[hetalia] middle-of-the-night thinky thoughts

[vikki]

So I'm poking around fandomsecrets and someone has made a secret about how Axis Powers Hetalia! is deeply offensive to them and they are ashamed to be an anime fan because of the popularity of this series, etc. etc.

There's been some pretty good thoughts in many directions from many people: in particular, I point you to tomoyoichiyouji and halcyonjazz for their Hetalia thinky-thoughts

Comments

[kaitou_marina]

I'm actually one of the people that's really bothered by Hetalia, but I'm not really going to start fights with people about it. If they enjoy it, that's their thing. Whatever. My reasons for being bothered by it mostly stem from what I know of Japanese culture. The way I see it, if you're going to lampoon things, you have to really know what you're lampooning first. I said this over on JournalFen and I'll say it again: Japan at large refuses to acknowledge the negative aspects of history. There are seriously middle schoolers there that have NO IDEA that WWII even happened (just there was a war and that's it). As you said, Hetalia isn't meant to be educational (and oh lord it should NOT be, especially because I don't want Japanese people continuing with their happyfunland where all of history is a kawaii cakewalk), and even if it was, it makes me REALLY uncomfortable that certain events have been dragged into Japan's "cult of cute" rather than being discussed seriously in their schools. To me, that's kind of screwed up and backward.

I understand! Really!

[vikki]

Gah it's late for me too so wheee! Also, ironic since we're getting close to the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, a very serious thing.

First of all: the whole 'Pearl Harbor was kicking America in the nuts' thing was all me. No reference to said event has been made in Hetalia. So, um, if you're going to be offended with that particular concept be offended with me, sorry about that. That's why I labeled the cut-tag 'may be offensive' because, you know, it IS. I take Pearl Harbor very seriously as a historic event but I made a semi-Hetalia-style disconnect to write up the script. I'm sorry I upset you, though.

On the whole Hetalia mostly makes fun with foriegn policy and militaristic aspects, but I'm not saying it's all inoffensive. It certainly can be and I don't recommend it for everyone for a reason.

As for Japan and it's revisionist version of history, yeaaaaah, I'm constantly trying to watch for hints of that in Hetalia because I think that's the point at which I will have to stop reading it. However, the webcomic artist is

Re: I understand! Really!

[kaitou_marina]

Oh my god, I totally thought that was being linked to a translation or something. See, this is why I should probably read before shooting my mouth off XDDDDD;;; Don't worry about me being upset with you, that was totally my mistake and I'll take responsibility for it.

Especially since I actually forgot you were the one that posted that. I have a few other people on my flist that post about Hetalia and I couldn't remember which one had. I'M SORRY >.OAnd I didn't mean to say that the author's work is immediately invalid because he's Japanese but... hmm, how to explain this. It's more that... Japanese people are consuming this work and I feel that the people consuming it are only having that revisionist view reinforced with something light and fluffy rather than confronting it like they should. I do agree that the author really isn't to blame for the fact that Japanese society has developed this way

[moonymonster]

...So confused...

[antieden]

I like it. This is obvious I'm sure XD But I'm slightly a historyfag, and I really try to take it as something amusing. It's not educational. It's fun to go, "Oh, I don't really remember a lot about x event.. *goes to Wikipedia*"

The fandom, back in summer when it was pretty small over here, used to be kinda neat and full of historyfags and people who just loved it 'cause it's fun. Now there's waaaaay too much slash and I rarely read the posts in there anymore. Guh. And people forget there's girls in the Hetalia-verse because of this >_>

Buh. I both want and fear the anime :/