I thought Chibitalia had ended when they had that scene of a grown up Italy wearing Chibitalia’s clothes. But no, instead we are treated to HRE’s perverted dreams where he gets to have sexy naked time with Chibitalia and a dog. Fuck you Chibitalia. You’ve put me in a bad mood. In fact, I’m so bloody annoyed that this episode was made up of 50% of softcore shotacon that I’m not even going to bloody touch the rest of the episode.

Actually I will, because this made me laugh.

Ah, annoying American tourists with their giant rucksacks and drawling accents. What would have made this picture even better would be if America was wearing one of those bumbag things that seem to be solely restricted to people exchanging money (usually granny’s at car boot sales or drug dealers) and American tourists. I quite like observing the difference in tourists. Most Asian tourists tend to wander in large groups and take a lot of photos while flicking V signs. You’ll always recognise the German males at swimming pools because they are the ones wearing tight black speedos. Irish tourists get off the plane and straight into the nearest Irish pub, which brings to question why they even go on holiday in the first place.

While Canadians spend their time on holiday trying to tell everyone that they are not Americans. Generally it’s pretty easy to tell them apart. Canadians aren’t wearing bumbags.

Sorry if I sound overly cynical today but boy has Chibitalia put me in a bad mood. Please tell me season three has less of them and more of this mysterious Prussia fellow who all the fangirls keep raving about. I really want to see what all the fuss is about.

::Edit:: I remember ages ago finding links to my posts on Hetalia Livejournal sites. Well I stumbled across the LJ community again in this thread where my worth is being discussed.

Cart Driver: Funny or unfunny to you?

Never heard of him.

Will never be as cool as the cabbage man.

He’s almost never funny. Half the time interesting, but rarely funny.

Assuming you mean the blogger, I don’t think he’s particularly funny, but I think he’s kind of entertaining.

ANGST

I’m no big fan of anime blogs but I think I enjoyed Cart Driver’s blog…especially on hetalia.

…? You know he’s going to be blogging season 3, too, right? ‘Sides that, he seems pretty all right. Good sense of humor. His intense dislike for Chibitalia is a little silly, but he just thinks the segments are boring, man. And I can’t really blame ‘im for that.

I want him out, actually. His hate of Chibitalia and HRe is, IMHO, freaking creepy.

someone should draw 34 of the dog and chibitalia and send it to this dude as a gift fanart

It appears my existence in Hetalia fandom splits opinion as much as Chibitalia does. Also, please no shotacon bestiality gifs.

Fuck yeah Hetalia is back!

So this episode was based upon the fact that Americans love to watch scary movies even though they’re scared shitless and hate the actual viewing experience. It’s something of a test of manliness. What surprised me most of all was that I’d always assumed that this was a worldwide phenomenon but apparently it’s not the case in Asian countries, an even odder case when you remember how many creepy Asian horror movies that make their way across the East/West diving, more so than perhaps any other genre other than martial arts and animation. In fact, what made me laugh more than anything in this episode was how cringe-worthingly true to life it was. Why the hell do we sit through those horror movies anyway when we clearly don’t enjoy watching them?

But this made me cringe and snigger even more so. Why do we get so freaked out by creepy movies but love blowing crazy mutant monsters apart on video games? Anyone who’s played Halo knows how creepy the Flood are and yet you have huge fun blowing their heads off with energy swords. I’m with you on this one Japan. Why on earth do we think that way?

(Two possible captions for the above picture: 1: This is what happens when you watch too much anime, or, for Mushishi fans out there, America just learned how to close his second eyelids)

Not a whole lot else happened in the episode (you forget how short 5 minutes really is) but it really is great to see Hetalia back again.I admit, the announcement for a third season had me thinking ‘do they really need another season of this?’. In fact, that thought is still going through my mind because you have to have pretty exceptional creators to go for this long without getting stale, especially for such a gimmicky series like Hetalia. We shall have to wait and see but for now it’s great to see them back in action once again~

Pictures this week taken from Hyper Parfait because no site seems to want to list this as a DDL and I’m not capping pictures from Youtube anymore.

I dunno, maybe it’s because I’m in a bad mood or something, but this episode of Hetalia just did not interest me. Japan and America are just not that funny together. It seems like they should be though. Plenty of history between them, two conflicting personalities, it’s all a recipe for success and yet it rarely is. I can hardly blame this on Japan either because he providing the single moment I actually laughed at loud at Japans obsession with kawaii~~. Ah how the Japanese must have exploded at their first sight of rabbits. Before the rabbits invaded, the Japanese were the manliest nation on the planet. But then they showed the warriors rabbits and suddenly they all became girly men who liked cute things. In fact, Japanese men’s fascination with moe stems back to the introduction of rabbits into Japan.

CURSE YOU RABBITS. THIS MOE-CENTRIC BOOM IS YOUR FAULT!

*cough* yeah since I have nothing intelligent to say I’ll move onto the licence. Firstly I hope gg don’t receive a C&D notice. Not because the show won’t be subbed, because I’m sure there are some fangirls out there more than willing to translate Hetalia, but it’s because I don’t trust what they’d do with it. Sparkly writing anyone? Helpful translators notes that include lines like ‘kyaaaaa~’? Calling the countries by their ‘real names’? Yeah, I really don’t want that. The second point is the dub. Now I know there would be people out there really pissed off if they did this, but I would love a dub where they gave all the characters silly accents. Can you imagine how extra funny it would be for Japan to call England ‘Engrand’, or how much funnier France would sound if all his wooing of the other countries was done in an over-the-top french accent? Oh god, just thinking about some of those earlier scenes with silly accents is making me laugh.

This is the last we’ll see of Hetalia until sometime in late February. Most fans will despair. I, on the other hand, need the break. Maybe it’s just because I’m blogging the thing but that third season announcement drained me a bit. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that, although I think if some of the Hetalia fans grew any fonder of this show they would explode. Anywho, see you all in February and for a (hopefully Chibitalia free) third season of Hetalia

50: Streams on January 8th.
51: Streams on February 26th.
52: Streams on March 5th.

I was tipped off by Kiseki on this news and later had the news confirmed by our good old fansubbers gg. This slows the pace down before the third season kicks off in Spring, where I assume the normal airing schedule will resume. Actually now that I look at the dates, basically all that’s happening is a hiatus between 8th Jan and 26th Feb as the next episode airs a week later anyway. A month and a half break from Hetalia would probably do us all good anyway.

For now though, lets get back to normallity, which in Hetalish means ‘the continued bastardisation of international history’.

This episode was a bit of a shock and do you know why? It was an episode about Japan that was actually funny! This was classic Hetalia episode. I knew enough about Japanese history to understand the jokes but the episode threw me enough morsels to go on my usual post-Hetalia wikipedia trawl. This episode left me spending the most amount of time trawling the internet after the episode since the Sealand episode because I’d never done any sort of proper reading about Japanese history before. Oh sure, watch enough anime and some parts of their history gradually seep in but only in a vague sort of way. It certainly showed that Japan had quite a bit of history of xenophobic-behaviour, refusing to let traders into their country and restricting them to little islands off the shore of the mainland. That was before this guy came along…

It’s one of those things you start to notice as you learn about history of different nations. At some time or another in their history some sort of change in the country will be inspired by the French. The English were constantly trying to mimic the french style of dress and etiquette, as shown by Hetalia, something they certainly still do today. The American Revolution was totally inspired by the French (which I must admit I was hoping would be worked into Hetalia somehow). Heck, if your country has a tricolour as its flag then you’ve been inspired by the French. There’s just something about the French that leaves you in awe, even if most countries don’t want to admit it. England in particular is definatley tsundere for France. I’ve been to France…3 times, twice to Paris and once down south. Paris is pretty cool and every third shop was a sex shop (I was 12 at the time and found this fact the funniest thing in the world…still do actually) but down south was quite possibly the most boring place on earth, and I’ve been to Iowa.

Since the end of the Cold War, the new country to follow has been America. I’m sure History students in the next century will look back and think ‘wow, people sure seemed to like America’. Which, as we all know, just isn’t true. I’m sure you Americans out there know that as well. An awful lot of countries, in particular Europeans, hate America. Except are totally fascinated by what goes on there. A bit like Big Brother, nobody actually likes the show but for some reason everybody watched the thing. I dare say that was the same with France. Nobody liked them and their posh, poncy ways and yet everybody still ended up emulating thing. America is the new France.

Except for Canada. Canada, who goes out of his way to prove that he’s not America. Canada, who throws a maple leaf on everything and everything just to prove that he is not America. Canada, who…who is he again?

So in this episode we saw chibitalia finally grow up, hear his voice break and for his adopted father to realise that he was actually a boy. This (hopefully) marks the final appearance of chibitalia in this series. This will probably be the last time I’m going to get to talk about it. So instead of my usual joking about and pretending it doesn’t exist, I’m going to give my real opinion on those chibitalia segments.

Chibitalia started off way back in episode one as a cute side story about baby Italy sometime after the Rennaisance. The thing about chibitalia that made it different from the normal Hetalia segments was that it never tried to be funny. It’s only aim was to induce diabetes. Now that’s generally not a very good move anyway, but what it also did was take away the historical references behind its story very early on. It became no longer a parody of a historical tale and a story about the characters. Congratulations, you’ve now managed to get rid of the very two things that made Hetalia awesome. And then it dragged. Oh boy did it drag. The other short side stories, such as America’s storage cleaning or the Liechtenstein story, never overstayed their welcome…ok, actually they did but never to the extent that Chibitalia did. The sheer fact that it’s taken to episode 48 for this beast to finally end should give you an indication of how much it overstayed its welcome, especially when you consider it wasn’t that welcome in the first place.

tl;dr Chibitalia sux, thank god it’s over.

The rest of the episode was sort of meh. As great as it was to finally see Italy and Germany again, there wasn’t any ‘new’ stories started that directly parody historical incidents, which is what generally makes an episode of Hetalia hilarious. Unless Italian soldiers were genuinely afraid of putting helmets on in fear that they would get smaller. I’d find that impossible to believe until you remember that the Russian soldiers really did think that the snow was soft enough that they didn’t need parachutes. I mean, I know we have the glories of retrospect and wikipedia but they hardly believed that, did they?

Definately swine flu, considering it’s England

Comments were closed on the original post but not here! Comment away folks, I’d hope that people do actually find me again.

This time I’m going combine my 12 days of anime with my special Hetalia posts I plan to have started by this stage (I’m writing this on the 1st of December. If this is the first you’ve heard of this mini-project Hetalia fangirls then go ahead and berate me in the comments to get moving). This time I’m going to look at one of the most remarkable and one of the most unexpected occurences of the Hetalia anime (although in retrospect it should have been obvious). The international discussions that arise in Hetalia fandom.

Hetalia is a mans show and don’t you forget that!

Yet again this is a story that begins right at the start of the year with the Koreans protesting at this terribly dangerous anime. Being portrayed as an over-reactor and getting easily offended did not please the Koreans so they, in true Korean fashion, over-reacted and got the show taken off the air (yes I know, not all Koreans are like that blah de blah). Unsurprisingly this had the opposite effect and garnered the show even more interest. Many people looked at it and thought ‘well this is totally harmless’ and never gave the show another thought. However there were many others that actually believed Hetalia was *gasp* dangerous! People would take these racial stereotypes to heart, automatically assume those previously ignorant to Italian culture would assume they were all pasta-loving wimps. If you were one of these people then this post is directed at you.

What has actually happened is a huge increase in discussion of different cultures in Hetalia fandom. The internet being the wonderful international place that it is (and I’m only being half-sarcastic there) means that there’s nearly always someone from the country being referenced to explain a bit about the history or culture of that country, even *gasp* Korea! To take a random example, here’s a comment from an older Hetalia post:

I’m Italian so a little info about Italy-Russia here: those two countries are close now, but it’s a pretty recent event caused by the fact that Berlusconi and Putin are both populists controllers of the media (Berlusconi owns or controls 5 channels out of 6) so they get along really fine XD but it’s more of “our prime ministers are friends” than “Italy and Russia are close”. The reaction of italians is similar to Italy and Romano’s ones , so it’s spot on XD

I’ve always looked at the historical and cultural references in Hetalia and quite often found myself trawling Wikipedia after an episode. This blog is only a tiny part of the Hetalia community. I’ve looked across all sorts of forums and Livejournal sites to find people discussing their own history or culture. OK, it’s mainly just fangirling but it still brings to light many things that these fangirls didn’t previously know. They aren’t taking the historical facts in Hetalia for granted (although for the most part Hetalia has been spot on), they’re actually learning about other cultures, the total opposite to what the haters thought would happen.

Hetalia actually has a vibrant male fanbase. I wonder why?

Tying world peace and Hetalia together is a bit of a big statement but I’m going to stand by that. What other anime has done more for building bridges between cultures? You could argue Pokemon is large enough to have people from anywhere and everywhere but the important difference here is that Pokemon fans join together to discuss Pokemon. Hetalia encourages discussion about different nationalities. The only people who may be enlightened are a bunch of internet savvy fangirls but can any other anime claim that title?

So what is my ‘moment’ that this post refers to…I’m not really sure. Maybe the time on some random Gaia forum where my blog was linked to with some people saying ‘oh yeah I love that blog! He always explains the history behind the jokes’. And that folks, is my part I’ve done for world peace this year.

You know I was slightly worried before this episode that Hetalia had fallen into a bit of a rut recently, as can quite often happen with this show. When this episode kicked off with chibitalia I thought my fears had come true. But no!

When France is tossing about his fabulous (and now no longer strangely deformed chibi version) self we know that Hetalia has returned to form once again.

So this episode focused on the pre WWII era, probably just before the outbreak of the war when England and France have finally realised that Germany won’t stop taking over countries if you just ask them politely not to (I’m sure there’s a sexual innuendo in that sentence) so they’ve decided to round-up their allies and see how their armies are coming along. So we got to see exactly how well Poland is prepared for the war. To be fair, there wasn’t really any European country ready for the Nazi Blitzkreig, but when I saw Poland’s camp fringe-flick I instantly knew what direction Mr.Hetalia had taken for his character. What made the scene doubly funny was that I know a few poles and they’re all a bunch of muscle beasts. I wonder how the poles like their depiction of their country?

There was a chibitalia section at the start and an America/England section later on but it was this entire scene that made this episode of Hetalia great. It’s rare to see France and England on the same side (lol, so true, even in real life) but even they are joining together in despair at the sheer uselessness of Poland. Plus we got Frances ending song. You know, I used to consider Germany my favourite Hetalia character but the more he appears, the more I love France. He’s just so fabulous and so…french! I know that sounds a stupid thing to say but there’s something so quintessentially silly about the stereotypical frenchman that you have to love.

But the biggest shock of the episode came in the last 15 seconds when we heard chibitalia’s attempt at the ending song. And you know what? I loved it. It was almost like the director off screen told him to shut up because they had already finished filming.

Me liking a chibitalia segment? What’s happening to me?

You know, I actually didn’t find this episode that funny. In fact I found it kind of creepy. You know why? Because of this:

What the hell is this? Look at the size of his head compared to his body! That creeped me out to no end. I know France is meant to be portrayed as a bit unnerving but this was too much. I actually couldn’t concentrate on the subs, that’s how weirded out I was. Chibi England was nowhere near as creepy as France was. Actually chibi England is pretty cute looking. Chibi England looks chibi. Chibi France just looks deformed.

I know people might think I looked at this and thought ‘chibi characters, bleargh’ but that’s not what I’m normally like with chibis at all. Chibification can be a fantastic comedic device. I just never found this episode funny. The only part about this episode I genuinely liked was England’s awesome ending song about rum and tubes. I never realised that people in other countries don’t call it the tube. If you called it a subway in England people would assume you want a sandwich in the subway sandwich bar. Do you have them in America? You must do, I think they’re in practically every country in the world.

That’s a Bouncing Betty Germany is holding. The reason I know that is from playing too much Call of Duty: World at War. I was never any good at snipers in these games but my friend was. The guy with the sniper always got these bouncing betty’s (they’re basically like mines that jump into the air before exploding) and everytime I think I’d snuck up on him a bouncing betty would get me.

Yeah, I think I’m suffering from brain drain after such a long post last time. So I’m going to leave you with yet another Hetalia copycat anime that’s been made into an anime. This time instead of countries, the Zodiac characters have been bishified.

See what you’ve started Hetalia!

Warning: This is a veeeerrrry long post.

Episode 1

Sydney: wow could you tone down the rudeness? seriously. the koreans have reasons and bad history with japan.
im disappointed with the lack of tv broadcast (and korea in the comic is one of my favorites anyway.. but i guess he wouldnt be in the anime either way). im korean, i know what the koreans are mad about, i dont really agree too much. whatever.

First episode, second comment and I already managed to offend someone. *Borat style voice here* Great Success!

Foodbender (aka: Blindability)The world is filled with controversy. But it’s anime like this that sometimes reminds us to take things with a grain of salt, so to speak (or in other words: lighten up). Everyone is entitled to think and feel what they want.

I think Hetalia is great.

I never realised until I went back but it appears co-writer Blindability has been reading my Hetalia posts from day 1! Displaying fine writing talent and a cool head already.

Ramtha: hmm… Well, maybe if those Koreans would just go back to playing Starcraft, they wouldn’t care so effing much.

hyogalover: Koreans are really hateful. I don’t understand why they are mad. this anime was made so it could bring world peace. I read that Koreans also got mad at Hikaru no Go. –_–
Not even Italians are mad at the great joke they made out of them. Is not like they made the fucking anime and manga to make fun of Koreans. the anime is called HETALIA!! not HETAREANS >.

And I thought I was a bit racist towards Koreans in the earlier episodes… You have to remember that the people making this fuss are probably the same group of whiners that complain at everything. It’s the same with them crazy orthadox Christian people in America that cower at the sight of any sort of nudity on TV. If they made a Hetalia style anime about the troubles in Northan Ireland and the IRA there would probably be outcry in some sections of Ireland, and that is far more recent. The reaction from these select group of Koreans are a total over-reaction from a group of people who can’t take a joke but you have to understand where they are coming from. And please, do not judge Koreans by these bunch of whiners.

Natasha: Would people leave off the hateful racism towards Koreans? Sure, some people in Korea found it offensive and, as would ANYBODY else, created an outcry. That does not make them bad people.
It’s not about being politically correct, it’s about not being offensive to people when you KNOW it’s being rude (such as suggesting Koreans are only good for gaming). I love Hetalia, personally, but if some people don’t like it, I’m not going to start bashing them.

Why can we just get ALONG? :/

Could not have put it better myself.

ezzy: but from a general perspective…one country banning something from airing in tv broadcast worldwide just doesn’t sit right with me. Ok they got made fun of by a japanese-american comic. Whoopdy frickin doo… Seriously, the way Korea is portrayed in the manga is not as bad as the other countries. But you don’t hear Italy, Russia or even France complaining about the far worse portrayals of their characters.

You don’t hear other nationalities complaining? You clearly haven’t looked hard enough. Korea is the most obvious example but you should see what some people say about this series. People will forget about the holocaust because of Hetalia? No really, and I think he was dutch.

*sigh* you know.. i am an italian…i am embarrassed by Italy’s character…BUT… its very funny..and in some cases its historically true! So instead of bitching about how Italy is portrayed badly…I am just going to take that grain of salt and enjoy the comedy..and realize that there is some truth to how the italians were. By doing so, maybe italians now will start building a strong army little by little? …who knows…

Ah the sheer amount of nationalities that come out when talking about Hetalia. You know, there are some really interesting comments on this first post.

Exe: this series is complete shit, why would anyone watch/read this utter tripe?

I take that back…

Episode 4

Claudaine :I must say I love reading what you have to say about Hetalia. It’s almost as entertaining as the episode itself. ^^

I love getting happy comments

ANTIFA SUPPORTER R.: FUCK CODE GEASS!!!!!!!!!! LEOUCH IS A NAZI FAGGOT

Hetalia: Bringing out the racist fags in all of us (I didn’t even mention Code Geass in the post…)

Episode 5

tsuki: the reason why they don’t have Ireland is because in WWI ad WWII Ireland was classed as England.

¦3: wait wut

Ireland WAS NOT classed as england. only the north is part of the “UK”. ffs, i’m an irishanon and i’m pretty fucking sick of all the hetaliafags classing us with england. ever heard of the 1916 easter rising where lots of people died just to get independance from england? obviously not. i’m not even a patriotic irish person but it really just pisses me off how ignorant some people are. it’s like saying canada is the same as america. >:U

also, ireland might come into it – in one strip england mentions he has 3 siblings that are always trying to shoot him or something, and it’s assumed he’s refering to Wales, Scotland and The Republic Of Ireland. So maybe! But who knows. Either way, Ireland is technically in it, if you want to classify the north i guess. lol.

Hetalia: Bringing out the crazed patriots in all of us (BTW we were part of the UK in the WWI but we pissed them off so much that they eventually left us to do our own thing, much to our delight. We weren’t part of UK for WWII, something which rather pissed of Churchill when we wouldn’t let him use our shipyards)

Episode 7

Kana: “This guy represents this country called America. No idea where that is, I think it’s somewhere in Africa, right? I was hoping that perhaps he would bring some new jokes to the table but all he does is eat fast food, which is basically an extension on Italy’s joke. Come on Hetalia, come up with something else! Although I do like the ‘and I’ll be the hero!’ line America spouts out, it’s just so true. At least, that’s what I’ve heard about America. I doubt they have a large enough army to be any sort of hero. They probably don’t even have any nuclear weapons.”

And you live where? You probably live in Africa yourself, ahaha.
Now now, my friend, not to be rude, as I do enjoy your blogs about Hetalia very much~ You are very wrong! You may or may not have been kidding, but for Pete’s sake man I really hope you aren’t.
America is in North America, right below Canada. In the 1700’s we defeated Great Britan all though we were entirely weaker and had less resources, as well as being incredibly uneducated. America is known for it’s incredibly greasy & I suppose sometimes gross fast food. The reason he is always saying “I’ll be the hero!” is because apparently Americans normally want to be the center of attention.
Also, you’re kidding about the army thing, right? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army
You make me sick when you say things like you know about the greatest country & freest on Earth. Where ever it is that you live, we could kill your entire country and the surrounds one next to in an instant.
However~ since we’re all heros and pride ourselves and being assholes~ we won’t~ unless you do something bad first.
“Kid you have no idea what you’re talking about regarding your country at all, my country is–” All talk, whatever you’re thinking, dear. I don’t careeee~
You’re an asshole.
However, no hard feelings, eh~? I hope to read your blogs on Hetalia still~
By the way, episode 8 is also out and subbed

This remains my favourite comment I’ve ever got. They even supplied me with Wikipedia articles! Seriously, I’m reading through the thing again and it really makes me grin from ear to ear.

Amaya: as much as I enjoyed your blog (and your lovely screenshots of hetalia, thanks you so much for that)
I was very surprised that you didn’t know much about America
I’m sure other people call this country U.S.A but I thought most people in the world knew about America…
where do you live again? you type in English so I assume you knew about America… oh well
but other than that, really nice blog, I really liked your pictures xD

I guess I could just don my master trolling act at this point but…I still can’t believe people believed me when I said I didn’t know what America was.

Episode 10

Kunikochan: Oh I do love your Hetalia posts~

They’re almost as amusing as the show itself x3

I wonder what happened to Kunikochan. She used to be one of the regular comments way back in the beginning.

Episode 11

kchan: Just wanted to note; the subtitles have nothing to do with the anime’s creators, so don’t bitch about it.
Honestly, this is a really…badly writted review. All you’ve done is bitch and whine.

Ah yes. This was the episode where my patience with Chibitalia snapped and I spent the entire review pointing out the flaws with this series. Some people weren’t too happy with that.

Osaka: If you don’t get the show, don’t watch it. No one wants to know it’s flaws. We want to know what we agree is great about it. That’s the point of being a fangirl, isn’t it?

This is probably the most enlightening comment I’ve ever gotten and it forced me to really think about how I blog series. Do point out the flaws where they clearly are some or do join in celebrating what Hetalia does well?

Arana: Come on, people! Someone points out and explains their reasons for what flaws they see in a series you like and you start bitching about how they should stop watching the series if they find stuff to complain about? A tad immature, don’t you think? It’s not a bashing post, it’s reasonable critique.

I say this as a vivid fangirl of Hetalia, and I don’t agree with all the points presented but I think it’s great that someone’s actually making an effort to round the negatives of the series without totally shooting it down.

In the end I settled to continue with an honest review of how the episode panned out. I know people often go to blogs to join in with celebrating a fantastic series and it can be a bit dull reading a blogger that didn’t really like the episode but if I don’t call out the bad episodes when they occur then that devalues my posts where I said the episode was fantastic. If an episode was terrible I will still call it out for being terrible. I shall not take the policy of appeasing the readers. That’s what Chamberlain did and look what happened to him!

Episode 13:

Soka: (plus I got a highly helpful comment a while back, explaining to me which country America was. I could only remember it as that place Bruce Springsteen once sang a song about being born there).

XDXDXDXDXD
Man, I’m internetually falling in love with youXD

HAH! Screw you Hetalia bishies, I have fangirls too!

Episode 20

Avalon: On the subject of cleaning America’s household, it was because Lithuania was very poor at the time– most of the European nations were still trying to make up for what they lost in WW1, so many immigrants were coming over to America, mostly from East Europe (Lithuania especially).

I probably learn as much from Hetalia commenters about world history than I do from the show itself.

Episode 26

heyheyho: Sorry for my lame english, it’s not my first language.

Again, the international aspect of Hetalia commenters is shown. BTW, heyheyho, I believe you are the commenter who’s been around for the longest, well done!

Humanity_Cat: Before I start, I must prewarn that I have just recently started reading your Hetalia blog, so some parts of this are kind of smooshed together…..

Firstly, and I know this will sound really stupid, but before I got into Hetalia, I did some preresearch about the characters, which help with some of the jokes on the stereotypes….

Anyways, I wanted to applaude you on the fact that you not only talk about the good points in the Hetalia anime, but also the flaws and downfalls. I personally like to see both in a review.

I’m beginning to wonder if I should have done more research other than historical research of Hetalia. Would it have increased my enjoyment of the series? I’ll never really know will I. Also it’s really cool to see where all these regular commenters started following my posts.

luffyluffy: Quick backstory, I was looking for Hetalia pictures, and blog after blog had small out of focus ones, and I ended up finding yours with the big crisp pictures(The whole Hetalia part of my hard drive is pretty much made up of your screencaps, and when I check the blog, I always think in the back of my mind “I wonder who he screencapped~”)

… That’s not weird, is it?

They all started commenting in episode 26! No really, my comment count shot up from about 3–4 per episode to 20 comments. I guess it must have been the finale that was thought to have just happened and people went searching for reviews, although as this comment shows some people just follow and don’t comment for a long time. Come on lurkers, get out there and start commenting! You know you want to.

Apollo Pompano: I read this review and i’d have to say, I’m impressed. It’s true, a lot of people don’t write about the negative sides of Hetalia, and let’s face it, every anime has flaws.
I like you views, even if they contrast mine. It gives me stuff to think about. Throwing a few ‘well, if you think about it..’s or a couple of ‘now that you mention it..’s really makes me able to appreciate APH more.
So, thanks for posting both sides to your review!

It looks like I made the right choice in being hyper-critical.

Episode 27

luffyluffy: As for the army march, that’s Ore Wa Doitsu Sei aka I am German-Made. Makes Ludwig sounds like a Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaziiii!

Like Lelouch then according to that guy who commented on episode 4. Yikes this post is long isn’t it?

Episode 29

luffyluffy: I just laughed while reading your comment XD I can hardly say “in America” anymore, it makes it hard to converse XD

Hell, when me and my boyfriend go to Berlin, the first thing that will most likely come to mind is “Heh, I’m inside Germany and Prussia at the same time”

… God, Hetalia ruined my mind XD

Hetalia: Bringing out the perverted side in all of us.

Episode 31

Johanna: It’s not purple, it’s navy stupid. -.-

*fixed*

Episode 32

Monsturr: Admittedly, I found this site through one of your Hetalia posts, but I’ve come to keep an eye on all of your posts; I’ve started watching Sora no Manimani as well Hale Guu thanks to this site

I got someone else to watch Hale Guu? *Borat style again* Great Success!

Humanity_Cat: unfortunately, I’m finding that the longer I stay on this anime blog, the more I find interest in the different animes….*thinking about starting Spice and Wolf* Gods….I’m never going to get any homework done at this rate….

*drools* Oh wait, this was a Hetalia post. The hot wolf-goddess put me off my stride.

sesquipedalian: I love reading your blogs. The Hetalia are just so good. Heh, a bit late to say this, but Chibitalia annoys me as well.

Do not fret my friend. All Chibitalia hating comments are welcome at any time.

Scamp: KICK REASON TO THE CURB! DON’T BELIEVE IN THE POTATOES WHO BELIEVE IN YOU, DON’T BELIEVE IN THE LURKERS WHO LURK IN THE COMMMENTS WHO READ THE POST. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! YOUR COMMENT WILL BE THE COMMENT TO PIERCE THE HEAVENS

WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE!!!!!!!!

…yeah, this was actually me responding to an earlier commenter. I think I might have just watched the first Gurren Lagann movie or something. ROW ROW FIGHT DAH POWAH!!! Oh yeah, this is a Hetalia post. I keep getting sidetracked.

Episode 33

That guy who was in such a bad mood couldn’t have been Denmark. He is more the hyperactive type, and I don’t think he would go to a bar like this.

Shiroi-Hebi: My friend told me though that this blonde guy reminded her of the taller guy from the sketch of Czechslovakia —> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo_btds9-kM
Or better to say, looks more like Slovakia, I didnt really think of that, but he looks similar to that guy from the pic…

I get so used to seeing comments like this that I forget how odd these conversations are. Things like ‘nah, that must be Slovakia’ or ‘that’s such a Russian thing to do’ or even ‘I get Lithuania and Canada mixed up’ are such bizarre things to say without the context of Hetalia behind them.

heyheyho: Oh, but here in latin america everyone hates Chávez too! There was much lulz here when it happened.
Except for Bolivia, I guess. Hes’s got a man-crush with Venezuela and all-*SHOT*

This is why I love the whole concept of Hetalia. Any type of international politics or events can be Hetaliased and it instantly becomes funny. Even the world cup, as you can see from the very first picture waaay up the top of this post. Man, this post is long.

Episode 35

Siri: Well, long-time reader, first time commenter. (Wow, I sound dorky.)

Sieren: Like Siri I am also a long time reader, first commenter.

Jan Suzukawa: Well, Siri has broken it open for all of us. I’m also a long-time reader, first-time commenter.

blissfullynaive: uhmm.. hello.. long time reader, first time commenter too. >__< Since i’ve been reading a lot of first time posters here, might as well join in too.

They all came in this episode eh. The prospect of a movie brought out a few new commenters and some of them are still commenting today. Yay, I love comments

blissfullynaive: I must say, i have learned a lot of historical stuff from Hetalia. It even gives me more motivation to learn other cultures and countries. Thus, i really look forward to your hetalia blog posts as well, because you sometimes explain the historical side of an episode. :3

This. While I said that my succesful troll comment was my favourite because of how mindboggling it was, this is my favourite comment in terms of why I blog Hetalia and why I continue to blog this series. People really have been learning about different cultures from Hetalia…but I’ve got another post on the way that deals more specifically with that so I’ll leave that subject for now.

Episode 36

Siri: Completely unrelated to your review but… I figured I’d comfort you by telling you that I personally know at least seven male Hetalia viewers in person. You’re not alone.

blissfullynaive: Oh, might as well add that i have influenced 3 male friends to watch Hetalia and they like it. The other one’s a History fan, so he got interested. The other one likes Chibitalia. @__@

ExecutiveOtaku: One more male Hetalia fan chiming in

Much to my surprise, Hetalia does actually have a sizable male fanbase. I guess they are slightly quieter considering you can’t exactly join in the fangirl squeals can you.

Scamp: @ExecutiveOtaku: For some reason I’d always assummed you were a girl…

ExecutiveOtaku: @Scamp: It’s like I’m not being acknowledged as a man! I’m in despair! The internet getting the wrong impression of me has left me in despair!

Ehehe, sorry about that one…

Episode 37

Scamp: Spam away. It makes my posts look even more popular the more comments I have

When I see my posts have gotten 30 comments I keep having to remind myself that it’s the same people commenting over and over again and not 30 separate people who think I’m amazing. It’s a great ego-deflator.

Humanity_Cat: And darn, you’re a guy? *sigh* I guess I can’t talk to you about makeup now….

Now why would you think that just because I’m a guy I don’t wear makeup? That’s sexist so it is.

Episode 38

Humanity_Cat: think of other reasons to keep blogging about Hetalia even if the season ends.

That’s exactly what your reading now…if anyone has decided to read down this far that is.

Episode 39

ExecutiveOtaku: I propose the UN be made a character. It can be male or female, and very much in the student council president character archetype except most of the time the major powers won’t listen to them. But he/she can give them hall monitor-like armbands to allow them to beat up on another country or pull two fighting countries apart from each other with international approval. Blue and white armband with UN symbol, possibly a blue helmet, maybe anemic like Roma from SoraMani since he/she’s only as strong as the power that member nations give him/her, particularly good friends with Sweden due to support, maybe some resemblance to America due to be headquartered there.

This is what happens when a writer at THAT anime blog comments on your posts. She he instantly eclipses everything you’ve written so far. Maybe I should ban him to make myself look better

Jan Suzukawa: I didn’t know you had an aversion against Chibitalia…

Actually, I secretly love Chibitalia. I think it’s amazingly cute and the only reason I hate on it is because I wish I could give people type 2 diabetes too.

Episode 40

Jan Suzukawa: And I hear Lelouch was also driving the hay cart in Spice and Wolf. That guy sure gets around a lot.

Wait, so that means that not only is Code Geass a nazi anime but so is Spice and Wolf?

What is this ‘political correctness’ you speak of?

Episode 41

randomanon: And yeah, Himaruya Hidekaz is a guy. A lot of people got confused when found out too.

See? I’m not the only one who automatically associates people who are involved with Hetalia to be girls.

Episode 42

Thatthinginthecorner: Really? I disagree, I think Japan has one of the best singing voices and Germany the worst.
But I’m also very weird.

We are watching a bunch of bishified countries. We are all weird here. Who wants to be normal anyway? I’m here at midnight writing a post about a cartoon that’s over 4000 words long and I don’t actually have any point to prove in writing it. I hope you guys at least got a few giggles from this post.

Kagura89: Nice “tract of land” you have there Ukraine~
This episode is more like a bonus to the male viewers like me XD

Ah yes, the male viewers. You guys need some service as well to counteract all the fanservice the ladies are getting. And here I am  to present you with some glorious Horo fanservice!

Sorry, I couldn’t handle the idea that the last picture of Horo on this post had a Nazi flag behind her. Anyway, I think it’s time to finish this post off.

blissfullynaive: *fangirlsquee* on Austria-san – I think he’s the most handsome of all the Hetalia characters. Ah, sorry Scamp – I promise we won’t let this devolve into endless yaoi fangirling…

Humanity_Cat: Oy, there actually might be people who ship RoChu…..-__– *coughlikemecough* But whatever, I don’t want to start anything. I tend to like historical pairings more…like RussiaXChina or AustriaXHungary…

randomanon: The America/England doesn’t seem squicky to me since America willingly broke away from that relationship with England in the American Revolution…But then again, I ship Belarus/Russia, so…

luffyluffy: I dont liek RussiaChina D: I-I like Germancest… *fidgets* I-I’m sorry, I know it’s incest but… I-it’s so cute… T-They mesh together so well…

Yes, these are my readers.

(Fuck yeah! Always wanted so say that)

So this episode was an entire episode about the relationship between Liechtenstein and Switzerland (why do I always start off by telling you what happened in the episode. You’ve seen the bloody thing, you already know) and you know what’s remarkable? It worked. An entire episode of cuteness and it worked. I know, I can hardly believe it myself. I think the reason is because instead of the show simply playing the characters off each other doing the same cute stuff over and over again, it got straight back the history aspect of their relationship. Switzerland takes in Liechtenstein, expecting nothing in return and simply out of his own goodwill, it makes for a charming story. I know I said the relationship between the two countries could be described as big Swiss taking care of itty bitty Liech but I didn’t know the extent of the history and how much goodwill the Swiss apparently had towards Liechtenstein. It’s cute, it worked and I had a big soppy grin plastered across my face by the end of the episode, and this is coming from a guy who’s usually oblivious to cuteness.

Something was bugging me throughout the episode though. Do these female voice actors take helium so they can reach that pitch? Liechtenstein is voiced by good old Kugi Rie who also voices Shana, Taiga etc.  Normal pitch voice generally. I can’t see how she is capable of reaching that level without some sort serious amplification. If not, then are there people in Japan who actually sound like that? Do they do it to impress men or do they naturally sound like that? Seriously, try to go that high yourself. I obviously can’t try because I’m a guy and have a deep sexy Pavarotti-esque voice but any ladies out there give it a shot. Any dub actor who is given the task of voicing Liechtenstein has my full sympathy.

Since there’s really very little to talk about with regards to the actual episode at hand, I’m going to bring this post around to a subject I’ve been wanting to cover with Hetalia. licencing. Hetalia sells well. Very well. I’m a big geek and check the dvd sales every week (Otaku are still buying Endless Eight) and Hetalia constantly makes the charts. If it was released outside Japan it would also sell. It’s got hot guys, an ingenious concept and a solid fanbase. However with all the controversy that surrounded this series you’d have to wonder whether anyone would dare touch it. It’s not just Koreans, there are people out there from every country who genuinely think this show is dangerous. They’re all twats and we know that, but they could be a potential barrier to a release.

Totally unrelated topic now but I strongly recommend you to listen to this weeks ANNCast. The ex-head of marketing at Geneon explains the clusterfuck that was the anime industry a few years ago. I was tempted to make an entire post pushing readers to listen to it but decided to simply pimp it in other episodic posts. Lets just say it’s the most amazing piece I’ve ever read/listened to about anime since…ever. No really.