Hetalia: The World's Not as Bad as You Think
So~ Basically I had to write an essay for my English class, and we could pick a topic. ANY TOPIC WE WANTED! As long as you can argue a point with it...and I chose Hetalia. which mind you, is much harder than you think it is to argue. I had to use "Academic Sources" at least 5 of them. Meaning cold hard facts, no opinions. So I used The Manga, The Anime, The History Channel, Some News Broad casts from Korea, and more stuff from Korea. [there was a small written blub on Google Scholar I used that.] On top of that I used some outside sources including the main Hetalia community. =] If you'd like to read the finished product click on the cut.
Hetalia: The World’s Not as Bad As You Think
“PASSTAAAAAAAA!” Is the first word out of the nation Italy’s mouth. North Italy, Feliciano Vargas - or Veneciano, is the main character in the anime/manga titled Axis Powers Hetalia. Axis Powers Hetalia, or “Hetalia” for short (Formed from the words Hetare, Japanese for useless, and Italia), is a web comic based on the world mainly, during World War II. I will be discussing whether or not Hetalia is appropriate, and if something like this should even exist. I believe that it is appropriate and it is okay for it to exist.
Hetalia’s main focus is usually World War 2 and the relationships between nations during that time using anthropomorphized nations of the world as human characters. This means that the characters are two things. One they are the representative of their country as a whole, not just one time period. The characters, start off as kids during their early colony/country years, and they grow older/mature the longer their country is around. Two, the characters are based off of stereotypes for that nation. For instance, Canada’s invisibility is based off the fact that most people forget that Canada even exists, and America’s extreme love for hamburgers is based off the fact there are hamburgers and fast food chains everywhere.
Hetalia has the main cast separated into two main groups: the Axis Powers (Germany, Japan and Italy), and the Allied Powers (America, China, England, France, and Russia), with mentions of other countries (Austria, Hungary, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus ect.) During the episodes (which are only five minutes long) and the various comic strips, these characters interact with each other. There are fighting scenes, but not like the average person would think about a fight scene between nations. There are no planes, explosions, or death. Instead, there is the typical cartoon fighting, with dust clouds, lots of flailing, and lumps on top of lumps.
When it was announced that Hetalia was turned into an anime, there was much protesting in South Korea. South Korea protested against the anime due to the character known as “Korea” (There is only one. Reasons why there are not two are not known to me.) The character, Korea, is portrayed as someone who claims everything was “originated in Korea” (even when it is obviously not), loves his older brother, China, and does not get along with Japan that well. “South Korean character touches other character's bosom. This expresses South Korea as a kink and indecent man. Especially, expression that "What's yours is mine, and what's mine”... As you know "Kink is Japan".” (News about Hetalia problem) “Korea” loves to go running around and grabbing Japan’s “breasts” - this does not have any reference to any bit of history but is actually a play on words. In Korean, “oppa” means “Older Brother”, while in Japanese “oppai” means “breasts”. These words sound similar and the author put it in there for that reason. Because of these details, South Korea has protested heavily against the anime and thus the anime was cancelled before it could even air on television, along with completely taking out the character of Korea from the anime. Although the anime was taken off TV, the anime is still web broadcasted.
The main issues I have against people who are against Hetalia, are those who are against it because it makes fun of World War 2. Now, I am not saying it is bad for you to dislike it because it has to do with World War 2, but I better not catch you making Family Guy World War 2 references, Eddie Izzard World War 2 references, or watching the TV show Hogan’s Heroes. Because this is not the first time World War 2 has been made fun of - yet alone, countries by themselves. The other issue I have with people against it is because of historical inaccuracies. It is true that it is inaccurate, but it is the same with any movie/TV series/books, it is going to be inaccurate. It is called Historical Fiction for a reason. Although the series is inaccurate, it does have some accurate pieces of information. In example, in the series Italy and Germany are remembering when they were enemies during the First World War, where Germany is speaking in Italian to find Italy. And when he finds Italy, Italy panics and starts surrendering in German. In real life, the German army and the Italian army were hidden behind trenches and were at a stand-still. So the German army would call “Marco! Is Marco there?!” in Italian, and since “Marco” is a popular name in Italy, a guy would stick his head out, and when he did he would get shot at. After the occurrence happened several times, the Italian army started doing the same.
Back on the main topic, if you are genuinely offended by it because it goes against things you were raised on, believe, etc., that is fine. If you can sit there and watch things that are much more offensive, like Family Guy, which gets into a lot more adult and vulgar than Hetalia, or Hellsing, which has Nazis within the series(While Hetalia does not), then you really have no reason to be against it. Since the most vulgar thing you have to worry about is France running around in nothing but a rose to cover himself and act like he is going to molest somebody, usually he does not get away with it, though if he does, normally the ones who did get attacked by France get revenge on him. (Usually this means England beats him up or Hungary hits him with her frying pan.) In addition, the final issue I have with people against it is when they argue against it and use fan art as a reference to prove their point. It is fan art, meaning it is not from the actual author. So if things are off, generally that means that the artist made it that way. And if you are talking about official art, it is Himaruya who perceives it, if you do not like it, come up with something yourself. He had to do some research in order to come up with the series.
On the other hand, some people speak out about how, if you are going to do a series based on the World Wars you have to make some mention of the bad things that happened. Otherwise you are “Glossing over history”.“Hetalia does not go into things such as the Holocaust or the Rape of Nanking. This is not because Hidekaz Himaruya (Hetalia's creator) is trying to "gloss over" these things. It's because Hetalia is a comedy, and Himaruya agrees with the people that are so offended by his work in the fact that there is nothing funny about those events.” (StringedSonata) This statement helps proves that most people’s claims against Hetalia, because most people who have made this claim have either only watched/read very little of the series or have not even given it a chance. Simply because it has to do with World War 2 does not mean that you can simply bash it because of that.
Also, Hetalia is not the first time the World Wars have been “satirized” . “And the German Empire, always building an empire, eins, zwei, eins, zwei, build that empire, very Prussian. And then they’d celebrate with a world war...and lose the whole fucking empire by the end of the war. In the thirties, Hitler, Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, second World War...Russian front not a good idea...Hitler never played Risk when he was a kid. ‘Cause you know, playing Risk you could never hold on to Asia, that whole Asian-Eastern European area, you could never hold it, could you? Seven extra men at the beginning of every go, but you couldn’t fucking hold it.” (Eddie Izzard, Dress to Kill) It is not the only thing Izzard said about World War 2. He went on and began to make fun of Hitler and other mass murderers. But, nobody gets on him for that, because he is a comedian, and he does it “tastefully”. And with Hogan’s Heroes, which was a comedy show, which aired from September 1965 to July 1971, about people being caught in a concentration camp. Within the concentration camp, Colonel Hogan and his band of allies go and make the head German officers lives miserable. But they do it in a comedic fashion.
So what I’ve gathered from this, is that as long as it is comedic to the point of preschool humor, since obviously people can not handle laughing at something this childish, it is okay with the people. But the thing that gets me is, is that Hetalia is a comedy, but more people are less accepting of it. Why? Is it because the writer is Japanese, and the Japanese are still trying to ignore the Wars? I believe one of the best ways to get over something is to look back at it and have a laugh at the funnier times. I am not saying laugh at the Holocaust or laugh at the Nanking Massacre, because things are not funny, and never will be. But people must come to terms with other things that are good natured, such as The Christmas Truce. “During World War I, on and around Christmas Day 1914, the sounds of rifles firing and shells exploding faded in a number of places along the Western Front in favor of holiday celebrations in the trenches and gestures of goodwill between enemies... At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man's-land, calling out "Merry Christmas" in their enemies' native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. There was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a good-natured game of soccer.” (History.com) Things like this can not be bad, right? In Hetalia they did a part of this, granted it was inaccurate on who was there and which war it was, but not everything that is bad is all bad. You have to look at both the bad and the good to really appreciate something like this.
The series is a comedy, it is meant for people not to take it seriously. It is meant for people to laugh at. But people I think people are overreacting to the series. The series is not telling you that this is how it happened in history. It is not telling you that Korea is a bad nation, it is not saying any of the nations are bad. But, it is also not saying that these nations are perfect either. Nothing is ever perfect and it never will be.
Please take into consideration, writing is NOT my strong point. And I'm rather bad at putting words together for things like this. ; ^; I'm going to college to learn how to make cartoons and story tell better, not write for a living. I'm sure word's messed up a few things, and I'm too lazy to fix the html codes that help get my point across.
And I'm sure I probably won't get higher than a B/B- on this. If that. D; I totally started bull-shitting this. ; ^;
Hetalia: The World’s Not as Bad As You Think
“PASSTAAAAAAAA!” Is the first word out of the nation Italy’s mouth. North Italy, Feliciano Vargas - or Veneciano, is the main character in the anime/manga titled Axis Powers Hetalia. Axis Powers Hetalia, or “Hetalia” for short (Formed from the words Hetare, Japanese for useless, and Italia), is a web comic based on the world mainly, during World War II. I will be discussing whether or not Hetalia is appropriate, and if something like this should even exist. I believe that it is appropriate and it is okay for it to exist.
Hetalia’s main focus is usually World War 2 and the relationships between nations during that time using anthropomorphized nations of the world as human characters. This means that the characters are two things. One they are the representative of their country as a whole, not just one time period. The characters, start off as kids during their early colony/country years, and they grow older/mature the longer their country is around. Two, the characters are based off of stereotypes for that nation. For instance, Canada’s invisibility is based off the fact that most people forget that Canada even exists, and America’s extreme love for hamburgers is based off the fact there are hamburgers and fast food chains everywhere.
Hetalia has the main cast separated into two main groups: the Axis Powers (Germany, Japan and Italy), and the Allied Powers (America, China, England, France, and Russia), with mentions of other countries (Austria, Hungary, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus ect.) During the episodes (which are only five minutes long) and the various comic strips, these characters interact with each other. There are fighting scenes, but not like the average person would think about a fight scene between nations. There are no planes, explosions, or death. Instead, there is the typical cartoon fighting, with dust clouds, lots of flailing, and lumps on top of lumps.
When it was announced that Hetalia was turned into an anime, there was much protesting in South Korea. South Korea protested against the anime due to the character known as “Korea” (There is only one. Reasons why there are not two are not known to me.) The character, Korea, is portrayed as someone who claims everything was “originated in Korea” (even when it is obviously not), loves his older brother, China, and does not get along with Japan that well. “South Korean character touches other character's bosom. This expresses South Korea as a kink and indecent man. Especially, expression that "What's yours is mine, and what's mine”... As you know "Kink is Japan".” (News about Hetalia problem) “Korea” loves to go running around and grabbing Japan’s “breasts” - this does not have any reference to any bit of history but is actually a play on words. In Korean, “oppa” means “Older Brother”, while in Japanese “oppai” means “breasts”. These words sound similar and the author put it in there for that reason. Because of these details, South Korea has protested heavily against the anime and thus the anime was cancelled before it could even air on television, along with completely taking out the character of Korea from the anime. Although the anime was taken off TV, the anime is still web broadcasted.
The main issues I have against people who are against Hetalia, are those who are against it because it makes fun of World War 2. Now, I am not saying it is bad for you to dislike it because it has to do with World War 2, but I better not catch you making Family Guy World War 2 references, Eddie Izzard World War 2 references, or watching the TV show Hogan’s Heroes. Because this is not the first time World War 2 has been made fun of - yet alone, countries by themselves. The other issue I have with people against it is because of historical inaccuracies. It is true that it is inaccurate, but it is the same with any movie/TV series/books, it is going to be inaccurate. It is called Historical Fiction for a reason. Although the series is inaccurate, it does have some accurate pieces of information. In example, in the series Italy and Germany are remembering when they were enemies during the First World War, where Germany is speaking in Italian to find Italy. And when he finds Italy, Italy panics and starts surrendering in German. In real life, the German army and the Italian army were hidden behind trenches and were at a stand-still. So the German army would call “Marco! Is Marco there?!” in Italian, and since “Marco” is a popular name in Italy, a guy would stick his head out, and when he did he would get shot at. After the occurrence happened several times, the Italian army started doing the same.
Back on the main topic, if you are genuinely offended by it because it goes against things you were raised on, believe, etc., that is fine. If you can sit there and watch things that are much more offensive, like Family Guy, which gets into a lot more adult and vulgar than Hetalia, or Hellsing, which has Nazis within the series(While Hetalia does not), then you really have no reason to be against it. Since the most vulgar thing you have to worry about is France running around in nothing but a rose to cover himself and act like he is going to molest somebody, usually he does not get away with it, though if he does, normally the ones who did get attacked by France get revenge on him. (Usually this means England beats him up or Hungary hits him with her frying pan.) In addition, the final issue I have with people against it is when they argue against it and use fan art as a reference to prove their point. It is fan art, meaning it is not from the actual author. So if things are off, generally that means that the artist made it that way. And if you are talking about official art, it is Himaruya who perceives it, if you do not like it, come up with something yourself. He had to do some research in order to come up with the series.
On the other hand, some people speak out about how, if you are going to do a series based on the World Wars you have to make some mention of the bad things that happened. Otherwise you are “Glossing over history”.“Hetalia does not go into things such as the Holocaust or the Rape of Nanking. This is not because Hidekaz Himaruya (Hetalia's creator) is trying to "gloss over" these things. It's because Hetalia is a comedy, and Himaruya agrees with the people that are so offended by his work in the fact that there is nothing funny about those events.” (StringedSonata) This statement helps proves that most people’s claims against Hetalia, because most people who have made this claim have either only watched/read very little of the series or have not even given it a chance. Simply because it has to do with World War 2 does not mean that you can simply bash it because of that.
Also, Hetalia is not the first time the World Wars have been “satirized” . “And the German Empire, always building an empire, eins, zwei, eins, zwei, build that empire, very Prussian. And then they’d celebrate with a world war...and lose the whole fucking empire by the end of the war. In the thirties, Hitler, Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, second World War...Russian front not a good idea...Hitler never played Risk when he was a kid. ‘Cause you know, playing Risk you could never hold on to Asia, that whole Asian-Eastern European area, you could never hold it, could you? Seven extra men at the beginning of every go, but you couldn’t fucking hold it.” (Eddie Izzard, Dress to Kill) It is not the only thing Izzard said about World War 2. He went on and began to make fun of Hitler and other mass murderers. But, nobody gets on him for that, because he is a comedian, and he does it “tastefully”. And with Hogan’s Heroes, which was a comedy show, which aired from September 1965 to July 1971, about people being caught in a concentration camp. Within the concentration camp, Colonel Hogan and his band of allies go and make the head German officers lives miserable. But they do it in a comedic fashion.
So what I’ve gathered from this, is that as long as it is comedic to the point of preschool humor, since obviously people can not handle laughing at something this childish, it is okay with the people. But the thing that gets me is, is that Hetalia is a comedy, but more people are less accepting of it. Why? Is it because the writer is Japanese, and the Japanese are still trying to ignore the Wars? I believe one of the best ways to get over something is to look back at it and have a laugh at the funnier times. I am not saying laugh at the Holocaust or laugh at the Nanking Massacre, because things are not funny, and never will be. But people must come to terms with other things that are good natured, such as The Christmas Truce. “During World War I, on and around Christmas Day 1914, the sounds of rifles firing and shells exploding faded in a number of places along the Western Front in favor of holiday celebrations in the trenches and gestures of goodwill between enemies... At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man's-land, calling out "Merry Christmas" in their enemies' native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. There was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a good-natured game of soccer.” (History.com) Things like this can not be bad, right? In Hetalia they did a part of this, granted it was inaccurate on who was there and which war it was, but not everything that is bad is all bad. You have to look at both the bad and the good to really appreciate something like this.
The series is a comedy, it is meant for people not to take it seriously. It is meant for people to laugh at. But people I think people are overreacting to the series. The series is not telling you that this is how it happened in history. It is not telling you that Korea is a bad nation, it is not saying any of the nations are bad. But, it is also not saying that these nations are perfect either. Nothing is ever perfect and it never will be.
Please take into consideration, writing is NOT my strong point. And I'm rather bad at putting words together for things like this. ; ^; I'm going to college to learn how to make cartoons and story tell better, not write for a living. I'm sure word's messed up a few things, and I'm too lazy to fix the html codes that help get my point across.
And I'm sure I probably won't get higher than a B/B- on this. If that. D; I totally started bull-shitting this. ; ^;