Is Thornblade a parry Aniimo?

Mistime Thorny Defense and you waste it: it has to land as the hit comes in, not before. Thornblade pays off when you read enemy attacks and parry them perfectly, and it gives back much less when you play it loosely.

That makes it one of the more technical picks in the game. Its grass team is hard to play, and how well it performs depends on your timing more than on its stats. If you enjoy watching for wind-ups and countering them, it rewards you. If you would rather press buttons and trade hits, it will feel weaker than it is.

It is still a DPS Aniimo (No. 034), so the parry is how you set up your damage. Its Impact skill, Thorny Impact, raises critical hit rate by 15%. Thorny Blessing's thorns can trigger at most once every 0.5 seconds, which limits how fast that passive damage can stack.

If parrying is not for you

Thornblade evolves from Budsquire, and Budsquire has a second evolution, Melloblum. Evolving into Melloblum takes one Stamen of Kubo's Rose. If you already know the timing game is not your style, decide on that branch before you evolve.

Prismana Thornblade is an alternate form you pick in the Change Form menu. It has its own element and skills, but it is still Thornblade, so expect to parry with it too.

Not settled: Thornblade's element is not settled. It appears as pure Grass in its Basic form, with Prismana Thornblade adding Water, and it also appears as Grass and Water. That changes which matchups its parry game is good in.