I have to do this video differently from most of my other videos.
It’s just kind of the subject matter.
Because I never expected to be making a video on Avatar the Last Airbender.
For years I hemmed and hawed on the idea of it and ultimately decided against it.
Because, I talk about anime, and by most definitions Avatar is not anime.
Therefore it’s something I shouldn’t talk about, since it’s not in my realm of expertise.
Sure it’s an animated series, and its style and content are anime inspired.
Heck, its sequel series Korra was even at times animated by Japanese Studio Pierrot.
You know, the guys who animated Tokyo Ghoul?
They did seven full episodes of Korra.
But!
Avatar was a show created by Americans, written by Americans, and aired on an American channel
for an American audience.
The show is American in origin and as such does not qualify as an “anime”.
At least, not as far as many westerners generally define the term.
Now I’m not going to go further into what does and does not qualify as anime.
That’s something worthy of its own video.
But I am personally of the mind that Avatar is not Anime.
Yet, I also believe that any fan of anime will enjoy watching Avatar, for the same reasons
that they love anime.
It might not be anime, but that shouldn’t stop you from watching it like it was one.
So ladies, gentlemen and others, my name is Arkada and welcome to Glass Reflection, today
the 2005 animated series made for Nickelodeon: Avatar the Last Airbender.
Let’s Jam.
The TL;DR of
me talking about Avatar, ignoring the before explained “WHAT IS ANIME” argument is
thus: It is not a perfect series.
There are several dips and bends that Avatar makes as a piece of entertainment.
But, it’s one of the best animated series from North America that I have seen.
I would even put it leagues ahead of many other Japanese animated shows that I have
watched.
It’s a show that has this balanced blend of comedy, action, and characters.
A balance that make it’s episodes absolute joys to watch.
In my review for the Seven Deadly Sins, I said that it was a kind of show where each
episode went by so fast.
Fast enough that you don’t even notice as the episodes passed you by, because you were
just enjoying it so much.
Avatar is similar, except for me it went by even faster.
A year ago is when I first watched the series, and when I did, I ended up going through it
all at an average of a season a day.
I just turned it on and stopped when it felt like the sun was rising to bring in a new
day.
When I needed some sleep because I was past the point where coffee could help me.
Avatar follows the story of the last remaining bender of Air, Aang.
In this world, there are special individuals who can bend the four elements of the world.
Air, Water, Earth and Fire.
While there are many tribes of people dedicated to each of these four arts, Aang is the last
of his tribe.
He is also the mystical Avatar.
Because in this world there can only be one person at a time who can master all 4 elements,
and that person is the Avatar.
There’s a lot of mysticism here that makes the story’s origin compelling.
It’s like how the Force and the Jedi worked in the early days of Star Wars.
You don’t need to know how the Force works to think that it’s cool and awesome.
Just like here we don’t need any kind of scientific explanation on why and how bending
works.
Certainly don’t need an explanation on why and how the Avatar exists.
Because that would be akin to introducing mediclorians to this series.
Good thing that never happened, right Korra?
Anyway, while we never have scientific explanations in Avatar, the show had many in-universe explanations
for why things work.
Also, many of the traditions of the people in Avatar were based on actual real life cultures.
Bending is an example.
The 4 different kinds of bending all have their own individual martial art influence.
There is much of this series that comes off as a love letter to Asian cultures, anime,
and to Hong Kong kung fu films.
This makes the show, despite being for children, still have a kind of mature seriousness to
it at times.
It’s this seriousness that draws people into its story.
Similar to why people like me watch Japanese animation.
For me, I started watching anime back in the day because what I watched from Japan was
just so new, so different.
Anime drew me in because it had the fluid nature of cartoons.
It had the ability to bend reality that live action shows could not, but it did so in a
serious and real way.
Anime never treated me like a child even with the shows designed for them.
Too often in American animation, you get that feeling like this was meant only for a child.
Like at times it’s talking down to you.
Anime never did that for me, and Avatar is a rare American series that does the same
thing.
Which leads me into being able to talk about one of the best things that Avatar has.
Life lessons done right.
Because ultimately this series is about a group of children on an adventure.
Along the way, they learn things about the world and about life that every child usually
goes through.
But how the show handles it is different from others.
It never comes off as a show that preaches to its audience.
Each lesson it teaches is not something that’s focused on specificly.
The characters don't end off each episode talking about what they learned.
Which is astounding when one of the best characters, preaches advice left and right.
Uncle Iroh is one of the best characters in animation, and this includes anime.
Iroh is never a focus of the story, never in the spotlight.
But he guides the characters, like his nephew Zuko, in a way that's so profound and full
of wisdom.
Instead of Iroh lecturing the audience bluntly, he teaches characters in ways that helps them.
But in doing so he has the audience learn so they don’t make similar mistakes.
I know what you are going to say.
She’s my sister, and I should be trying to get along with her.
No, she’s crazy and she needs to go down.
True, he’s a caricature at times, being that old sage sprouting Chinese proverbs.
But there are times when his advice is moving and emotional.
Here’s a good example of what I mean: What are you doing here?
I was just about to ask you the same thing.
What do you plan to do now that you have found the Avatar’s Bison?
Keep it locked in our new apartment?
Should I go put on a pot of tea for him?
First I have to get it out of here.
AND THEN WHAT?
You never think these things through!
This is exactly what happened when you captured the Avatar at the North Poll.
You had him, and then you had nowhere to go!
In this scene, Iroh is confronting Zuko about how he never plans for the future.
How he always seems like he’s just going through life by the seat of his pants and
never looks at the big picture.
But he’s also pleading with him to not continue trying to please or live up to the expectations
of others.
Instead to live for himself.
In just about a minute he’s able to cover both these aspects of Zuko’s character.
It's masterful, and the show has many moments of writing like this.
But the show is not all life lessons and sage advice.
It contains plenty of action, even from characters who you’d least expect it from.
Like the other best character that Avatar has to offer: Toph.
Toph is blind.
She is a young blind girl who also just happens to be the best earth bender in the world.
She has a daredevil-like ability to be a badass and see without eyes.
She is also the reason why I watched this show to begin with.
I kept seeing her scenes posted online and wanted to know her story, what her deal was.
Toph is an example of a character introduced to cover diversity and disabilities.
Mostly because no one else ever touches these topics so it’s wide open for awesome stories
to occur.
Too often in many cultures, disabilities are something that's frowned upon.
They are something not normal, something to be pitied.
But Avatar decides to say screw that!
Let’s have one of the most powerful benders be a little blind girl.
Not only that, let's show the world how a disability can make a person stronger!
She has moments of weakness, yes: she can’t read.
She can’t see any enemy if they attack her from the air.
Also, in less-than-ideal conditions she’s hindered by her environment.
But she is far from useless or weak.
And she’s not the only one.
Early in season one we have a wheelchair bound child take flight in a glider.
Heck, even Zuko has something to a similar effect.
Having half his face burnt off is something that in our society would place him in outcast
category.
But they all have their stories of awesomeness that make Avatar what it is.
I haven’t even talked about the main characters either.
Jeeze.
Avatar has this weird kind of entertainment value.
While watching it, I could see the flaws.
The entire third season was far lower in story quality than what the previous seasons offered.
Despite that, though it was still enjoyable.
At that point you have fallen so far in love with the characters that the rest rarely matters.
On top of which, Avatar is a series that is an example of preplanning and arc building
done right.
You see, if you look at a show with 3 seasons like this, what you normally get is a show
with three clear and concise arcs.
Arcs that each have their own stories, climaxes and conclusions.
But they are arcs that are separate from each other.
Here though, that’s not the case.
The main goals get defined early on and that narrative lasts all the way until the final
episode.
Sure there are subplots disguised as their own arcs but the true story of the show is
always present.
It's always visible, and eventually it concludes.
This reminds me of one of my favorite science fiction shows ever.
Babylon 5.
Bab 5 a show that had its entire narrative arc conceived before the first episode was
ever written.
The result is one long story that has the same cohesiveness as one a 5th of its length.
Avatar feels like that.
You know early on how Avatar is going to end.
Aang is going to defeat the fire lord and save the world.
But you keep watching because the journey of Aang from an uppity air bender to a proper
avatar is what is compelling about the show.
The story of Zuko, fighting against the desire to please his father is what is compelling
about the show.
The nuances of the villains, from the fire lord to his daughter Azula, is what is compelling
about this show.
Sokka’s failure at romance is what is compelling about this show.
My first girlfriend turned into the moon.
That’s rough buddy.
Avatar is a series that I’m disappointed others have not taken pointers from.
It’s a show that takes various elements that we’ve all seen before.
Plucky young characters pitted against an ultimate evil, fighting for freedom and peace.
But the show expands so much from those traditional cliché elements.
Its characters are more than just archetypes or embodiments of tropes.
Instead they are daughters, they are sons, they are enemies while also being friends.
The depth of all the characters is so much vaster than other shows of its kind.
It makes this series SO much more than just some young kid setting off to fight evil.
It’s about the relationships that the characters have.
It's about how they interact, and learn from one another.
How they develop into living, breathing people.
If you’ve never watched Avatar before, allow me to recommend a single episode for you.
From season two, there is an episode called “Tales from Ba Sing Se”.
It’s unique because it's not one story that takes up 25 minutes, it’s a collection of
short stories.
Stories about the various characters who are now living in the Earth Kingdom city of Ba
Sing Se.
It doesn’t advance the main story of Aang fighting the firelord, nor does it continue
any other character's storyline.
In fact, most would consider this episode to be useless filler.
But it’s an episode that is less of a progression for any of the characters, and more of a summary
of what some of them are.
It’s an example of what Avatar tries to do with its characters that other shows don't
and I highly recommend it.
*sigh* I just want to keep talking about this show.
Because I’ve held off for so long that I could just sit here and talk for hours.
It reminds me of last year for the RWOA when I reviewed HunterxHunter.
I had so much to say, because that show was so long.
But I didn’t want to keep you here all day.
So allow me to summarize again.
Avatar has much to it that many other American shows, and even quite a few Japanese shows
lack.
It never draws out its content, it never sets up narrative arcs that don’t get developed.
It actually has narrative arcs which sometimes do not occur in TV animation in the West.
It is a series filled with individual stories, paced quite well.
Stories that develop its characters in a way that doesn't make it obvious that it's even
doing it.
My qualms with the show are few, the third season being one as in my mind it never matched
the quality of season two, which was the best by far.
The intro to the show, Katara’s speech about the world and Aang gets tiring when you marathon
the series.
And, I just wish that the show had at least one more season to flesh out the remaining
backstories of characters.
Ones that got teased to us but never got expanded upon.
Legend of Korra, while nice, couldn't do that because that takes place so many years after
the fact.
It may not be Anime, and I won’t try to argue why people should consider it one.
But it’s the best non-Japanese animated series that I have watched.
As such, I am proud to present it with a Glass Reflection Rating of Certified Frosty.
A rating I reserve for only the best of the best, and those shows too important to ignore.
With Avatar, I think it more than covers both of those requirements.
If you have never watched it, you are missing so much.
And I highly recommend you remedy that at your earliest opportunity.
At the time of this video, Avatar the Last Airbender is available from Nickelodeon on
DVD.
For legal streaming, I’ve heard it’s available on Nickelodeon’s website.
But that’s inaccessible from Canada, so I can't confirm.
It’s also on Netflix, but only if you live in the UK.
To be honest though, the DVD’s are cheap as dirt with most places running each season
at only $20 each.
Plus, the DVD’s just aren’t hard to find.
I’m not going to give alternate anime recommendations this time around.
Because, Avatar itself is just one big giant recommendation for people who like similar
series.
For people who just watch anime in general, so it’s hard to compare Japanese anime to
it.
So I’m not going to try.
Just go watch Avatar.
DO IT.
DO IT!
And finally I’d like to thank all my patrons, including Joshua Garcia Jocelyn Atkins , Rurika
Adachi, Calhounboy, Viktor Ekmark, and Nicolai Grey without whom I would not be able to produce
these videos to the same extent that I would like.
And that’s it from me.
Thank you gentle viewers for watching.
Until next time, Stay Frosty.