''Book One: Water'' is the first season of ''

Avatar: The Last Airbender ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' (abbreviated as ''ATLA''), also known as ''Avatar: The Legend of Aang'' in some regions or simply ''Avatar'', is an American anime-influenced animated television series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and ...

'', an American

animated television series An animated series is a set of Animation, animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can ...

produced by

Nickelodeon Animation Studio Nickelodeon Animation Studio is an American animation studio owned by Paramount Global. It has created many original television programs for Nickelodeon, such as ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', ''The Fairly OddParents'', ''Rugrats'' and ''Avatar: The ...

. Created by

Michael Dante DiMartino Michael Dante DiMartino (born July 18, 1974) is an American animator, producer, writer, and director. He is best known, together with Bryan Konietzko, as the co-creator of the animated TV series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' and ''The Legend of ...

and

Bryan Konietzko Bryan Konietzko is an American animator, writer, producer and musician. He is best known, together with Michael Dante DiMartino, as the co-creator and executive producer of the animated series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' and ''The Legend of K ...

, the first season premiered on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

on February 21, 2005. It consisted of 20 episodes and concluded on December 2, 2005. The series starred

Zach Tyler Eisen Zachary Tyler Eisen (born September 23, 1993) is an American former voice actor. He voiced Aang in ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'', Lucas Nickle in ''The Ant Bully'', Andrew in Nick Jr's ''Little Bill'' and Pablo in the American animated televisio ...

Mae Whitman Mae Margaret Whitman (born June 9, 1988) is an American actress and singer. She began acting in commercials as a child, making her film debut at the age of six in the romantic drama '' When a Man Loves a Woman'' (1994). She achieved recognition as ...

Jack DeSena John Patrick De Sena (born December 6, 1987), better known by his stage name Jack DeSena, is an American actor. He is best known for his work on the sketch comedy series ''All That'', for the voice work of Sokka on the Nickelodeon series ''Avat ...

Dante Basco Dante R. Basco (born August 29, 1975) is an American film, television and voice actor. He is best known for his role as Rufio, the leader of the Lost Boys in Steven Spielberg's ''Hook'', and Julian Lee in '' Fakin' da Funk'', and for his many vo ...

Dee Bradley Baker Dee Bradley Baker (born August 31, 1962) is an American voice actor. Much of Baker's work features vocalizations of animals and monsters. Baker's roles include animated series such as ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'', ''Codename: Kids Next Door'', ...

Mako Iwamatsu was a Japanese-American actor, credited mononymously in almost all of his acting roles as simply Mako. His film roles include Po-Han in ''The Sand Pebbles'' (1966) (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), O ...

, and

Jason Isaacs Jason Isaacs (born 6 June 1963) is an English actor. Isaac's film roles include Col. Tavington in '' The Patriot'' (2000), Michael D. Steele in '' Black Hawk Down'' (2001), Lucius Malfoy in the ''Harry Potter'' film series (2002–2011), C ...

as the main character voices. The season revolves around the

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...

Aang Avatar Aang ( zh, c=安昂, p=Ān Áng) is the title character and protagonist of Nickelodeon's animated television series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' (created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko), voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen. Aang ...

and his friends Katara and

Sokka Sokka is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' and its sequel series ''The Legend of Korra''. The character, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is voiced by Jack De ...

going on a journey to the North Pole to find a Waterbending master to teach Aang and Katara. The

Fire Nation ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' (abbreviated as ''ATLA''), also known as ''Avatar: The Legend of Aang'' in some regions or simply ''Avatar'', is an American anime-influenced animated television series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and ...

is waging a seemingly endless imperialist war against the

Earth Kingdom ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' (abbreviated as ''ATLA''), also known as ''Avatar: The Legend of Aang'' in some regions or simply ''Avatar'', is an American anime-influenced animated television series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and ...

and the Water Tribes, following the genocide of the Air Nomads one hundred years ago. Aang, the current Avatar, must master the four elements (Air, Water, Earth, and Fire) to end the war. Along the way, Aang and his friends are chased by various pursuers: the banished Fire Nation

Prince Zuko Prince (later Fire Lord) Zuko (), also known as the Blue Spirit, is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender''. Created by Eric Coleman and designed by series creators Michael Dante DiMartino ...

, along with his uncle and former general

Iroh Uncle Iroh (), also referred to as General Iroh and credited simply as Uncle, is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender''. Created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the charact ...

, and Admiral Zhao of the Fire Navy. Each episode of the season attracted more than a million viewers on its first airing. Between January 31, 2006, and September 19, 2006, five DVD sets were released in the United States, each containing four episodes from the season. On September 12, 2006, Nickelodeon also released the "Complete Book 1 Collection Box Set", which contained all of the episodes in the season as well as a special features disc. The original releases were encoded in Region 1, a DVD type that plays only in North American DVD players. From 2007 to 2009, Nickelodeon released Region 2 DVDs, which can play in Europe. ''Book One: Water'' was adapted into a live-action film, titled ''

The Last Airbender ''The Last Airbender'' is a 2010 American action-adventure fantasy film written, co-produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, produced by Nickelodeon Movies and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Based on the first season of the Nickelodeo ...

'', directed by

M. Night Shyamalan Manoj Nelliyattu M. Night Shyamalan ( ; born August 6, 1970) is an Indian-American filmmaker and actor. He is best known for making original films with contemporary supernatural plots and twist endings. He was born in Mahé, India, and raise ...

and released in July 2010, becoming universally panned by critics, audiences and the series' fans for numerous reasons. __TOC__

Episodes

Production

The show was produced by

and aired on

, both of which are owned by

Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...

. The show's executive producers were co-creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who worked alongside head writer and co-producer Aaron Ehasz. Eight episodes were directed by Dave Filoni. Animation directors

Lauren MacMullan Lauren Hunter MacMullan (born April 30, 1964) is an American animation director. She grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs of Havertown, Lansdowne and Swarthmore, and graduated from Swarthmore High School in 1982. She attended Harvard University, ...

and

Giancarlo Volpe Giancarlo Volpe is an Italian-born American animator, director, producer and comic creator. Volpe directed, wrote, and storyboarded for the Disney Channel animated series '' Star vs. the Forces of Evil'' from 2015 to 2017. On February 14, 20 ...

directed five episodes each, and Anthony Lioi directed two. Episodes were written or co-written by a team of writers, which included Nick Malis, John O'Bryan, Matthew Hubbard, James Eagan, Ian Wilcox, Tim Hedrick and Elizabeth Welch. All of the show's music was composed by "The Track Team", which consists of Jeremy Zuckerman and Benjamin Wynn, who were known to the producers because Zuckerman was Konietzko's roommate. Two alternating Korean studios were enlisted to provide animation production support for the series,

DR Movie DR Movie Co., Ltd. is a South Korean animation studio that was established in Seoul in 1990 and frequently works with Japanese companies on anime titles. Since 1991, the studio has been in an exclusive partnership with the Japanese animation st ...

and JM Animation Co.

Cast

Most of the show's main characters made their debut within most, if not all, of the first episodes: Zach Tyler Eisen provided Aang's voice, Mae Whitman as Katara's voice, Jack DeSena as Sokka's voice, Dante Basco as Zuko's voice, Mako as Iroh's voice, and Dee Bradley Baker as the voices of both

Appa Appa or APPA may refer to: Organizations *American Pet Products Association, an industry association in the United States * American Psychopathological Association, a scientific professional organization * American Philosophical Practitioners Ass ...

and

Momo Momo may refer to: Geography * Momo (department), a division of Northwest Province in Cameroon * Momo, Gabon, a town in the Woleu-Ntem province of Gabon * Momo, Piedmont, a town in the province of Novara, in northern Italy * Joffrey Tower, in ...

. Additional supporting characters include Admiral Zhao, voiced by

Reception

Film critics appreciated the first season of ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' because it attracted the attention of "an audience beyond the children's market with crisp animation and layered storytelling." On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, critical consensus for the first season reads, "A brilliant blend of magic, humor, and adventure, ''Avatar'' is an instant classic." As for the video and picture quality, Gord Lacey from

TVShowsOnDVD.com TVShowsOnDVD.com was a website dedicated to cataloging, campaigning for, and reporting news about Region 1 television series releases on DVD and region A Blu-ray. The site's slogan asked "Is YOUR Favorite Show On DVD?" From February 2007 until ...

claims "the colors are bright, and the picture is nearly flawless." He says later in the review that "the audio is very nice, with lots of directional effects and nice musical cues."

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...

reviewer Christina Urban praised the season's masterful combination of "elements from Chinese

kung fu Chinese martial arts, often called by the umbrella terms kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (), are multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common ...

, Tibetan philosophy,

Japanese martial arts Japanese martial arts refers to the variety of martial arts native to the country of Japan. At least three Japanese terms (''budō'', ''bujutsu'', and ''bugei'') are used interchangeably with the English phrase Japanese martial arts. The usage ...

forms, and even Hindu spiritual beliefs". According to Aaron Bynum from AnimationInsider.net, "the series posted double digit year-to-year gains in May". He also said that the show has been number one in the boys 9- to 14-year-old demographic, and has attracted many age and gender groups in its pool of 1.1 million viewers who watch each new episode. In addition, the season has won many awards throughout its runtime. During the 33rd Annual

Annie Awards The Annie Awards are accolades which the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, has presented each year since 1972 to recognize excellence in animation shown in cinema and television. Originally desig ...

, the show was nominated for the "Best Animated Television Production" award. Because of the episode "The Fortuneteller", the show was nominated for the "Writing for an Animated Television Production" award. For the episode "The Deserter", the season was nominated for and won the "Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production" award. During the 2005 Pulcinella Awards, the season won the "Best Action/Adventure TV Series" award as well and the general "Best TV Series" award.

DVD releases

Region 1

Nickelodeon started releasing Season One DVDs in North America on January 31, 2006, with a series of single-disc sets containing four episodes per disc. Later the Complete Book 1 Collection was released on September 12, 2006, containing all twenty episodes plus extras on six discs.

Region 2

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

versions of the single-disc volume sets started being released on February 19, 2007;. As with the original Region 1

NTSC The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...

DVDs, each set contains four episodes per disc. The Complete Book One Collection was released on January 26, 2009, containing all twenty episodes on five discs. These Region 2 releases lack the commentary tracks and other DVD extras found on the Region 1 releases.

Film adaptation

''The Last Airbender'' is a live-action film based on the first season of the animated television series and had a theatrical release on July 1, 2010. The film was directed by

Footnotes

:1. Production code format taken from the commentary for "Sozin's Comet: The Phoenix King"

References

Avatar: The Last Airbender 2005 American television seasons {{DEFAULTSORT:Avatar: The Last Airbender (Season 1) es:Anexo:Episodios de Avatar: la leyenda de Aang#Libro Uno: Agua fr:Liste des épisodes d'Avatar, le dernier maître de l'air#Livre Un : L'Eau