Avatar: The Last Airbender - Season 1

Title:Avatar: The Last Airbender - Season 1
Avatar The Last Airbender - The Complete Book 1 Collection
Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book1:Water
Overall:Buy
Keywords: , , , , , ,
Notables:
Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Only the Avatar was the master of all four elements. Only he could stop the ruthless Fire Nation from conquering the world. But when the world needed him most, he disappeared. Until now... On the South Pole, a lone Water Tribe village struggles to survive. It's here that a young Waterbender named Katara and her warrior brother Sokka rescue a strange boy named Aang from a cavernous iceberg. Not only is Aang an Airbender--a race of people no one has seen in a century--but they soon discover that Aang is also the long lost Avatar. Now it's up to Katara and Sokka to make sure Aang faces his destiny to save the tribe--and himself. Did we mention he's only 12?
[20episodes, 30min; see also: Avatar: The Last Airbender - Season 2,Avatar: The Last Airbender - Season 3]
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Buy 9 10 9 7 8 8 Ggultra2764 [series:1528#1552]
The Pros: Avatar the Last Airbender is an unlikely series for some anime fans to take seriously. Sure, it isn't exactly made in Japan and the animation and Eastern-style elements are taken right from anime. But, Avatar is an enjoyable watch because it is a rarity for Japanese-style American animation to actually base its elements on themes commonly found in anime. The series takes itself seriously and always maintains a linear storyline even when going into the occasional filler episode. Its plot and character progression flow smoothly and never stall for more than two episodes at a time. This is in contrast to 'craze' anime titles like Naruto and Inuyasha that stall for several or even over 10 episodes at a time to resolve certain storylines or create fillers for a dozen episodes just to drag the storyline or any potential character development. The world of Avatar is an immersive one featuring different environments for each of the lands that Aang and his group visit such as the temples of the Air Nomads or the stone walled fortresses in the Earth Kingdom. These lands feature people with different lifestyles that viewers will get to understand as these ways of living are connected to the disciplines and fighting styles of each of the characters that will seen in Avatar. In addition, Avatar creates a solid amount of character depth to allow viewers connect to each of the characters, even those who only have secondary roles. Viewers will get to know the pasts and backgrounds of mostly every character they encounter which include Aang's peaceful days before the genocide of the Air Nomads and what led to Zuko's neverending quest to capture Aang for the Fire Nation.

Avatar features some crisp artwork and character designs that feature plenty of color and detail with both the characters and the backgrounds and scenery of each of the locations that are seen throughout the series. The highlight of this series is the animation featured through the battle scenes. All the battle scenes are quite fluid and smooth with each bender in the series having his or her own fighting style based on what they have learned. It's quite a sight seeing the aggression of Firebending attacks or Aang gliding around in the air with his Airbending to evade attacks. Even with all the action, character detail is still retained and I haven't felt as though that there was any use or repeated animation frames or still shots at all in the series, unlike what I've seen through Dragon Ball Z or Inuyasha because of their ridiculously long series lengths.

The Cons: Avatar isn't the most original series to be contrived. Many of the elements of the series are borrowed off of themes, character types, and concepts used in past action and adventure anime titles. There are villians who have no redeemable qualities making them the archetypical 'evil' character. In addition, the content of the series is rather light in contrast to the intensity and violence found in Japanese titles. For those who want more intensity or blood with Avatar, they will be sorely disappointed in watching this.

Facts on the Series:

-The fighting in Avatar was influenced and emulated through the disciplines and stances of actual martial arts styles. Waterbending is based off Tai Chi, Earthbending based off Hung Gar, Firebending based off Northern Shaolin Long Fist, and Airbending off Ba Gua.

Last updated Sunday, February 03 2008. Created Sunday, February 03 2008.
Buy 10 10 10 10 10 10 Big Fire [series:1528#2441]
10s all around for this show...Hey I love anime as much as the next man, and i know this is from Nick, but Avatar is an exception...It has 4 elements...Earth, Water, Air and Fire and each element represents a nation. The Nations have benders who have mastered there specific element and can control it...The avatar is the master of all 4 elements and he is around to keep the peace. But 100yrs ago, the avatar vanished, and the fire nation began to invade the other nations. Book1 is the story of how the Avatar gets discovered after being missing all this time, and how he must train and become the master of all 4 elements in order to defeat the fire lord! Kinda boring huh? NOT...The Avatar cannot learn these elements in peace, as he is being chased by the Fire Lord's banished son Prince Zuko...Can the Avatar master the elements or get caught by the fire nation?

Last updated Monday, February 05 2007. Created Monday, February 05 2007.

Other Sites
NameURL
Distant Horizon http://www.musogato.com/avatar/index2.html
Fansite and Forum for Avatar: The Last Air Bender
Season 1 Water Tribe http://www.avatarchapter.net/58/
Site to Watch Season 1 on-line

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