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Thunderbolt Fantasy Puppeteers Celebrate Takanori Nishikawa's Birthday With Special 'Puppet'

A dark horse series from 2016, Thunderbolt Fantasy used traditional Chinese and Taiwanese puppeteering to captivate the imaginations of anime fans around the world. One person integral to the production is Takanori Nishikawa. He not only provided the theme song for all three seasons, but also the voice for the young, red-haired pipa-playing man Làng Wū Yáo. To celebrate the singer's birthday, the puppeteering company behind Thunderbolt Fantasy, Pili Puppetry, imagined a Nishikawa “puppet.”

Pili Puppetry's X (formerly Twitter) account posted the image of the Nishikawa “puppet” on the singer's birthday, September 19. In the post, Pili Puppetry also asked fans to reminisce about Nishikawa's 1998 song “Hot Limit.”

While the photo in the Pili Puppetry X/Twitter post appears to be a Nishikawa puppet, astute fans of both Nishikawa and Thunderbolt Fantasy will notice something is a bit off. That's because the account composited Làng Wū Yáo's puppet head onto Nishikawa's real body. It's quite a convincing job as well, since at first glance it appears to be an original puppet with all the glam one would expect from Nishikawa.

Now, if only he'll appear on stage wearing a Làng Wū Yáo mask while performing “Hot Limit.”

Sources: Pili Puppetry's X/Twitter account