Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 1

The first title I'm gonna recommend has been around a while, but I didn't discover it until recently. Avatar: The Last Airbender is a series created and produced for Nickelodeon. So technically, its not anime since its not Japanese. But, pish posh on that, it is a great example of Anime.

The story takes place in world that is divided into 4 nations. Each nation can manipulate an element through use of martial arts: water, earth, fire and air. This ability is refered to as "bending" in the series.

Every generation a person is born who can manipulate all 4 elements, called the Avatar. The Avatar's job is to maintain balance between the 4 nations and keep everything in harmony.

One hundred years before the series begins, the fire nation decides to get all militaristic and invades the other nations. An Avatar has been born into the air nation, but just when he is needed, the Avatar mysteriously disappears.

Fast forward 100 years. Two kids from the water nation discover the Avatar frozen in ice near the south pole. He turns out to be a 12 yr old air bender named Ang. The story follows Ang and his friends as they try to save the world from the evil fire nation.

The series is well written with good characters and excellent plot lines. The first season (linked below) follows Ang and his friends as they travel to the north pole to get training.

A Note on Ratings

Since most Anime is shown on TV, not at movie theaters, most shows have no rating associated with them. Therefore, if you are a parent trying to get a handle on whether a show is age appropriate, the only way to be sure is to preview the title yourself. You can also read reviews on Amazon or one of the many Anime sites on the Internet. But standards for both sex and violence can vary greatly.

Anime titles can be anything from a very hard R to a G rating. So if you want to be sure, watch the title yourself first.

On this blog I will attempt to estimate who the show might be appropriate for. But it is merely my opinion. It is ultimately up to you to decide what you want to watch.

Welcome

I created this blog for people who are new to Japanese Animation, commonly called Anime. Originally, I thought anime to be nothing more than the Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh cartoons shown for kids, or the RoboTech series shown on California PBS.

But a couple of years ago I saw a couple series on the Tech TV cable network: Serial Experiments Lain and Last Exile. This completely changed my view of anime. Anime can have very mature deep stories. It can also look amazingly beautiful.

Basically, I am merely going to post about what I'm currently watching and some of my favorites. Hopefully you will find the information useful.