In Short:	An outstanding American-but-in-the-style-of-anime cartoon that continually surprises with its excellence.
Recommended:	Hell, yes!

KATARA:

Water... Earth... Fire... Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years passed and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, an airbender named Aang. And although his airbending skills are great, he still has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But I believe Aang can save the world.

[opening narration]

Ignore, if you will, anything you may or may not have heard about the recent live-action movie The Last Airbender (though, now that I write that, I realize that it shouldn't be all that hard to ignore something you haven't heard). But the source material for that-movie-which-you-are-currently-ignoring, Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender is well worth your time, despite any preconceptions you may have about a cartoon from Nickelodeon.

So what's it about? Well, handily enough, the opening narration mentioned above is quite the decent little summary (as an aside, what ever happened with those voice-over introductions? Like the one from Buffy saying "into every generation, a chosen one is born"? You don't see those much anymore...). The world is divided into four nations, corresponding to each of the four elements. Within each nation exist people with the ability to "bend" one of the elements, but only one person each generation (oooh, another Buffy-esque reference!) has the ability to master all four elements - the Avatar.

As an aside, I'm making the claim that the Avatar is rather superhero-like, what with his powers and penchant for helping people and whatnot so that it sort of fits to have the review this issue, but a) this show is really a group effort and not necessarily just about the Avatar being all superhero-y, and b) I just wanted an excuse to review it. So sue me (note: please don't sue me).

So as per the aforementioned opening narration, the world is at war as the Fire Nation has been taking over...well...everything. Two members of the Southern Water Tribe, siblings Katara and Sokka (she, a waterbender, he...er...has a boomerang) find the Avatar (Aang, an airbender who has been frozen in ice for a century). Long story short, the Avatar must master all four elements and take on the Fire Lord in order to save the world.

The fact that there is a specific quest for the Avatar (and friends) to go on is one of the better parts for the show. It always has a direction and focus. The show has three seasons, with each season focused on a particular element for the Avatar to learn - Season 1 is water, then earth, then fire. It shows that the writers had a plan for the entire series, and it is able to complete that plan.

Of course, this isn't the only good thing about the show - there are myriad reasons to like it. For one, as alluded to above, the show focuses on a group of characters, not just the Avatar. Along with Aang, Katara, and Sokka, we also get blind earth-bender Toph (and you can't forget Appa, their flying bison and Momo, the pet flying-lemur), while the group is chased by the Firelord's estranged son Zuko and his uncle Iroh. There are a slew of memorable and fleshed-out supporting characters as well. And this is definitely a show for character development. All of the main characters are young - teenagers at most (this show is on Nickelodeon), and so have plenty of room to mature and grow. But it's not just a coming of age type of story, but also has themes of redemption, of facing fears, and the difficult life decisions that sometimes must be made.

Another noteworthy thing about the show is that it is obvious why the bad guys are bad guys, and what the good guys are fighting for. There are many instances of stories of good vs. evil where it is just assumed that the bad guys are, in fact, bad (an example is discussed just last issue of Geek Speak, with the Inheritance Cycle, found here), but even though it is a "kids" show, Avatar: The Last Airbender actually delves into motivations for all the characters, good and evil. It's not complicated, but it is complete. And yes, the Firelord is not a nice guy.

The animation and voice-work is topnotch as well. Of particular note is that the four different bending styles correspond to actual martial arts styles: Air is Ba Gua, Water is Tai Chi, Earth is Hung Gar Kung Fu, and Fire is Northern Shaolin Kung Fu. It makes the show kind of fun to watch, just for the animation.

One has to really reach a bit to even find issues to complain about. There are, for instance, some issues with time and space...sometimes it seemingly takes days for our heroes to get someplace, while other times they seem to go just as far (near as we can tell) as a day-trip. And some of the characters can potentially be annoying on occasion, but then, they are kids/teenagers, so it's actually in character.

I recently finished rewatching the entire series, and it impressed me just as much this time as it did the first time I saw it, perhaps even more so. The show has excellent writing, with direction and focus for the entire show, well-thought-out and well-rounded characters, deep themes without becoming convoluted, all with high quality animation and voice work. What else could you want?! (Besides more episodes, at least). If you have never seen the show, you owe it to yourself (and me, actually...expect the bill in the mail soon) to watch it. You won't be disappointed.