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I discovered a new (well, it's actually been going on for a couple years now, but it New To Me) fantasy animeish series called Avatar: The Last Airbender. It's aired on Nickelodeon, but is so well written it's not just for kids. It is animated, but with a more realistic and American style, although there are certainly anime touches every so often (I contrast it with something like Teen Titans, which also has good stories, but absolutely drives me crazy with all the super-deformed anime shortcut cutesiness). We grabbed the first season on Netflix and the rest on Nickelodeon and bittorrent.
Pros: I love it because of how it builds its world, creating an original fantasy milieu by basically taking bits of our world and putting them in a blender. There are influences from China, India, Japan, and even Aleutian culture in it, with an overlay of Tibetan Buddhism and an elemental magic/combat system modeled after real world martial arts. It has great voice acting and writing as well, with most of the characters having real emotional storyarcs.
Cons: There is the occasional plot hole, but I find myself yelling at the screen much less than other series. Because of the kiddies there is only pretend cartoon violence with no blood and only one highly dramatic on-screen death during the entire series, even though there is a world war going on and people should be dying all the time.
I highly recommend it. Netflix/Tivo/bittorrent it today!
Pros: I love it because of how it builds its world, creating an original fantasy milieu by basically taking bits of our world and putting them in a blender. There are influences from China, India, Japan, and even Aleutian culture in it, with an overlay of Tibetan Buddhism and an elemental magic/combat system modeled after real world martial arts. It has great voice acting and writing as well, with most of the characters having real emotional storyarcs.
Cons: There is the occasional plot hole, but I find myself yelling at the screen much less than other series. Because of the kiddies there is only pretend cartoon violence with no blood and only one highly dramatic on-screen death during the entire series, even though there is a world war going on and people should be dying all the time.
I highly recommend it. Netflix/Tivo/bittorrent it today!