LJ re-activation + Korra musings
I've decided to use my LJ again and give my thoughts on the Legend of Korra episodes that have been leaked/released…(Heaven knows when/if they'll ever release it in Oz, but I digress)
First off, I might as well give my thoughts on the Avatar: The Last Airbender series. Admittedly, I haven’t seen every episode in sequence (which may have been attributed to how they aired the episodes here). But.. well, I suppose I can sum it all up with an ‘It’s.. ok”, and I think that’s probably due to the fact that that I’m older than the target demographic, and so I couldn’t really relate to most of the cast all that well.
A few other things I wanna comment on ..
Maybe it’s just me, but for the most part the show’s attempts at humour didn’t really work for me. I think Scamp in his anime blog the Cart Driver said it best when he said
What’s interesting about it is, because it’s so similar to anime, the aspects where it’s different really stand out as aspects that Japanese culture don’t have. There’s no sarcasm in anime, for one, while Avatar has a character whose every single joke is sarcasm. Not a particularly good thing, as it’s the drawly, obvious American style sarcasm rather than the dry, British sarcasm that I’m a fan of.
and then there are the various times where the show attempted to be funny via super-deformed facial expressions and such
and then there are the fight sequences. The show gets alot of praise for this, and I can understand why. I happen to love Martial arts and martial arts films myself. Having said that, if I were given the choice between the fights in this series and in live action films? I would choose the latter. Granted, the fights are probably constrained by the age demographic in terms of how intense and bloody they are able to be, and due to the concept of bending there was an obvious limitation on intensity it terms of connecting kicks and punches, but I happen to prefer fight sequences in movies such as, say, Ip man, The protector or Ong bak, or Dragon Tiger Gate etc.
If may later on put down my thoughts on the plots and characterization too if I am able to collect my thoughts on that..
So with that out of the way..thoughts on Legend of Korra
Music
This I like, I think The Track Team did a great job here. I think I could hear the Er-hu? and the music really helped give a roaring 1920’s Shanghai feel to the city.
Animation
The animation during the fight sequences in the 2nd episode weren’t bad. (though like Atla, it wasn’t the selling point for me). Having said that, after watching the second episode and watching the the characters talk to each other I couldn’t help but feel that something was off kilter, and after watching the episode again, I think I figured out why that is…
The animators don’t animate them blinking their eyes.
I wonder if I am the only one who noticed?
Which is kinda strange, since they actually do that in the first series. Maybe there is a different animation team or something?
I should also probably mention that if you didn’t like much of the facial expressions in the previous series, you probably won’t like them much here either. This is also probably an issue with artstyle too, but there are also a couple of times where I wished the artists had put in more detail with Korra’s nose too..
Following screencaps are from Donbufeng.net)
Writing/Plot/Characterization/Blah
So far I like Korra as a character, I was actually apprehensive at first because there is a tendency for authors to try and convey their female protagonists as stoic and intelligent, when instead they come across as abrasive and such.
-Uh..Was she expecting the lady at the stand to give her the food without her paying? I mean, I know Korra has been sheltered and everything, but…really?
- I guess Bolin and Mako weren’t listening to the radio when Korra was talking about how she was the Avatar and such..
Benders vs Non- Benders
You know the scene with the man on the soapbox? I have a few issues with how that whole scene panned out…
- “You’re oppressing yourself?’ Yeah, I have to agree with the man here, that line really didn’t make any sense, and I can completely understand why alot of people didn’t like it. I think that Korra went on the wrong tangent when she said ‘But bending is great!’ - The issue isn’t bending itself, so much as it is about power, and how it can be so easily abused and corrupted. If I was in charge of the script/story myself, I would have used the scene where the men wanted to burn down the shop to allow Korra to understand why non-benders would feel oppressed and/or fear of benders
Maybe the writers are trying to make a point on how shelter/naive Korra is? I dunno. The 2nd episode, focusing on the pro bending bending and introducing Mako and Bolin didn’t expand on the equalist plot.
I also happened to find some of the dialogue..grating? (eg. diddly squat?) But again, that’s probably my personal preference
So yeah. Those are my thoughts so far. I guess I will add more if anything comes to mind