Thunder 3

サンダー3

6.0(519)

MAL Score

Ranked #10894

Popularity #10904

Mystery
Sci-Fi
Supernatural
School
Super Power
Urban Fantasy

Duration: 22 min
Aired: Jul 9, 2026 to ?
Status: Currently Airing

Synopsis

In the gripping narrative of Thunder 3, three unassuming schoolboys stumble upon a mysterious DVD that claims to unlock a portal to a parallel universe. Curiosity leads to chaos when Futaba, the younger sister of one of the boys, inadvertently crosses over and becomes ensnared by extraterrestrial beings in this alternate reality, where the familiar becomes perilous.

As the boys venture into this hyper-realistic world, they discover that their cartoonish forms grant them extraordinary abilities, transforming them into unlikely heroes. Driven by friendship and determination, they embark on a daring quest to rescue Futaba from the clutches of the aliens, navigating through challenges that blur the lines between reality and the surreal.

Otaku Consensus

Thunder 3 is drawing a muted early response, with a 6.17 MAL score from 196 votes and a 51/100 AniList score, but its identity is sharper than those numbers suggest. The series’ strongest hook is Unend’s full-CGI, child-cast shounen approach under Hiroyuki Seshita and Keisuke Ide, while the most consistent barrier is the same thing that makes it unusual: a surreal comedy/sci-fi tone and CG presentation that will not read as conventional TV anime to every viewer.

Why You Should Watch

Watch Thunder 3 if you want a kid-led shounen adventure that leans into artificiality instead of trying to hide it. Its appeal is not in standard battle-anime escalation, but in the friction between cartoonish character language, full-CGI production, urban sci-fi danger, and a surreal comedy tag that keeps the tone unstable. It scratches a different part of the same itch as early Digimon Adventure or Doraemon’s stranger feature-length stories: children encountering a world with rules adults cannot explain, but filtered through a modern CG pipeline rather than nostalgic hand-drawn warmth. If you are curious about anime that treats CGI as the aesthetic, not a shortcut, Thunder 3 is more interesting than its early aggregate scores imply.

Key Characters

F
Futaba(VA: Honoka Mitsubachi)
Futaba is credited as a main character rather than a disposable objective, making her central to the show’s child-focused emotional stakes.
H
Hiroshi(VA: Eri Akiyama)
Hiroshi sits within the primarily male child ensemble that gives Thunder 3 its deliberately small, school-age shounen perspective.
P
Pyontarou(VA: Sayumi Suzushiro)
Pyontarou’s main billing places him at the core of the series’ unusual mix of boy-adventure casting, surreal comedy, and full-CGI staging.
T
Tsubame(VA: Natsumi Kawaida)
Tsubame rounds out the four-character main lineup, a compact cast structure that keeps the series closer to ensemble adventure than lone-hero sci-fi.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
Thunder 3 is produced by Unend and is tagged on AniList with both CGI and Full CGI at 60%, indicating that digital 3D is a core visual strategy rather than occasional effects work.
2
The directional hierarchy is unusually layered: Hiroyuki Seshita is credited as chief director, Keisuke Ide as director, with Ryuunari and Shin Sugai as assistant directors.
3
Hiroshi Seko handles series composition, giving the show a genre writer associated with tightly structured modern anime productions rather than a purely gag-driven children’s format.
4
The design pipeline separates original character design by Naoyuki Onda from mechanical design by Takehiko Hoashi, a useful clue that the series is built around both character stylization and sci-fi hardware.
5
AniList’s tag spread identifies it as Shounen, Primarily Child Cast, CGI, Full CGI, and Surreal Comedy, which positions it closer to experimental youth sci-fi than to a straightforward mystery title.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: Thunder 3 began airing on July 9, 2026, so its early MAL score of 6.17 is based on only 196 votes and should be read as an initial temperature check rather than a settled reputation.
Fun fact 2: AniList lists just 9 favourites for the series, matching its low visibility metrics on MAL, where it sits at popularity rank #12336.
Fun fact 3: Yuuki Ikeda is credited as the original creator, while Naoyuki Onda provides the original character designs for the anime production.
Fun fact 4: The credited art direction is split between Yuusuke Kamei and Keigo Nakamura, suggesting a shared approach to the show’s urban and alternate-world visual spaces.
Fun fact 5: All four listed main roles are performed by Japanese voice actors with women’s names: Honoka Mitsubachi, Eri Akiyama, Sayumi Suzushiro, and Natsumi Kawaida, a common casting approach for child-centered anime ensembles.