbolt Fantasy too, and the long-shot prospect of getting to see the Raden puppet in person as well.

Four hololive Dancers, Four Twists

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Todoroki Hajime of hololive held her 3D birthday concert in June, and one of the biggest moments was a group performance of the song “Kokkara” featuring her, Hakos Baelz, Isaki Riona, and Mizumiya Su. As expected, they all showcase why all four of them are almost inarguably the best dancers in hololive, but one thing that really stood out to me is how they were given opportunities to show off their unique dance personalities.

While the most clear example of unique expression is when they each perform by themselves, one thing that really caught my attention is how they each move during the chorus. There’s this pivot/twist move that they do, and if you look closely, you can see that they each perform it differently. I don’t know enough to actually fully make sense of their individual approaches, but to me it looks like:

Hajime has her hands in different positions every time, with weight on one leg and both knees bent. It reminds me of a C-walk, but also feels like she’s drilling down with her body.

Bae also has her weight on one leg, but the other is more extended, she’s bent lower at the waist, and her arms are out like she’s doing the classic Twist. To me, it comes across almost like a sit spin in figure skating and has a clearly different silhouette from Hajime’s.

Riona does more of a shuffle in place with less of a clear twisting motion and more hip movement, and she ends with a very pronounced kick to the side. Her hands are also moving in vertical circles, like wheels.

Su seems to shift her weight back and forth between each leg, though I might be getting fooled by the fact that her left leg is really crossing over her right as she pivots. It gives the impression that Sue is very light on her feet, even compared to the others. 

Additionally, in the first chorus, the four backup dancers do the choreography as well, and they also each have their own take on the move!

Incidentally, Hajime gave their names during the concert, but given her particular speech quirks, I couldn’t fully decipher them. I think they’re Hajime’s personal crew from her backup dancer days, so I think it’d be cool if someone could figure out who each of them were in other performances, including but not limited to the birthday concert.