The Meaning Behind "Hetalia"

When I tell most people what I'm doing this project on, I mostly get blank stares as a response. I'll admit it, "Axis Powers Hetalia" sounded like a lot of nonsense to me when I first heard it. But...surprise! It is actually pretty meaningful.

Axis Powers, of course, refers to Germany, Italy and Japan. The "bad guys" during WWII. And it makes sense, because they are the 3 main characters.

Now Hetalia. It's actually a combination of 2 Japanese words. "Hetare" meaning useless or stupid and "Italia" which is Japanese for Italy (Kind of like how we combine Brad and Angelina to get Brangelina. Same basic idea). It's basically making fun of Italy's supposed uselessness during the war.

(Black hair = Japan, Brunette = Italy, Blonde = Germany)

It may seem like Italy's being picked on since the series is named after him being stupid. But really, all the countries have been poked fun at in the series. Italy just happens to be one of the easiest targets xD

In another post I'll go into more detail about some of the stereotypes and silliness. In the meantime, please leave your comments about what you think! <3

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read Comments

Are you confused yet?

So, after re-watching episode one of Hetalia from a first time watchers perspective, I was reminded of how confused I was the first time I saw or read anything Hetalia. There are so many characters! AH! I used to get them mixed up all the time. Plus, the first episode is VERY fast paste.


That's why I decided to include a link to the simple character introduction! It's got a picture of all the Hetalia characters and a little blurb about them. It might help a tad.


Edit;; I found this cute picture ^^ It might help as well, even if it's just Europe.


Some of my favorites are Italy (North & South), Germany, America, UK, Prussia and Spain :3

I won't even get into pairings now, though. That's a whole other post.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read Comments

First Post: Let's Get the Awkwardness Out of the Way.

First off, thanks a bunch for actually taking the time to look at this. It really means a lot :D


Second, since I don't even really know where to begin with this whole blogging thing, I guess I'll just jump right into it and get into the gist of this who Hetalia thing.

Basically Axis Powers Hetalia (or Hetalia Axis Powers, same thing) started off as a web comic by Hidekaz Himaruya. It took off pretty quickly in Japan and was soon translated into an offical-ish manga. He currently has 2 volumes of Hetalia out. The print version of his idea was so popular, it was made into an anime short. It was scheduled to air on TV, but thanks to some controversy, it only airs on the internet. But that hasn't stopped it from spreading and growing in popularity.

Now that all that's out of the way, you must be wondering what the hell this whole Hetalia thing IS. Well, the idea is pretty simple. All the characters are countries, personified by all the stereotypes that are well known in their countries. For instance, the America character loves cheese burgers and always wants to be the hero.

It takes place mainly during WWII, because the main characters are the Axis Powers: Italy, Germany and Japan. The other main characters are the Allies: America, UK, China, Russia and France. But it doesn't stop there. There are A LOT more countries who are represented.

As for plot, I'd say there's a loose one but it's very hard to explain. The whole thing is for fun, so basically the countries get into silly situations that are somewhat historically accurate. In my opinion, it's a lot of fun to see events that seem abstract portrayed in a very human way.

So, what do you think of the idea? Leave a comment, don't be shy!

I can leave a link to episode one too if you want, it's only 5 minutes :D


edit;; here it is embedded ^^


  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read Comments