Posts in Avatar Category
March 22, 2005
Read my entry on the first two episodes of Avatar for an explanation of why I'm covering this show.
Prince Zuko lands at a Fire Nation port to have his ship repaired and runs into a bit of trouble with the officer there, Commander Jao (sp?), since he isn't telling the whole truth about how the ship got wrecked.. Meanwhile, Katara, Sokka, and Aang head to the Southern Air Temple on the flying bison, where Aang used to live and train under his master. When they get there it's a ghost town, everyone's gone. Katara tries to hide the fact that the Fire Nation attacked from Aang.. They go inside the temple there and find a room full of statues of previous Avatars. Apparently, Aang is the latest reincarnation of the Avatar and has lived all the past lifes of the Avatars in the room. There's supposed to be someone who can help Aang in there, but who? Before they can figure that out a Lemur runs into and the chase is on.. if Aang catches it, it'll be a new friend, and if Sokka catches it.. it's lunch ;)
After chasing it around Aang happens upon what he didn't want to see or admit... helmets from Fire Nation firebenders, and the bones of his master who taught him Airbending.. he cries, then the Avatar part of him takes over sending a signal to all the other temples that the Avatar has returned... Meanwhile, Prince Zuko's confrontation with Commander Jao escalates until they finally decide to fight it out. Seems he got the scar on his face from fighting a master Firebender before.. Zuko loses at first, but then he comes back, finally winning in the end, but not taking a final shot...
Back at the temple, Aang is still in a blind rage with Avatar powers, Katara and Sokka both try to calm him down and finally get him to stop. As they leave on Appa, Aang takes one last look back...
Much the same as Naruto and the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox within him, it looks as if when Aang's feeling strong emotions he can't control the power of the Avatar within him, so he'll have to learn how to do that along the way. With the strong presence of death this time -- the death of Aang's people, Katara's mother -- Avatar really shows it's something different than your usual American TV animation that wouldn't bring such a topic up. Very good animation and choreography this time in the firebender fight, I have to say. Prince Zuko showed he wasn't just a teenager with an attitude problem, taking down Jao.
You could call me impressed once again this time :) I'll have a couple more episodes to watch in a bit, then I'll be caught up. Looking forward to watching more and seeing where Aang and the rest go next, but more importantly how Aang will change and grow in character.
To answer your first question: yes, this is an anime blog, and Avatar is obviously not anime, being of American origin. However, I'm not only an advocate for Japanese animation, but all types of animation. And you might be surprised at how much this show resembles your typical shounen anime, so don't just dismiss it. It closely resembles anime so it's within my sphere of coverage, so I'll do the usual; summarize a good bit for those who haven't watched, then give my thoughts. Let's go ;)
We've got a Naruto-ish setup in this world, with the four nations -- Earth, Water, Fire, Wind -- living in peace until the Fire Nation attacked, trying to take over the world. Only the Avatar, master of the four elements could save the world from being taken over by the Fire Nation.. but he was nowhere to be found..
We start 100 years after the war began, at the South Pole with two members of the Water Tribe, Sokka and Katara, who discover a boy frozen in ice after they have a little boat wreck. He breaks free somehow.. he's Aang, an airbender.. and he's been frozen there for quite a while along with Appa, his flying bison (yes, flying bison). But the Airbenders have been gone for 100 years...
A Fire warship is in the area, with Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation onboard, with a fittingly evil-looking environment and soldiers to match. He's searching for the Avatar and he's been training to be able to defeat him, thinking he must be over 100 years old now...
