An Anime Fan (at last) Watches Avatar: The Last Airbender
When I decided I'd rewatched as far into The Simpsons as I wanted to, I was aware of just how sharply my viewing habits had come to focus on anime, and thought I could do well to keep up just a little variety by taking in another "designed in North America" animated series. A few shows I already had a fair bit of familiarity with came to mind, but so did Avatar: The Last Airbender, which I hadn't seen any of but which some other people seemed to have taken a good bit of interest in, including even a comment or two that this was a show "influenced by anime" that could nevertheless be enjoyed by anime fans themselves (even if they might not see it as so much of a singular without dwelling on thoughts of it only appropriating surface details like "sweat drops" and "SD mode."
I wound up returning to Batman: The Animated Series, though, and with one thing and another it took me a while to get through that show. In that time, I did manage to buy all three "books" of Avatar: The Last Airbender and conclude it would be the next thing I got to when I could, but I'd wound up sort of conscious that in the years since it had premiered the first part of its title had been appropriated by a big special-effects movie, the other half had been applied to a much less critically successful film, and while a sequel animated series had begun Avatar: The Legend of Korra just didn't seem to have won the same approval from fans. (There seems to have been just a bit of pushback against that general dismissal of late, though.) The North American animated series that anime fans took the most interest in now seemed to be My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (although as I write this, even it now seems to not quite be "the big new thing" any more). Even so, there can be something to watching a series without the pressure of other immediately available and evolving opinions, so I started into it.
In just the first few episodes, I seemed quite willing to take things as they came and see where they went without making grand immediate demands. I was conscious of some of those old comments about how the show might seem just a little bit less "foreign" under its exotic design than any "typical" anime series and as a result was just a bit easier to take in and accept, but when it came to the main characters I could find myself facing thoughts that while I didn't watch as many North American animated series as I once had, just because there was no temptation to apply familiar Japanese terms that didn't mean they didn't seem "familiar" in their own ways. Sokka seemed kind of a goof, which young male characters (or older male characters) appear allowed to be. Aang's role as the title protagonist meant he couldn't just fill a comedy-relief role, but he could still be kind of a goof too. Katara, on the other hand, was the serious one, because it seems harder to get away with girls being something less than that, especially when they're the only recurring female character in a story.
I kept going with the series all the same, impressed by the fluidity of its animation and getting the impression things were getting a bit more serious and allowed to have a few more consequences near the end of the first "book." (Then, it turned out I'd thought the last DVD in the set had more episodes on it instead of just "bonus material," and realised I'd seen the end of that part of the story without quite knowing it.) Starting into the second "book," I did begin to notice some characters from early in the first I'd supposed at the time to be one-time appearances meant in part to teach a lesson return with some additional development, and then I had the distinct feeling I knew just who Toph would be too, the apparently "disabled" character who's just differently abled. In very short order, though, she was showing enough rude vigour to break out of my own comforting categories. As the three young female Fire Nation characters Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee were introduced, I did have the impression they along with Zuko somehow seemed more "anime characters" to me, their personalities more theatrical and perhaps less meant for an improving purpose. Some time into the third "book," I suppose I got to thinking that the Fire Nation, on a volcanic archipelago off to one side of the map and invading everyone else, might be meant to call historical impressions of Japan to mind. It was in that part of the series, however, that I did began to think a bit more of that old saw "this is a cartoon; nobody ever dies in a cartoon," but the conclusion was clearly meant to look impressive.
The whole experience was a pretty positive one, but one that does leave me wondering what I'll get to next. I have managed to get some more American cartoons off of DVD discount racks, even if what I know of them leaves me wondering if they'll manage to measure up. I can also suppose I'm still watching the second series of RWBY, even if I do wonder at times now I suppose it to represent the "future potential" of "making something different on the cheap."
This entry was originally posted at http://krpalmer.dreamwidth.org/222270.html. Comment here or there (using OpenID) as you please.
I wound up returning to Batman: The Animated Series, though, and with one thing and another it took me a while to get through that show. In that time, I did manage to buy all three "books" of Avatar: The Last Airbender and conclude it would be the next thing I got to when I could, but I'd wound up sort of conscious that in the years since it had premiered the first part of its title had been appropriated by a big special-effects movie, the other half had been applied to a much less critically successful film, and while a sequel animated series had begun Avatar: The Legend of Korra just didn't seem to have won the same approval from fans. (There seems to have been just a bit of pushback against that general dismissal of late, though.) The North American animated series that anime fans took the most interest in now seemed to be My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (although as I write this, even it now seems to not quite be "the big new thing" any more). Even so, there can be something to watching a series without the pressure of other immediately available and evolving opinions, so I started into it.
In just the first few episodes, I seemed quite willing to take things as they came and see where they went without making grand immediate demands. I was conscious of some of those old comments about how the show might seem just a little bit less "foreign" under its exotic design than any "typical" anime series and as a result was just a bit easier to take in and accept, but when it came to the main characters I could find myself facing thoughts that while I didn't watch as many North American animated series as I once had, just because there was no temptation to apply familiar Japanese terms that didn't mean they didn't seem "familiar" in their own ways. Sokka seemed kind of a goof, which young male characters (or older male characters) appear allowed to be. Aang's role as the title protagonist meant he couldn't just fill a comedy-relief role, but he could still be kind of a goof too. Katara, on the other hand, was the serious one, because it seems harder to get away with girls being something less than that, especially when they're the only recurring female character in a story.
I kept going with the series all the same, impressed by the fluidity of its animation and getting the impression things were getting a bit more serious and allowed to have a few more consequences near the end of the first "book." (Then, it turned out I'd thought the last DVD in the set had more episodes on it instead of just "bonus material," and realised I'd seen the end of that part of the story without quite knowing it.) Starting into the second "book," I did begin to notice some characters from early in the first I'd supposed at the time to be one-time appearances meant in part to teach a lesson return with some additional development, and then I had the distinct feeling I knew just who Toph would be too, the apparently "disabled" character who's just differently abled. In very short order, though, she was showing enough rude vigour to break out of my own comforting categories. As the three young female Fire Nation characters Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee were introduced, I did have the impression they along with Zuko somehow seemed more "anime characters" to me, their personalities more theatrical and perhaps less meant for an improving purpose. Some time into the third "book," I suppose I got to thinking that the Fire Nation, on a volcanic archipelago off to one side of the map and invading everyone else, might be meant to call historical impressions of Japan to mind. It was in that part of the series, however, that I did began to think a bit more of that old saw "this is a cartoon; nobody ever dies in a cartoon," but the conclusion was clearly meant to look impressive.
The whole experience was a pretty positive one, but one that does leave me wondering what I'll get to next. I have managed to get some more American cartoons off of DVD discount racks, even if what I know of them leaves me wondering if they'll manage to measure up. I can also suppose I'm still watching the second series of RWBY, even if I do wonder at times now I suppose it to represent the "future potential" of "making something different on the cheap."
This entry was originally posted at http://krpalmer.dreamwidth.org/222270.html. Comment here or there (using OpenID) as you please.