Avatar: The Last Airbender took international audiences by storm during its release in the mid 2000s. Appreciation for this imaginative fantasy series, which drew heavily from Japanese animation and different world cultures, was skyrocketing. A decade after the phenomenon of The Last Airbender, creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dimartino have been named co-chief creative officers of Avatar Studios, a new division of Nickelodeon dedicated to creating new content set in the Avatar universe. A live-action television adaptation of the original series is also in development.

The original series and its successor, The Legend of Korra, have been widely lauded as some of the best animated television stories ever made. The aesthetic of the series is a unique mix of visual elements borrowed from East Asia, South Asia, and Inuit cultures. What made the series so popular, and why does it resonate with so many different, worldwide audiences?

Related: 5 Little Known Facts About Avatar: The Last Airbender Characters

Why Did Avatar Resonate So Well?

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Nickelodeon Animation

Avatar: The Last Airbender brought something genuinely new to western animated television in its carefully constructed world. No other TV show at the time had envisioned a cohesive new world that drew so vividly on the traditions of different real-world cultures. The inclusion of characters derived from Pan-Asian and North American Indigenous identities challenged the overwhelmingly white-centric landscape of cartoons at the time. Of course, animated television shows were inventive enough to create anthropomorphized creatures and in some cases, a few characters of different national identities, but Avatar was the first show to create a main cast of varied backgrounds in a rich, new fantasy world.

The visual landscape of the series contains specific and calculated influences from different cultures, creating a unique style that set the story apart from other animated television of its time. In the world of Avatar, children from different cultures come together to try and end the reign of the Fire Nation, a war-mongering, imperialistic force with notable parallels to Meiji and Taisho-era Japan and the American empire. The characters each have distinct, vibrant personalities that clash and combine under a script that explores a huge range of subject matter. Their idealism, kindness, insecurities, and traumas are always the focus of the show over the exhibition of stylish action scenes, though there are plenty of those as well.

They each possess the power to “bend” the elements of fire, earth, air, and water, which is accomplished by moving and manipulating each substance through physical movement. Konietzko and Dimartino chose to mimic different styles of real-life martial arts to create the unique characteristics of bending, taking inspiration from Konietzko's Kung Fu instructor. And bending isn’t just a combat ability—the world of Avatar is steeped in the culture of bending. It is the central element that creates the relationship of these people to their environment, like breathing and drinking water. That allows the show to create a vivid portrait of this exotic world and inject rich detail and subtext into the series.

The aesthetics of each nation reflect the same attention to detail and cultural appreciation. The Air Nomads, made up of monks, draws heavily on the iconography of India’s mythology and the culture of Himalayan peoples. The design of the Water Tribe, who make their home in frozen climates, draws on Inuit clothing and architecture. The Earth Kingdom's cities and customs are inspired by China. And it isn't just the environment design that is inspired by these cultures—the animation and stylistic qualites of the show are also derived from the tradition of Japanese anime.

Related: Top 10 Animated TV Shows of the 2000s

The Legacy of Anime in The West

Avatar: The Last Airbender Animated Movie Is Coming from Original Series Creators
Nickelodeon

Though many fans of anime today understand Japan as a powerhouse of animation, the history of anime was just as steeped in globalization as it is today. Japanese animation began around the year 1917, when local animators were inspired by short animations made in the US and France. Before the industry's infrastructure was created, Japanese animated films had a propagandistic bent as much of the early animation produced was intended to help the war effort. Soon after, the first big giant of animation was founded, a studio that would come to be known as Toei Animation. Films like Snow White invigorated the imagination of these creators, who turned to making their own feature films despite difficult economic conditions after the second world war. The work of animators afterwards took on a wider variety of subject matters and tones, challenging the idea that animation was “for kids." That attitude that is still frustratingly prevalent in the United States. Despite that, anime is incredibly popular in the United States and continues to grow each year.

Avatar: The Last Airbender represents a new link in the continued conversation of aesthetics between American and Japanese media. Where one tradition once informed the other, both culture's imaginations are now bound together. Avatar stylizes its characters much like Japanese anime does, with big eyes and big mouths, where moments of levity or heightened emotion are characterized by warped facial expressions built off of simple lines. Konietzko and Dimartino confirmed that films like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away (films by Studio Ghibli) had been major sources of inspiration for Avatar.

Although the production of Avatar was dominated by white creators, there was a mostly successful effort to incorporate Pan-Asian and North American Indigenous influences, proving that audiences in the West could be fascinated with elements of different cultures. These are the foundations of what made Avatar: The Last Airbender such a beloved show, and these foundations are inherited by Avatar Studios as they seek to reintroduce audiences to this vibrant world.

How Has the Franchise Evolved?

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Sourced via Nickelodeon Animation Studios

The series was so popular that Nickelodeon went ahead with the creation of a franchise, and the story now exists across many different forms of media including comics, films, and video games. In 2012, Nickelodeon began airing The Legend of Korra, a sequel series to Avatar: The Last Airbender, focusing on a new cast of characters. The show ran for four seasons across two years to relative success, despite some mixed reception from fans of the original series. Like its predecessor, the story was continued in the form of comic books after its culmination. There was also a film made in 2011, infamous among Avatar fans, that released to overwhelmingly negative reception. Among many complaints, fans felt that the movie had further whitewashed the franchise and erased its pan-asian influences.

In 2020, Avatar: The Last Airbender became part of Netflix's catalog, and the jump to streaming media brought in a huge wave of fans to the franchise, old and new alike. The show's widened reach on streaming platforms became the catalyst for the creation of Avatar Studios. The team at Avatar Studios already has an animated film in production along with planned expansions to the universe in the form of published material, a roleplaying game, and presumably other content that hasn’t been announced. Netflix has begun production on a live-action adaptation of the original series, but is proceeding without the input of creators Konietzko and Dimartino, who left the project due to creative differences.

Related: Daniel Dae Kim Is Fire Lord Ozai in Netflix's Live-Action Avatar: The Last Airbender Series

What Will the Future Look Like for Avatar?

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Netflix

The heart of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which once belonged to a handful of creators at Nickelodeon, now spans multiple creative teams across multiple projects. With old and new talent working on the expanding universe, there comes two promises: innovating on the franchise, or retreading old ground. The challenge will be to replicate and develop that heart that made the original series so effective for so many. Part of that has to do with the aesthetic - pulling together a cohesive vision from disparate parts of world cultures is no easy feat. Injecting new characters with complex moral conflicts and moments of unrestrained hope will also prove difficult. Fortunately, all involved have seven seasons of television to look through for past successes and failures. If the new creatives behind the different properties can balance these needs, the future will be very bright for the Avatar universe.