It's been a while since I covered Avatar. I feel bad about that, because there have been some great episodes. I'm starting back because I've got some time again, and also because this most recent episode kicked serious butt.

TOPH!

I really like Aang's new Earthbending teacher. Toph, the little Blind Bandit, is one of the best earthbenders around, though she's only twelve years old. She uses earthbending to "see", and does so quite well. She's also the champion of a long running Earthbending tournament, beating several large, manly earthbenders.

She's got a mouth, too. If she keeps up the way she's going, she could rival Sokka for best lines, and has totally won this week's "One-Liner of the Week." She's got an immediate rivalry with Aang, and apparently a lot of people have already taken that to mean she's going to fall for him. Personally, I doubt it. I think if she develops a crush on anyone, it's going to be either Sokka or Zuko. I suspect that she's going to lead Sokka around by the ear, as she seems even more strong-willed than Katara.

At any rate, this episode was awesome. Great action, and a lovable and well-designed character. I can even forgive the cop-out "blind person who sees with other senses" thing, for two important reasons--one, it's a kid's show, and you've got to give them a bit of leeway where that sort of thing is concerned, and two, she's not all-seeing or anything, as the final scene will attest. It was a bit slapstick, but at least it indicates that she's not just some Mary Sue.

Sokka's One-Liner of the Week: (to Aang) "Don't answer to 'Twinkletoes!' It's not manly!"
Toph's One-Liner of the Week: (to Aang) "Do people really want to see TWO little girls fighting out here?"
Startling Development of the Week: Nothing really startling this week. As soon as I saw her character design, I knew Toph would be Aang's teacher. I suppose it's a pretty neat little twist that Aang's being accused of kidnapping now. Not exactly the first time I've seen that plot twist, but it should make things interesting.
This Week's MVP: Easily Toph. She's going to be a great character. And a good thing, too, since the others are going to need help to stand up to the little Triple Goddess that Azula, Mae and Ty-Lee have formed.

Next week looks like it's going to be pretty much all Zuko, including a major flashback to his childhood. I'm already excited.

I'm waiting until a little later in the week to do my Avatar recap this week, even though thanks to iTunes, I've just finished watching "The Swamp". It just seems a bit unfair to recap something most people haven't seen yet, since spoilers are almost inevitable.

But I'm going to expand my scope a bit, and starting today I'm also going to do a few other shows, as I feel like it. Today I'll look at the newly premiered Disgaea anime.

And yes, I realize the title for today's post is a quote from Makai Kingdom and not Disgaea. But I don't care.

If you have played Disgaea, you can already guess the story to this episode. Laharl's dad has died while Laharl was sleeping, and the apprentice Angel Flonne, who had been sent to assassinate him is too tenderhearted to have carried it out anyway....so now Laharl's got to get a couple of annoyances out of his way and go see about claiming his birthright.

I don't know if it was the fansub I watched or the show (I imagine it was the sub), but they actually labled one of Laharl's attacks....I hope that's not going to be a habit. It's distracting and makes it feel too much like Yu Yu Hakusho or something. I realize this is pretty much straight out shounen, but there's no reason to rely on the tackier elements of the genre, right?

The Disgaea anime has started out fairly solidly. That's not to say it was excellent, but it was true to the spirit of game, which counts for a lot considering fans of the game are going to be its primary audience most likely. They're changing around the story a little bit....introducing a few characters early and waiting a bit to introduce a few, but that's sort of a good thing. If they just translate the game directly into a show, the fans are going to get bored since they already know every little detail about the story.

At any rate, it's a solid enough start to keep me watching for a while longer, and I definitely recommend fans of the game give it a shot.

Coolest Attack of the Week: When Laharl whipped that demon's horns back at it with his cape. Just so smooth and cool!
MVP of the Week: Flonne. She's just too bloody adorable. I might have to disqualify her in future episodes, just because otherwise she might win every one of them on cuteness alone.
Adaptation Quality: Pretty good. They're using a lot of Tenpei Sato's tunes from the show, and all the characters (even minor ones) seem to be based on Harada's designs....though they've been simplified a bit for TV of course. It really feels like I'm watching Disgaea, which is a pretty nice feat to pull off.

I thought there wasn't going to be one this week, but apparently iTunes gives you the episodes whether or not they actually aired, if you got the Season Pass. So here's my second AtLA recap.

Warning! There are spoilers ahead. I'll give you a bit of space to look away!

I got a lot of great screenshots this time, so I had to put up three more than usual for this recap. Also, when you saw the scene I took the first one from, didn't you expect Sokka to say "I don't want to go down into the sewers. It smells like poo gas!"?

This week, Aang, Katara and Sokka have to sneak in to Omashu to try and find King Bumi. But the episode really centers more on Azula and her friends than the trio, as Azula assembles her team this week, and decides that she's going to have to take down the Avatar in addition to Zuko and Iroh.

So Azula calls on her friends from school, who are apparently all femme fatales. Tai Li is a circus performer with a sweet personality who Azula bullies into joining her hunt, and Mae is the angry closet goth. (I'm guessing about the spelling of both of those names. I went with "Mae" for two reasons: firstly, the names in the Avatar universe tend to be less anglicized though I don't think "Mae" is an asiatic spelling, and secondly, "Mae" is the name of Katara's voice actress, Mae Whitman, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear she voices both roles, and that they named the character after her. Tai Li is a straight out guess, but I have fewer doubts about it, oddly enough.) There was a hint that Mae has a history with Zuko as well, so that'll certainly give the Zuko fangirls more reason to hate her.

Tai-Li is almost certainly going to end up getting on the other two's nerves. And as nice as she is, I don't know if I believe she'll ever defect to Aang's side, though she might well help him out once or twice....I say this because I already get the impression in this one that her friends mean a lot to her, and that means she would be unlikely to betray them.

The action in this one was top notch. We got Aang vs. Azula and Katara and Sokka vs. Mae and Tai Li....though Sokka was out for most of it. Katara proves her worth as a fighter once again. Even though neither Mae nor Tai Li showed any bending skills in this episode, they both proved to be excellent fighters. Katara still held her ground for quite a while, though, until Tai Li hit her with what looked like the Five Point Exploding Palm trick.

Sokka's Mae's One-Liner of the Week: "Please tell me you've come here to kill me."
Azula's Development Tracker: Azula's got friends! And Tai-Li actually seems like she might be a good person at heart. Only time will tell.
Startling Development of the Week: T_T King Bumi's not going to teach Aang Earthbending~!
This Week's MVP: Tough call. I'm going to go with Mae, though. Her lightning-fast moves with various projectiles is pretty awesome to watch, but almost impossible to depict with a screenshot, so if you haven't seen this episode, you need to watch Mae.

All around a good episode, with plenty of action and a lot of humor. This season just keeps going strong. I mean the first season was great, but this season has just been top-notch all around. I'm definitely not regretting my decision to get the Season Pass.

In closing, I just want to say that "As barmy as Bumi" should be an accepted way of describing loonies.

Today I'll be starting a new feature which will tentatively run every Friday from now on, where I'll recap and discuss the latest episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I've been a fan of the series for a long time, but the second season is shaping up to be really awesome, and I can't help but actually comment on it....and I've got a blog, so may as well use it, right?

Today's drawing will go up later. I'm going to try to do something extra tonight since I missed yesterday. Anyway, here goes.