Comments on: 12 Moments in Anime #7: Hetalia brings the online community a little closer to world peace

By: heyheyho

heyheyho — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 02:44:43 +0000

*reads all the posts*

AHH
WHY ARE SO MANY FROM PERU WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL THIS TIME YOU GUYS

…Why do I feel so happy lol

By: heyheyho

heyheyho — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 02:34:06 +0000

@ATEOS

Hey siempre posteo aquí y también soy de Perú!
*high five*

Ah, the internet is so small…

By: luffyluffy

luffyluffy — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:19:30 +0000

…And you thought it was gunna be like Ouran XD

By: Scamp

Scamp — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:57:22 +0000

@Everyone

Damnit, this sometimes happens when I write editorials. The comments are too well written for me to really add anything to them. All I can say is thanks for commenting, it’s been fascinating reading how everyone else has gotten into this show.

By: Apollo Pompano

Apollo Pompano — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:29:14 +0000

I don’t know how to start this comment off, so.

Thank-you for writing about this. I always love reading about how Hetalia ends up affecting fans, because I have pretty strong beliefs on what it ends up doing.

I first discovered APH when I took history in summer school in July. I fell in love with it instantly, and I couldn’t help but smile every time a countries’ name was mentioned. It ended up helping me too, as it’s easier to picture two people as best friends rather then two large land masses.

But, I’ve seen a bit of what happens to some people who have become fans. Some have plainly stated that they hated history before APH, and now they’re addicted to learning about it.

Hetalia always puts a smile on my face, because it makes you WANT to learn. You need to know some history to get the jokes, and if you don’t, you feel compelled to find out what was supposed to be so funny by looking up the history.

Not many shows these days (even less so in anime) give the audience that sort of response. Kids WANTING to learn?
XD

The other thing I find Hetalia brings us is indeed ‘world peace’. I find it’s the ‘bringing the world together by making fun of them’ sort of thing. By laughing at ourselves, it’s like any racial or cultural tension disappears. It’s a really wonderful feeling.

Maybe if everyone learned to laugh at themselves every once in a while, we could all get a long more.

By: blogger

blogger — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:21:08 +0000

I got interested in Hetalia when I was reading something on Naruto or Bleach, and I decided to look it up on youtube after wikipedia-ing it, and I found that I enjoyed it, because the ideas were clever, the gags were funny, and it wasn't that serious. It's got me a lot more interested in History- especially European and Russian history as well. I learnt a lot of random facts, and I also picked up on a lot of stuff that I hadn't known about before. I understand that Hetalia canbe found offensive: I think there was one moment where I just looked back, and thought, why am I finding this fun to watch if it makes fun of countries? Then I mentally slapped myself, because really, it's a good way of letting people into history, and it helps you in some ways. I can say that it's taken over my life to some extent- I can never look at any item before thinking what it's associated with, and while some people complain about stereotyping, Poland is exactly the opposite of that, I think to an extent. Apparently people look down on crossdressing in Poland, and their relations aren't very good with Lithuania despite the webcomic making it seem like they're best friends (although Poland still regards Lithuania as a tool), but apart from that, I think that some of the people complaining are too politically correct; though my friend just doesn't like the stereotypes and has been trying to get me to stop watching it- she also finds it childish because "it's just a cartoon." Hetalia is a great way of meeting and learning more about a country's culture, and personally I find it interesting when I'm on fanfiction to receive reviews from people around the world, and even more interesting to find that around fifteen countries have decided to take a look at your story when you look at the traffic. Hetalia really is a great way of bringing people across the world to talk together about things.@ ATEOS: yes, Belgium makes a cameo in episode 1. She gets about one second before she disappears and is replaced by another cameo of Spain.

By: ATEOS

ATEOS — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:52:16 +0000

well belgium make a cameo in ep 1, if remember correctly

By: Humanity_Cat

Humanity_Cat — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:28:07 +0000

Like the others have said, I have made many international friends from Hetalia. Plus I've learned a crapload from it. (Ahh, if only 8th grade was World History instead of American...*sigh* )I think that you can be a huge fangirl and a realist (is that a word?) as long as you keep a sane head about it. I mean, obviously not all American's crave a McDonalds' hamburger at least ten times a day, or the Polish crossdress and are bestest friends with the Lithuanians. Obviously Italians aren't pasta-loving-freaks who are completely useless except to white-flag making. If you think about it realistically, you can sort out the real history and the exaggerated stuff in each strip/episode.By the way, Scamp, Belgium has appeared in the anime....to slap Italy with a stick. Actually, scratch that. I think that might have been Bulgaria. Yeah, Belgium hasn't appeared yet.And damn that's a sexy ass, Germany. [insert perverted smile here]

By: gw_kimmy

gw_kimmy — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:03:55 +0000

i think the reason why there arent any south american countries in hetalia is because not many were really prominent in WWI or WWII? from what my mom tells me (i’m peruvian, though i was born in the states), peru only sent, like, maybe a tiny fleet, but that’s about it. from what i can get off wikipedia, only brazil did anything remotely significant while the rest of south america had bigger fish to fry, like overthrowing their leaders and worrying about what the americans would think.

but i also love the discussions that hetalia has sparked. i’ve already had lots of international friends, and after watching hetalia it’s prompted me to ask my friends more questions about their country’s history and culture. i’m not sure if there’s an australian character in the manga, but i do think it would be a genius addition to the anime since australia is so often parodized anyways and it did have a significant role (it seems. wow, ignorant american here lol) in the war.

i dont think people should take the jokes made in hetalia so seriously. it’s not trying to make light of serious things like the holocaust or the atomic bombings (hetalia should NEVER talk about those things), but it is trying to lighten up some aspects of international relations between countries. especially in these times where some tensions have been built and some have been building over time, we need to take a step back and have a good laugh at ourselves instead of assuming that the world might be out to get us. this need not apply to countries alone, but also between different races and cultures existing in the same countries.

ok, getting off my nerd soapbox. bottom line: we’re all a little ridiculous in some way, whether it be the same as our depicted country or not. and it’s good to laugh at that ridiculousness.

By: ksfwolfe

ksfwolfe — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:15:59 +0000

Yays for Hetalia! ^^

I admit that I watch Hetalia, read Hetalia, and look at far too much Hetalia art on my computer for the sake of my inner fangirl (who has actually been taking over my mind lately, though I don’t know why…maybe something to do with that picture of Germany at the top of this post…)I also totally love the history side of it!

…so i’m a nerd. *.* BUT YOU CANNOT DENY THAT EVEN WITHOUT A HETALIA SPIN, HISTORY IS WONDERFUL!!! *scrolls back up to Germany* Heh heh…history…

Plus, I find that I’ve been taking a much closer intrest in current events lately, if just to mentally fangirl over the phrase ‘foreign relations’. XD