Legend of Korra review

The sequel to the ridiculously popular and successful Avatar: The Last Airbender, comes this very highly anticipated animated series.

Does it live up to the legacy?

Hell-fucking-yea. (Warning: Spoilers ahead)

Dibs

Set after 70 years from the first series, the Avatar cycle has now reincarnated into a Southern Water Tribe girl named Korra, a headstrong, hotblooded, tough, tall, beautiful, and strong-willed 17 year old girl.

Goddamit, I'm in love.

I wonder why.

I find it refreshing to have a strong female lead for once, we definitely need more of those in entertainment nowadays.

As the story begins, Korra aged 4, has already somehow able to firebend, earthbend and waterbend! That is one hell of a feat.

Thus, her Avatar training begins in a secluded area protected by the Order of the White Lotus, as instructed by Aang, the previous Avatar and protagonist of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Which is not surprising, considering the Fire Lord Ozai almost wiped out the Airbenders in an attempt to stop the Avatar from reincarnating 70 years back.

With Airbending left to master, Tenzin, Aang's youngest and only Airbender child, was supposed to train Korra in Airbending. However, his duties as councilman in Republic City forces him to put it aside temporarily and go back.

Korra, the headstrong girl that she is, decides to follow Tenzin all the way to Republic City, and after a rocky start, settles there to continue her training.

Along the way, she joins the Fire Ferrets: the tall and stoic Mako, and his lovable brother, Bolin. 

From top: Tenzin and his bald and beard of awesome sauce; Mako the firebender;
Bolin (left) the earthbender and his Pabu, his pet fire ferret;
and lastly, Korra, my ficitional girlfriend

But all is not well in Republic City, as the Equalists, an anti-bending movement starts gathering momentum, lead by the powerful, charismatic and mysterious Amon (perfectly voiced by Steve Blum).

All in all, the story is a solid A+ piece of writing for me. It starts off a bit slow, but it soon picks up speed by episode 5-6. Despite the fact that the first season is only 12 episodes long, they managed to tell a very satisfying tale overall, with a few snags here and there in my opinion.

So, here's the breakdown:

Graphics, Animation


They really, really pulled out all the stops for the production of The Legend of Korra.

The quality really shines through.

A breathtaking view of Air Temple Island (hehe)
Breathtaking? Geddit?? GEDDIT?? Cause you know, Airbenders and...oh forget it...

The art and animation department really pulled out all the stops for this show. In most cases, the scenes are extremely beautifully detailed.

I wonder how much of a budget they actually had for this show.

And the most impressive thing is the amount of research they put into the show, Republic City reminds me of the roaring 20s immensely, but set in a hybrid city of San Francisco or New York mixed with Shanghai or Hong Kong.

Even has a giant statue of Aang in the bay ala Statue of Liberty.

There are very obvious uses of CG in certain scenes, though it is not too blatantly obvious nor jarring. But sometimes, it does take your attention away for a short while.

Like so.

The animation and choreography too deserves mention. If you thought that the action scenes in The Last Airbender was good, Legend of Korra tops it even further.

Using dynamic camera angles, excellent use of the bending arts and various cinematic techniques, Legend of Korra makes every battle a joy to watch, whether its the pro-bending tournament or two benders really beating the crap out of each other.

The art of Bending has never looked so gorgeous.

Who's a half-baked Avatar now??

The animation quality is to die for. A lot of care and love has been taken to ensure that the animated series is given life. The most surprising thing is that the quality is extremely consistent throughout the season, the fact that it's only 12 episodes for a single season might have something to do with it.

Still, it is a marvelous achievement.

There are no animation errors at all.

Well almost.

Characters

All the characters are very well written, and there are alot of them. Other than the aforementioned quartet, there is also Asami Sato, Mako's sorta-girlfriend. But thanks to the very indecisive Mako, the situation is rather muddy.

Dibs again.

She is a non-bender but proves to be more than capable of holding her own ground with martial arts, badass driving and the electric glove she stole from the Equalists. She sort of serves as a counterpart to Korra in terms of attitude and all, and I find her a very nice addition to the team.

She is also the daughter of Hiroshi Sato, the man sponsoring, supplying and allied with the Equalists, which is a good call, as it provides her with a legitimate reason to stay with Team Avatar and also provides a good father-daughter conflict. Far too many shows have used the cliche of the son/daughter following their evil parents footsteps.

Hiroshi apparently is a goddam engineering genius, who somehow designed MECHAS made from pure platinum so that metalbenders can't control them; he also built those electric gloves that electrifies people; that son of a gun even built biplanes!! In an era where blimps and cars were still relatively new.

If only he wasn't so insanely focused on just taking revenge on benders all over the world because one firebender killed his wife. He may have been able to focus on doing something much more productive for the world.

That is an awesome mustache.

Like building the atomic bomb.

There's also Lin Beifong, daughter of Toph Beifong, Chief of Police in Republic City. And she is every bit as badass as her mother was. Using the metal cables, she swings like Spiderman and hits like Whiplash. And all this while she is in her 50s.

She starts off clashing heads with Korra at first, but soon Korra gains her respect. Also, it turns out, Lin and Tenzin use to be in a relationship!! But along the way, they separated, and Tenzin is now with Pema and has 3 children. Well, four, by the end of season 1.

Tenzin, Lin and Pema with their youngest son Meelo.
Pema is 16 years younger than Tenzin. Tenzin you sly dog you.

Now, to Tenzin, he is my favorite character in the whole series. He is also voiced by J.K. Simmons, so he's got an awesome voice to boot. Though he is suppose to be a stoic at times, sometimes his emotions get the better of him.

He's also Aang and Katara's youngest child and only Airbender, so its pretty down to him to restore the Airbender culture. He's a councilman in Republic City and he kicks lotsa ass!! Probably because most people in the world has not fought Airbenders before, thus have no idea how to counter one.

Seriously, watch this.

Still, everytime I see Tenzin come on screen and he has to bring his sandal up some baddie's ass, I look forward to it. The animation for his fight scenes are beautifully chereographed, and showcases a lot of badass Airbending moves. I don't recall Aang using quite as many tricks as Tenzin did either.

TENZIN AIRCYCLE!!! I don't know why, but there is just something inherently awesome about this.

He's also a great teacher and father figure for Korra, though of course, they didn't start off so well at first (notice a trend here?). But he does care for her, and its really heartwarming seeing them interact.

And speaking of Korra.

I love her. Despite a short twelve episodes, I find her a really great character. No matter what happens, she takes her role as the Avatar seriously, though letting it define her has made her vulnerable and emotional at various times. Hopefully we will see her deal with this issue somemore in Season 2.

Oh, Korra, you looks so fine <3

In this season, she has been scared shitless, kidnapped, being in love, had her bending removed, had her heart broken, involved in a war the world has never seen before, and yet...she never gives up. She never once shirked her spirit-given duty as the Avatar. Watching her is fascinating. She makes mistakes here and there sure, but still, she's a very likable character.

She also has a very cute polar bear dog. I want one.

And now, Amon, the villain.

Look at that face!! Even behind a mask, he's more
expressive than most real actors and actresses 

Oh boy...compared to Ozai or Azula, Amon is a real terrifying basterd. He has an army of fanatics, super tech at his disposal, incredible charisma and the ability to take away someone's bending. :O

He constantly make speeches about the oppressive Benders who well...oppress the non-Benders. And to a certain extent, he is right. There are clearly some gaps in power between the two groups, and Amon wants to rid the world of Bending because of that.

It's very hypocritical, but more on that later.

The terrifying thing is that Amon actually came very close to accomplishing his goal. At least in Republic City anyways.

He managed to take away Lin and Korra's bending!! Well, they got it back in the last 2 mins of Season 1, but the point is, he did it. He kept his word. 

His voice actor, Steve Blum, has done a fantastic job of voicing him. A low baritone, menacing voice. He never raises his voice. Hell, he never needed to. He is just that terrifying.

By far, I find him a much better villain than Ozai ever was.

Also, he has his right hand man, the Lieutenant. Who is voiced by LANCE FREAKING HENRIKSON.

LOOK AT THAT FU MANCHU MUSTACHE!! LOOKATIT!!

When Lance Henrikson is your top follower, you know you're a badass. Too bad the Lieutenant always gets his own ass kicked.

The irony is that the main two male characters are rather flat: Mako and Bolin. Who, by the way, are suppose to be Korra's love interests. Although I do find Bolin more likable than Mako, simply because he provides the comic relief in a lot of scenes.

Mako is suppose to be torn between Asami and Korra, but I felt that the love triangle issue has not been handled well. Hopefully, we'll see it handled better by the time season 2 comes around.

Hell, this guy is a minor character. But he's still damn awesome.

Storyline


The overarching storyline in general is very well done, it's the sidestories that are not quite fleshed out. Probably due to the lack of time.

Let's narrow down the sidestories.

Mako/Korra/Asami love triangle: Not done too well I feel. Or perhaps its not finished yet.

Mako/Brolin/Korra love triangle: Resolved a bit too quickly.

Lin/Tenzin's history: Done pretty well, though too short for my liking.

Pro bending tournament: At first it was pretty normal, I felt it cut into the main storyline a wee bit much. But then they skillfully connected it with the overarching storyline, which was unexpected and pretty well done in my opinion.

One of the major mysteries of the series was to who exactly Amon is, and what are his true goals.

I want a banana split.

Theories were being thrown left, right and center; ranging from his true identity as Aang, King Bumi and even Asami herself; how he can take away someone's bending; what he really looks like etc etc.

The list goes on and on.

My theory was that he is a bender who took away his own bending after realising how much of a horrible person he is as a firebender. And because Asami lost her mother to a firebender and Mako and Bolin lost their parents to a firebender, I thought it might tie in nicely with their background, providing them with a reason to hate him. 

Of course, in the last episode of Season 1, Endgame, we finally learnt who Amon really is, from a now-broken and de-bended Tarrlok.

He is Tarrlok's brother, Noatak.

My monitor still smells like chocolate.

At first, I thought the whole thing was ludicrous. That the main villain, is somehow the other villain's brother?? And they didn't know about it?? The revelation came right out of the playing field and slapped me across the face. There was nothing to indicate that they were related AT ALL.

I'm pretty sure a lot of people felt that way too.

I thought to myself, "Seriously? What the fuck?"

Then, Tarrlok started to tell Korra of their background story: Of how they were actually the children of Yakone, some mutant Waterbender who could bloodbend without the full moon. After Yakone escaped prison (after having his bending removed by Aang), he had magic plastic surgery, and escaped to have a new life.

Everything was all fine and dandy, Yakone even got married. Then, both his sons turn out to be Waterbenders and he started back down on the dark path again. This time, teaching his children to bloodbend as instruments of revenge against Republic City.

Forcing his children to bloodbend each other, Noatak finally had enough and ran away. He tried to convince Tarrlok to run away with him, but he refused to leave their mother. Tarrlok turned out to be the nice one AND he still grew up to be a monster. Suddenly, Amon's hypocritical agenda became more sensible and tragically sympathetic.

Noatak defending Tarrlok from the wrath of their father.

Their father's abuse and brainwashing was so thorough that even as adults, somehow, the two brothers gravitated towards Republic City.

After Amon/Noatak's identity was revealed to the Equalists, he escaped and even freed his brother, Tarrlok, whose bending he removed, hoping to escape to a new life with his younger brother.

On the little speedboat they were in, Noatak was a completely different person: sociable, smilling and full of love for his younger brother, telling him "It will be just like the good old days."

Tarrlok apparently thought differently. Perhaps he thought that they were beyond redemption, or that they need to be held accountable for the all the misery they have caused, or that their evil bloodbending powers should end with them, or that they can't just go back to the good old days when there were none in the first place.

Tarrlok took the electric glove and ignited the boat's fuel tank, destroying it and killing themselves.

It will be just like the good old days...
Did he know what Tarrlok was going to do? Or was he regretting all his actions?

Oh my god. Did we just saw a murder/suicide scene in a kid's show??? The guys at Nickolodeon must really love Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko (the creators).

It all happened within...what? 10 to 15 minutes of the last episode? And it was beautifully done. I found it to be shocking, tragic, tearjerking, heartwarming and...I'm at a loss for words.

This. This is by far my favorite moment in the entire series. And one of the most well done in any series EVER.

In just those short periods of time, two of the most despicable villains in the show got one of the most tragic and heartbreaking endings ever.

Well done guys. Well done.

On the other side of the story, we have Korra and her friends at Katara's place where even the best healer in the world couldn't restore her bending.

Devastated, Korra flees and cries at the edge of a cliff, where at her darkest and lowest hour, she finally finds her spiritual side and Aang visits her, telling her, "You are never alone." as all the previous Avatars appear before her.

I thought that this will be the point where she regains her strength and willpower, and Season 2 will be a journey for Team AVATAR to find a method to restore all the bending that was taken awa....

Wait, Aang whatchu doing?

Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep mini bong

OH COME ON. REALLY?

That was bloody convenient, wasn't it?? Feels like a wasted opportunity to explore how Korra would face the prospect of life NOT being an Avatar, or for Benders to experience life as a non-Bender or even for a chance to explore what bending truly is...

It's a deus ex machina flying out of nowhere to smack us in the face, and provides an alternative to some dire situation.

Wait, that sounds familiar.

Oh. Right.

And just like that, Korra's bending is restored and she can also restore other people's bending as well. 

Everyone lives happily ever after.

Oh yea, and I think Mako cheated on Asami with Korra.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Legend of Korra is a great animated series, I've always been a fan of the Avatar: The Last Airbender, and when I heard news of it, I was happy as hell.

It starts off slow, but it soon picks up pace and becomes an exciting piece of work.

It's more than a worth successor to The Last Airbender, in fact I daresay, it trumps it in every way imaginable.

I wonder if M. Night Shyamalan's movie adaption had anything to do with pushing the production to produce the best possible series in order to recover their reputation.

It's unfortunate that some of the best series have such short runs. But I guess that's how they keep it so high quality.

3 episodes per season, every two years. Goddamit.

Now, when is Season 2 coming out dammit?

Hello, Korra, my soulmate.