By AnimeEv 1 year, 7 months ago
Last Friday at AX I was given a preview comic for the upcoming Hetalia manga, which is soon to be released by Tokyopop. Having seen people dressed up in uniforms over and over at recent cons, I was wondering what was happening with Hetalia, so I gave it a quick spin on the way home Sunday night… whereupon I promptly had a seizure.
Hetalia is basically a story about WW2 wherein the countries are personified by handsome men. It’s painfully cute, rather interesting, oddly politically correct yet “not”, and obviously a viral marketing guru’s wet dream. Upon finding its stream over at Funimation after an onslaught of dub cast announcements, I proceeded to watch two episodes of the show, which made me feel like I had mainlined brown sugar into my neck during a remedial high school history class.
(For anybody who thinks I’m going for a cheap joke, I’m not kidding: this show makes the venerable and awesome Sexy Commando look like Legend of Galactic Heroes, I tell ya!)
Anyway, since there is little point in belaboring the subtleties of a show that started as a web-comic and then graduated to a five minute episode series that people watch on their cell phones, I’ll go ahead and give you a small taste of the country’s personalities from what I’ve gleaned so far:
Germany: Strong, studious, and by-the-book.
Italy: Lazy, loves pasta, and cowardly, albeit charming.
Japan: Studious, reserved, intense.
America: censored
England: Uptight, knows everything.
Roman Empire: Dashing, upright, Godly, and probably disappointed in Italy (his grandson).
France: Better than you.
As much as I wanted to make fun of and loathe this series, I have to say that its whimsical ways spoke to me, and the introduction of neat little personified historical factoids was really cool too. On the flipside I am wondering how they will introduce some of the… uh… not-so-nice parts of that era. Notice how Manchuria isn’t a character?
Stay tuned for a review of the movie from our secret overseas correspondent!
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Hetalia, WW2, funimation
confused
Ahahaha (: I love Hetalia. Especially Italy and his PAAAAASSSTA!
Whenever I need a little pick-me-up during my day Hetalia has been there to make me bust a gut laughing which really helps. While it's value as an actual anime at the moment is questioned I think that with the rapid popularity it will most likely evolve into a longer work that has room. Though I do think that slowing the pace of the show and punchlines will remove much of its comedy. I am excited to see where this goes.
i love hetalia <3 it's a wonderful and hilarious take on history, and the characters are amazing. plus, the anime being only around five minutes long, it's so much quicker catching up with episodes after missing ten. xD
My friends got me into Hetalia. I was making fun of them at first for calling each other 'America', 'Germany', etc., but I quickly got addicted to this odd series and dubbed myself 'Latvia'. :) To anyone who is new to anime and/or Hetalia, I totally recommend this if you want a good laugh (positive laugh, I assure you!).
All history should be in this format.
Haha I love this show :) it's so funny
Germany: Germany recognizes his good friend italy Italy (pause) PPPAAAAAASSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Both the manga and the anime are hilarious. And while it may be historically inaccurate half the time, it still brings a smile to my face whenever I watch it. :D
If they thought World History like this in high school there would have been less people sleep in that class. I love how the show refreshes my knowledge in world history. Ha! And peopls say History is boring.
What
ok, I have to look more into it
what up, nice
'France: Better than you' ^^ Lol...true, true
This is one of my favorite anime, hands down!
AWESOME@!@
Panda-Smoothie
1 year, 1 month agoAh, Hetalia. I used to watch it, now I don't very often, but I few people I know love it. I love the way each episode is only 5 minutes long..It gives you your daily anime needs, even when you're in a rush.. :3 It's just so crazy, but it also gives you snippets of information, which is good.. I love it. Kind of.