So Avatar : The Last Airbender is ending this Saturday night, and if there’s anything worse than the fact that it’s ending, it is that no one really seems to care. And it’s a shame, as Avatar is probably one of the best ‘cartoons’ to come out in a long time. It’s funny, has great action scenes, and features an overarching storyline that has allowed characters to grow, change sides, and yes, even perish.

Debuting in 2005, the show takes place in a Asian inspired fantasy world. In this world, Human civilization has been divided into four nations, each basing their society on a natural element(water, fire, earth, and air). Within each society there are certain people that have the ability to manipulate their natural elements. The ability itself is known as bending, and they are aptly named Benders. Each generation, there is also one single person that is able to manipulate all four of the elements, and they are referred as Avatars, who are believed to be the spirit of the planet manifested into a human body.

Aang is not only the latest in the line of Avatars, but he also happens to the last person having the ability to bend the air(hence the title of the show). He was accidentally put in suspended animation when he fell into the icy ocean and was frozen, ala Captain America. When he is discovered and unfrozen, he finds that not only have one hundred years passed, but the fire nation now controls the entire world. And so Aang along with Zokka and Katara, the two that found him in the iceberg, set off in a quest to defeat the firelord and bring freedom to the land.

Like all good stories, that premise is just the launch pad from which a greater story is slowly told. Through his trip, Aang has several adventures, some light hearted, some dwelling with serious emotions such as love and revenge, and others just full of ass kickery. And it’s all finally scheduled to end in the two hour movie debuting tonight on Nickelodeon.

So, you might be asking yourself, if this is really as good as a show as he’s making it out to be, why have I never heard of it? There’s several reasons for that I think.

· It’s a cartoon. Some people are fine watching science fiction, fantasy, and even wrestling. But a cartoon? That’s for children!

· It’s not on Adult Swim. Nowadays, when people think of watchable cartoon, they think Adult Swim. And by that token….

· It’s on Nickelodeon. For some of you too young to remember, there was a time where Nickelodeon actually showed some awesome cartoons. Rocco’s Modern Life, Angry Beavers, Hey Arnold. But a quick switch to the channel now shows they’re more interest in their variety of teen shows, which let’s face it, are less shows and more breeding grounds for their next semi-star.(seriously, just think about it. The girl from I-Carly started in Drake and Josh. Josh started in the Amanda Show with Amanda Bynes, who started in All That..etc.)

· Nickelodeon also kept switching the time it played, rarely replayed past episodes, and delayed airing the episodes, despite said episodes already being finished.

· The delayed only affected those here in the US, so of course the episodes inevitably found their way into the internet for anyone that really cared to watch.

· It’s sort of a weird show to market correctly. It’s not till the second season that the show starts to find its footing and get really good. The first season is okay, but it can also be considered a bit too kiddy. The later seasons on the other hand might have been a bit too adult for Nick’s taste. It constantly did better in the 14 and over market than anything else in that station!

With you now knowing why you might have missed the show, you have probably moved on to your next question. Why should I watch it? Or maybe you just moved on. But either way, because I like bullet points!

· It’s like anime! The show is obviously inspired by the animation from Japan, not only in its look, but also in its animation. It’s a treat to watch the fights, as the designers were careful to make sure each bending style had a real life martial arts that they could take from. Many of the fights could give Bleach and Naruto a run for their money.

· Except it’s not anime! Filler. A word hated by most anime fan. Basically, filler is any episode that serves no other function but to stretch the length of the series, or to kill time until the manga most anime is based off can catch up . Thankfully, with Avatar being an original production, the story has been neatly running for three seasons with very little filler.

· The humor is actually..you know, funny. There hasn’t been a single episode where I haven’t at least laughed once. Aang’s innocent is often used to great effect here, but there are also sight gags galore that bear repeated viewings.

· The characters grow- Thanks to its serial nature and the fact that there has always been an ending in mind, the creators have allowed the characters to grow and expand in surprising way. Zuko is the perfect example of this. I won’t give it away, but suffice to say that his character arc reminds me in many ways to one of my favorite literary character, Jamie Lanister, of The Song of Ice and Fire series(With less sister fucking though)

Hopefully I, along with my vast army of bullet points have made someone a bit more curious about the show. A cursory glance at Amazon shows that the first two seasons are already out on DVD, with the third and final one on the way. Go buy them!