No main Korra review this week, as they take a break for the 4th July, so I'll be spending this week covering book 1 (there may be other reviews coming too, but I've got to do some scans for them)
Chapter 1 - Welcome to Republic City
Synopsis - Having mastered Earth, Water and Fire-bending, Korra runs away to Republic City to learn air-bending from Tenzin (Aang's son) but she sees the threats of the bending triads and the anti-bending revolution.
Review - They certainly quickly establish the fact that Korra is a very different Avatar to Aang, she is feisty, prone to bursts of anger, and lacks any spiritual guidance. But she was quick to master 3 different bending arts (and was able to bend those elements at a young age, with no guidance at all, which Aang certainly couldn't do)
We get some nice fan-service, as Katara is revealed to be Korra's water-bending master (who better after she trained Aang) and of course, she had kids. Kya and Bumi are mentioned, but see Tenzin and his wife and kids. We also see Lin Beifong, Toph's daughter who's chief of police (ironic considering Toph's usual anti-establishment attitude, but maybe she grew out of it) we also get a recap at the beginning, which mentions how the Fire Nation colonies in the Earth Kingdom were transformed into the united republic (this is further elaborated in the comic series 'The Promise')
We also get the first taste of our main threats in the season, with an introduction to the triple threat triad, and an announcer for Amon.
The animation is fantastic, as is the music. The humour is a little hit and miss, but it was in The Last Airbender too.
Rating 7.5/10
Chapter 2 - A leaf in the wind
Review - This is where we get introduced to the first two members of Team Avatar, Mako (named after the sadly deceased voice actor who originally voiced Iroh in the Last Airbender) and Bolin. Mako and Bolin are brothers that have spent most of their life on the street, above that they don't have a lot of character. Mako is the serious one and Bolin is more jokey one.
Korra's frustration with herself seems genuine, and Tenzin's reaction to it is interesting. While he has 3 children, none of them have yet grown into teenagers, and it's clear he's not used to being the guardian of such. Choosing to have her cooped up on the island, when air is the element of freedom seems odd to me, although not entirely unexpected as that's how her life's been. Their arguments carry some weight, as we know Tenzin is doing his upmost to uphold his father's legacy (something which is expanded on in book 2)
The pro-bending seems to be quite divisive, I personally quite like it, it's a sport that seems natural given the more modern universe they're in, and it provides some decent action scenes. This is a character episode, and while it is needed, it's hard to ignore that really nothing happens that moves the plot forward. As this is early in the series, and it still needs to establish itself, I'm not too bummed about this.
Animation and music are once again fantastic, and the humour seems good.
The ending is something I take issue with. I don't mind Korra looking out to the bending arena, as she seems to have found a new life there, Mako looking out at Air-temple Island implies there's a relationship between them that doesn't have any foundation yet.
Rating 6.5/10
Chapter 3 - The Revelation
Review - After an episode with all story and little character, and an episode that's all character with little story, we get a good balance of both in chapter 3, as we get a little more background on Mako and Bolin, whilst the equalists reveal their first blow to the benders of republic city.
The relationship between Mako and Korra is once again brought up before it has any foundation, and then the rest of the episode begins the foundation of which a relationship could form. This really begins to establish the equalist movement as it seems Amon has chi-blockers (like Ty-Lee from TLA) and himself has the ability to remove people's bending. These are interesting revelations that will have consequences in the coming episodes
The problem is that back-story gives character, but it doesn't develop it. And while it's nice to see Korra make it through the air-bender maze thing, there's little other character development. Oh and Korra is suddenly given complete freedom to explore the city, for no reason, other than the plot needs her to. Also, it seems a little early to rid the threat of the bending triads, who seemed to be just playthings for Amon in this.
The animation and music were once again top notch.
Rating 7/10
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Images used in this review are from The Legend of Korra and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.
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