9.24.2008

Avatar:The Last Airbender


I'm really hooked watching this series since TV 5 aired more Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes. On contrary, this is the synopsis: "Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony.Then everything's changed when the Fire nation attacked.Only the Avatar-master of all elements could stop them but when the world needed him most he vanished.A hundred years past, two siblings from Water Tribe Katara and Sokka discover the new avatar-an Airbender named Aang stuck in the giant iceberg.Although his Airbendending skills were great,he has to lot to learn before he's ready to defeat the Fire Nation.Now, it's up to Aang to save the world as the Avatar.

Avatar created by Michael Dante Dimartino and Bryan Konietziko in the year 2005.Avatar: The Last Airbender contains the world full of people who have possessed their own elemental powers known as "benders".Also, there are four nations in the world of this cartoon-Water Tribes,Earth Kingdom,Fire Nation and Air Nomads.Each of the new generation yields only one person who are capable to control four elements as an Avatar.The Avatar shows it's unique power called an Avatar State which is usually used as defense mechanism and gets it's own will.Throughout the ages, countless of Avatar in every generation served to protect the world.

It's not really cheesy or boring to be called for this cartoon.Besides, the show really have many influences in culture and art mostly from Asia. The word "Avatar" has it's real meaning.
What really influence this great series aside from culture,one of the biggest elements for the characters from Avatar universe is the "anime".If you watch an episode of Avatar,you'll notice the character's reaction like when they're happy or getting a rant with a mix of funny reactions in their faces.Many people and fans who watch Avatar considered the show to be an "anime" but it really doesn't considered as anime because it was created in United States.Another biggest influence is their fighting styles.No joke, those fighting styles are based to similar martial arts techniques that exist today (I even heard the staff hire many martial artists experts in order to produce more fighting styles in every episode).

I can't tell the whole plot of this show because someday you can watch it whole. The characters of the show are really great and develop their personality as the series goes on.The whole story of Avatar consist of episodes called "chapters" and season called "books"(think as a classic book).
This tells about the adventures and struggles of Aang as an Avatar with the help of his friends like Katara and Sokka (Aang's pet flying bison and flying lemur included) in order to save many people from the power greed Fire Nation.I can't tell the spoilers, you better watch it instead...

The show's gain higher demographic ratings reaching 1 million+ viewers when a new episode premiered.It also gained more awards because of the great elements in producing the show.Although,Avatar:The Last Airbender never reached it's 100+ episode, they got a fair and happy ending.Many countries around the world ranked Avatar as their number one and one of the top rated programs on Nickelodeon today.Last July 19th this year,Avatar:The Last Airbender reached it's final episode and gained 5 million+ viewers in the U.S. (Source:Wikipedia).
In the success the series,Nickelodeon promote more promotions and merchandises-from video games,action figures,TCG's,etc.Their will be a feature movie of Avatar that will set to release in 2010 according to the co-creators.This year, Nickelodeon released an online MMORPG of Avatar:The last Airbender in this site that will be available worldwide.But unfortunately,when you'll play that game you'll have to download something from that game and an account from Nick in order to run.

Thanks to the cultural influence,you can assure that Avatar:The Last Airbender is one of the shows that considered as an anime by many fans. I can't really tell why they called that one.For at least the show got a great plot and satisfying ending.Will the show be considered as the "next Harry Potter" perhaps?Only time can tell.

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