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After seeing repeated 10 minute videos on Youtube involving a pen, I thought I should give Hetalia a shot. I heard from people that it's a pretty damn good parody of the countries involved during World War II with the Axis Powers being the main characters.
I gave the original Japanese a shot, and it was funny on it's own. However, it's the English dub that made the entire series enjoyable. They captured the stereotypical characteristics of each nations to near perfection. For instance, America is a bit arrogant, England is snobbish, Japan is calm and collected, France is a bit of a pansy, Germany is a very serious dude, Russia is all docile on the outside, yet fierce on the inside. As for Italy, it's PAAASTAAAAAAA!!!!! Nah, in all seriousness, Italy's character is more friendly and more romantic
For a series of 5 minute shorts, Hetalia is in a way addicting to watch, even though I have to watch a lot of yaoi overtones especially when it comes to Italy.
I also can't help but wonder what if the Philippines was a character in the Hetalia series? They did have a part to play in World War II at the time, particularly with Japan. Based on fan-made assumptions for the Philippines, the Hetalia character is a female character named Piri. Odds are her character would be involved in some form of love triangle between Spain and America or possibly with Japan for a brief period of time.
Anyways, I am off to watch more Hetalia. I am still on Episode 12 as I write this blog. :D
 
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WW2 truly was a humiliating episode for France.
France used to be the homeland of Napoleon, the "China" of Europe, the most powerful country of the continent with an aggressive military tradition. Even England was ruled by a Norman Duke who managed to gain the english throne with french troops. Kings mostly spoke in french - we all remember the famous "honni soit qui mal y pense".
Then 1870 happened, then 1940. I wonder how the french military feels about that.
Edit: this refers, of course, to France being a pansy, even though it has one of the most violent histories in the world.
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On July 01 2011 18:57 Kukaracha wrote:
WW2 truly was a humiliating episode for France.
France used to be the homeland of Napoleon, the "China" of Europe, the most powerful country of the continent with an aggressive military tradition. Even England was ruled by a Norman Duke who managed to gain the english throne with french troops. Kings mostly spoke in french - we all remember the famous "honni soit qui mal y pense".
Then 1870 happened, then 1940. I wonder how the french military feels about that.
Edit: this refers, of course, to France being a pansy, even though it has one of the most violent histories in the world.
It's not like France didn't prepare for war in WWII, they just prepared late, and for perfectly understandable reasons. I think it's a little ridiculous to call them pansies. I also don't think it was humiliating for France. I mean they were completely blindsided by the blitzkrieg and lost super quickly, but that is more a show of German ingenuity than French weakness.
I haven't seen Hetalia, so I can't speak to the show, but I would say that the stereotypes of the countries are not contemporary stereotypes, but modern 21st century ones. I mean you, OP, probably know that, but just in case.
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I urge you to give Hetalia a shot. The humor is just hilarious, but expect a ton of yaoi moments. It parodies the countries excellently. They even had Sealand, which not too many countries acknowledge as an actual country. I never even knew Sealand existed. XD
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ahh thought the title said hentai.
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On July 01 2011 23:57 Zurles wrote:
ahh thought the title said hentai.
Join the club. XD
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Well the military leaders still had a 14-18 mentality. It was humiliating in the sense that allied weaponry matched the nazi equipment. Even though the importance of tanks was discovered pretty late, De Gaulle had struggled to get a decent production going, trying to organize a few divisions. But the rest didn't follow nor understand, and tanks and aircraft were made useless by misuse and poor logistics.
It is also humiliating in the sense that the Allies left Poland - who was expecting help and reacted accordingly, only to find out that they had been left alone - and Czekoslovakia, not only showing signs of weakness and dishonor, but also losing the powerful Skoda industry to the Germans.
Let's not forget to mention that during this time, Rhenany wasn't very well defended, but France decided to wait the ennemy. Letting the Wehrmacht concentrate all its efforts to the east.
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On July 02 2011 00:27 Kukaracha wrote:
Well the military leaders still had a 14-18 mentality. It was humiliating in the sense that allied weaponry matched the nazi equipment. Even though the importance of tanks was discovered pretty late, De Gaulle had struggled to get a decent production going, trying to organize a few divisions. But the rest didn't follow nor understand, and tanks and aircraft were made useless by misuse and poor logistics.
It is also humiliating in the sense that the Allies left Poland - who was expecting help and reacted accordingly, only to find out that they had been left alone - and Czekoslovakia, not only showing signs of weakness and dishonor, but also losing the powerful Skoda industry to the Germans.
Let's not forget to mention that during this time, Rhenany wasn't very well defended, but France decided to wait the ennemy. Letting the Wehrmacht concentrate all its efforts to the east.
Yeah, but again, this is understandable. The 14-18 mentality was not just that for France, but England as well. The U.S. populace never really wanted war. The U.S.S.R. which began on the side of Germany in WWII was mostly hoping for the the rest of Europe to duke it out amongst themselves. Except for the Italians and the Germans, no one wanted war, and they were willing to sacrifice Czechoslovakia to maintain peace.
Poland was different, since after the invasion of Poland, France and England both had begun mobilizing but also declared war. They couldn't do anything about it at the time, but they were planning on standing up to Germany.
It's not like I disagree with any of the details in your post; I don't because they are accurate. What I disagree with is the notion that this should be humiliating. Looking back on the past it is easy to say "how could they not see?" But thinking about it from their perspective, it was the most natural thing in the world to be against a building up of forces. The entire mentality of Western Europe was so perverted by the Great War that it is difficult to even put ourselves in their shoes. Even the greatest pacifists of today would be hard pressed to agree with the notion of peace at any cost.
It's not like I am saying I agree with their decisions, I just can empathize with their bigger fears of communism and socialism, and their underestimation of fascism.
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On July 01 2011 18:21 DocNemesis wrote:
After seeing repeated 10 minute videos on Youtube involving a pen, I thought I should give Hetalia a shot. I heard from people that it's a pretty damn good parody of the countries involved during World War II with the Axis Powers being the main characters.
I gave the original Japanese a shot, and it was funny on it's own. However, it's the English dub that made the entire series enjoyable. They captured the stereotypical characteristics of each nations to near perfection. For instance, America is a bit arrogant, England is snobbish, Japan is calm and collected, France is a bit of a pansy, Germany is a very serious dude, Russia is all docile on the outside, yet fierce on the inside. As for Italy, it's PAAASTAAAAAAA!!!!! Nah, in all seriousness, Italy's character is more friendly and more romantic
For a series of 5 minute shorts, Hetalia is in a way addicting to watch, even though I have to watch a lot of yaoi overtones especially when it comes to Italy.
I also can't help but wonder what if the Philippines was a character in the Hetalia series? They did have a part to play in World War II at the time, particularly with Japan. Based on fan-made assumptions for the Philippines, the Hetalia character is a female character named Piri. Odds are her character would be involved in some form of love triangle between Spain and America or possibly with Japan for a brief period of time.
Anyways, I am off to watch more Hetalia. I am still on Episode 12 as I write this blog. :D
This show is not afraid to get Gay and that just makes it so much better, the "awkward" humor of the relationships being personified through the countries is freaking hilarious lmao. Like France trying to force English to sign a union treaty which is interpreted as them marrying, and many other lolwut moments.
and oh my Canada, Canada is freaking hilarious. it's hilarious to see Japan's intepretations and how they view other countries haha
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On July 02 2011 01:06 flowSthead wrote:
Even the greatest pacifists of today would be hard pressed to agree with the notion of peace at any cost.
I would not want us to declare war if Germany conquered an area like Czechoslovakia (extremely unlikely). I am a pacifist from Europe and declaring war for that still seems strange.
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PAAASSSSTAAAAAAAAA! Yea the dub is great. The dub with the English subs is even better. We watched this in anime club the one day. One of the more enjoyable days of anime club. Love it when the show America chowing down on hamburgers. And Japan's giant mechas. And Austria being Austria. Grandpa Rome. Etc
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Hetalia is one of the very very VERY few modern anime series that have good dubs. This is partly due to the fact that they involved nationalities along with their stereotypical accents. A great way for the english language to show its power in comparison to the usual Japanese eng subs that all anime fans are accustomed to.
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EPT
