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Arriving on the scene in 2005, the show was one of the few among its Western cartoon contemporaries to feature an Asian lead character, alongside Disney’s American Dragon: Jake Long and Cartoon Network’s The Life and Times of Juniper Lee. It also featured a richly diverse cast of characters in an unmistakably Asiatic setting. Though ostensibly a cartoon made for children, the animated series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko snuck in adult themes and real-world problems like war, imperialism, abuse, loss, and cabbage-related vandalism alongside kid-friendly humor and silliness.
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