The Legacy of Kyoshi

The Legacy of Kyoshi is an American animated series created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino for Nickelodeon that aired from October 11, 2021, to December 5, 2025. The series is a prequel to the creators' previous works, Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra and, like the previous two, is animated like and is strongly inspired by Japanese anime.

Series Overview
Main article: List of The Legacy of Kyoshi episodes

Unlike The Legend of Korra before it, the series was always meant to be a full show rather than a miniseries. The series was created due to a want to bring more Avatar media into the world. The creators decided to make it a prequel due to them already creating a sequel to the series and a few ideas were pitched for the protagonist, eventually settling on Kyoshi due to her having the most story potential out of the previous Avatars.

Setting
The series is set in the same world as the previous installments in the series but is set around 200 years before either Avatar: The Last Airbender or The Legend of Korra. In this world, certain people are born with the ability to manipulate one of four elements (earth, fire, air, water) and only one person can manipulate them all, dubbed "The Avatar."

The Avatar themselves is in a reincarnation cycle, meaning that once one Avatar dies another is born with the same ability. Kyoshi herself is two reincarnations behind the most famous Avatar, Aang.

Synopsis
Book One: Birth follows a teenage Kyoshi from her finding out she's the Avatar to her battle against the main villain of the season, the masked cult leader Po who leads an army of people that believe that Po is the world's savior. During this season, Kyoshi has already mastered earth bending and is attempting to learn the other four elements, though her attempts are made very hard by Po, her rival returning, her Firebending master having his own secrets, and an odd girl more or less forcing her way into Kyoshi's life.

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Cast and Characters
Kyoshi (Jennifer Hale) is the main protagonist of the series. The series itself follows her from age 18 to when she is around 20 or so. She is a member of the Earth Kingdom and is very different from the previous protagonists in the series in that she is willing to kill her enemies in order to ensure peace. Kyoshi's philosophy in the series is presented as a constant flaw that she must overcome.

One of the other main protagonists is Kyoshi's long-time rival Chiko (Kath Soucie), who is a non-bending member of the Water Tribe that travels the sea in search for treasure and glory. She and Kyoshi usually butt heads but they do care for each other at the end of the day.

Another protagonist is Li (Bryce Papenbrook), the son of a Fire Nation general who sees himself as a would-be vigilante, sneaking out at night and helping people who need it, donning a demon mask to do so.

The last of the main protagonists is Tey (Kristen Schaal), who is an Air Nomad that travels the land in search of adventure. She ran away from the Air Nomads due to finding their ways boring and is much shorter than most other characters, often being mistaken for a child.

Influences
The buildings and clothing of the series were inspired by ancient China. Specifically, the drawings of ancient China which have a very unique art style to them that inspired the way trees and certain buildings were drawn in the series.

Like The Legend of Korra, the series slightly modifies the fighting styles of the original series, making character's movements slightly more erratic or borderline strange to show that the bending motions haven't been perfected yet.

Animation Style
Studio Mir, who animated The Legend of Korra, returned for The Legacy of Kyoshi and, once again, the series was drawn traditionally and scanned for digital processing. Also, like the previous works, the series' animation style is strongly inspired by anime and manga, to the point that some have mistakenly referred to it as one.

Music
Jeremy Zuckerman once again returns to compose the music for the series. He and the show's creators worked together to create the sound design and the music for the series. The music itself was inspired by ancient China, with most of the music being played on instruments such as the guzheng, dizi, etc. However, for the more action-based scenes, the music combines these ancient Chinese instruments with more modern ones to create an odd blend between the two.

Release
The whole series was aired on Nick.com like The Legend of Korra's later seasons. This was due to Kyoshi being set up from the very beginning as someone who will kill her enemies and thus the series began airing on Nick.com rather than the actual Nickelodeon channel in order to get away with this.

However, certain countries that have looser terms when it comes to children's media such as Japan aired the full show on early morning television.

Reception
Much like the previous two entries in the series, the show received massively positive reviews from critics, who praised the show for its animation, storytelling, and characters, as well as its willingness to show the sometimes very harsh reality of the era it was set in.

Other Media
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Notes and Trivia
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