Avatar: The Last Airbender Composer Shares Differences Between Four Nations

Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s composer shared how the Netflix series differentiated between the four nations. Takeshi Furukawa is the man behind the music for this new entry in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. ComicBook.com interviewed the composer about how he fleshed out the differences between the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Air Nomads and the Fire Nation. As fans of the Nickelodeon animated show know, each part of the Avatar map has its own flavor. Drawing inspiration from our world provided a way forward for Furukawa as he tried to define the vision of what each locale would sound like.

The composer began, “So, it really helps because this entire world of Avatar, there is a Pan-asian traditional influence which is brought in to the world building of Avatar, and musically as well. We are able to draw from different parts of Asia and borrow the traditional influences and infuse it into the score.” 

“I think Jeremy [Zuckerman], what he did in the original series realized very heavily on those specific cultural traditional influences. Me, for our incarnation, I relied a little bit heavier on the orchestra. So I think you know,” he added. “And this is kind of just like a blanket number. But, if Jeremy was more like 80% traditional influence and 20% Western orchestral instruments. Then, let’s just say that I probably went maybe like a 60% orchestra of 40% traditional influence.”

Defining The Four Nations

When it comes to the individual nations in Avatar: The Last Airbender, everyone watching has a favorite. While Furukawa knows that a lot of these preferences will carry over from the animated series, he wondered how to make things stand out in live-action. Eventually, looking at the pan-Asian diaspora, the composer landed on some specific inspirations for the different kingdoms represented by the world of Avatar. The sounds of Omashu have to come from somewhere after all.!

“But, you know, I was able to draw from these cultures. So, for example, The Earth Kingdom and Omashu, that is a very specific region,” the composer elaborated. “When when you watch Episodes 3 and 4, hopefully you’ll pick it up in the music. Like, ‘oh you know it sounds like it’s from this region of Asia.’ Same thing with the Kyoshi Island. Same thing with the Fire Nation, especially since you’ve seen episode one.”

“You’ve seen the Water Tribe and you hopefully you you recognize we we had First Nation influences,” he continued. “So, along with the First Nation culture, there are also bits of Japan and also it has their variation of their first nation tribe called the Ainu. Up at the top, they’re up in north, and there are some cultural similarities between their music and the First Nation music, you know? So we kind of brought those influences into the Water Tribes.” 

“So, there’s all these like influences that we could pull from, which makes it easier for me to be able to distinguish and differentiate,” Furukawa admitted. “The musical tone between all the different nations.”

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