Avatar is a rare breed of anime. It is actually done by an American team who gathered strong influences on artistic styles, and really liked martial arts. They liked martial arts so much, that they went over to asia and studied at dojo's so that their moves were realistic, and actually doable. That is not what makes it special. The fighting scenes are brilliantly done, however what sets it apart is that it does so many things right, and not in excess. It is also has one of the only not annoying comic relief character. I was also impressed by the number of amazingly correct facial expressions that are used throughout.
Avatar is a closed series that spans three seasons, approximately 50-60 episodes. There are only a few "weak" points to this series, and that is that it is more or less aimed toward teenagers, so it deals with a little bit of transition stuff. Luckily this is not a main part of the story. Voice actors are great all around, and this is one of the few shows that has a great comic relief character. Whoever voices for Saka should get an award for not being annoying for such a long time. Interactions are believable, and while there isn't a gritty dark side of live theme, turmoil and strife is achieved without creating a doomed world outlook. There are really only a few cheesy dialogues, or scenes at all in the entire length of the story which is very impressive. Sometimes the pacing is a little off, but for the most part continues to move along pretty well.
A few key things about this series that I think are why it has done so well are: believable and relatable characters, amazing environmental backdrops, great creativity in the making of a working and real world, and superpowers.
The series begins with a quick catch up on the state of the world. There are four nations named after their particular cultural heritage (and element associated with them): Earth, Air, Fire, Water. For the last 100 years, the fire nation has been waging a war of global conquest under the banner of world unification to rationalize the assault. The one person who might be able to stop them and bring balance to a war stricken world is the Avatar. The Avatar is the only person who can wield any and all of the four elements. However, no one knows what has become of him, or where he may be. The Avatar is a decedent who gains powers through a reincarnation process. The newest reincarnation, Aang, is discovered in a large ice sphere in the Souther Water Tribe by waterbender Katara, and her wise crack older brother Saka. However, it is discovered that Aang hasn't been taught how to manipulate the other forces yet, and the trio set off to get has him some learn. It is also revealed that he is in fact the last surviving member of his race, people, and culture as the Air nation was the first to be destroyed by the Fire nation in search for the Avatar.
The superpowers are known as "bending" the said element to the user's will. The power curve for this is also done well. You don't have DBZ instances where power levels just keep getting more and more insane with no real meaning. You see the characters growth. And it is good. By the end, everything is right. Stuff that should be able to be done is. Combing this with great martial art animations make for a really special and unique look. What makes me like it is that it never oversteps itself. It never gets really carried away with anything. It doesn't self destruct, and it doesn't water itself down terribly much for the younger audiences. There is a lot of political understanding, and emotional development that goes on for something that was aired on Nickalodian. The world that they've created for this show is a real entity which doesn't compromise itself. A solid plot and a memorable characters and locations set this as a very stable series. And again, the fight scenes can be really awesome.
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