The Legend of Korra: The Art of the Animated Series--Book One: Air

The Legend of Korra: The Art of the Animated Series #1

by Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko

Reprinted just in time for the anniversary of the series that stole our hearts, this handsome hardcover contains hundreds of art pieces created during the development of the show's first season. Featuring creator commentary from DiMartino and Konietzko, this is an intimate look inside the creative process that brought the mystical world of bending and a new generation of heroes to life!

Go behind the scenes of the animated series Legend of Korra Book One - Air--created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko--the smash-hit sequel to their blockbuster show Avatar: The Last Airbender!

Genres: Art, Comics, Nonfiction, Graphic Novels, Reference, Animation, Manga

182 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 17, 2013

About the author

Michael Dante DiMartino is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. His directing credits include the animated series King of the Hill, Family Guy, and Mission Hill. He is a co-creator of the award-winning animated Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel, The Legend of Korra. DiMartino lives in Los Angeles with his wife. The Rebel Geniuses series is his debut prose work.

Reviews

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think it's appropriate for me to start this review by saying that I'm a huge fan of "Avatar the Last Airbender", as well as its subsequent spin off series, "The Legend of Korra." So earlier this year when I was accepted to read a galley containing this very rare look at the behind the scenes of the show and collective art development, I jumped for joy. This is a stunning collection of reflections, backdrops, character designs and examinations of the art behind the first season of the show. I loved the full color pages as well as the progressive development and design of each of the characters. It gave a more intimate view of what went on behind the creation of the series, and it was nice to know the creator's intentions and reflections delving into this series, from beginning to the end of the subsequent season.

A must have for any collector who loves animation and especially for those who love Avatar and the Legend of Korra.

Overall score: 5/5 stars

Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher.

[Filip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Usual disclaimer: I'm one of the freaks, who actually prefers LoK to AtLA.

Regardless, however, which one you prefer, it cannot be denied that the LoK did one thing better than the AtLA artbook did: there is one for each book. So instead of getting one artbook for 60+ episodes of AtLA, we get 4 artbooks for ~50 episodes of LoK. This allows much more in depth analysis of the episodes, conception of the story and so on.

And the art is awesome! I do agree that AtLA provided us with more exotic landscapes and places, however I loooove the noir atmosphere of Republic City. And the evolution of Korra designs! The airbender kids! The inspirations for Asami and Lin! Asami in a swimsuit! My favourite Naga! The explanation of the colours used for the Equalists and their revolution! The Good, the Bad and the Old!

Reading through this was an absolute blast. Do I have complaints? Some, yes. Just like I found it a pity that the AtLA book didn't give us much about the Dragon Dance, here I wish the three most visually stunning scenes from the season - Korra entering the Avatar State, Korra dancing through the spinning gates and Korra vs Tarrlok - got included, but that's life.

And while I know s02 of LoK is universally derided (for good reasons), I can wait to read its artbook.

[Liliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was so enjoyable to see the artists' logic and progress in depicting this world and characters. Makes me want to draw again!

[Jago_bago · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5
I was really looking forward to getting this artbook as “The legend of Korra”is one of my biggest art inspiration. And this book definitely didn’t miss the opportunity to make me feel inspired again! (Is it time for the 36363636 Korra rewatch again?)

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s no secret that I love Avatar: The Last Airbender, so naturally I’m in love with The Legend of Korra as well. I couldn’t say no to the art book when I saw it because Korra turned out to be just as beautiful as Avatar.

The book is set up according to the season’s timeline, so with each new major development a new section of art starts. If anyone is familiar with the art book for Avatar then you should find this one similar in set up and feel. It has a ton of new artwork that we as fans have never seen before, from beautiful scenery designs to character development sketches. Aside from those there are also pro-bending concepts, propaganda poster art, and a great section for ancillary art. I have a soft-spot for the landscape designs which are so detailed that it seems like it could be a real place.

There are also tid-bits of information on each page related to the process, characters or inspirations that are a real treat to read. Plus if you haven’t read the graphic novels (The Promise) you can get some background info on a few things that happened between the two shows, and it’s not spoiler-y so you can still pick up the novels later without feeling like you know everything. I do wish there were more about some characters however since it’s only the first season’s art book I’m positive we’ll get to learn and see even more in the next one!

I think that this is one of those must-haves for Avatar/Korra fans, and I know I’ll buy an actual copy just so I can revisit some of my favorite moments for the show.

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

The artwork in Korra, although visually stunning, is not really my cup of tea. Maybe in later books, yeah, but book 1 has a lot of Capital City and I'm not fond of 20s style steampunk so this book's strong points for me are the character design and explanations we get from the team on how they got to where they are.

[kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely foaming at the mouth for every single piece of landscape art in here oh my god

[korra · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing. fabulous. magical. the best.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda glad I got this from the library rather than buying it. I recently finished a rewatch of the series, which affirmed my original opinion: while Asami will always be a huge favorite, and there are certainly important groundbreaking aspects to it, the series as a whole is a like, not love.

Visually, the first season was actually the most stunning to me, but the artbook doesn't reflect that very well. I think that's because most of what's impressive about the initial season (or Book One, as it's called in ATLA style) comes from the animation itself, particularly the fluidity of the fighting. A book can't capture that, of course, so it relies on a bunch of background paintings (weirdly, not as pretty as all the captions keep exclaiming over) and character designs, with a few storyboard panels strewn in.

I didn't feel like I learned very much over the course of this book. Oddly, I felt as though the artbook needed more text. I wanted to learn about the development of the series and the thought that went into the characters, not just notes like "we wanted this to look steampunk, so here are the names of the three artists who collaborated on the design."

Still an interesting enough book to flip through if you're a big fan of the series, but not one that added a lot to the experience, for me. I might still try to work my way through the other books, although I can only get my hands on digital copies...and I really don't like reading this type of material in that format. We'll see.

[Anita Gomgal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Como todo artbook, es lo que promete ser: un libro repleto de muchísimos bocetos y diseños de los principales personajes, de personajes extras, con muchos diseños y detalles de vestuario, de los transportes, de los escenarios... todos ellos acompañados de las explicaciones de Michael Dante DiMartino y Bryan Konietzko, los creadores de la serie (aunque me ha vuelto a pasar que me parecen pocas...) que nos explican las motivaciones a la hora de introducir cada detalle en la historia y la animación.

Sinceramente, me ha gustado muchísimo, porque al ser un artbook basado en la serie de animación se centra mucho en el diseño de personajes (sus gestos, posiciones, medidas...), escenarios, vestuarios, transportes... convirtiéndose en una lectura curiosa tras ver la serie y, a su vez, es agradable encontrar un artbook tan detallista, ya que muestra hasta pequeños detalles que pasan inadvertidos al ojo del lector.
Pero, puede que por ese motivo de animación, lo que menos tratan son los escenarios, geniales a mi parecer, que también tienen hojas dedicadas a los detalles que poseen y los juegos de luz usados, pero en menor cantidad.

Podéis ver la reseña completa en: http://chibiakasworld.blogspot.com.es...

[Paul Decker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved Avatar: The Last Airbender. It was such a unique show. We won't mention the movie. The Legend of Korra has continued that uniqueness. It takes place in the same world, but so much has changed. I love seeing actual progression in a fantasy world. Usually a fantasy world is stable for decades or even sometimes centuries. Progress has come to the world of the Avatar. Mechanical contraptions begin to appear for a not quite steampunk kind of feel.

This book shows the art progression for the whole first season or Book One of Legend of Korra. So if you haven't finished the first season, be warned that this book contains spoilers.

This book has everything when it comes to artwork. There are small sketches of the initial ideas for characters. There are full spreads of a beautiful landscape or action scene. There are even sone diagrams of the technology. All of the artwork is beautiful. It's all so detailed.

In addition to the art, there is a foreword and comments throughout the book from the creators. There are nice little tidbits describing a characters evolution or inspiration.

This book would be a perfect gift for a fan of the television series. I could just flip through these pages and admire the artwork for hours. I give this book a 5/5.

[Scott wachter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Korra more than I ought to. I really hope they find something for Bolin to do other than be the 'funny one' and that the pacing evens out as the series carries on, but it truly is a wonderful series and a worthy continuation to the franchise.

So having any insight into the design and production of the series is just amazing. There are watercolours of locations i want to have hanging on my wall so very badly right now thanks to this book.

The other neat thing is that after the preamble the main character reference sheet it actually goes by episode rather than by theme or other category, making for a excellent companion to a re-watch now that it's out for home video.

Cool stuff, very cool stuff. now when does season 2 air?

PS: thank you to netgalley for this eARC, but could you start giving me graphic-heavy content in higher-res please?

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The "Legend of Korra" art books are great coffee-table compendiums of Avatar lore and art. Unlike the art book for "Avatar: The Last Airbender," each season here gets its own book, which means you can dig deep into the minutiae of every single setting and every character... yes, we're including ever single non-speaking extra designed for the show.

Is it excessive? Yes. Is it perhaps more than we needed? Also yes. Is it cool, and gorgeous, and a testament to how much the art design for "Korra" (and indeed the entire East-West hybridization of animation production, which essentially erased the distinction between Western animation and Japanese/Korean anime) took advantage of the ten years between "Avatar" and "Korra" production to create a visual feast.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's the great thing about this book. After you read either this one or Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Art of the Animated Series you can't help but fall further in love. I wish anyone would pick this up and dive into this world. For fans it's exactly what we love. For the freshly acquainted it's a piece of the sweetest pie. For the rest of the world. It's time to take a look and enjoy. Bryke 4 life.

[Elevetha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really quite a beautiful book. And the painted backgrounds for the show are breathtaking.

[booksandfaes_ Martina Finkenberger Colecchio · Rating 3 out of 5]

El libro ofrece una mirada dentro del proceso de desarrollo creativo por el que pasó esta temporada antes de su lanzamiento a través de varias obras de arte preliminares complementadas con comentarios de los creadores.
Sin dudas recomiendo el libro para los fanáticos de la serie (como yo), es divertido ver cómo algunos personajes cambiaron tanto desde el primer boceto a el final en la serie. Me encantó ver la inspiración que tomaron de ciertos lugares como el templo dorado para hacer el estadio donde se realizan los torneos. También los diferentes espacios donde se desarrolla la trama dibujados a mano, dándoles aún más profundidad. Es un libro para fans, por lo que el contenido es interesante, pero no imprescindible. Además la edición está muy cuidada, lo cual la hace perfecta para coleccionar como pretendo hacer. Es una historia para pasar un buen rato y conocer datos interesantes acerca de la serie.
Calificación: 🌬️🌬️🌬️ , 75/5

[Everett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely fell in love with The Legend of Korra when I watched the show, and I really like how despite being in the Avatar The Last Airbender universe it is still unique and different. In ATLA the settings revolve around around mostly nature or villages/cities that have various types of traditional Asian architecture. Although the art style is the same in LOK it was great to see the style in a more modern setting that is different from the original saw. The creators and the artists got to unleash all of their creativity, which allowed for some awesome things, both in the story and in the art. I really liked how this book highlighted how hard everyone worked to design things and much thought was put into every single detail.

One thing that I find particularly cool is how the machines and mechanical objects were designed. Obviously in ATLA there aren't that many machines, and the ones that do exist are often a bit simpler, but everything is so industrialized in LOK that everything looks really different. They had to design cars, airplanes, and large ships, and even though those vehicles didn't get that much screen time overall, they sill were heavily detailed. I can't imagine how long it took for everything to be drawn, and then those drawings had to be approved and revised before a final design was ready to be animated. I struggle with drawing those kind of things, so it seems way more impressive to me than it probably is.

I thought that the backgrounds were incredibly beautiful in this season, and I think it's better than the ones in ATLA because most of them are much more detailed. As I mentioned before, quite a lot of ATLA takes place outside, so as a viewer I didn't pay as much attention, which is entirely my fault, but it goes to show what viewers focus on. With LOK I payed so much more attention because it was so flashy, which is the general vibe of Republic City. It's easier to draw a background of a mountain than I city with specific architecture and I very specific feeling. I loved how one of the creators (I don't remember which one) was constantly saying "this one is my favorite" for every single background painting that was showcased, which was pretty cute.

However, my favorite parts of the book was when we would see the characters. It's cool to see the characters I know and love are brought to life before my eyes, and I liked seeing how they looked before their designs were formalized. Although I really like the designs that are in the show, I did see some that I also loved. I particularly liked seeing Korra's old designs, because some of them were so amazing. I honestly would have been completely happy if Korra had been really buff lol. And of course, I also really liked the fashion we saw, which wasn't just inspired by the four nations, but also included elements from the time period it was based around.

I have the other three of these books checked out, so I will be reading those as well. I thought this one was pretty great, although at some times I got a bit antsy, but overall it was great. I loved seeing how much this season incorporated visual elements taken from the industrial revolution, the Great Depression, the golden age of Hollywood, as well from the steam punk style. It all blended together incredibly well, and I thought it was visually amazing. I think this might be my favorite season of LOK art-wise, and this book makes me confident in my answer.

[D. J. Arévalo]

This is not only a book of art, but shared stories about the making of the show. This book gave me a deeper appreciation for the creativity, innovation, and process of this show from my younger years. This book brought back nostalgia but this time having a 30,000 ft overhead view of the show’s production.

But this book was not just for me. My seven year old son is showing early signs of artistic talent. This book not only gave my ideas for what types of influences to expose him to now to better develop his skills, but also provided him with inspiration when I shared this book with him.

I checked this book out from the library for my first read. But I plan on purchasing this book in the near future.

[Ethan Hulbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an art book for the first season of The Legend of Korra. I'm reading this in part due to an upcoming cosplay, and in part because I'm going into art design books for a minute here before I do a little project of my own.

I'm not in the majority here, but I DRASTICALLY preferred Korra to the first Avatar series. The first one was fine and had some nice moments, but I think I had probably aged out of the normal watching range by the time I watched it. Korra, however, is made for a slightly (at least) older audience, and has three seasons of absolute gold (and one season that's just good). The art is so much better in Korra too - I mean, everything is better really. Avatar walked so Korra could run.

Anyway, the art book for S1 was great and really thorough. Although it couldn't cover EVERYTHING, it covered a lot, for sure, and went in great detail. And of course it was absolutely beautiful. Great art book, looking forward to reading the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.

[Teo · Rating 4 out of 5]

2020.05.16–2020.05.17

Contents

DiMartino MD, Konietzko B, & Dos Santos J (2013) Legend of Korra, The - The Art of the Animated Series Book One - Air

Introduction by Michael Dante DiMartino
Introduction by Bryan Konietzko

01. Early Development
• Korra
• Mako and Bolin
• Naga
• Tenzin
• Asami
• Lin Beifong
• Amon

02. Welcome to Republic City
• Katara
• The White Lotus
• Republic City

03. A Leaf in the Wind
04. The Revelation
05. The Voice in the Night
06. The Spirit of Competition/And the Winner Is…
07. The Aftermath
08. When Extremes Meet/Out of the Past
09. Turning the Tides
10. Skeletons in the Closet
11. Endgame
12. Ancillary Art

[Storm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just like the Avatar The Last Airbender: The Art of the Animated Series, this is what a companion book should be. This installment feature Art from Book One: Air. It has TONS of backstory and history from people actually involved in the making of the series. There are preliminary pencil sketches showing how the characters evolved over time and finished art which is gorgeous, especially the city designs and landscapes.

[Jemiah Jefferson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did do work on this book, years and years before actually watching the series (something I just corrected a few weeks ago). This is perhaps the very best of the art books associated with the show - featuring gorgeous background painting, excellent character design process illustrations, and plenty of engaging commentary from DiMartino, Koneizko, and Dos Santos (or "2-cents", as he signs his artworks), and I wish that books two and three were as accomplished. But that's info for a different review (or two).

[Poonam Ranu · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was cool getting some insight on what inspired the creators to make the creative decisions they did when they chose to re-enter the World of Avatar. I liked that they went into the inspiration for Republic City, specifically how it was based on 1920s Shanghai and New York. But idk it felt something was missing because we really didn’t go into the whole taking-away-bending story aspect like I’d hoped. Maybe in the other installations they’ll go more in-depth of the art that helped with the main-plot, rather than the side-plots and filler sort of content.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful book which gives insights into the creation of the animated series The Legend of Korra. I love all the background paintings done mainly by two artists. The characters and vehicles are done by a much larger group of people.

It's really an amazing collaborative art project by so many people with different strengths put to their best uses. Very cool.

[lois · Rating 3 out of 5]

though i loved all of the stunning art and development, i wish i could read the other designers, painters, and concept artists' creation process as well. it felt like md and bk had so litte to say for such a beloved world, not to mention the weird undertones in md's captions about ki-hyun ryu's less wasternized concepts

[Cath T · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a big fan of the ATLA universe in general this is a fun and almost necessary book for fans. I love reading the behind-the-scenes details, what goes into the design of characters and settings, and the thought process of everything in general. I do wish this was slightly more in-depth, but if you're an artist this is a great book to flip through.

[nidah05 (SleepDreamWrite) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heard of both shows. Watched a little bit of Avatar and not Korra. But after reading this, I might watch it. Love the world building, setting, character designs, background, art style, etc. This was a really good art book. And if you're a fan of both shows or one of them, then you'll like this.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I absolutely wanted to love this book - I felt it was impossible for me not to - I never realized how much I didn't like early 20th century architecture, and this book has a lot of it. It was still fun to see (literal) character development and alterations.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this. Loved finding our new details, loved the gorgeous concept art. My one complaint (if I would even call it that) is that I wanted more detail at times from their descriptions, but I already got a ton out of what they gave us!

[Chris Seltzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who loves the show should buy this book.

One thing that stands out to me is the references to actual architecture that inspired the art of the buildings in the series. It's one of many treats present that will captivate the reader's mind.