I’m going to conclude my favorite animated shows for this month with a show that could easily be one of my favorite shows of all time: Avatar, The Last Airbender. Let me put it this way: if all songs were like “500 miles”, I would not mind. If all video games were like The Legend of Zelda, I also would not mind. If all shows were like Avatar: The Last Airbender, the world would be perfect.

I will be calling this series in this review Avatar because I don’t want to call it The Last Airbender. Yeah, I don’t want it confused with the live-action movie which everyone hates, and I’ll risk my readers getting this animated series confused with the 2009 James Cameron film Avatar. This show is ambitious with what it wants to do, and it is hard to believe this show is designed for kids. Most shows that are targeted for a younger audience are usually dumbed down, but Avatar took the opposite approach.

Avatar takes place in a world that is not ours, and certain people known as benders can control earth, fire, water, or air. There is some spiritual figure known as the Avatar who can master all four elements, and he is apparently the link between the physical and spiritual world. For some reason, these benders like to stay within their areas, but one day the Fire nation decides to just take over. Unfortunately, the avatar disappeared before the Fire nation advanced.

Now, in the context of this world, this avatar is supposed to be reincarnated or recycled, but this didn’t happen when the last airbender avatar named Aang, a young child, vanished. The series opens with Katara and Sokka, a brother and sister who live in the South Pole of this world. Katara is a waterbender, and her brother doesn’t bend at all, but he’s sort of the comic relief of the show. The two of them discover Aang entrapped in an iceberg, and they realize he’s the airbender.

Meanwhile, an exiled prince from the Fire Nation named Zuko is looking for redemption, and he hopes that bringing the avatar back will win him the respect of his father. Zuko has a backstory that involves his father literally scarring him for life to teach him a lesson, and Aang has a backstory that involves him running away to flee from his destiny as avatar.

Yes, this show is very complicated, and that is why it is so, so good. The first season of the show is essentially Aang, Katara, and Sokka trying to get to the North Pole so Aang can learn waterbending. Zuko is in constant pursuit of them, but he is a villain who is as sympathetic as he is malicious. Traveling with Zuko is his uncle Iroh, who is very wise comic relief and also a great character.

In addition to the awesome characters, the show had episodes that built upon each other to reach a very satisfying conclusion. It could have easily have been dragged on for many years, but it lasted one short season, a second long season, and a curtailed last season with a four-part finale.

I think most people regard Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the finest shows of all time, rating a 9.2 on imdb.com. Recently, the Nostalgia Critic did the best and worst episodes, and I think most of the world’s critics agree with him. These critics are united on their feelings of The Last Airbender, the M. Night Shyamalan live-action adaptation of season one of the show. The reason that I believe this live-action movie failed is because it attempted to compact 13 episodes into a one and a half-hour movie. In short, it was a movie that didn’t need to be made but was made for the sake of money.

I have managed to get my friends hooked on Avatar, and if you watch it, watch it from the pilot episode. Then you will want to watch all of it. Now there is a sequel series known as The Legend of Korra, which is all right. It takes the myth to the next level, but I don’t think it will be as awesome as its predecessor.