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Greetings Ladies and Gents! It Is I, The Shaman of Animation back again! Four years. Four years this blog's been going on. I've Reviewed a lot of cool stuff, reviewed a lot of shite, but out of the hundred plus posts I have here, there's one franchise I always come back to; and seeing that I've covered the Legend of Korra Animated series...and I don't feel like covering the comics at this current juncture, it's time to take a look at Korra's predecessor: Book One of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Long ago, the four nations (Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads) lived in peace. Until one day, The Fire Nation pulled a Flame Hyenard, wanting to burn everything to the ground and taking over the world, the only person that could stop this was the Avatar, the master of all four elements could put a stop to it, but then he vanished. A century later, a young boy named Aang (The titular Avatar) is found in an iceberg by a waterbender named Katara and her older brother Sokka.
Book One sees Aang, Katara and Sokka leave the latter two's home of the Southern Water Tribe to travel to the North Pole so Aang can train in Waterbending, one of the three other elements he must master in order to save the world from the Fire Nation and its ruler Ozai.
Because, obviously, this is the first season of a show, this book is all about introducing you to the world; and the world in Avatar is so immersive and, especially at the time when it came out, is so different from what you'd see in any cartoon. From the Air Temples, to the kingdom of Omashu, every new place is so creative and different from one another and also filled with colorful characters and animals and to this day the show still looks pretty damn good from a visual perspective.
The show's strongest trait lies in its characters and just how layered they are. They aren't defined by one note personality traits. All of our characters are allowed time to be happy, angry, sad, and they all have growth in the first season alone. I could talk about all of them but for this review, I just want to focus on two in particular.
The first is our main character Aang. He's introduced as a goofy, very laid back kid who's all about having fun. But as book one goes on, we get more insight into his hesitance when it comes to being the Avatar and how he has to learn to accept his role in the world and getting reacquainted with the world after being in an iceberg for 100 years. The best instance of this is in the episode "The Storm" that goes into his backstory.
A complaint of mine that I have for Aang in particular is that there are some instances where it feels like his character is reset from one episode to the next, resulting in his making the same mistakes and having to learn the same lesson. The one I'm thinking of in particular is him having to learn to stop joking around and take his job seriously as the Avatar, something that is still a problem at the start at the of the season finale.
And of course, we can't talk about characters in Avatar without bringing up the most recurring villain of Book One. As Aang, Katara and Sokka make their ways to The North Pole, they're being chased after the banished Prince of the Fire Nation Zuko. For most of the things I said about the main characters in the show, Zuko's a very interesting case as he is a villain but his motives aren't just because he wants to take over the world but it involves redemption. For Zuko, catching Aang means his place on the throne is restored and he has his father's love and respect; and the show also gives us a decent little look into his life before the start of the series and oddly enough it allows the audience to empathize the villain.
And of course I can't talk about this show without bringing up the bending. The creators of the show Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino have stated that their love for martial arts movies were a big influence on the show and the bending is where this influence is seen the most. The combination of the elements and actual martial arts movement (and the fact that the show uses actual martial arts to help create their bending gives a great sense of realism to the movements of the action in the show) molds one the most creative and original action series to date.
While Book One is a little on the sluggish side, I'd say its world, its characters, and its story is enough to keep any person hooked and coming back for more to watch. If you haven't seen the show yet, what are you doing? Go ahead and watch it.
But that's all for me folks, until next time, I'm The Shaman of Animation and...wait...tomorrow is October...you know what that means?
Oh yeah, it's coming back with a vengeance baby...
Take Care...
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