Axis Powers Hetalia

[Horn Drill]

I'm surprised that there is not a thread about this here. Hetalia has become extremely popular recently. I would have to admit that I am completely hooked, and while I don't really care about most other animes at all, I am completely obsessed with Hetalia. I sometimes feel like a fangirl for what could actually be considered a bishie anime. ;

Anyway, the anime is based on a web manga by Hidekaz Himaruya. I have never really read the manga, but it's available in English somewhere on the Internet. The anime itself is composed of 54 episodes (and counting) which are five minutes long each. A new episode usually comes out every week. It's not hard to find these online with English subs either.

The theme of the series is that each nation of the world has been personified, and historical events and relationships between the nations are played out with these characters. The major timeline of the series is set in World War II, with Italy, Germany, and Japan as the Axis nations and America, England, France, Russia, and China as the Allied nations. Currently, season three has changed its title to "World Series Hetalia" and will supposedly focus on more of the other nations rather than just the Axis and Allied ones.

So, has anyone seen or heard of this series before? It's actually rather odd because it appeals to both history buffs and anime fangirls alike. The episodes are pretty funny and offer mostly tongue-in-cheek humor about history and the world nations. Funimation is supposed to release seasons 1 and 2 (episodes 1- 52) on DVD later this year. Personally, I can't wait to watch Hetalia in high-definition rather than the terrible quality videos that are available to non-Japanese fans online. Any episodes watched outside of Japan are basically ripped from cellphone-downloads. :/ The series was broadcast on Japan's childrens' network, but now it is only shown online due to the government of South Korea deeming the Korea character offensive and complaining about it! Controversy!

Funimation Hetalia page:

http://www.funimation.com/hetalia/

The official Hetalia website (for those of you who can read Japanese):

http://hetalia.com/index.htm

Himaruya's blog:

http://himaruya.blog61.fc2.com/

Hetalia would probably have to be my favorite anime at the moment, but the bad thing about it is that it actually tries to make light of WWII, which I would consider the gravest event in human history. I doubt any WWII veterans would be watching it, though, so it dodges the bullet there. Still, it is an extremely entertaining series, and I highly recommend it to anyone. It's very easy to get into since the episodes are so bite-sized.

 

[Emiko]

No one else has posted here yet? Huh. Well, I guess I'll change that~

I'm a big fan of the series, I got hooked on the comics [which you can read translated in English here, for those of us who can't read Japanese] and then when the anime came out I fell in love with that, too.

And, being the dork I am, I've actually named a few pokemon on my game after APH characters. xD I just couldn't resist~

 

[jamesroy23]

I have been a fan of Hetalia for a long while now, and I will say this. I'd rather have people I know nothing about, but sound really well as the character than having some big time voice actor like VIC MIGNOGNA or any others voice it just because they're popular than the fandom will have major issues and will crumble.I say, pick a decent cast and do not focus on getting big name people. That way, the Hetalia fans will be happy.

 

[pokedextrous]

And, being the dork I am, I've actually named a few pokemon on my game after APH characters. xD I just couldn't resist~

Lol! In my older games I named my Totodile Alfred, Exeggutor Gilbert, Kangaskhan Arthur, and Rhyhorn Ludwig. High five fellow dork!

Anywho. I love Hetalia. It's such fun, and the fandom is interesting what with its mixture of history chats and fangirl squee (like you mentioned). I'm excited for the dub.

Who are everyone's favorite characters? I love the Austria, Hungary, Prussia triad. And America and England. And the Nordics, but they don't seem like they've shown up much...

 

[Horn Drill]

lol I have also been naming some of my Pokemon on HG after nations because of Hetalia. >.> I thought I was the only one.

As for favorite characters, that's tough to decide on... I like all the eight Axis and Allied nations. America used to be my favorite, but TBH I'm getting kind of tired of him and his character CD was my least favorite. :/ I used to not like Japan or Russia, but I like them a lot more now. Since Japan is (unsurprisingly) the favorite character among Japanese fans, he's been getting a lot of screentime. I really want to know what happened to China! I think China is a pretty hilarious representation, but he hasn't appeared in ages! He basically had one episode about him that he shared with Japan anyway!

I cosplayed as Italy for our last New Year's Eve party which was supposed to be Hetalia-themed. >.>; lol I would also like to try America since I think he would be pretty easy for me to do.

I don't really care about Funimation's dub since I will probably only watch it once (or not) and then just stick with watching it with subtitles. It would be different if I had never watched it in Japanese, but I can't really see most fans getting terribly excited about their dub when the DVD release will include the original voice track anyway.

Has anyone seen the latest episode yet? Turkey finally appears in the anime!

 

[Ambri]

Ah, I love Hetalia <3 the fact the episodes are really short but funny is great. Not to mention it teaches you some history XD

I like all the characters to be honest, but if I was choosing favourites it would be America, Russia, France and China :3 I'm hoping China will show up again soon cause he's disappeared lately. But yay for Turkey finally showing up!

I'm not fussed about the dub since I prefer japanese with subs anyway. Still, I might check it out if I can be bothered~

 

[Xashlei]

I think I got into Hetalia sometime back, with a month or two's hiatus and then getting back into it thanks to a script roleplay on deviantART. When I first started I was already a history fan, but Hetalia added on to that by upgrading me into a history nut. On my free days, I research countries, huzzah! Though in all honesty Hetalia's best for culture depictions, in my opinion.

Since someone's going to ask eventually, my favorite character is Spain at the moment. His stupidity is strangely adorable, and his Maru Kaite sounds so fun~ I wish he was tanned in the animé, along with Turkey and Egypt. :T

Then there's the OC making. Once I start having curiosity for a certain nation, I start studying up on them like mad. Then the designing, which results in a lot of pencils and erasers shortened. So far I've made a Philippines (which I've discontinued), a Portugal (whose design I borrowed, but personality I created myself--I RP him as well), and at present Normandy is being conceptualized. The difficult thing is finding a personality for him because I can't seem to find any stereotypes.

Any thoughts on the movie coming out a day after my birthday June 5th? The trailer definitely doesn't tell much, but some fans said it's confirmed Iceland's showing up, maybe for adaptations to Sealand's comics. Myself? I'm rather disappointed it looks dramatic, but since we have no proof the plot will be serious, I'll keep my hopes up for more comedy.

Horn Drill you can add Himaruya's blog to your links. He updates with doodles fairly often nowadays.
http://himaruya.blog61.fc2.com/

 

[Horn Drill]

I think I got into Hetalia sometime back, with a month or two's hiatus and then getting back into it thanks to a script roleplay on deviantART. When I first started I was already a history fan, but Hetalia added on to that by upgrading me into a history nut. On my free days, I research countries, huzzah! Though in all honesty Hetalia's best for culture depictions, in my opinion.

Since someone's going to ask eventually, my favorite character is Spain at the moment. His stupidity is strangely adorable, and his Maru Kaite sounds so fun~ I wish he was tanned in the animé, along with Turkey and Egypt. :T

Then there's the OC making. Once I start having curiosity for a certain nation, I start studying up on them like mad. Then the designing, which results in a lot of pencils and erasers shortened. So far I've made a Philippines (which I've discontinued), a Portugal (whose design I borrowed, but personality I created myself--I RP him as well), and at present Normandy is being conceptualized. The difficult thing is finding a personality for him because I can't seem to find any stereotypes.

Any thoughts on the movie coming out a day after my birthday June 5th? The trailer definitely doesn't tell much, but some fans said it's confirmed Iceland's showing up, maybe for adaptations to Sealand's comics. Myself? I'm rather disappointed it looks dramatic, but since we have no proof the plot will be serious, I'll keep my hopes up for more comedy.

Horn Drill you can add Himaruya's blog to your links. He updates with doodles fairly often nowadays.
http://himaruya.blog61.fc2.com/

Ah, it's nice to watch the trailer in high-quality. Why is Prussia singing? lol I'll add that blog to the links in the first post.

The movie comes out on the day of the Atlanta Pokemon tournament, which I might go to. I'd rather go to Japan to see the Hetalia movie, though. >.> I seriously almost did! Some of my friends are going with our college, and I tried to go with them, but I'm too poor. We were all going to stay an extra week to watch the Hetalia movie! T_T Oh well. I'll see it eventually somehow.

Has anyone listened to the character CDs? I downloaded them all a couple of weeks ago. They're all pretty good. I didn't like a few of them to start with, but they all kinda grew on me. They're probably hit-or-miss with most people.

 

[Koratah]

Is it bad that I get good grades in history because of this..?

We were learning about the Roman Empire, and throughout the chapter I had this little story with Rome going through my head, and that's why I got a 97 on the test.. :>

..*fail*

 

[Hakuryuu]

This show helped me pass my AP Euro exam. I swear it did.

I'm a huge fan of the series. England is my absolutely love. He's my favorite character. Next would be America. I also like Austria too. AND PRUSSIA.

I've seen all the episodes up until the most recent World Series one. (Which I'm dying to see episode 4) I've got the character songs downloaded too.

I feel so nerdy.

 

[Pika Hikari KT]

I've recently gotten into this anime...I'm just waiting for the LJ community to complain about the dub cast when it's announced, just like with Ouran.-_-

 

[Horn Drill]

Hetalia World Series episode 4 is mostly about Lithuania and Poland, for what it's worth. Italy and France are also in the beginning of the episode.

I tried to sign up for a WWII class this past semester, but it filled up after one day! I was so ticked. I was going to show up for the first day of class in my Italy getup. lol Most of the characters seem like they'd be pretty simple to cosplay as. They wear mostly normalish clothes.

 

[Ambri]

Much thanks for the HQ trailer ^_^ I'd really like to see the movie when it comes out, but unfortunately I'll have to wait for subbers or something (No money, no Japan T_T).

I thought the character CDs were nice~ I have an obsession with England's Pub and Go song, partly because I live in England I guess XD but it's a catchy song.

I have to admit, Hetalia has helped me with my World War I/II essays somewhat XD

 

[Phantom Kat]

I started my Hetalia craze back in early March? It all started when I saw a picture of Turkey x Greece, and I was like, "Wow, that guy (Turkey) looks awesome!" And then I got my friends into it. After that, I was surprised I didn't notice Hetalia before. It's everywhere!

Too bad I had US History last semester, but I still have all the notes (all sixty pages). However, we were going over History in English due to our state exams this week, and I got a picture of America making paper airplanes and trying to send them to the moon while Russia was all cool with his Sputnik. :9

Favorite characters have to be Russia, China, Japan, and America. Favorite character song is a toss up between Pub and GO! and Winter.

My friends and I are waiting for Mexico to pop up. If not, we'll make our own. My concept is a woman dressed in a coloful dress. And a mustache. xD

- Kat

 

[Xashlei]

When it comes to voice, I think France's VA, Masaya Onosaka, sings best. There's something so funny sounding yet charming about his voice. I hear him a lot as Leeron from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Isaac from Baccano!, then Zelos as Tales from Symphonia as well. I may be getting an attachment to him, pfft. Both of his songs I listen to a lot.
As for the instrumentals, Russia's song "Winter" is awesome and intimidating. /D;;
I've got all character songs downloaded except China's, which is pretty bad since he was my first favorite character. :c

Does anyone have an idea on when Spain's MKC is coming out fully? I reallyreallyreallyreally want it. /sob

 

[Zanney]

Somebody say Hetalia??

*points at signature*

I'm sure you guys know who my favorite characters are. XD They're also my OTP. And I cosplay as both of them.

Hooray for Hetalia!

I'm also in a voice acting project in which I am the voice of America. Anyone here ever heard of the iAmMatthewian Project?

 

[Twixted Mind]

It's nice to find other Hetalia fans around here!

Ha ha, I guess my favorites are (in no particular order) Canada, Ukraine, Japan, Prussia (and Gilbird if he/she/it counts) England, Italy, Germany, America... Acutally, I think I like them ALL! XD (But CanadaxUkraine is my OTP.)

@ Zanney - Yeah, I've heard about the iAmMatthewian thing; I've seen some fanart for it on Deviantart.

And about the dub... well, I remember hearing somewhere that they're actually going to try to research accents for it, which should be interesting... partly because somebody else figured this out -> Good Accents = Good Dub; Bad Accents = Hilarious Dub. I think I'll follow this logic for a while, see how it turns out. Personally, I'm neutral on the whole "Dub vs. Sub" issue in general. *shrug*

 

[Horn Drill]

Well, that's interesting because I believe England is supposed to speak Japanese with a British accent in the original. England has one of the best character CDs in my opinion. I've heard that Japan and England are the favorite characters among Japanese fans. I like England a lot, but I used to not like Japan very much. He's gotten some good episodes (perhaps too many), though. He's grown on me. I also think France has a very good voice actor. He cracks me up sometimes. America also has a pretty funny voice actor. America used to be arguably the best character in the anime IMO, but then he got kind of annoying because they just threw him in every episode doing stupid stuff. He's getting better, though.

China's character CD is really good! The first song, "Hello China," is very catchy. The funny thing about China is that he sometimes says Chinese phrases in the anime with a rather stupid/Japanese accent (and Chinese people actually do say "aiya" all the time). China was probably my first favorite character along with America and Germany, but he hasn't appeared in forever! I spend every week hoping that he'll be in the next episode.

This week's episode was pretty funny if you haven't seen it already. It's mostly about Lithuania and Poland again, but Russia, Estonia, and Latvia also appear. England and France are also in a short sequence at the beginning of the episode.

Oh, this morning, I was watching a documentary on the Military Channel about the P-39 Airacobra, a fighter plane of WWII used by America and the Soviet Union, and they said that after Mussolini was assassinated, the United States gave several of these planes to the Italian military in order to fight the Germans! I was just like, "I thought Italy and Germany were supposed to be BFFs!" XD

 

[meanslojia]

I am a huge fan of Axis Powers Hetalia!! The problem is, I hate reading manga online, so i don't want to have to read the scanlations. Do you know where I can possibly buy the manga (printed) and in english?? Thank you very much! And if you recommend/give me a link, please make sure that I can find it on that site.

 

[Tiffany]

I am a huge fan of Axis Powers Hetalia!! The problem is, I hate reading manga online, so i don't want to have to read the scanlations. Do you know where I can possibly buy the manga (printed) and in english?? Thank you very much! And if you recommend/give me a link, please make sure that I can find it on that site.

Tokyopop has just announced last Friday that they will be publishing the Hetalia manga on September 10th (iirc that is the correct date)... so you'd have to wait. The downfall with the manga is that not all the strips that Himaruya does are in it, there's a select few. I'd suggest you just read the strips online. They're short anyways.

and I aklsjd;alksjd;lkasdj'd at Estonia appearing TWICE. IN. A. ROW. akjsdakldsj. that sexy nerd baltic hnghh.

AND CHIBI!HUNGARY! so badass. 8')