Plugging In: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Apologies for the delay! After three days, I have finally risen from the grav… gravy and meat-induced stupor; and the friends who visited discovered my room empty, with the giant chocolate egg at the entrance eaten clean through. And so I am able to appear before you once again with a new article.
And if there weren’t enough heretical Western references in that last paragraph, this week’s Plugging In should have me crucified by anime purists for sure. I present to you Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Central to the show’s cosmology are the balance and flow of the four elements — Earth, Air, Water, Fire — and how these forces have shaped the development of society and civilization. Living within the world are those who are can manipulate their respective element, known as Benders. Only one being, the Avatar, has the power to control all four elements.
Katara, the last known Waterbender of the Southern Water tribes, and her brother Sokka, a young and highly resourceful warrior, discover the young monk, Aang, who turns out to be the last known surviving Airbender in the world, suspended in a sphere of ice. The three leave on a journey to fulfill the destiny of the Avatar and to bring balance back to the world by stopping the Fire Nation’s destructive expansionist war. At first, they are accompanied by Aang’s animal companions, Appa the flying bison and Momo the winged lemur, and later joined by Toph, a blind, but extraordinarily skilled Earthbender.
This award-winning series from creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Brian Konietzko has been widely acclaimed, and with good reason. With its rare, serialized story format (at least as far as American-produced animated series go) and quirkily compelling characters, though the series was originally targeted to younger viewers, the story quickly adapts itself to mature audiences as well. They don’t shirk from topics controversial to many other American cartoons, namely death and violence. The world of Avatar is heavily influenced by Asian art, philosophy, and culture, and for the purists, the creators were also inspired by various anime, including FLCL, Samurai Champloo, and many of Miyazaki’s works.
In addition to the excellent storytelling and character growth, Avatar features exciting martial arts combat enhanced with the elemental effects of Bending. Each Bending technique features its own martial arts style — Ba Kua for Airbending, Tai Chi for Waterbending, Hung Gar for Earthbending, and Northern Long Fist for Firebending — with some variants tossed in to mix things up a little. So for fans of action, epic adventure, and characters that develop and grow, I recommend Avatar: The Last Airbender, available from Nickolodeon.
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