The entry for Paranoia Agent on pluralstories made me think “huh, I watched that back when it came out, maybe I should watch it again and see if I understand it this time.”
…pretty sure I did! Better than the first go-around, at least. It uses dramatic shifts in style and visuals to represent the perspective of different characters, and there’s a lot of wobbliness between “everyone’s reality,” “one person’s internal fantasy life,” and “this person’s fantasy life is bleeding out to have tangible effects on everyone else’s reality.” This time I feel like I actually had a handle on which was which.
Also, you can’t get long-term invested in characters, because most of them only get the spotlight for one episode before the story is done with them. It helps to know that going in!
(The episode with the Gifted Kid having recurring distorted images of “he falls off his pedestal for some reason, and everyone immediately turns on him and mocks him” was, uh. Hashtag relatable. You could make a whole season just unpacking that, but nah, he only gets one episode and then we’re off.)
A video review that showcases the series really well (it has spoilers, but it warns you before that section of the review starts):
Note: there’s a character in here who’s plural — not in a metaphorical or fantastical way, they’re just a diagnosed system of 2-3 headmates, in therapy, struggling with when/whether to disclose their condition to people in their lives.
This reviewer thinks the non-host headmate(s) have “vanished” at the end of their arc. I don’t think it’s that clear-cut! Don’t let that put you off.
There are content warnings in the pluralstories entry, so check those if you have any dealbreakers. But if it doesn’t hit any of those for you…and if you’re in the mood for an anthology series that’s beautifully animated and unabashedly weird…consider this highly-recommended.
The last 2 episodes are a close retelling of the last 3 episodes of the cartoon, arriving at the Northern Water Tribe and fighting off a siege. This arc was also more-or-less retold for the climax of the movie, and the TV series does so much better. The fight scenes are dynamic! The final battle has continuously escalating tension! Sokka and Yue are convincingly into each other, and also, actually charming and adorable together!
In terms of differences from the cartoon, I appreciate that they replaced “Yue likes Sokka but is conflicted because she’s engaged, in a political betrothal she can’t break even though he’s a jerk, so they have the teen version of a tortured emotional affair” with “the other guy is fine, but Yue is allowed to break off engagements if she wants, and since she’s into Sokka, she just…does.”
I also liked that Yue figures out how to revive the Moon Spirit on her own (and then icebends Sokka’s feet to the ground so he won’t follow her!), instead of having Iroh work it out. He’ll get good moments later, let her be the driving force in this one.
Disappointed that we didn’t get Moon Goddess Yue giving Sokka one last goodbye, though! I know it’s a whole new costume and a chunk of CGI, but I think it would’ve been worth it.
Also a bit of a letdown…the first time I watched the original, way back in the day, I vaguely remember thinking Katara’s level-up to “Waterbending Master” was premature. She’s good, but nah, this is clearly railroading to keep the show from needing any adults in the Gaang. The remake makes that disconnect even worse, cutting her training scenes with Master Paku, after it’s already cut almost all of Katara (and Aang!) trying to figure out waterbending by themselves on the journey there.
A couple things that didn’t come up in the remake at all, but now that I’ve rewatched Book 1 of the cartoon, these are losses I really missed:
The original has an episode where Aang meets a renegade Firebender who’s willing to teach him, tries to seize the opportunity, and it goes badly. (Katara gets seriously burned, and has to figure out healing fast.) It’s a great practical answer to “why is it worth spending a whole season getting Aang all the way across the planet to learn Water next, why not save time by learning from whoever’s nearest?”
The remake characters don’t address that question at all. Maybe they’re hoping, with the faster pace of the season, nobody in the audience will have time to stop and wonder about it…? But it’s a good question, and a good chunk of bending-related worldbuilding to work through.
The original also has a stop at the Northern Air Temple. Unlike the abandoned graveyard of the Southern Air Temple, this one has a group of non-Air Nomad refugees who’ve moved in and are remodeling the place. Original Aang had to grapple with the relative importance of “preserving the ancient sites of my people exactly as they were” versus “making sure people here-and-now have good safe places to live.”
In retrospect, I was surprised how the 2004 version went so far in the direction of “present-day refugees need to live” that it came off like “so if they demolish the sacred statues of a civilization that was wiped out by genocide, eh, Aang needs to stop being all uptight about that.” Feels like they would’ve handled that differently if it was written in 2024, and I would’ve liked to see the remake’s take on it.
Overall — a really solid remake! A lot of updates and consolidation that I really liked, even with some changes and losses that I thought were missteps. Glad to hear they already got renewed, and I’m looking forward to this team’s version of Book 2 and Book 3.
So there’s an Encanto musical stage show on Disney+, basically just a bunch of people performing all the songs live, with SFX partly done on big TV screens and partly by an ensemble of dancers.
Most of the singers are dressed like the characters are in the movie, traditional Colombian outfits in bright colors with lots of embroidery.
…and then Luisa walks on stage, and they full-on restyled her as a butch glam rock star.
A+ choice on all levels, this is a perfect example of Knowing Your Audience (your audience is sapphics) and catering to us appropriately, costume designers thank you for your service.
I’m still trying to rewatch the original cartoon in tandem…which might be screwing up my ability to appreciate the pacing of both versions, oops.
I continue to really like how they’re condensing things. The city of Omashu takes up 1 episode of the cartoon, and it focuses on Aang facing a challenge while Sokka and Katara mostly hang out in the background. In the live-action, the whole of episodes 3-4 are set in Omashu…where Aang gets a similar plot, but Katara gets to explore the plotline from a second episode, Sokka investigates a third episode, and Iroh+Zuko get their subplot from a fourth.
Favorite change: Instead of King Bumi holding back the reveal of his past friendship with Aang until the end of the episode, they reconnect basically right away! And then they still go through a challenge/fight sequence, but it’s not about teaching Aang a general lesson in Avatar-ing, it’s about Bumi wrangling all his personal feelings over being stuck as a wartime leader his entire adult life while the Avatar was MIA.
The writers are also good at anticipating what long-time fans will expect, and using that to their advantage. There’s a character you’re not expecting to show up until a couple arcs later, so their surprise early appearance is A Twist. And the poor beleaguered Cabbage Guy makes his big debut!…but it’s a running gag that he keeps getting cut off before he can finish his iconic line.
Episodes 5-6 are a remix of the spirit-world plot from Winter Solstice parts 1-2, and “characters from a bunch of future episodes live in Omashu now” gets followed up with “spirits from a bunch of future episodes live in this spirit-world forest now.” With a side of “backstory reveals from a bunch of future episodes are experienced as spirit-world visions now.”
It also feeds into the sequence where Zhao captures Aang. After watching the poor movie, one of my thoughts was that it might’ve helped the pacing to cut that whole bit completely? In a full season of TV, you have time for Zuko to go through some conflicted back-and-forth — catching sympathy for the Gaang and helping them, then getting mad at himself and doubling down on being a bad guy for the next few episodes, then oops, having feelings again. In a 2-hour movie, you’ve gotta compact that into a more linear arc. Zuko’s supposed to be back in ominous bad-guy mode during the Siege of the North, but the emotion/suspense doesn’t land when the timing is “the arc where you saved Aang’s bacon was literally 10 minutes ago.”
In the new TV series, it plays so much better. You get more of Zuko’s ups-and-downs. After the rescue, Aang tries to have a heart-to-heart with him, all “you’re not so bad, couldn’t we have been friends?”, and we can really feel Zuko struggling against the “what if you joined the good guys, tho” impulses. When he’s back to digging in his heels in the next couple episodes, it’ll feel earned. Convincing, even!
It even makes me think, maybe the movie could’ve pulled this off in a single 2-hour showing, if they had played it more like this.
Bonus note 1: both versions of the show work in a visit to Avatar Roku’s shrine, and this is one case where I think I like the cartoon better. It has time for the characters to be more clever and strategic about it, instead of hustling Aang inside and then back out again as fast as possible. Also, after Remake Kyoshi got some cool expanded scenes a few episodes ago, I’d say Remake Roku got shortchanged.
Bonus note 2: there’s been almost no Zuko-Katara interaction in the remake so far. I have no dog in the shipping fights here, but I do kinda think it’ll be doing the Zutara fans dirty if they don’t get something juicy in the finale.
(screencap: the splash image at the end of the final episode)
…So, that sure was an anime that got made, huh?
Final reactions under the cut! Lots of spoilers, although if you haven’t watched the thing in the first place, a lot of them will probably be incomprehensible anyway.
Humanist+Humorist 