Catch Up with the Greatest Animated Show Ever – Watch All of Avatar: The Last Airbender Online

I don’t think I’ve ever done an entire point to say this outright, but Avatar: The Last Airbender is the greatest animation show of all time, without question. It’s beautifully animated, thoughtfully written, and has a plot that should interest any fan of good sci-fi/fantasy. It’s not just another anime, and it’s not just for kids, despite airing on Nickelodeon. It’s a phenomenal show, and one of my favorites of all time, animated or otherwise.

Now, you too can share in the magic that is Avatar: The Last Airbender. Nickelodeon has the ENTIRE series online for your viewing pleasure. It’s three seasons long, and if you have remotely good taste in TV, you should enjoy every minute of it. The Last Airbender has a sequel series called The Legend of Korra which just wrapped up half of it’s first season this week, and it’s nearly as good as the original. Now’s as good a time as any to get on the train, as you can watch all four seasons together without having to wait years like the rest of us.

Check it out here, and if I made any converts after you give it a shot, please do let me know. It would make my day. Give it at least four episodes to take. And never watch the abominable M.  Night Shyamalan movie.

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28 Comments

  1. I only heard about the show when the craphole of a movie was coming out, but thankfully I watched the show first. I agree on all points, this show is amazing! So good that I had to own the DVD’s despite the fact that can watch it online anytime.

    I only wish they had released the soundtrack too, because the music in the show is damn well done!

  2. I do love the show and watched it from the get-go, but I have to say Paul, you tend to go a bit overboard in your support of some things. “Greatest animated show ever” is a pretty bold statement for a show that lasted 3 seasons and had numerous episodes that were 100% geared towards children. Also, a show that’s only 3 seasons long shouldn’t have as many filler episodes as Avatar did.

  3. Best Nicktoon ever, Invader Zim being second. I was floored by how deep the characters and world were on a nickelodeon show then first time I watched it.

    It also managed to have a satisfying ending, a rarity these days.

  4. Oof. “Best you’ve ever seen” and not “best of all time-bar none” please. I highly recommend “Berserk”, “Ruroni Kenshin Trust/Betrayal”, “One Piece” and “Cowboy Bebop” and submit that all 4 of those are superior to Avatar. The voice acting just isn’t at the same talent level in Avatar and it’s incredibly distracting. It’s also written for a 12 year old audience and it shows. There was some admirable effort put into Avatar and some of the action is quite well-drawn but it felt like an Americanized version of Naruto for extended sections, and the character development was hampered by the target age group. Bebop was 2 seasons and a movie, Berserk 2 seasons, the Kenshin OVA a 4 episode stand-alone, One Piece…well, One Piece will never end, but that’s a good thing. I challenge you to prove me wrong Paul! 🙂

  5. Nilsilly: I cant let this go. Hampered by the age group? Kenshin and One Piece are great but I wouldn’t recommend them to everyone. With Avatar, I tell everyone to give it a try. To just dismiss it as kiddie… are you made of stone?

  6. I’ve had the show on my Netflix instant queue for a while. Really missed the boat on this one, it seems. The look is very wannabe kiddie anime, and Nicktoons produces so much absolute SHIT that I just had no desire to give Avatar a shot when it came out. Looks like I need to make time, even if the guy calling it the greatest animated show of all time has admitted before that he doesn’t watch anime, where every thinking adult knows the best of the best reside. I will eat my keyboard if Avatar is better than Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion, but am looking forward to getting into it nonetheless.

  7. I have to say that I had heard you mention this before and coupled with my younger brother telling me to watch it – I did.

    Now I saw the movie before any of this and thought it was awful without knowing anything about the show.

    Having said that, the show is amazing and I’m very saddened by the movie – it’s such a good story and amazing characters I’m very surprised at what the movie did with it.

    Is it the best animated show ever? Not sure, but it’s pretty damn good if ya ask me. I watched the entire series in about 3 weeks time on Netflix – and that’s impressive for me.

  8. Just for the sake of being fair and honest, this show has a really great story to tell and tells it fairly well, but the voice acting is sub-par to terrible, and the writing and dialogue go back and forth from being good to unbearable.

    I know it’s a children’s show, but that has never stopped people from making great shows. It doesn’t limit Adventure Time any.

    I tried to watch The Legend Korra with my sister who loves the show, but it also has really terrible dialogue and voice acting. I will say the show is still worth watching in my opinion, and it is good . . . but you can’t look over a lot of major problems just because you want it to be good. I want it too be better 🙁 it’s been very dissappointing because I really like the story a lot, and I did watch the show, but I can’t bring myself to recommend it more than that, because it’s just not very good work. Blame it on the kids channel all you want, but that’s not it.

  9. I concur with Jake Fortner. The story is incredible, the characters are well fleshed out and go through a lot of development (Zuko especially, but all of them have their arcs) and the show tackles a lot of hard issues, like genocide, the casulties of war, and stuff like that.

    But the english voice acting really is subpar. Zuko sounds like a whiny brat all the time. This is pretty much the only show were I prefer the german dub – usually I always watch everything in it’s original language.

  10. @Giauz

    I didn’t mean to come across as “dismissing” it, only that some of the childish aspects caused me to like it less than I like some other shows. It’s a fine show, just not one that I would ever consider for the title of “best ever”. “Best American-made Asian-style” cartoon? Sure. Maybe “Most Advanced American made Cartoon” period. I just feel that other cultures have been committed to the medium for a longer time and it shows. Avatar was a great step in a more mature, developed direction but it (in my opinion) still has a ways to go as it had some distractingly unpolished/undeveloped elements.

    Also, not made of stone…YET. Twoud be tremendous though. 🙂

  11. @Nilsilly

    Yet you ignore the childish aspects of OP? The entire basis of the Frankie/Brooks characters are childish. Even after the events of Impel Down, Luffy still plays the japanese Architype of the childlike hero.(See Goku, Kenshin post-battousai, Naruto, Natsu, Vash the Stampede, Goury, )

    Berserk and Bebop were just a single season, 26 episodes is a Japanese season. Bebop had Ed, Berserk had Puck.(if you read the manga) Even my personal favorite anime, Code Geass, had Lelouch’s classmates to goof it up.

    The two to recommend are Code Geass and Death Note

  12. Um… actually Paul, that WAS the end of the first season. Yup, all twelve episodes of it. In fact originally it was supposed to be just that and no more, but fan interest prompted Nickelodeon to agree to a second 14 episode season (and if that one’s successful enough… maybe even a third?)

    Also, I consider A:TLA to be a true epic. This is a word that has been abused beyond belief online and I don’t use it too lightly, but the show is just. That. Good.

    (That said–calling it the “best ever”? It’s unfair to compare it to cartoons that are of different genres. Best *fantasy* cartoon, definitely; but what about the comedies and the adult dramas and all the rest? It’s apples & oranges.)

  13. @Piratey

    I understand that other shows have comedic elements, and other shows have youthful characters. I found the execution of these characters and their plotlines in Avatar to be done in a way that was distracting and off-putting. I did not find it to be so in some of the other shows I mentioned. My bad on the # of seasons. I’ve seen a few anime that were 13eps so I just call those “1 season” and the 24-26 ep series “2 season”.

    Didn’t mean to rile people up; I just don’t consider Avatar to be in the same class as a number of other shows, and if people liked it they might like some other ones more. 🙂

  14. Completely agree. best animated show i’ve ever seen and one of my favorite shows full stop. My wife thinks the same and I’ve introduced many others who love it too. Korra is brilliant too – SPOILER – the last episode with the glove on the fuel tank, and Amon with the tear in his eye, floored me —SPOILER END

  15. One afternoon years ago I was flipping channels on the TV and accidentally saw a a pitch for “Coming up next, the Nickelodeon premiere of Avatar.” I thought OK, I’ll see what it’s about. I’ve been a huge fan ever since.

  16. I absolutely loved this series, and I watched it last year based on your recommendation. I would second the argument that it is the best animated show ever. It is engaging on a storytelling level, beautiful as an artistic work, and intellectually fulfilling as an exploration of Eastern philosophies. It’s the most seriously developed “kids” show I’ve ever experienced. I’m re watching it now for the third time. And I’m not the tiniest bit bored by anything.

  17. No shit, I almost felt like slapping you for the Mass Effect Extended Cut post (because WAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!), but this post here, well, it honestly is the saving factor in me still visiting this sight. I mean, who the hell am I? Nevertheless, Avatar: The Last Airbender really is the greatest animated television show. Hats off to you for this.

  18. Paul, you’re so late to the party… I’ve already watched it eight times on NetFlix.

    Now, if you have word on where I can watch Legend of Korra…

  19. Had to watch a bunch of shitty adverts to find out that its not available in my location. Why can’t the adverts be region locked too so I don’t have to watch them?

  20. Hey Paul, so now that the first season of Korra is over, what are your final thoughts? Your high praises for the original series are the reason I watched it in the first place. Korra was awesome. Did anyone else think that ***SPOILER WARNING***Amon taking Korra’s bending and her discovering her air bending would’ve been the perfect setup to her having to re-learn the other elements in futures seasons?

  21. yea I agree with u.
    I truely think that Avatar Last air bender is not just a cartoon its so full of life and its story life is amazing and New sequel of ATLA is also as great as first.

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