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Warren Shea

Avatar: The Last Airbender (Anime/Cartoon) – Review

Sunday, July 4th, 2010 at 3:44 am

Avatar: The Last Airbender – Introduction (taken from IMDB)

In a lost age the world is divided into four equal powers: Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads. In each nation there’s a group of gifted people known as Benders who have the ability to manipulate their native element using martial arts and elemental magic. For thousands of years the nations lived together peacefully. But then disaster struck. The young ruler of the Fire Nation, Fire Lord Sozin, began a war of world conquest. The only one who could have prevented it was the Avatar. The Avatar is the human incarnation of the Spirit of the World, he alone can master bending all four elements. But, just when he was needed most, he disappeared. Now, 100 years later, a young Waterbender named Katara and her older brother Sokka stumble upon the long lost Avatar, Aang, who was encased in an iceberg for 100 years. Now, they must help Aang master all four elements before summer when Sozin’s grandson Fire Lord Ozai will use a comet to deal one last deadly strike against the other nations and claim a Fire Nation victory. But, all that is easier said than done with the Fire Lord’s determined and hot-tempered son, Prince Zuko, hot on their trail. Written by Melanie

Review
I watched the entire series of Avatar: The Last Airbender within the last week. Half of season 2 and all of Season 3 today actually >_<. I thought it was a masterpiece of animation, epic in proportion, dramatic, hilarious, entertaining, all around great. It gave me the same whole hearted chilidish fun of Digimon Season 1 except without the terrible dubbedness of it all. I loved Digimon Season 1, I loved how imaginative and unique the Digmon world was. I love the variety of characters as well as the character interaction. Avatar: The Last Airbender does the same trick, taking you to a fantastic, unique world with superb, unique characters.

I should point out that sadly, Season 1 was below my expectations. Given the amount of hype and recommendations from my friends, I found the series good, not great. Very episodic (which I hate). Worth watching but nothing spectacular.

Season 2 picks up the pace. It’s a lot less episodic, the story arcs are larger, the characters are better. They introduce Toph whom is probably my favorite character. Think Gaara of the Sand, but blind, cute and with a spunky attitude. I guess once they get some of the initial character development out of the way and once you know and like the characters better, the show is just so much easier to watch.

Season 3 is epicly good. It’s insanely focused on character development…BUT also focused on plot at the same time. Is that possible? They do….everything right. The bring Season 1 and 2 together and every episode is spectacular. They put their A+ game into everything.

Now that it’s over, I completely understand why I’ve gotten so many recommendations on it. It’s pretty damn good…

I would give it a 9/10….the only drawback is the first season. It was just a little too…episodic, I would have given up on this series if not for Z. But…I’m glad I stuck through it, it was definitely worth it.

9/10! Go watch it if you haven’t…be sure to stick with it even if it starts off a bit slow. It just gets better and better and better.

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