Don't Just Build A City In The Conference Room.

[rionaleonhart]

My second year of university is officially over! None of the topics for which I had been preparing came up in the literature exam, hurrah, but I didn't cry or faint and I did actually manage to write things, which means that it went better than expected. (I was terrified about that exam.)

Entirely because of futuresoon, I found myself celebrating with the twenty available episodes of Hetalia: Axis Powers (Axis Powers: Hetalia? Oh, I'm just going to call it Hetalia). They are only five minutes each, and watching them has been one of the most confusing experiences of my life.

I think I may have enjoyed it.

Here are some notes:


- Personifications of countries are adorable. I feel like a slightly awful person for finding it all so cute. World War II is absolutely not supposed to be cute.

- It is educational! Sort of! I didn't know that the prime minister of France proposed a union with England in 1956, and, given the way in which it was portrayed in Hetalia, I'm not likely to forget it. Also, should I ever need to remember historical events in the future, I shall probably find it easier now that I have the option of imagining little anthropomorphic countries acting them out.

- Apparently, England has a flying green rabbit, which I don't quite understand. I have lived here all my life, and my encounters with flying green rabbits have been few. Also, his eyebrows are spectacular.

- Oh, my goodness, the flashback to England giving young America toys in the seventeenth episode is actually really cute. And sad!

- The eighteenth episode: ...did America seriously say 'I choose you, China!'? Is it too early to be considering Pokémon crossovers? (Is it ever too early to be considering Pokémon crossovers?)

- I appear to be 'shipping Germany with Northern Italy. This is not really something I ever expected to think.

- Germany is sort of hot.


(Here, if you are interested in experiencing the bewilderment for yourself, is the first five-minute episode. It is An Experience. (A warning: Hetalia is a very silly series involving anthropomorphised countries. It likes to draw on and absurdly exaggerate national stereotypes. Much of it, although it avoids the particularly unpleasant aspects, is set during World War II. As a result, it has the potential to be really quite offensive, and even if you're not offended you may feel vaguely as if you are doing something wrong by watching it.))

Comments

[futuresoon.livejournal.com]

I agree with all of your points. I think the thing about Hetalia is that it has the potential to be offensive--hello portraying Germany as a sympathetic character--but for the most part, it mysteriously isn't, by dint of simply not mentioning anything horrible. I remember being hesitant that something with Germany would end up squicking me out and I'd have to stop watching, but it just...didn't. That plus the manga's implication that the characters don't necessarily have to agree with what their bosses tell them to do makes the series okay for me.

[rionaleonhart]

Oh, thank goodness I am not alone in my attraction to the personification of Germany.

Watching Hetalia makes one come out with some very odd sentences.

but for the most part, it mysteriously isn't, by dint of simply not mentioning anything horrible.

I think that's the reason I can actually watch it. I was terrified that it would deal with, for example, the Holocaust, which I very much doubt Hetalia would be able to portray sensitively, and I was terribly grateful when it didn't go in that direction.

I remember seeing those manips! It is good to see them after watching the series and realise that all of the Pokémon choices are absolutely perfect. I particularly like the visual effect on Cleffa; it fits in beautifully.

[futuresoon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't think Hetalia's ever going to go into the Holocaust, or the atomic bomb, or anything that impossible to portray--although interestingly enough, there's a bit in the manga portraying a peasant revolt in Russia that ended with Russian soldiers shooting down their own people. And Russia-the-character taking part in this. It is most emphatically not played for laughs, and it's actually pretty heartbreaking, because it's one of the few times Russia isn't portrayed as a creepy psychopath. So Hetalia is quite capable of being serious. (As you probably saw in episode 20 with the Revolutionary War.) It just generally chooses not to depress the fuck out of you. Generally.

[rionaleonhart]

(The Revolutionary War was unexpectedly beautiful and sad. Oh, England.)

ITALY WITH A MAGIKARP WOULD BE AMAZING AND PERFECT.

[futuresoon.livejournal.com]

(Given that America/England is the most popular pairing in the fandom, I suspect that series of strips is one of the most popular bits in the whole series. So imagine what the reaction was like when all those previews for it started popping up--in Engrish...)

[rionaleonhart]

WHY IS THERE NOT MUCH GERMANY/ITALY? They are obvious and adorable! Adorable like that fic. (Thank you for the link!)

[futuresoon.livejournal.com]