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But theres more toAvatars anime rootsthan slo-mo battles and baroque speeches.
In both cases, this trauma is embodied in the form of a young, gifted boy.
Destruction, invasion the traumas of Japan in the 20th century weigh on the shoulders of these pubescent males.
But balance was thrown off 100 years ago when the current avatar, a boy named Aang, disappeared.
The story begins when a brother and sister from the Water Tribe discover Aang frozen in arctic ice.
Anime 101, right?
The special boy who bears the weight of the world?
But Aang quickly proves his differences from the likes of Akira and Shinji.
He is a deeply goofy kid, as if the child star of a TGIF sitcom were given superpowers.
Capturing the Avatar is the only way Zuko can return home and regain his honor.
Eventually, Zuko turns his back on his father and joins Aangs rebellion.
Television during the so-called War on Terror was chock-full of stories about two sides locked in existential battle.
Some were insightful, such asBattlestar Galactica; others were tumescently jingoistic, like24.
Good and evil was not a matter of which flag you saluted, but of the friends you made.
Its a story that remains relevant today, and also acquires new resonance.
For that matter, the Fire Nation looks even more like the U.S. than when it first aired.
Today, thanks to the global reach of Netflix, there are children watching the showfor the first time.
Some of them may live in countries that the U.S. government considers its enemies.
