It’s a bit complicated with Thunder 3, for any number of reasons. I went into one of them briefly in the season preview, but if one wants to know more, it’s easy to find plenty of info about this – just Google “Oku Hiroya”. He’s the mangaka of Gantz, but it’s widely believed that “Ikeda Yuki”, supposedly the mangaka here, is Ikeda writing under a pen name. I don’t know why that would even be necessary but those who know his work seem sure this is Ikeda. And given that Gantz is notorious for xenophobic, misogynistic, and homophobic themes, when Thunder 3 eventually takes a virulently anti-immigration turn the pieces do seem to fit together.
That’s unfortunate, because I did quite enjoy the manga for a while. It hit with a pretty big tailwind of buzz and it was easy to see why. It’s visually unique and has a very grabby premise. Three middle school pals derisively dubbed the “Small 3” are inseparable. Hiroshi is the smart one, Tsubame the chill and pervy one (though they’re all a little pervy, they’re first-year middle schoolers). And Pyontarou is the main character. In-between web searches for “boobs” (or doodling them) he’s relentless annoyed by his adoring baby sister Futaba, who insists she’ll marry one when she grows up. And his dad draws a shounen manga called “Thunder 3” which is apparently only modestly successful.
The three boys admire their science teacher “Doc”. Enough so that they regularly go over to his house to hang out and play video games (which is a little hinky to be honest, though Doc seems innocent enough). On one such visit Pyontarou finds a disc Doc says is a portal to parallel universes (his obsession). But he doesn’t have the machine that can play it and Pyontarou does, so he lets him borrow it for a day. The other two swing by to watch it with him, and it’s incredibly realistic. So much so that when they step out of the room a dragonfly pops out of the TV and into the room, and Futaba eventually follows it back inside.
The other complicated factor with Thunder 3 is the adaptation itself. The manga is structured with two very distinct-looking settings – the “cartoon” world inhabited by the Small 3, and the alternate world they isekai into – where the locals comment that they look like manga characters. In the manga that’s basically live-action in appearance or something close to it. The anime is produced by UNEND, the brand-new CGI house started by Seshita Hiroyuki (who directed basically all the Polygon shows). So what we have here is first a sort of derpy American cartoon-style CGI, then a much more “realistic” CGI. I’m sure this is going to be very divisive – it definitely takes some getting used to, but at least it’s not cookie-cutter.
The thing is, this series actually is quite well-written and to me at least, immediately interesting. It does all go very, very wrong from my perspective but that’s not for a while yet. If the visuals don’t put you off it’s worth giving Thunder 3 a chance, because I think it’s going to very entertaining for much of the anime’s one-cour run, as the boys try to find and rescue Futaba. And if the Gantz-y stuff doesn’t bother you maybe you’ll be fine with Thunder 3 even after it shows its true colors.
