After Rebels, and with the advice of some good folk, Ben and I started bingeing Avatar by James Cameron. Oops, I mean the animated show Avatar: The Last Airbender. We're just past the halfway point, in the middle of the second season.
As advertised, the show is wonderful. Aang, the titular Airbender, is a goofy 12 year old, but endlessly charming, self-sacrificing and kind. His companions, Katara and Sokka, both very different characters, are also well-developed, interesting and complex. It reminds me a little bit of Samurai Jack, but much deeper on a character level. The setup of the world is very clever and interesting and allows for an obvious story arc, but takes some unexpected twists. As with all good fiction of this type, even the villains have clear, understandable motivations and are not one-dimensional. And yes, it can even wreck you emotionally. (I'm looking at you, "The Tales of Ba Sing Se".)
Finally, Uncle Iroh, voiced by the late, great, Mako, who died after the second season, is the best, one of the greatest animated characters in history.
I can't wait to find out how it ends, but will be very sad when it does.
(Ben is very aware of the terrible Last Airbender movie by M. Night Shamalamadingdong, and I keep threatening him that once we're done with the series, we're going to watch it. He is horrified by this.)
3 comments:
I would put this in the top series of all time -- not just animated. The character development is amazing. I'm so happy you guys are watching it!
There is also a CCG based on the show, which is quick and fun. The design team was only shown some of the stuff from season 1, so they actually created 4 new characters for the game that don't appear in the show.
So last night we watched the Guru episode, and right after I had praised the show it started on about chakras and other silliness. (Magic and bending are fine, but as soon as it started into stuff dumb humans actually believe, my hackles went up). HOWEVER, the show handled the chakras as actual emotional trauma Aang was suffering, and it worked so well, I completely forgave the "chakra" framing. Way to go show!
We're a couple of episodes into season 3 and I actually loved the Footloose episode where Aang teaches the fire nation kids to dance. I thought it was actually kind of moving (so to speak).
I love Avatar so much. It's endlessly rewatchable. And incredibly deep. It remains (as far as I know) the only animated series to ever win a Peabody award.
Incidently, I call him M. Night Shameaboutyourlastfilm.
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