FUCK YEAH!!!
Sorry, that's the only way to really start this one. This series was so awesome it took me a day (and an odd Twilight parody that I'm not sure is any better for women, though I'm not sure how that caused inspiration, but it did) to really put together my thoughts on how awesome it was.
The series has some of the best writing I've seen in a children's show outside of the DC Animated Universe...and that's saying a hell of a lot. The story was superbly crafted, and though you know how it's going to end (I mean, it's still a rehasing of the heroes journey), it's still awesome getting there.
I love the characters, especially Zuko (remember, I have a thing for anti-heroes), Iroh (I mean, he's played by Mako, come on. Who wouldn't love him?), Azula...ok...to make a long story short, I like all the Fire Nation Royal Family...I mean, hell, they're some of the best bad guys to come out of a children's show in a long time, and the head of the family, who's never really on screen until the Sozin's Comet finale movie (which really adds to his mystique about the character), Ozai, is voiced by none other than the god of animated series baddies, Mark Hamill. Back on track though...outside of that family, the main cast are all pretty good. The secondary cast members leave a little to be desired, but that's understandable.
I also really enjoy the mythology. A good story, in my opinion, can fall to pieces if it doesn't have a good mythology, and this series is really lucky that it has a great one. The bending is a great way to describe elemental manipulation, and the fact that it falls on the five elements, with an animal spirit guiding each is impressive too.
It also falls back to a eclectic series of pieces of Far Eastern Myths, mainly Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan. The most prevalent cases are the Avatar/Dalai Lama, Sun Emperor/Fire Lord, and Ba Singh Se/The Forbidden City (Zijen Chang) are from each of the three of them, and parallel Japanese expansion from the late 1800's to 1945 (however, rather than an atomic bomb stopping them, it was Aang).
Basically, the way I read it is, the Fire Nation is Japan, at the height of it's Imperial Industrialist Age, the Earth Kingdom is China, circa the Qing Dynasty (which fell about the same time Japan was at that point in it's history), the Air Nomads were the Tibetan Monks, who at this same point in history were overthrowing the Qing Dynasty from their walls, and the Water Tribes probably being Koreans or Mongolians, or both, who were also having troubles with China and Japan at that time...however, that might be entirely coincedental. Maybe.
The spiritual beasts is also another legend that tends to surround the regions' mythologies. Generally, they are the turtle, the pheonix, the tiger, and the dragon. Two of these appear as one of the five masters of ancient bending, dragons holding presence of firebending and turtle-lions having command of energy bending. Also, earthbending is controlled by the badger-moles (who as far as I know, have no corresponding significance in Eastern Religions or myths), waterbending is controlled by the moon fish (which as significance in a few origin myths as creating the stars and the sky), and airbending is taught by the flying bison (bulls, and other cattle, like bisons, have significance throughout most religions and myths, though which they might be pulling from for the flying bison, I know not).
Anyways, enough about mythology...which is awesome, and worth checking out simply for itself...and on to the aesthetic portions of the show. Visually, the show is some of the best 2D animation I've seen not originating in a Japanese studio in the last ten years. It actually looks like hand drawn work and I like it. That said, there's some good 3D work in it too, but it's used intelligently and doesn't overbear in the art direction.
The series also sounds good. From really good voice work, specifically Mako (Iroh, seasons 1 and 2) and Gray DeLisle (Azula) really impressed me. The music is all well scored, and used very effectively. I really like the end credit theme.
Things wrong with the series...well, first, my number one pet peeve, it ended on a cliffhanger. Zuko asks his father where his mother is leaving the series open for more to come, seeming to actually demand that they eventually reveal what has happened to her. The fact the creative team was asked to start work on a project for Nickelodeon gives me hope that we might see more. Other than that, there's some voice over issues I have with the secondary characters here and there. None of it's bad, but not a lot of it's anywhere near the quality of the main characters and it's just a little jarring.
So what do you think? Is the animated series, Avatar The Last Airbender as good as I think it is? Was the comparisons to the industrial Far East entirely unfounded? Why or why not? Do you think there should be a second series? Besides being about the search for Zuko and Azula's mother, what would it be about? Let me know what you think.
-Sara
p.s. The Twilight parody, while definitely weird, made me start contemplating a rant on Twilight from the female perspective. Why the secret sauce inspired it is because of the overwhelming backlash, that's in many ways, just as bad.
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