Avatar-The Legend of Aang

Avatar: The Legend of Aang (also known as Avatar: The Last Airbender) is an Emmy award-winning American animated television series that aired for three seasons on the Nickelodeon television network and on Nicktoons Network. The show made its debut on February 21, 2005, and the last episodes were screened on July 19, 2008.

Avatar takes place in an Asian fantasy world that is home to humans, fantastic animals, and supernatural spirits. Human civilization is divided into four nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation. Each nation has its own natural element, on which it bases its society. Within each nation exists an order called "Benders," who have the ability to manipulate the element of their nation. The show’s creators assigned each Bening art its own style of martial arts; inheriting both the advantages and weakness of the martial arts it was assigned. The Bending types are Waterbending, Earthbending, Firebending, and Airbending.

What is fascinating is that each tye of Bending is based on the Chinese Wushu. The Waterbending is based on Tai Chi which is soft and offers non-resistance like water. Earthbending is based on the southern Shaolin Tiger-Crane techniques which uses a lot of brutal force. Firebending is based on the Northern Shaolin martial arts and airbending is based on the Pakua formation.

I truly enjoyed the adventures of Aang, Katara and SokKa as the Avatar seeks to acquires the skills of the various techniques. The storyline is found here. It looks like an anime but is not because it is American. Duh.