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alias_sqbrFor the duration of this post "Avatar" means the tv show "Avatar the Last Airbender". Lets forget the other one exists.
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greteldragon asked about this on Twitter and once again Twitter simply could not hold the full extent of my genius. I decided it was a question I'd like to open to you guys anyway.
So: there is no anime, or animated show from any other genre, or fiction of any type at all, really, that feels significantly like Avatar to me in all respects. There are some that are similar in some ways, but whether or not they match in the most important ways is going to be subjective.
We have: a ragtag group of teenagers/children trying to save the world in a fantasy setting based on medieval East Asia. Pros include humour, character consistency and growth, large 3 dimensional cast, moral ambiguity, good writing, clever worldbuilding.
The list of general anime recs from my anime panel last year
Shows which remind me of Avatar of the top of my head. Pros and cons are both similarity and quality (and then I got bored of listing them)
Teen Titans: A group of teen superheroes saving the world. Pro: Light tone, likable humourous characters, similar Americans-emulating-anime feel. Con: VERY silly, total reset button every episode.
Samurai Shamploo: Two samurai and a girl have wacky hiijinks in Edo era Japan. Pro: very well written with clever metahumour, moral ambiguity, nicely realised period Japanese setting. Con: Not all that similar :) Personally I find samurai dramas dull and got bored.
El Hazard: Schoolkids and teacher find themselves suddenly transported to a far away magical kingdom and are drawn into an epic battle taking place, better than it sounds. Only anime with a moderately epic fantasy plot I can think of that I've actually liked.
Pros: Funny, ensemble cast, does some interesting and clever things
Cons: A bit silly, dated and cliched in parts (very uncliched in others though)
Full Metal Alchemist: Much darker and quite different in a lot of ways, but very good from from what I've seen and it is a fantasy about teenagers on a quest in a fantasy setting with clever writing and good (steampunkish) fantasy worldbuilding.
There's "The Mysterious Cities of Gold", but I haven't seen that since I was a kid so can't guarantee it'd stand up to modern viewing!
There's a lot of light anime about groups of schoolkids having weird magical hiijinks, I think the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimiya (TV Tropes: it's very hard to summarise!) is my favourite but it's not much like Avatar (more surreal and...wrong, also smaller scale. But just as funny).
In a similar-ish vein part of me wants to rec "Serial Experiments Lain", "Princess Tutu" or "Gokusen" because they're awesome but they're really not very much like Avatar at all :)
I can't think of any live action TV which reminds me of Avatar at all, but that may be a failure of imagination on my part.
So, what do other Avatar fans think of my recs? What would you rec? Stick to tv or miniseries I think, unless you have a book/movie/etc that's really similar.
And if you haven't seen Avatar: do so! It's awesome!
LJ mirror: http://alias-sqbr.livejournal.com/323178.html
greteldragon asked about this on Twitter and once again Twitter simply could not hold the full extent of my genius. I decided it was a question I'd like to open to you guys anyway.So: there is no anime, or animated show from any other genre, or fiction of any type at all, really, that feels significantly like Avatar to me in all respects. There are some that are similar in some ways, but whether or not they match in the most important ways is going to be subjective.
We have: a ragtag group of teenagers/children trying to save the world in a fantasy setting based on medieval East Asia. Pros include humour, character consistency and growth, large 3 dimensional cast, moral ambiguity, good writing, clever worldbuilding.
The list of general anime recs from my anime panel last year
Shows which remind me of Avatar of the top of my head. Pros and cons are both similarity and quality (and then I got bored of listing them)
Teen Titans: A group of teen superheroes saving the world. Pro: Light tone, likable humourous characters, similar Americans-emulating-anime feel. Con: VERY silly, total reset button every episode.
Samurai Shamploo: Two samurai and a girl have wacky hiijinks in Edo era Japan. Pro: very well written with clever metahumour, moral ambiguity, nicely realised period Japanese setting. Con: Not all that similar :) Personally I find samurai dramas dull and got bored.
El Hazard: Schoolkids and teacher find themselves suddenly transported to a far away magical kingdom and are drawn into an epic battle taking place, better than it sounds. Only anime with a moderately epic fantasy plot I can think of that I've actually liked.
Pros: Funny, ensemble cast, does some interesting and clever things
Cons: A bit silly, dated and cliched in parts (very uncliched in others though)
Full Metal Alchemist: Much darker and quite different in a lot of ways, but very good from from what I've seen and it is a fantasy about teenagers on a quest in a fantasy setting with clever writing and good (steampunkish) fantasy worldbuilding.
There's "The Mysterious Cities of Gold", but I haven't seen that since I was a kid so can't guarantee it'd stand up to modern viewing!
There's a lot of light anime about groups of schoolkids having weird magical hiijinks, I think the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimiya (TV Tropes: it's very hard to summarise!) is my favourite but it's not much like Avatar (more surreal and...wrong, also smaller scale. But just as funny).
In a similar-ish vein part of me wants to rec "Serial Experiments Lain", "Princess Tutu" or "Gokusen" because they're awesome but they're really not very much like Avatar at all :)
I can't think of any live action TV which reminds me of Avatar at all, but that may be a failure of imagination on my part.
So, what do other Avatar fans think of my recs? What would you rec? Stick to tv or miniseries I think, unless you have a book/movie/etc that's really similar.
And if you haven't seen Avatar: do so! It's awesome!
LJ mirror: http://alias-sqbr.livejournal.com/323178.html
