Oh yeah, and the villain is pretty nice too. Amon's backstory sounds contrived, but I think it's contrived because it's a lie to conceal his real identity.
And the equalists are awesome mooks. One of the things that bugs me about fiction in general is that mooks, with all their training, will still easily fall in droves to the hero Rambo-style. Luckily, the Equalist's training clearly shows in how they can fight on-par with Benders with athleticism, smarts, and gadgets; while they'll probably decrease in threat level later on, these guys are still my favorite mooks in any cartoon ever.
Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.
You thought the original was just another cartoon eh "Ha ha you gotta lot to learn newcomer,welcome to Bryke's creations" where every character of importance is not a one dimensional stock character,where animation is fluid,where everyone appears to have Shown Their Work,and if you hate the shipping tendencies,where the creators love to troll everyone.
With the exception of the city,the personality of the Avatar,and Amon,you might as well have written a review of ATLA,since almost everything else applies,so once the show reaches hiatus,go back and give it a try. Heck it'll clarify some of the mythos better,yeah that's a selling point,no lockout.
I too had no desire to watch the original show, and only did a few years ago. I'd kept hearing about how good it was, so I finally gave it a shot, and I feel it didn't start getting good until maybe 6 or 7 episodes in, and gradually got better with each season.
This show started off great right off the bat (though so far, ep 4 didn't do it for me). I feel that the show's creators had more freedom to take it seriously and tell a detailed story tahn the original cartoon, but they still kept it kid-friendly and prevented the mood from being too dark.
Leave a Comment:
First impressions from someone who didn't watch the first series
I have not watched Avatar The Last Airbender. I did not really feel much desire to watch the show, nor its sequel; I only caught an episode of it by accident. However, that one episode piqued my interest, and I tried out the rest. The conclusion is good: Legend of Korra is astounding so far.
The animation is gorgeous. While I'm not an anime fan, the style works for the heavy action sequences because it allows the characters' bodies to move fluidly. The action scenes are all incredible and smooth, and the angles are well-chosen to emphasize the movement of the "bending" abilities. The color palette is rich; instead of using only bright colors, it goes for a variety of more muted hues that fit the urban setting. Speaking of which, I love the city; the design is a blend of Imperial Japan, roaring 20's USA, and traditional Asian style that feels alive. Scenes like the ineffectual park guard yelling at Korra for assaulting an equalist make the world feel larger than the conflicts between the main characters, which I feel is a good thing.
The characters are likeable. Korra at first can seem like your typical Idiot Hero, since she is emotional and stubborn to a silly extent, but her free-spirited attitude is treated both positively and negatively, and it's certainly not the only part of the character. Some of her conflicts, especially that in the fourth episode, are surprisingly relatable. She feels natural, instead of just being pieced together to please one demographic. Definitely one of my favorite protagonists I've seen in a cartoon. Mako and Bolin are decent. Bolin's best moments so far are in episode 3, where he expresses optimism and pessimism in his own way; however, his humor might get a bit grating. Mako seems like the stereotypical "bad boy", especially in his debut, but I grew to like him and his more normal persona. Tenzin is a great mentor character because he's not just a one-dimensional mentor who is always right or always proven wrong; because he makes mistakes but still means well, the audience sympathizes with him.
One of the issues I had with Young Justice was that it felt very deliberate, as if the advertisers just yelled out "This is a serious show" to everyone watching. Transformers Prime, while very good in other ways, features the same problem. Legend of Korra is thankfully better. Can't wait for episode 5!