I want to be a mailman in Omashu

I like to share on here what shows I'm watching at the moment. Right now, I'm really into something that's intended for the grammar school crowd. Also, something that's known now for a terrible, racist M. Night Salami adaptation into a feature film. Yeah, that's right, I'm talking about Avatar: The Last Air Bender.

It's easy to be skeptical of a series that's intended for kids, but this show is actually really really awesome. It strongly appeals to my kung-fu movie loving side. Not just because of all the action and martial arts, the plot has all the elements of a really fantastic heroic epic. The landscape of this fictional world and the mythology of it is also really rich and interesting. Especially the wildlife: Sabertooth Moose Lions?

Seal Turtles? Rabbi-roos? Platypus Bears? Wolf Bats? Awesome.

All the characters are also so well crafted and dynamic, it's hard to think of one who's entirely flat. Even the animal characters, like Appa, the flying bison, have strong distinct personalities and clear motivations.

My favorite character of the series is Uncle Iroh, the former fire-nation general with the heart of gold. I want him to be my dad, make me tea and teach me fire-bending! I'm actually going to a teahouse this weekend up in Maine. I'm totally going to pretend that I'm hanging out with the Dragon of the West.

Iroh has many really funny, amazing scenes, but the only clip of him I could find on youtube that wasn't dubbed is the excerpt from a very sad episode.



We're about 3/4 of the way through the second season, with one season to go. I'm excited to see just how epic this story can be.

I guess this means I like anime now too? uh-oh!