How do you justify Japan?
I've been wanting to make this wank for a while now but haven't really had the time, but here I am now. :)
I'll just come out and make the proposal that Japan is a Mary Sue character. Or at least, really, really pushing the envelope. For a while I really liked him, I thought he was adorable (actually his picture was the reason I got into Hetalia to begin with...), but after a year I've noticed some stuff. For instance, the fact that he is disliked by absolutely nobody. I want you to do what I did; sit and think for a good minute; who doesn't like Japan?
I understand completely the fact that Himaruya doesn't make every two countries with bad real-life relations or that have had a war hate each other, but in real life, Japan is certainly not a country loved by every other one on earth. SOMEBODY should dislike him. He is not a minor character, he does not have the excuse of having too little screen time or too incomplete a character file for me to really know.
On top of that, he has quite a number of countries doting on him. Let's count; Turkey and Greece both fight over his opinion of them, Taiwan openly favors him over China, Netherlands was very hostile about people interacting with him, he and Prussia are apparently good friends, South Korea who allegedly hates him does not act like it at all, and China after having been stabbed in the back adores him, too. I'm probably missing a few, but blah. It is what it is.
I don't like to bash Hetalia's characters but I just can't help but notice that Japan is handled very differently than all the other nations. In a series where you have several characters who you have to scratch your head a bit to come up with a single person who actually likes them, it's hard not to be bothered by Japan. At least for me. What do you guys think? Are we looking at bias?
I'll just come out and make the proposal that Japan is a Mary Sue character. Or at least, really, really pushing the envelope. For a while I really liked him, I thought he was adorable (actually his picture was the reason I got into Hetalia to begin with...), but after a year I've noticed some stuff. For instance, the fact that he is disliked by absolutely nobody. I want you to do what I did; sit and think for a good minute; who doesn't like Japan?
I understand completely the fact that Himaruya doesn't make every two countries with bad real-life relations or that have had a war hate each other, but in real life, Japan is certainly not a country loved by every other one on earth. SOMEBODY should dislike him. He is not a minor character, he does not have the excuse of having too little screen time or too incomplete a character file for me to really know.
On top of that, he has quite a number of countries doting on him. Let's count; Turkey and Greece both fight over his opinion of them, Taiwan openly favors him over China, Netherlands was very hostile about people interacting with him, he and Prussia are apparently good friends, South Korea who allegedly hates him does not act like it at all, and China after having been stabbed in the back adores him, too. I'm probably missing a few, but blah. It is what it is.
I don't like to bash Hetalia's characters but I just can't help but notice that Japan is handled very differently than all the other nations. In a series where you have several characters who you have to scratch your head a bit to come up with a single person who actually likes them, it's hard not to be bothered by Japan. At least for me. What do you guys think? Are we looking at bias?