Short-hand version for those who don't like reading long posts:
I watched Korra Book 1 and 2 - though I found there were a lot of problems with Last Airbender Easter Eggs, pacing and wonky characterisation, they were okay shows and I can understand why they are very popular with Airbender fans. They're not terribly bad and do some great things sorely missing in modern-day American animation. But could do better.
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With that out of the way, I'm getting onto the meat of my post. I write this as a spectator, so forgive me if I sound a bit clinical or even cynical. I just thought it'd be interesting to highlight some trivia about Korra since this may have affected how both seasons ran, and what will happen with Book Three next year. And there's some of my own thoughts and feelings in this, so don't get offended or anything, at no point do I condemn the Korra or Airbender franchise, nor do I think badly of any fans, etc.
Now, originally, Legend of Korra was never planned to have existed -- Bryan Krozyneito (one of the series creators) amongst others were cajoled into doing the sequel series by Nickelodeon, who wanted to capitalise on Airbender Avatar's (mostly American) success. However, following the disastrous reception of the live-action movie by M. Night Shyamalan, which tried to appeal to everyone (entertaining nobody in the process), Nickelodeon were rather adverse to paying for a full series; after all, the original Airbender Avatar was a huge gamble in itself because prior to that, there hadn't really been an original American-funded anime-esque (not just in terms of visual art-style, but the fact that it was continuity-driven with permanent character-development and very lengthy arcs) beforehand - at least, not one with merchandise or international exports in mind. So Korra was only specifically funded for a 13 episode run.
Krozyneito's team however had to fight tooth and nail to let Korra turn out the way it has done. Originally, Korra was supposed to be a very direct sequel to Aang's story but as early press releases indicate, Krozyneito wanted to make a series that didn't indirectly command that you have to watch the original Airbender Avatar in order to understand everything. Whether he and the producers succeeded at this is open to interpretation (I personally don't think they did). Executive meddling also forced the producers to include the Bending Championships; Nickelodeon was (unjustly) scared a female lead character would turn away the much sought-after 8-13 boys demographic. Veteran animation screenwriter Paul Dini (Batman: The Animated Series amongst many others) has also highlighted this problem with Cartoon Network executives as one of the reasons behind Young Justice's cancellation.
At any rate, Korra Season (or Book) 1 I saw for myself and whilst fairly flawed (in my opinion), it was an okay show. I take my hat off to the writers for introducing socio-political issues and not speaking down to its intended audience. They really pushed the envelope out in terms of what can be told and used in (American) animation, what with Amon's rhetoric and all. It wasn't perfect - with such a limited amount of episodes, the pacing was jarring at times, the characterisation could've used some tweaking (ie. Boylin) and that reset-button ending... though, to be fair, at the time of production, Krozyneito himself admitted they had no idea whether Nickelodeon would green-light a second series so they had to wrap up things fast in case it was a no. Obviously with our retrospective now, it was clear Korra would get recommissioned; after all, the show is immensely popular in its native USA.
Yet Nickelodeon have a strange editorial policy - it wasn't until mid-2011, they actively announced more funding for animated shows (albeit franchise-driven ones, ie, the strange acquisition of Raving Rabbids, despite Ubisoft having long since moved on from the Rayman franchise, and the contractual obligation with Dreamworks and the TV series of Monsters vs Aliens*) and even now, I still can't fathom at what Nickelodeon's strategy is; half the time, they don't seem to like airing the material they do have, instead favouring cheaper-to-make live-action shows.
Anyway, getting back on course, Korra got recommissioned for a further 26 episodes. Sadly, at the time I learnt this, I didn't realise that by 26 episodes, they meant two 13-episode seasons. I would've thought that one of the things the writing team learnt from Season 1 was that they either had to increase the episode count (though, with Nickelodeon's policy, this was highly unlikely**), or cutback story-content wise so there was enough breathing room for everything to evolve organically, especially knowing that there was a very good chance of getting recommissioned considering Avatar's popularity.
Sad as it is to say, I didn't actually last through all of Season 2 at all - I dropped the series about three episodes before the end. Whilst I could understand in the grand scheme of things as to why Korra was so un-likeable in the first six episodes, and why there was so much focus on Tensen's familial issues, Season 2 seemed rather... unfocused, even muddled.
Again, socio-political issues were examined so I actually do congratulate the writers again on that score, as well as the quasi-religious faith arguments. I can't think of any American animation (outside of satire, re: American Dad, Family Guy, Futurama, South Park and arguably The Simpsons in a clumsy fashion) that has had the bravery to do that. But at the same time, there was a lot of fluff and nostalgic navel-gazing (Tensen's youngest getting a lemur-bat of his own, and Iroh yet again!); to me, this felt quite unnecessary considering how low the episode count was and in true anime fashion, I foresaw a "oops, we're running out of episodes! We got to get serious and wrap this up quick!"*** And as was the case with Season 1, whilst the ideas they tried to convey were very good, the execution of how they played out wasn't, at least not to me. It really says something if I far more enjoyed the Wan 2-parter than watching Korra and company.
Following Bryan Krozynieto's blog on Tumblr, some of the problems may come from the fact that for season 2 of Korra, the animation work was split between Studio MIR and Studio Pierrot. For non anime fans, Pierrot is responsible forboth the Bleach and Naruto anime phenomenon. Studio MIR, who are based in the Philippines, have handled all Airbender work, including Korra, so needless to say, they'd be familiar with how the show operates. Studio Pierrot, on the other hand are Japanese and we all know the comparable differences between Western and Japanese animation. Let's just say that... you could tell which episodes Pierrot worked on and Studio MIR, back at the beginning of December, gleefully announced "We're pleased to confirm that we have won the exclusive rights for Korra Book 3! We start early next year!" Evidence speaks for itself...
I feel rather sorry for Studio Pierrot in that fashion because 2013 hasn't been kind to them - their long-runners, Bleach and Naruto are coming to an end and the various other projects they've tried haven't lasted long (Tokyo Mew Mew, Letter Bee, Blue Dragon) even if they have been popular (re: Polar Bear Cafe), Naruto's Rock Lee spin-off). Not sure what the result of getting dropped by an American company will be...
That said, I'm rather... concerned for what the future of Korra will be with Season 3. Needless to say, it's not all doom and gloom - Korra will receive an audience no matter what. Avatar is a popular franchise and to surpass the half-decade mark is an achievement in itself -- I can't remember an original animated TV show doing that without some toy or film conceived at the point of conception). From what I heard, Korra herself has severed all spiritual ties with previous Avatars so maybe that's a symbolic gesture to say "No more retrospectives! We're doing our own thing now!" Maybe the writers will be more free to take Korra in a different direction without having to worry about canonicity so much -- it worked for Man-of-Action and Ben 10 Omniverse **** after all.
In that light, I'm quietly optimistic. The long gap between Korra Book 2 and 3 may be a chance for the writers to examine what works and what doesn't and hopefully sort out their issues. I really want to like Korra as I never had the chance of growing up with the original Airbender series*****. But it's hard to if the writers (and Nickelodeon) keep sabotaging it (accidentially or pre-concieved, I don't know) , if you know what I mean?
Anyway, there you go -- most of the last paragraph is personal opinion and and I'm quite picky with what I watch. Though there are problems, I praise Korra and what the team behind it have done. They're at least trying something that isn't striving to be an instant Internet hit (Steven Universe, Adventure Time, Regular Show, etc) or merely exists to sell something (too many examples to list). Kudos to them I say.
We can only wait and see what the future brings really.
Thanks for bearing with me - I just wanted to post something informative as well as putting out my two cents (not that there's anything wrong with praising a show, etc!).
Footnotes--
* Dreamworks jumped the gun and greenlit a Monsters vs Aliens TV series before the movie premièred. Nickelodeon are simply following through with the contract airing it, despite the movie's poor performance. It's the same case with Turbo on Netflix. I believe Dreamworks are planning to launch their own television channel at any rate as Nickelodeon and CN don't seem interested in Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon either.
** Action cartoons are very unpopular with executives these days, as proved by the demise of DC Nation with Cartoon Network and the limited funding Disney put into their Marvel animated content, with the arguable exception of Ultimate Spiderman.
*** Trigun and to a lesser extent Excel Saga do this, in my opinion.
**** Omniverse takes place between Ben 10's original series and Ben 10: Alien Force when the titular character is 15. To get around the problem of having monsters appear in Omniverse that would have originally debuted in Alien Force, the show itself openly acknowledged the story was being moved to a parallel universe - the writers could do whatever they wanted now without contradicting themselves.
****** Nickelodeon UK put more emphasis on finishing As Told By Ginger and Rugrats All Grown Up than introducing Avatar; even this past year, the UK only officially started Korra Season 1 as the US was halfway through premièring Season 2.
18 Jun 2012, 11:38 pm
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) are still not happy with that particular ending.
