I'm guessing you just took a gander at the Wikipedia entry and haven't watched or read it yet, since a.) that seems to be the pattern with everyone I've met who has a problem with the comic/manga/show and b.) I did the exact same thing when I ran across it on TV Tropes.
As a complete pedant and historical accuracy nutjob who ruins movies for other people with my complaining, I can honestly say that I love Hetalia. It's all about recognizing stereotypes that people have of other countries (Japan is a passive-aggressive, misanthropic shut-in who mostly just wants to be left alone, and tells other countries what they want to hear so they'll go away; Canada -- bless him -- looks a lot like America and everyone either thinks he's America or doesn't notice he's there), poking fun at them, and occasionally doing something quite poignant with them. (The relationship between England and America is one of these. The War of Independence arc still makes me cry.)
Almost all the countries are portrayed lovingly, despite their flaws (America rarely listens to the other countries, and all his battle plans involve him being the hero and everyone else being backup -- in a memorable scene, he uses the other countries as Pokemon "I choose you, China!" -- but he's sweet and well-intentioned, and he has real affection for England even as he makes fun of him constantly). The historical incidents at least have a root of truth, and if nothing else, encourages people to go look up things for themselves. And really, it's just all in good fun. :)
re: China, though -- the speech pattern thing is pretty standard. Each country has a specific linguistic quirk, mostly to keep them distinctive than for anything else. (I live in Japan and I've never heard anyone say they think Chinese people say 'aru' after everything -- methinks the summarizer was making conjecture there.) Poland speaks with what's essentially a Japanese valley-girl accent; Spain uses Osaka-ben (ahahaha); some of the others sound like gangsters, and Sweden is ... well, I can't explain it, but it's awesome.
Also, the Sino-Japanese war thing, with China's scar, was actually a really serious arc, about how Japan was ungrateful and backstabbing, and even though China loses, Japan does not come off like a hero or someone we should be proud of. It was actually quite interesting to read.
Anyway, this is really tl;dr, I'm sorry. Essentially, the series is all in good fun, poking fun at stereotypes while reveling in them at the same time (like Weird Al does, with nerds or Canadians or whatever else). It's not meant to be taken as serious political commentary, because it isn't -- the author is a Japanese art student at school in New York City, who started a webcomic for fun.
If you read/watch it and still have problems, then hey, but try not to dismiss it before you've even given it a chance, yeah? :) Like I said, I started watching it thinking, "wow this is going to be AWFUL" and ended up loving it. So you never know!
As a complete pedant and historical accuracy nutjob who ruins movies for other people with my complaining, I can honestly say that I love Hetalia. It's all about recognizing stereotypes that people have of other countries (Japan is a passive-aggressive, misanthropic shut-in who mostly just wants to be left alone, and tells other countries what they want to hear so they'll go away; Canada -- bless him -- looks a lot like America and everyone either thinks he's America or doesn't notice he's there), poking fun at them, and occasionally doing something quite poignant with them. (The relationship between England and America is one of these. The War of Independence arc still makes me cry.)
Almost all the countries are portrayed lovingly, despite their flaws (America rarely listens to the other countries, and all his battle plans involve him being the hero and everyone else being backup -- in a memorable scene, he uses the other countries as Pokemon "I choose you, China!" -- but he's sweet and well-intentioned, and he has real affection for England even as he makes fun of him constantly). The historical incidents at least have a root of truth, and if nothing else, encourages people to go look up things for themselves. And really, it's just all in good fun. :)
re: China, though -- the speech pattern thing is pretty standard. Each country has a specific linguistic quirk, mostly to keep them distinctive than for anything else. (I live in Japan and I've never heard anyone say they think Chinese people say 'aru' after everything -- methinks the summarizer was making conjecture there.) Poland speaks with what's essentially a Japanese valley-girl accent; Spain uses Osaka-ben (ahahaha); some of the others sound like gangsters, and Sweden is ... well, I can't explain it, but it's awesome.
Also, the Sino-Japanese war thing, with China's scar, was actually a really serious arc, about how Japan was ungrateful and backstabbing, and even though China loses, Japan does not come off like a hero or someone we should be proud of. It was actually quite interesting to read.
Anyway, this is really tl;dr, I'm sorry. Essentially, the series is all in good fun, poking fun at stereotypes while reveling in them at the same time (like Weird Al does, with nerds or Canadians or whatever else). It's not meant to be taken as serious political commentary, because it isn't -- the author is a Japanese art student at school in New York City, who started a webcomic for fun.
If you read/watch it and still have problems, then hey, but try not to dismiss it before you've even given it a chance, yeah? :) Like I said, I started watching it thinking, "wow this is going to be AWFUL" and ended up loving it. So you never know!
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