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Thunderforce Coming to Cartoon Network

Under the name of "Wulin Warriors: Legend of the Seven Stars," the popular Taiwanese puppet series Pili (霹靂), previously known outside of Taiwan as Thunderforce, will be released in North America by Broadway Video Enterprises and GoodTimes Ent. The 13 episodes will also be broadcast on Cartoon Network this fall. The series is currently the most popular emprise puppet series in Taiwan.

Pili's ancestor, the immesely popular "Yún Zhōu Dà Rú Xiá" (雲州大儒俠) one of the first puppet TV show in Taiwan, was watched by 90% of Taiwanese households when it aired in 1970. The series ended up being banned for several years, oficially because it it "caused students to skip classes and farmers to abandon their fields." There was even an urban legend about a gynecologist who wouldn't deliver babies whenever the show was on. More complex political reasons involving the Mandarin-promotion policy of the Taiwanese government are often believed to be the actual root cause of the show's cancelation.

The emprise genre focuses on martial-arts and the noble lifestyle that martial-artists are expected to lead. The most popular and celebrated emprise novelist is Jin Yong (金庸), original creator of Condor Hero. Condor Hero has been adapted into an 18-volume comics series, available in English from Asia-Pak books, and an anime TV-series co-produced in Japan and Taiwan and released in North America by Tai-Seng.