Avatar: The Last Airbender is an American animated television series that aired for three seasons on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008. The series was created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who served as executive producers along with Aaron Ehasz. Avatar is set in an Asian-influenced world^[1] of Chinese martial arts in which psychic elemental manipulation is possible. The show drew on elements from traditional Asian culture, blending the styles of anime and American domestic cartoons.^[2]

The series follows the adventures of the main protagonist Aang and his friends, who must save the world by defeating the evil Fire Lord and ending his destructive war against the three other nations.^[3] The pilot episode first aired on February 21, 2005^[4] and the series concluded with a widely praised two-hour television movie on July 19, 2008.^[5] The show is obtainable from various sources, including on DVD, theiTunes Store, the Zune Marketplace, the Xbox Live Marketplace, the PlayStation Store, Netflix Instant Play, and on the Nicktoons Network.^[6]

Avatar: The Last Airbender was popular with both audiences and critics,^[7] garnering 5.6 million viewers on its best-rated showing and receiving high ratings in the Nicktoons lineup, even outside its 6–11-year-old demographic.^[3][8] Avatar: The Last Airbender has been nominated for and won awards from the Annual Annie Awards, the Genesis Awards, the primetime Emmy awards and a Peabody Awardamong others. The first season's success prompted Nickelodeon to order second^[9] and third^[10] seasons. In other media, the series has spawned a live-action movie trilogy, the first titled The Last Airbender, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, scaled action figures,^[11] a trading card game,^[12][13] three video games based on the first,^[14] second,^[15][16] and third seasons, stuffed animals distributed by Paramount Parks, and two LEGO sets.^[17] An art book was also released in mid-2010.^[18] Furthermore, the president of Nickelodeon announced on July 21, 2010 that a sequel mini-series called The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra will premiere in 2012.^[19]

Avatar: The Last Airbender is the first of Nickelodeon's TV shows to never have a VHS release; the series was released only to DVD, a first for Paramount Home Entertainment's Home Video release of a Nickelodeon show