Ninja and Pirate

When Avatar: The Last Airbender first showed up on the Nickelodeon network, I completely disregarded it. “It’s an American attempt at anime. It will be chock full of all the stuff that annoys me about anime. Instant-chibification, giant teardrop sweatmarks, filler storylines, and too much detail given to fight scenes and not enough to character development” That’s what I thought. Eventually, the woman who would become my wife convinced me to watch it. I went into it grumbling and groaning, pointing out every last nitpick and harping on it endlessly. Eventually though, the show broke through my grumpiness, which is a feat that few have accomplished. The show is charming, it’s engaging, it’s a tour de force of action, adventure, characters, comedy, and mythos. When Legend of Korra came out, I was…disappointed. Book One was squished together and tried to tell a three-book arc in a single season and the characters suffered for it. However, as time went on the series’ strengths grew immensely. Now that Korra is done, I can’t help but feel like I’ve lost the last great family show to air. A family show is something that can be engaging to both kids and adults with enough substance to satisfy both audiences. Batman: The Animated Series was one, and I believe that Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes was another, although that is debatable. Avatar: The Last Airbender blows them both away, though. It is, by far, the best cartoon I have ever seen and, quite possibly, one of the best shows I’ve ever seen overall. I can’t recommend both Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra enough. Thank you, Bryke. I’m sorry I doubted you.