Review- Avatar: The Last Airbender

Aang (front), Momo (on Aang's shoulder), Katara (girl in middle ground), Sokka (boy in middle ground), Appa (creature in far back)

STORY
The world is divided into four nations: The Water Tribe, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads. Each nation has special people called "benders" that can bend the elements corresponding to their nations element. The Avatar is a special person who is able to master all four elements and also communicate with the spirit world. His job is to keep balance and peace across the land. One day, the Fire Nation decided to attack the other nations and rule the world. Unfortunately, the next Avatar, a young airbender named Aang, gets frozen under the ocean for a century. After one hundred years he is freed from his stasis by a pair of southern water tribe siblings: Katara and Sokka. After over a century of war, the Fire Nation has heavily scarred the land and the people of the other three nations, even completely wiping out all of the Air Nomads. Aang is a great airbender, but still needs to learn the other three elements. Together with Katara, Sokka, and his flying bison, Appa, he must learn the other three elements and face the Fire Lord, ending the war once and for all and restoring balance to the world. But the Fire Lords banished son, Zuko, along with Zuko's uncle Iroh, endeavor to capture the Avatar in order to restore his honor and return to the Fire Nation.

Aang is a fun loving kid who needs to learn to grow up fast.

The story at first glance doesn't sound like anything innovative, but it's the execution that really matters. For a kids series that airs on Nickelodeon, it deals with some pretty heavy themes such as war, love, death, loss, and a host of other things. It also has a continuous story line rather than a more episodic format. Characters also mature, develop, and change as the series goes on. In fact, the characters and their interaction is what really makes this series shine. Each character is easily identifiable by the first episode and it's amazing to see how they grow. Twelve-year-old Aang, who is the main character, the Avatar, and the last airbender (that's a lot of pressure!), is a fun loving and goofy kid who adds a special charm to the series, but also deals with the weight of his past mistakes and the weight of his current responsibility. He never gets emo and certainly never gets too goofy, but has the right balance. He grows a lot throughout the series as he gets a better idea of the urgency of his situation. He gets more confident, mature, and authoritative as the series goes by. He even gets better at fighting. Other characters are the same way. Aang's main love interest is fourteen-year-old Katara (I thought monks were celibate!), a young water bender who still has a lot to learn. She's an incredibly strong female character without being too feministic. Fifteen-year-old Sokka, her brother, isn't much of a fighter, but his smarts and quick wit gets them out of tough situations all the time. He's also the shows main comic relief character. Toph, a twelve-year-old earth bender who joins their team in the second season, is blind and has a really big mouth. She's not just all talk though. She's a formidable fighter. One of the most interesting characters in the series is Zuko, the banished Fire Nation prince. In the beginning he's set up as the shows main antagonist, but it's obvious that he's more than just a guy who's bad for the sake of being bad. He's incredibly conflicted and has a complicated past. The strange rival relationship that develops between Zuko and Aang is an interesting one that goes in intriguing directions during the show's progression. His uncle, Iroh, is a kind and wise man who, on one hand, is basically a saint who can warm your heart, but on the other hand is also a formidable fighter. Many of the fire nation characters aren't simply portrayed as evil despite their nationality. They each have their pasts and loyalties that are developed throughout the series. This series shows the contradiction within humans that makes us capable of good on one hand, but also evil on the other. Why do seemingly "good" people do bad things to others? The answer is never simple There's tons of others: such as Zuko's sister Azula, Zhao, Long Feng, Ty Lee, and Mae, but I can't get into them all. The series is made up of three seasons referred to as "books." The first two seasons are each twenty episodes or "chapters," with the last season being twenty-one episodes. Each season is named after the element that Aang tries to learn. First season is water, second is earth, and third is fire. Each season has incredibly awesome finales. The finale's manage to be very different from each other so there's no repetition. First season ends with the siege of a well fortified city that the gang must defend. The second season finale is a surprisingly complex political conspiracy. The third season's finale is an epic final battle. The show also manages to get better with each season. The first season is entertaining, but can have a more noticeable Nickelodeon type goofiness to it. It also contains more filler episodes (but also some of the best episodes of the series). The character development and storytelling get more focused and well-written in the second season, even having improved "filler" episodes. The third season gets even better, and even darker, as characters go through huge metamorphoses and prepare to achieve their goal, all leading up to an incredibly satisfying ending with most, if not all, of the loose ends tied up. The series does have a few "throwaway" episodes that are almost completely superfluous, such as The Great Divide in the first season, Tales of Ba Sing Se in the second, and The Painted Lady in the third, but other than that each episode adds something to the story and character development. Overall this series has wonderful storytelling, feels like a grand adventure, and has memorable characters.

Zuko using firebending

ANIMATION AND SOUND
Being an American cartoon, one should expect pretty good quality animation. The thing about most American cartoons these days is that they're smoothly animated, but tend to be simplistic. Avatar is a series that not only has fantastic animation, but incredibly beautiful artistry as well. A person with a trained eye will be able to spot animation shortcuts in the first season, but it still contains fast-paced action scenes with fighting styles based on real-life martial arts, great bending effects, gorgeous backgrounds, and hardly a lack of character movement. The animation improves with each season, not only getting larger in scale, but also doing some interesting camera angles to make it feel like there's really a camera out there filming all of this. It can especially help with the artistry, camera angles and colors all being used to create some beautiful scenes. The environments the character visits are varied and beautiful, often times based on real-life locations that the creators photographed. Each nation has it's own style that gives your eye something new to look at in each season. Sometimes details with the backgrounds, especially interiors, that seem easy to miss are somehow never missed by the animators. Character designs have a noticeably anime appearance, but usually more subtle. They are each distinct and visually appealing, there's no gender ambiguity in any of the characters, and there's even noticeable physical changes to characters as the series goes on. Aang gets buffer, some character's hair get longer as time goes on, and little details in the designs that seem easy to miss are always there. The music in the series fit each scene well. I can listen to a song from the series and be able to imagine the scene it plays in even if I don't remember it on the top of my head. The music is never exaggerated too much and they even make good use of silence in order to enhance the mood of a scene. The voice acting is absolutely top-notch in this show. Not a single performance is bad. Everything, from everyday conversations to more intense emotions are convincingly and realistically acted. They used actual 12-13 year-olds to play as twelve-year-old characters like Aang and Toph. Zack Tyler Eisen is an incredibly talented actor and it's hard to imagine Aang as lovable without him. That age is usually about the time that a young boy's voice starts changing, but his actually manages to help the show. As Aang gets more mature, confident, and authoritative, his voice reflects that, so it's helpful that Zack's voice is a bit more mature sounding. Mae Whitman as Katara, Jack DeSena as Sokka, Dante Basco as Zuko, and Mako as Iroh are all pretty unforgettable. Grey DeLisle has a deliciously evil voice that suits Azula perfectly, and Mark Hamill's Fire Lord Ozai is intimidating and scary. It's amazing that Hamill has such range, since Ozai sounds nothing like either the Joker or Luke Skywalker. Each actor sounds the part and bring the show to life.

Toph becomes a member of the Avatar team in season two.

OVERALL
This is perhaps the best American animated series to come out in the last decade. It's well written, gorgeous, has unforgettable characters, and eargasmic voice acting. I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes animation.

The gang visits many beautiful and varied locations during their travels. The artwork is gorgeous.

PROS
- Well written story and characters
-Deals with pretty heavy themes for a kids show
-Gorgeous animation and art
-Satisfying ending
-Terrific voice-acting

CONS
-A few superfluous episodes here and there
-Some contrivances used to move the plot along

Review: Eureka Seven

Eureka (left) and Renton (right) in front of the Nirvash.

STORY
(Anime News Network story summary) Renton Thurston is a 14-year-old boy who lived with his mechanic grandfather in a backwater town. Every day he dreamed of being with the mercenary "Light Finding Operation (LFO)" aircraft pilot group "Gekkostate" and riding "Trapar" particle waves-- a sport called "reffing"-- with their charismatic leader Holland, especially when faced with his father's acclaimed past or his grandfather's desire to protect him. When a young girl named Eureka riding the original LFO, the "Nirvash typeZERO", asks his grandfather for a tune-up, she inadvertently brings the attention of the military to the garage; as a result, the garage is destroyed and Renton is forced to deliver a new type of interface-- the "Amita Drive"-- to the Nirvash. After a heated fight in which the Nirvash destroys the military LFOs by unleashing an immense amount of power, Renton is invited into Gekkostate. However, he quickly realizes that behind the facade of a traveling group of mercenaries is a very bitter reality.

Even after watching the entirety of this series I STILL don't know how I feel about it. I'm going to try to be as unequivocal as possible in explaining what I think about the story. The rest should be easy. Thank God for ANN's story summary, because I don't think I could adequately explain what this show is about without spoiling anything. This series puts us in a setting we don't know anything about and often times drops important information on us that, on one hand, makes the characters in the show react strongly, but on the other hand, we don't know how to react or what to think because we know nothing about it. What is this world? Why do the mechs ride boards? What are the scubs? Who is Eureka? Of course, the characters react the way they do because they KNOW what's going on in many cases, but not us. This show puts things in front of our faces and doesn't explain them until some indefinite time in the future. Many shows do this but this feels like too much. I almost feel like I keep on watching this series not because I want to, but because I'm being suckered into it because my curiosity will kill me if I don't. It's an exasperating way of telling a story, but I guess there's a hidden genius in the writers way of telling it. Despite the vexation, it DID keep me watching, and it DOES all pay off in the end. I guess since we're mostly following Renton's life, the show wanted to keep us about as ignorant and naive as he is, only finding out things about the mystery of the planet and the scubs, and some of the characters when he himself finds out. Those who keep watching till the end will get rewarded with a satisfying ending. Being a mecha show, there is action, but it's mostly plot and character driven. The show has a huge cast of characters so it's good that it has 50 episodes to develop them. Unfortunately not all characters get any development. We don't learn anything about Ken-Goh, Jobs, or Woz for example. The greatest amount of character time is spent with Renton and Eureka, along with Holland, Talho, the kids, and even some characters on the enemy side like Anemone, Dominic, and Dewey. It's interesting to see the changes that these characters go through as they mature, but my GOODNESS there's so much crying! Despite the light-hearted and fun feel of the first dozen or so episodes, this show gets pretty dramatic and even violent later on. The amount of drama can grate on the nerves sometimes as it possibly reminds the viewer of how emo other mecha shows are like Evangelion and Gundam. Despite this, the show never falls into despair like Evangelion seems to, and the characters do grow from all the hard times. Since Renton and Eureka are the main focus, this is the most important aspect of the series. I usually prefer romantic relationships between two characters to be a subplot, but in Eureka Seven it's a big part of the main plot. I imagine it must be difficult to keep a developing relationship between two characters interesting when so much time is spent on it, but I think the writers did well. It probably helps that they're both young and experiencing these things for the first time, so watching how things go can be pretty priceless. There's positive and negative aspects though. On the good side, the naivety and innocence of the two characters as their relationship grows has a certain charm and purity to it. I feel like in most shows, especially here in America, attraction and relational development is mostly physical. In this show there's a deep emotional connection being built up that goes beyond simply the physical. On the negative side, the dialogue between these two characters past the half-way point is friggin' priceless. Many times I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs "NO ONE TALKS LIKE THAT! ESPECIALLY NOT 14 YEAR OLDS!" And yes, Renton, we know that you want to protect Eureka and be together with her forever and blah blah blah. You soliloquize and narrate it to us just about every episode. But there can even be a charm in those too. There's also pleeeenty of awkward moments to be had with those two characters. Has anyone noticed how the terribly awkward moments between new couples in T.V. shows are always the most vicarious? What a feeling. Actually I have a pretty strong feeling some people will find Renton and Eureka to be completely annoying. Thankfully I have a high tolerance for such things and I will leave the viewer to decide on that. There's a lot of things I appreciate about the character Eureka. In the beginning she looks like she'll be another Rei clone (Evangelion), but you'll notice the difference between them when you see that Eureka actually has a personality. I'll get into other things about her later. Fanservice is also kept pretty minimal in this series. Rarely does the series feel the need to flaunt fanservice gratuitously in our faces just for the heck of it. Talho is pretty scantily clad, but it's not flaunted at us, it's just there. If some people want to gawk, they can, but it's not forced down our throats. This series also has a unique feel to it that makes it its own thing and not just a copy of other mecha shows. It's not really like Evangelion or Rahxephon, and it's not really like Gundam, though it's obviously influenced by all of them. It's got its own style and spunk, and that's kind of refreshing. So despite all this I still don't know what to think about it, but I would put this in the category of a good show and I recommend you try it out to see for yourself.

The crew of the Gekkostate.... Except Eureka it seems

ANIMATION and SOUND
The animation was produced by Studio BONES, which shows for the most part. Animation is fluid, action scenes are fast paced and make use of some pretty cool camera angles, and the mechs don't seem to lose any detail during all the animation that is taking place. It's not always perfect, as stillness can set in at some points. After the half-way point, the adult character designs can show signs of slightly sloppy drawing and the animation takes a lot of shortcuts during certain scenes (usually unimportant ones), but overall it's pretty high quality for a 50 episode series from Japan. Character designs have a rounder, more American look than the more angular, skinny, unnaturally colored hair look of most anime. They also seem to sport more detail in the faces, men consistently LOOK like men, characters all look very distinct, and it's an overall refreshing departure from the generic look we're use to. One character design I had issue with was Anemone, mostly because of that stupid dress she wore, but this is a minor gripe. The only characters that have unnatural hair colors are Eureka and Anemone. I like this because it emphasizes that they're special (but I can't get into that without spoilers). Another thing I admire about Eureka's character design is that she's not made with a super-sexy supermodel body with large breasts that we must be reminded of every episode. She does have that short skirt-thing, but she's modestly dressed and has realistic proportions. At some point in the series she even gets pretty beat up, which messes with her hair and face so she doesn't look like a picture perfect mannequin. I think this also helps with the relationship between her and Renton. Attraction is more than just how someone looks. The mechs in the series have pretty cool designs. The military mechs are more blocky and bulky, while the specially made mechs, including the original ones like the Nirvash, have pretty sleek designs. Despite the weirdness of the surf boards they fly on and the question of why they need those (which is kinda explained at some point), I do think it's pretty awesome. The music used in the series is a mixture of orchestra, soft piano, j-pop, j-rock, and techno. Techno seems to fit the show best, but is usually used as the music playing on characters stereos. The orchestral music isn't masterpiece material or anything, but it can be quite beautiful and they always enhance the scenes well. The opening and ending themes are j-pop and j-rock songs. The first opening is catchy and one of my favorites along with the fourth opening. I'm not sure why the fourth opening has John Newton's Amazing Grace in the beginning, but it sounds great! I've only heard the dub of this series so I'll only comment on that. Purists will probably not be satisfied with it, but for those who like dubs it might all come down to how much you can tolerate Johnny Yong Bosch's performance as Renton and Stephanie Sheh as Eureka. As Renton, Johnny has to speak in a high pitch that can sometimes sound unnatural or just plain friggin' annoying. Fortunately he does get better and the acting itself isn't a problem. Sheh's Eureka has the same problem of an adult actress trying to sound like a young girl when she really sounds like an adult actress trying to heighten her voice pitch so she sounds like a young girl. Still, it's not grating, the acting itself is fine, and she does get better as the series progresses. Other actors like Crispin Freeman as Holland, Kate Higgins as Talho, Kari Wahlgren as Anemone, and Peter Doyle as Dominic all perform their roles well and I have no problem with them. Overall there was good visual production behind this series that has some good music and acting to back it up.

The mechs ride surf boards!

OVERALL

Overall I'm going to be anticlimactic here.... Just watch the series for yourself and decide what you think. A bit of a cop-out ending, but I am still confused on whether I think this is a good or merely an okay show and I can see some things about it that would either turn on viewers or turn them off. So I recommend a watch to see what you think. In the end I think I was satisfied with it, even if getting to the end was a bit rough.

They seem to whimsically fall to their impending doom a lot.

PROS
-Good production values and English dub
-Has it's own style and flavor despite its inspiration from other mech shows
-Ends well
-Character designs
-Renton's and Eureka's relationship

CONS
-The dialogue between Renton and Eureka can get pretty cheesy and repetitive
-Likes to dangle plot mysteries in our faces like someone dangling a piece of yarn in front of a cat
-Renton's and Eureka's dub voices take getting use to