Yesterday’s post introduced the discussion of anime and the elements and it focused on water/ice. Today’s post is all about earth.
I wanted to continue this conversation of elements in anime focusing on my 2nd favorite element Earth. Unlike most of the other element, earth has always symbolized stability, you know “solid ground”. With this element you also see the characteristics of being wise or grounded.
In anime there’s not a lot of earth elemental users. I can think off the top of my head. I believe Earth is not as easy of an element to write about and can come across boring. It’s not exciting like fire, cool like ice, or fun like air. The show that has the best examples would be Avatar the Last Air Bender, with our resident earthbenders of King Bumi and Toph.
Avatar does a great job showcasing the strengths and negatives of having an elemental earth power. Both King Bumi and Toph have very rigid, stubborn sides to them. However, both Bumi and Top were practical in giving their advice to Avatar Aang. As Toph joined his team Aang knew she wouldn’t sugarcoat things and would be direct in her thoughts.
Although anime, in general, tends to leave out the earth power users, the shows like to have sub-set earth users. When I say sub-set I mean powers that would relate to the earth. These powers would include: metal, sand, lava, mud, and wood. These powers are lot more interesting to visually see and write about so it’s no surprise you would see these more often. Out of the sub-sets I have to choose metal as my favorite out of the bunch. I think it’s cool that although earth is considered boring it is somewhat of a parent to its many cool sub-set kids.
Overall earth is as stable as it comes, and it doesn’t get the credit it deserves. So go and watch an anime and support your fellow #earthuser and let me know in the comments who’s your favorite. I’ll see you tomorrow, peace!
Featured Image: Photo by KML from Pexels
