I am a big fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender and so I have been really looking forward to watching the follow up television series The Legend of Korra. It has finally started and so far I’ve seen the first few episodes (no spoilers for the latest episode please, I’m generally about a week behind). Obviously it is early days yet, but so far I really like the show.
The show is set 70 years after the original, when Aang is dead and the new avatar Korra is in training. She has mastered water, earth and fire, and now is studying airbending, trained by Tenzin, who is the son of Aang and Katara. The location is Republic City, a city founded by Aang and Zuko after the war in the original series. But while the four tribes are now at peace, there are new tensions between benders and non-benders. As well as training to be the avatar, Korra must deal with the threat of this group of anti-benders, the Equalists. Meanwhile she also enters the world of pro-bending, a sport where teams fight each other using bending.
As I said, I really like the show so far. It has quite a different feel to the original series - the main characters are a bit older, and the setting is much more industrial and modern. But that’s a not a bad thing, and it is good that the show is not going to just rehash the original story. I have enjoyed watching the episodes that I have seen so far, and I am looking forward to seeing how the show develops.
As I mentioned previously, I have been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender recently, which I have now finished. This was actually my second viewing; last time I watched it I wrote a little bit about it, but I thought that this time I’d type up a bit more detailed review.
The show was an anime-influenced animated series that ran on Nickelodeon for three seasons between 2005 to 2008. The setting is a fantasy world where some people have the ability to manipulate elements, known as bending. The world is divided into four nations, representing the four elements. There is one person known as the avatar, who can control all four elements, and is the link to the spirit world. When the avatar dies he is reincarnated, into another nation.
The series follows the avatar Aang, a young Air Nomad. He was born a hundred years before the start of the series but accidentally frozen in an iceberg, along with his flying bison, Appa. Since he vanished the Fire Nation has gone to war, wiping out all the Air Nomads and attacking the Water Tribe and the Earth Kingdom. Aang is discovered and freed from the iceberg by two teenagers from the Southern Water Tribe, Katara, a water bender, and her brother Sokka, who is not a bender but is a skilled fighter.
Aang is an airbender, but as the avatar he must learn to master the other forms of bending too. However attacks by the Fire Nation mean that there are no other water benders left at the South Pole, so Katara and Sokka agree to travel with him to the Northern Water Tribe, to search for a teacher. However they discover that Aang is being pursued by Prince Zuko, a young fire bender who has been exiled by his father the Fire Lord, and who wants to find the avatar in order to reclaim his honour. Zuko and his Uncle Iroh soon give chase after the avatar.
The series is one long story arc, following Aang’s journey towards mastering the elements and taking on his role as avatar, facing down the Fire Nation and bringing peace back to the world. Although the episodes largely stand alone, the story is still always progressing. Along the way they gain another companion, a blind girl called Toph, who teaches Aang earthbending. They also gain another enemy in Azula, the cruel and ruthless sister of Zuko, while Zuko himself changes from villain to anti-hero over the course of the show.
There is so much that I like about the show, which is truly excellent. It has is a wonderful concept and setting, great characters, a brilliant mix of humour and drama, and an excellent and well written plot, both for individual episodes and the overall story arc. Some people may dismiss it as a kids show, but I don’t think that would be fair; while it does have its occasional childish moments, to me it has the same kind of universal appeal as the films of Studio Ghibli or Pixar, and that is a positive point, not a negative one.
My only minor criticism: as I mentioned in my earlier post, it gets off to a bit of a slow start. The first time I watched it I had to get through a good chunk of the first season before I really got into it, and even rewatching it now, I will acknowledge that it definitely gets a lot better in season two and three as the characters become a bit more developed. It is definitely worth persevering with though.
You may have heard of the movie of the same name, although I will confess that I have not watched it as the trailer plus the director gave me the impression that it would be awful, and the reviews suggest that it is as bad as I had feared. (Indeed I believe one friend, who is also a fan of the series, told me that the film is even worse than we had possibly imagined it could be.) However there is a sequel series, Legend of Korra, which is set to air next year, and the trailer and premise for that sound great, so that one I am eagerly awaiting.
Overall though, this show is brilliant and I absolutely adore it. I really enjoyed watching it again this second time and it definitely stood up to repeat viewing; I look forward to viewing it again in the future! It is definitely one that I would recommend wholeheartedly.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is a television show that I really love. I first watched it a couple of years ago (old review here) and recently decided that I really, really needed to rewatch it all. I was discussing it with Chris recently after he started watching it and he said that he didn’t see what all the hype was about. I remember that when I first started watching it myself I got through about half of the first season and then gave up for a few months, but then returned to it and watched it all the way from the start again and loved it. I think the first season starts a little shaky but does get better. Rewatching it now, I am up to the start of the second series and I can confirm that it really does get better and better as it goes on. That being said, I do still enjoy season one, it is just that I have started to reach the episodes where it is ‘really good’ rather than just ‘good’, and I know there are some ‘great’ episodes still to come. I will have a bigger review when I am finished (more detailed than my old one which on reflection is not very informative at all!) but for now, I just wanted to note that I am really loving this show again.
I’ve been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender on DVD for the past few weeks and finally finished it recently. I know that it’s technically aimed at children, but I think that it has the same kind of universal appeal as Pixar or Studio Ghibli films. It has such great characters, and the humour you’d expect in a cartoon, along with actual drama and an ongoing plot that is really engaging. I absolutely loved it and I was genuinely sad when it was over. I really recommend this show to anyone.
