So I was looking at Chartfags Amazing Chart for the upcoming spring anime season and I noticed an anime called ‘Hetalia Axis Powers’. I’d never heard of the anime before but I figured it must be pretty popular since this is the third season of it’s airing. So when the first episode of the third season began I went and watched it. It was only then did I realise that I had, in fact, watched the previous 50 episodes of this gloriously funny and notoriously borderline racist anime already.
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~
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23 Comments
Oh Hetalia, I missed you so over your break. It was super special awesome for me that the first new episode featured my favorite characters AND had America’s version of the ED song.
The part about the movies vs video games was perfect too, especially if you think about America’s/the West’s love for all the survival horror games like the Silent Hill and Resident Evil series. There’s plenty to be freaked out about, but everyone seems to take the horror such much more lightly than it was originally intended to be taken.
* so much more lightly. Gah, typo. Hetalia’s return had me too excited for proper grammer, lol.
i’ve been waiting for this for awhile. glad hetalia is back~
i also don’t understand why so many americans or people in general watch horror movies if they don’t want to be scared. i can’t stand horror movies in general, even though on the surface i’ll say “i know how they all end anyways: everyone dies”, inside it’s really because i’m scared to death lol.
gory zombie games do make me facepalm, however. i prefer regular shooter games.
Ah, Hetalia. Oh how I’ve missed you. And I have of course missed reading your blog entries for this.
Somehow I didn’t find this episode as funny as usual despite the fact that I’m exactly the same as America. I love watching horror movies (not so much for the “challenge” as for the graphics or what have you) but they terrify me.
For the first time ever, the episode is funnier than the original strip.
Good sign.
I missed these posts…
Zaaa~ Hetalia hath returned to our screens, bringing with it some sort of glowing sensation that probably could be better described by someone else.
When the movie guy was asking what was wrong with the picture, I couldn’t help but noticing the purple glow at the base of the mountain. I was so sure that Russia was going to arise from that. Pity. XD
I wonder when the Nordics are going to get introduced, if at all…
Ahh, it’s been so long that I forgot about it~ d(=u= ;;
@ksfwolfe Volume three promises more Nordic strips! (…Crap I feel guilty now for only typing down Iceland instead of the Nordics in the Gentosha survey uuuuugghh.) Otherwise, save for Finland and Sweden (what happened to him…), they have a very, very low chance of appearing.
Did gg nail America’s Engrish freak out? :Y
Nice ep, though if I have to wait literally one month between episodes, it would be better if the episode featured more of the cast… Now it’s one more month’s wait for the last one of the season and then A NEW SEASON BEGINS!
America-san and Japan certainly are the odd couple, aren’t they? Together with the suggestive Germany-No. Italy opening, this was certainly a shonen-ai-ish episode.
Hola,Hi there, the South-american fan here, cuanto tiempo a pasado desde tu ultimo review,I was missing that. The mix of japan and america is not that funny but.… lo que me llamo la atención fue la animación mas fluida y los diseños , in special Japan, were more styized.
I heard in third season the nordicks (is this correct?) is coming up~
Huraah~~
@ExecutiveOtaku
Super Special Awesome? Someones been watching the Abridged series. The only game I’ve ever been freaked out by was Half-Life. Oh, and Sonic when I was 5 years old. That lava that chased after you always made me panic and run away
@gw_kimmy
I’m not that much of a horror movie fan myself. I’m not that easily scared but when I am, I then don’t really see the point of watching it
@Siri
I like horror movies if they have some great thinking behind the plot rather than the actual scary parts. It’s the critic inside me
@heyheyho
I missed these posts too
@ksfwolfe
I was convinced that the ghost behind the person in one of the pictures was actually Germany. I’d be pretty scared if in one of my photos I saw the entire German Nation standing behind me
@Kiseki
They stopped subbing it when he lasped into English. I only caught the occasional spasm of ‘scary’ coming out of him myself
@Jan Suzukawa
I don’t think it’s another month wait. I might be wrong but I think this is exactly when the third season starts so it’s back to weekly airing until now…I’ll have to double check that though
“OHHHHH!! OHHHHHH!! God.. God!! It’s scary!!! OH..OHO!!! So. Crazy!! Hah. Hah. DDDDD!! Yahhhh!! AH… AHH!!“
Was what Himaruya wrote.
…For once, his bad handwriting is actually a good thing.
“enjoy Fucking time.” Oh. I just noticed this on the strip (beginning of video). Now I am 100% sure that his favorite word is fuck.
I shall creep away now.
My understanding was that this is not the start of season 3. Season 2 is 26 episodes just like season 1, which means it ends at 52 so we’re still in season 2. As for why there was a large pointless gap before season 2 had even ended, i honestly have no idea, and think they should have waited until after episode 52 to do that.
@moeronpan
Yeah but Hetalia never exactly had a proper airing scheduele anyway since it’s a web release and didn’t have to adhere to television timetables. Deen can do pretty much what they want with the series
They’re trying to stretch the second season so it will end when Season 3 starts in March, actually~
Gods do I miss typing here…I lost the url when our computer got a virus and I had a hell of a time trying to figure out what it had been. (It made me laugh to see that I’m still the second user on most posts, haha!)
It’s so damn nice to see Hetalia again…and am I hearing that the Nordics will be featured in Season 3? Excellent.
If they do the strip about Su-san and Finland running away, I’ll die of happiness. :3
They’ve been doing a lot of Japan/America lately…(a lot meaning two whole episodes, of course) it’d be nice to see something different. Maybe get back to the Russia-Germany pact of WWII? (please Deen, please!)
Umm, will think of something more later.
I was wondering where my two top commenters were. If Hetalia didn’t air for another season, you lot might have dropped off that list by the summer
Anyone heard yet when Ep 52 comes out, or when Season 3 starts?
Yes, I’m the kind of person who looses the url after a virus and takes days to figure it out again.…and I probably would have stayed, depending on what was going on in the anime world at the time.
~Jan Suzukawa
If a Hetalia season is 26 episodes than Episode 52 should be the last one of season two, right? So.…I guess, season 3 starts whenever Ep. 53 airs. Although, I’m not that sure when that’ll be…
Actually, episodes 51 and 52 are the end of season 2
. Episode 52…hoo boy. DEEN seemed to delay these last two episodes due to wanting to lead into season 3, plus they’ve been working on the movie.
Season 3 is actually being treated as a new sort of title though now: They dropped the “Axis Powers” part and are calling it “Hetalia: World Series”. Four DVD sets are already solicited for it on Animate’s online store, and the first set comes in June (along with the movie).
The movie itself is still quite a “mystery” though, other than Prussia being the star and some new characters (like Iceland) appearing.
@ Humanity Cat and Tinytalias
I’m beginning to think it might have been better if they’d just put up eps 50–52 back in December and January, and started the third season in April. Waiting for one five-minute ep per month is excruciating! :0
Wow, Prussia is the star of the movie?! Ol’ Gilbert really is a fan favorite.
~Tinytalias
)
Haha, my friend’s going to be happy to hear that Gilbert is going to be a main star. (Hopefully that’ll mean that I’ll get to see some Austria, too.
And I just heard about dropping the ‘Axis Powers’ part too.…What a shame. I hate that it sounds like baseball, now. –__-’ Honestly?
And I also heard that they will not be doing WWII stuff as much anymore, which is a real disappointment. I hope they don’t drop historical parodies in general.…Not that I could ever bring myself to drop the series, though.
~Jan Suzukawa
I agree, I keep forgetting when it comes out and the such.…
I just discovered your blog for APH ^^ and I loved your comments!
I just wanted to share, on one forum I was a regular on, an american asked if other people (ok us asians)got afraid of a certain part of a death note movie. most of us non americans said, that it was scary but not all that frightening. When we asked why since it wasn’t APH, she explained that according to reviews, one japanese girl said she found that part scary.
when they showed it on the theater, everyone laughed during that scene. she also shared that she wanted to watch The Ring and Ju-on in Japanese, but when she saw the trailer, she found it funny and not frightening at all.
from where I’m from, they say us cowards should just watch the american Ring, since the Japanese one is twice as scary… o.O
now everyone there in that forum concluded the scene is now a form of stereotype, and it have some truth.. Americans can’t see how scary Japanese Horror, and perhaps vice versa.