Avatar: The Last Airbender

[Glen Miyashiro]

I caught this new cartoon on Nickelodeon the other day. It's an American-made cartoon done in Japanese anime style, set in what looks like a fantasy China. At first glance I thought it was an import, but the lip-synching was just too good. The plot seems predictable but fun nonetheless. I'm curious to see just how much depth American scriptwriters will put into a children's cartoon. So far, it shows promise.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Avatar: The Last Airbender

Well, it's been a couple of months, and after nine episodes, I definitely like it. And apparently, so do a whole lot of other people. (TV Tome's synopses are pretty good.)

Interestingly, the plot revolves around mastery of the four elements: air, water, earth, fire. Having four elements is a Greek idea, not Chinese. If this were really a Chinese story, it'd be five elements: water, fire, earth, wood, and metal (usually iron). But for a Western audience, clearly the four Greek elements would be much more familiar. The technological mix is also of note. The Fire Nation seems to have a lot of fairly sophisticated technology -- iron ships fueled with coal, telescopes, etc. -- but your typical village is still at pre-industrial levels. This seems to fit the idea of a Chinese-like world; China had an impressive amount of technological stuff but it all seemed hand-crafted, not mass produced. In another nice Chinese note, the most recent episode featured an instructional martial-arts style scroll on the art of waterbending that I'm sure I've seen a version of in the Asian collection of the Academy of Arts.

The story is good. It's not at all surprising or suspenseful -- from the first episode, I could predict the broad outlines of the overall story -- but it moves well and has a good combination of action, drama, and humor. The animation is great. The style is clearly influenced by anime, but without those exaggerated and sometimes annoying Japanese embellishments (embarrassed sweat running down brows, furious bulging cross-shaped forehead veins, lascivious jellybean eyes, gratuitous sound effects). From the credits, it appears that the grunt work is mostly farmed out to Korean studios, as is usually the case these days. Overall, clean lines and good composition. The characters are good. I was wondering how much depth to expect, and I have been surprised that there's actually been a fair bit. Now this is a kid's action show, not Chekov, but it's clearly aimed at the older preteen / young teen age range and does really well for its aims. All the main characters have had a chance to show some emotional depth.

And lastly, I really love that Mako provides the voice for Uncle Iroh, the elderly advisor to the exiled Prince Zuko. Mako just makes the show. I've missed hearing Mako's throaty growl ever since they stopped making new episodes of Samurai Jack. Go Mako!