Avatar: The Last Airbender (season 2)

Avatar: The Last Airbender
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	20
Release
Original network	Nickelodeon
Original release	March 17 (2006-03-17) – December 1, 2006 (2006-12-01)
Season chronology

Season Two (Book 2: Earth) of Avatar: The Last Airbender, an American animated television series on Nickelodeon, first showed its 20 episodes from 17 March 2006 to 1 December 2006. The season was created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and starred Zach Tyler Eisen, Mae Whitman, Jack DeSena, Jessie Flower, Mako, Grey DeLisle, and Dante Basco as the main character voices.

In the season's beginning, the protagonist Aang and his friends Katara and Sokka started a search to find an Earthbending teacher, which finishes when they recruit Toph. Sokka finds important information concerning the war with the Fire Nation. Aang quickly becomes single-minded in looking for his kidnapped flying bison Appa. His search leads him to Ba Sing Se, the capital of the Earth Kingdom, where he uncovers the great internal government corruption of Ba Sing Se. At the season's end, Ba Sing Se falls to the Fire Nation and Aang escapes with his friends on a recovered Appa.

During the season's airing, the show received much critical acclaim, with praises such as, "As a flat concept, Avatar the Last Airbender is nothing special, but in execution, it is head and shoulders above other children's entertainment", and that "as a whole, the look of Avatar is consistently excellent." Season 2 has won multiple awards, including the "Best Character Animation in a Television Production" award from the 34th Annie Awards and the "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation" award from the 2007 Emmy Awards.

Between 23 January 2007 and 11 September 2007, Nickelodeon released five DVD sets for the season: four sets had five episodes each, and a fifth DVD collection of all twenty episodes. All DVDs were encoded in Region 1. In the UK, only the season boxset was released without being released in four volumes first. The boxset was released on July 20, 2009.

Production

The season was produced by and shown on Nickelodeon, which is owned by Viacom. The season's creators, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, worked with Aaron Ehasz. Most of the individual episodes were directed by Ethan Spaulding, Lauren MacMullan and Giancarlo Volpe. Episodes were written by a team of writers, in which worked Aaron Ehasz, Elizabeth Welch Ehasz, Tim Hedrick, John O'Bryan; with creators DiMartino and Konietzko.

The season's music was written by "The Track Team", which consists of Jeremy Zuckerman and Benjamin Wynn, who were known to the show's creators because Zuckerman was Konietzko's roommate.

Cast

See the main article: List of Avatar: The Last Airbender characters

From the first season

Actor	Role
Zach Tyler Eisen	Aang
Mae Whitman	Katara
Jack DeSena	Sokka
Dante Basco	Zuko

New characters

Actor	Role
Jessie Flower	Toph
Cricket Leigh	Mai
Olivia Hack	Ty Lee
Grey DeLisle	Azula
Clancy Brown	Long Feng

Mako's death

Mako Iwamatsu, the actor who voiced Iroh at first season, died during the production and was replaced by Greg Baldwin.

Episodes

See the main article: List of Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes

Episode's number	Τitle	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. Code
1	The Avatar State	Giancarlo Volpe	Aaron Ehasz, Elizabeth Welch Ehasz, Tim Hedrick & John O'Bryan	17 March 2006	201
2	The Cave of Two Lovers	Lauren MacMullan	Joshua Hamilton	24 March 2006	202
3	Return to Omashu	Ethan Spaulding	Elizabeth Welch Ehasz	7 April 2006	203
4	The Swamp	Giancarlo Volpe	Tim Hedrik	14 April 2006	204
5	Avatar Day	Lauren MacMullan	John O' Bryan	28 April 2006	205
6	Blind bandit	Ethan Spaulding	Michael Dante DiMartino	5 May 2006	206
7	Zuko Alone	Lauren MacMullan	Elizabeth Welch Ehasz	12 May 2006	207
8	The Chase	Giancarlo Volpe	Joshua Hamilton	26 Μay 2006	208
9	Bitter Work	Ethan Spaulding	Aaron Ehasz	2 June 2006	209
10	The Library	Giancarlo Volpe	John O' Bryan	14 July 2006	210
11	The Desert	Lauren MacMullan	Tim Hedrick	14 July 2006	211
12	The Serpent's Pass	Ethan Spaulding	Michael Dante DiMartino & Joshua Hamilton	15 September 2006	212
13	The Drill	Giancarlo Volpe	Michael Dante DiMartino + Bryan Konietzko	15 September 2006	213
14	City of Walls and Secrets	Lauren MacMullan	Tim Hedrick	22 September 2006	214
15	Tales of Ba Sing Se	Ethan Spaulding	Joann Estoesta, Lisa Wahlander, Andrew Huebner, Gary Scheppke, Lauren MacMullan, Katie Mattila, Justin Ridge & Giancarlo Volpe	29 September 2006	215
16	Appa's Lost Days	Giancarlo Volpe	Elizabeth Welch Ehasz	12 October 2006	216
17	Lake Laogai	Lauren MacMullan	Tim Hedrick	3 November 2006	217
18	The Earth King	Ethan Spaulding	Jonh O' Bryan	16 November 2006	218
19	The Guru	Giancarlo Volpe	1 December 2006	219
20	The Crossroads of Destiny	Michael Dante DiMartino	Aaron Ehasz	1 December 2006	220

Critic

In a review of the Volume 2 DVD Release for Book 2, Gabriel Powers from DVDActive.com described the series as one of the best children's series in recent times, making comparisons with Samurai Jack and Justice League, and complimented it for its depth and humour. Powers also comments:

Without dumbing down its characters, plots, or humour, and without overtly taming-up the action or peril, Avatar manages to enthral children and adults, ages 4 to 56...There is a genuine classic feel to the series, which uses actual Asian culture and lore as its base. Like Star Wars, the creative forces behind the show have tapped into that basic, generation spanning storytelling that will live long after the series' youngest fans are old and bitter.

For the video and audio quality, Powers says "Season two generally looks better than the bulk of season one, but still has some issues" concerning image sharpness. Jamie S. Rich from DVD Talk says that "As a flat concept, Avatar the Last Airbender is nothing special, but in execution, it is head and shoulders above other children's entertainment", and that "as a whole, the look of Avatar is consistently excellent".

The show also received acclaim for its visual appeal. In the 34th Annie Awards, the show was nominated for and won the "Best Character Animation in a Television Production" award, for Jae-Myung Yu's animation in "The Blind Bandit", and the "Best Directing in an Animated Television Production" award, for the episode "The Drill". In 2007, the show was nominated for "Outstanding Animated Program" in the 2007 Emmy Awards for the "City of Walls and Secrets" episode, though it did not win. However, the show did win the "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation" award for Sang-Jin Kim's animation in the "Lake Laogai" episode.

DVD releases

Between 23 January 2007 and 11 September 2007, Nickelodeon released five DVD sets for the season: four sets had five episodes each, and a fifth DVD collection of all 20 episodes. All DVDs were encoded in Region 1 (USA). In the UK, only the season box set was released without being released in four volumes first. The box set was released on 20 July 2009.

Volume	Discs	Episodes	Region 1 release (USA)	Region 2 release (Europe)	Region 4 release (Australia)
1	1	5	23 January 2007	Not released	4 June 2009
2	1	5	10 April 2007	Not released	6 August 2009
3	1	5	22 May 2007	Not released	29 October 2009
4	1	5	14 August, 2007	Not released	31 March 2010
Box set	5	20	11 September 2007	20 July 2009	9 September 2010

Film adaptation

A sequel to The Last Airbender, a film adaptation of Book One, is expected to be based on Book Two with all the main cast and M. Night Shyamalan to return as director, writer and producer. Production will possibly start in 2011 and the film will be released in 2012 at the earliest. It will be the second part of a planned trilogy.

References

General

• "Season 2". Avatar: The Last Airbender. IGN. Retrieved July 21, 2008.
• "Season 2 DVD Information". TVShowsOnDVD.com. February 24, 2005. Archived from the original on September 30, 2012. Retrieved September 6, 2008.

Specific

Other websites

• Official Site