Di-gata Defenders
Watched all 52 episodes of this Canadian cartoon. It had an "Avatar: the Last Airbender" level of uniqueness, and I think it would have a larger following if the main source of fighting in this world didn't revolve around casting combinations of magic stones. The best part in my opinion though, is that the writers incorporated a lot of history into the show, and each character is unique and useful in their own way.
There's some controversial material in the series: a defunct organization taking orphan children to be raised as warriors, children killing antagonists for the greater good of the world, people manipulating the children for their own ends time and again, and one of the children even sacrifices their life permanently later in the series (which totally threw me in a children's story). The oft-missing threads of lying, cheating, stealing, and betrayal are rife within the storyline. There was even an episode involving child slave labor.
I, of course, ended up fixating on the one main character seen the least in the entire 52 episodes - Adam, the 'lost' defender. While his back story was easy to figure out even before the dialogue reveals it, he is by far the most interesting in my opinion - and the one who's character development is purely internal next to every other protagonist's external development. He is the only one of the 6 protagonists who's power level never increases throughout the show - he never 'merges' with a guardian stone, isn't some all powerful energy conduit or wizard, nor does he receive any new stones. At a couple points he does have possession of the all powerful Nova Stone and the Pure Stones, but he never uses them.
He starts out the first 26 episodes as a master thief - stealing from both the protagonists and antagonists alike. This of course puts his loyalty to either group in question - but his crush on one of the protagonists is such that it starts to tip the scales on his moral compass.
Unfortunately, you see him even less in the second 26 episodes then you did in the first set, due to a 6th protagonist showing up and taking over the story line. Adam's outer character development seems to stagnate at the end of the first 26 episodes, but as his dialogue and continued help suggests, he grows out of helping the Defenders for the sake of his crush to helping them on the grounds of wanting to do the right thing.
Even worse, the storyline leaves 2 major plot points to his character unclear when the series ends. 1) To explain his long absence at the end of the series before the final battle one of the protagonists stated that Adam had left to find his real parents (which is odd, as his current information states they were killed by the man who ended up raising him). It is never stated if he found them or not. 2) His thought-to-be-reformed-but-really-wasn't foster-father was killed while he was away, and no one presumably had the time to inform him as the season finale battle was occurring.
It looked as if the series was going to be continued for another season, but nothing has been produced since. (Le sigh.)
There's some controversial material in the series: a defunct organization taking orphan children to be raised as warriors, children killing antagonists for the greater good of the world, people manipulating the children for their own ends time and again, and one of the children even sacrifices their life permanently later in the series (which totally threw me in a children's story). The oft-missing threads of lying, cheating, stealing, and betrayal are rife within the storyline. There was even an episode involving child slave labor.
I, of course, ended up fixating on the one main character seen the least in the entire 52 episodes - Adam, the 'lost' defender. While his back story was easy to figure out even before the dialogue reveals it, he is by far the most interesting in my opinion - and the one who's character development is purely internal next to every other protagonist's external development. He is the only one of the 6 protagonists who's power level never increases throughout the show - he never 'merges' with a guardian stone, isn't some all powerful energy conduit or wizard, nor does he receive any new stones. At a couple points he does have possession of the all powerful Nova Stone and the Pure Stones, but he never uses them.
He starts out the first 26 episodes as a master thief - stealing from both the protagonists and antagonists alike. This of course puts his loyalty to either group in question - but his crush on one of the protagonists is such that it starts to tip the scales on his moral compass.
Unfortunately, you see him even less in the second 26 episodes then you did in the first set, due to a 6th protagonist showing up and taking over the story line. Adam's outer character development seems to stagnate at the end of the first 26 episodes, but as his dialogue and continued help suggests, he grows out of helping the Defenders for the sake of his crush to helping them on the grounds of wanting to do the right thing.
Even worse, the storyline leaves 2 major plot points to his character unclear when the series ends. 1) To explain his long absence at the end of the series before the final battle one of the protagonists stated that Adam had left to find his real parents (which is odd, as his current information states they were killed by the man who ended up raising him). It is never stated if he found them or not. 2) His thought-to-be-reformed-but-really-wasn't foster-father was killed while he was away, and no one presumably had the time to inform him as the season finale battle was occurring.
It looked as if the series was going to be continued for another season, but nothing has been produced since. (Le sigh.)