Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1532153
Images courtesy of Nickelodeon. BENDING THE RULES BY EVAN HENERSON ON ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY, THE PIONEERING SERIES AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER STANDS THE TEST OF TIME. Action adventure meets legend and lore with an anime influence— but with minimal violence to make the stories kid-friendly. Oh, and the plot will unfold in serialized format with a fixed ending. Given how deeply audiences have embraced all things anime over the past 20 years, the above would not be a wacked-out pitch in 2025. Back in the early 2000s, however, the idea for what became Avatar: The Last Airbender was a different animal. Nonetheless, series co-creators and longtime friends Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko knew what kinds of stories ignited their creative fire, and they felt viewers might feel the same heat. Avatar ran from 2005-2008, winning multiple awards. From the success of that original series sprang a live-action feature film, a live-action Netflix series, and the sequel series The Legend of Korra. Today you can find main character Aang and his friends on t-shirts and backpacks, as well as in LEGO and video games. There's even "Avatar: The Last Airbender In Concert," featuring a live orchestra accompanying episodes from the series, which continues to tour the world. Here, we look back at the inspira- tion and artwork that led to this timeless show. Michael Dante DiMartino, Creator & Writer Bryan Konietzko, Creator & Art Director "We did not invent the wheel," says Bryan Konietzko. "We made the show as a love letter to a lot of Japanese anime, Hong Kong martial arts films, and the kind of art and culture that Mike [Dante DiMartino] and I were inspired by." He explains that this was during an era when Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings were dominating Western pop culture, and he thinks audiences were looking for bigger, expansive stories that had a lot of world- building and lore. "This was also when anime used to be this niche thing that only the diehard otaku [anime enthusiasts] were into," he notes, adding that he and DiMartino were on the crest of a wave of Western artists and storytellers who were also anime fans and wanted to create in that same artistic space. The series follows the exploits of the title character, Aang, who battles with the Fire Lord Ozai to control the fate of the world. DiMartino and Konietzko took inspiration from a grab bag of sources ranging from Bikram yoga to Cowboy Bebop, from Ernest Shackleton's exploration of Antarctica to the comic mayhem of Jackie Chan. They found a receptive ear in SPRING 2025 17