Well, it’s over. Perhaps the greatest American animated series in recent memory just ended its three-year run on TV, and it did so in spectacular fashion. If you haven’t been following Avatar: the Last Airbender, let me state my opinion that you’re missing out. The fighting and effects are brilliant, the drama’s solid, the characters are lovable, and I keep saying over and over that what really makes the show shine are its villains. A cartoon needs good villains, whether they’re bumbling, a la Yosemite Sam, or downright sadistic, like Vincent of Cowboy Bebop. And boy, howdy, did the villains come to play in the final episodes–the series ended with a two-hour finale that tied up most loose ends, showed some spectacular pyrotechnics, and hopefully really jerked the chains of the worst part of the Avatar fandom–the shippers. Read on for a spoiler free review!

Fire Nation princess Azula (L), the titular Avatar Aang, and Zuko, exiled Fire Nation prince.

“But Bound,” you say, “Avatar is on Nickelodeon! Even if I was a fan of them in my youth, how could they possibly produce something worth watching?” If you’re really resistant you might even express concerns about how the show looks like yet another cookie-cutter anime knockoff. I had the same qualms! I saw an episode from the middle of season 2 on television one evening–only the last ten minutes or so. Understandably I had no clue what was going on, but that was exactly my first reaction, “yet another attempt for the American market to cash in on the anime heyday.”

And at first glance, it is. Even later, looking back on it, there are some parts of it that do seem a little bit stereotypically “anime-esque.” The stock facial expressions for shock and disgust make cameos from time to time, for instance. But the flavor is an eastern-inspired but distinctly American creation, rather than some kind of knockoff. The mythology is unique, more akin to Princess Mononoke’s whimsical world of beasts and ghosts than anything else I can think of. The color palette and animation are also more American than Japanese, and the framerate alone makes the special effects both smooth and pleasing to the eye.

The story, likewise, is carved from an epic hue, more Tolkien in my mind than, say, Kurosawa. The plot in a nutshell, is that Aang, age 11, is the Avatar, basically the Dalai Lama meets Captain Planet. Aang is an airbender, the last of a race of monastic people with the ability to control (bend) the air element, who were wiped out a hundred years ago. He’s surprised to find this out, as he’s been frozen the whole time.

Of course, Aang holds limited appeal for most viewers who will read this blog, I imagine. He’s really the kind of character who hits the target audience (6-11 year olds) dead on but leaves something to be desired in a protagonist for more mature viewers. Aang is energetic, happy-go-lucky, and really just a kid, so the role of more serious and/or badass characters has to be filled by someone else, or a number of someone elses.

Katara, a waterbender, is Aang’s surrogate mother, as it were. She’s kind and caring, but when she throws down (and she really develops her chops by even the middle of the second season, and becomes downright scary at times in the third) it’s mother-bear-defending-her-cubs. You don’t mess with her. Sokka, her brother, is the comic relief, and succeeds much of the time. The writers struck a good balance of kid-accessible but also enough wit to make you or me laugh. Sokka is at something of a disadvantage in the plot as he can’t bend, but he’s got a mechanical mind–which paradoxically makes him both a bonehead and a genius depending on the situation.

The earthbender Toph is introduced in season 2, and she quickly became a fan favorite. No wonder. As much as Katara is motherly and nurturing, Toph is a complete tomboy, and she’s as fun to watch as she is unpolished. Other supporting heroes come and go. Some make more of an impression than others–Haru, an earthbender from season 1, seems weaksauce even when they bring him back in later seasons. Jet, on the other hand, a mercenary and self-styled freedom fighter, proved intriguing enough to get most of an episode to himself in the second season, and showed that the writers were willing to handle heavy material about betrayal and loss. Did I mention he fights using hook swords?

Even more infrequent characters lend sheer awesomeness or great comedic depth. “Macho Man” Randy Savage voiced The Boulder, a WWE-style earthbender who always speaks in the third person. A cabbage merchant who always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time gets his stock of produce destroyed over and over in a callback gag that’s bizarre but cute and memorable. And one of the most infamous minor characters, a commoner who foams at the mouth in terror at the arrival of the Avatar, was the product of a miscommunication between the writers and animators. Naturally they both kept it in as-is and later brought it back. Foaming mouth guy…you have no equal.

I think I already mentioned it–Avatar shines with its villains. Aang and company are pursued by Zuko, exiled prince of the Fire Nation (who, by the way, are a country the size Asia hell bent on world domination). Zuko’s looking to restore his father’s opinion of him and his lost honor by capturing the Avatar, but before long he switches from a bumbling villain into a true main character, with a genuinely sad back story and some real depth. You can tell before too long he’ll ultimately turn sides, but when it finally happens it’s still done in a way that made me smile. Avatar makes you want to cheer for its characters.

The Fire Lord himself, the principal adversary for much of the series, doesn’t even appear on screen until most of the way through the series. Instead, fans got a lot of Azula, the sociopathic younger sister to Zuko whose specialties include being ruthless and unemotional and shooting lightning from her fingertips. She’s spectacular–you love to hate her until the absolute end of the series, and even at the end the writers make it so she doesn’t just go quietly into the closing credits. Add in a variety of petty warlords who want to use Aang’s powers for their own ends and other supporting mercenaries and intriguing henchmen of the main villains, and you have a real winner, as far as nefariousness go.

The pacing is solid too. There are some episodes that don’t quite live up to the standards of others (the early season episode “The Great Divide” is pretty unmemorable, its “can’t we all just get along” message seems like the kind of fare we’ve all grown out of) but there are many more that exceed expectations. The characters get increasingly powerful as time goes on, but never unbelievably so. Again, they hit the right balance between constantly making audiences go “wow” with some cool new move you wouldn’t have seen coming, and not making the characters get so powerful that a scanner trying to read them would shatter in slow motion.

The show also never takes itself too seriously. The third season had its foibles–uneven pacing at times, the chronology seemed weird at points (Sokka, for instance, learned the art of swordsmanship in about one day–what?!), and you can call some of the plot twists before they happen. But despite some stumbles there’s something worth seeing in every episode. Even better, one of the last episodes is a straight-up send-up of the entire series, featuring ridiculously exaggerated portrayals of the characters and the events up to that point (“The Great Divide” is ripped on in a most rewarding manner).

But really, the meat of things. Did they end the series properly? Yes, absolutely. The characters step up to the plate and leave the show as adults. Young, but definitely adults at heart. Aang embraces his destiny, Zuko finally reconciles his heritage after a whole bunch of conflict, shipping is killed off after toying for far too long with the fans who were too stupid to hold out hope (and let me tell you, that gives me a sick sort of pleasure). The final fights are nothing short of epic, in part because the aforementioned build up over the three seasons. Loose ends are more or less tied up, with enough open threads that you know there’s going to be something more done with this universe.

Sure, I do have some gripes. There’s a deus ex machina or two near the finale. Some of the stunts the characters pull off near the end are really quite silly. Some fans have been griping about the lack of a true epilogue (I disagree with them–while I might compare Avatar’s plot to something Tolkien, I didn’t want a twelve-part ending).

But man. This was some fine American animation. Give it a taste. If you were like me when I found it, you’ve probably gone a while without drinking the Kool-Aid of American Animation. I think you’ll find it’s not just a knock-off, but something made with love and care that will appeal specifically to fans of anime and Asian media in general. I became a believer, and there’s no better time to get on board now, with no need to wait for more of it to come out.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 5:32 pm and is filed under Reviews.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.