September 24, 2025 : Avatar: The Last Airbender Finally Watched!
It’s only twenty years after the premiere, but I finally watched (and finished) Avatar: The Last Airbender… cue Jim Gaffigan’s Heat bit. I watched a few episodes 10 or 15 years ago, but it fell off the plate. This time it stuck, and I saw it through.
Overall, I very much enjoyed it. Obviously the anime inspired aesthetic appealed to me, but I also liked the world the show was set in. Being a kids show on Nickelodeon made some of the storylines a bit simplistic, and they would occasionally wrap things up a bit to quickly (and cleanly). However, the story really picked up during the latter half of the series.
The one thing I think Avatar did incredibly well was character development and their arcs. They also had several strong female characters. In fact, there are numerous video essays on YouTube covering these topics. I recently found out about The Legend of Korra, a sequel to the series set 70 years later. It looks solid but sadly is on Paramount, which means I won’t be watching it anytime soon 🙁
posted by Pi Visuals at 10:06 pm
Tags: Avatar , CrunchyrollComment
August 24, 2025 : Anime’s Popularity Is… Hurting Crunchyroll?
Getting a subscription to Crunchyroll is long overdue for me. It’s been on my to-do list for a while, and the only thing preventing me from doing it has been my lack of time (aka laziness). However, I expect it to happen in the near future… promise.
That said, Crunchyroll has had its ups and down in the news lately. While recently announcing a partnership with Delta, they also announced a reorganization, which includes layoffs. Since Sony purchased Crunchyroll from AT&T in 2021, there has been three rounds of layoffs; and while subscribers have tripled to 15 million during that time, they look to miss on their previously stated goal of 25 million subscribers by the end of 2025.
A key part of all of this is the newly competitive landscape of the genre. The rising popularity of anime has brought in the likes of Netflix, Disney, and Amazon. This drives up licensing costs, making it harder for Crunchyroll to maintain a stranglehold on the anime market.
This probably won’t deter me from getting it, but I am concerned this will cause a splintering of anime properties – much like a lot of other regular series/movies – where you will only be able to access it if you have the right app, and it’s possible rights will change from time to time. Fortunately, I have the previously mentioned streamers, but it could become problematic if other ones jump in the fray (AppleTV, Paramount, etc.).
posted by Pi Visuals at 1:38 am
Tags: Anime , CrunchyrollComment