Friday, March 28, 2014

Hetalia: Axis Powers

Over the last year I’d heard a lot about an anime web series called Hetalia. I’d thought about watching it a few times but never really got to it....... up until the day before yesterday....... aaaand now I’ve found a new obsession! I’ve already finished the first season and am about to start the others after I finish writing this.

Now, if you're an otaku (someone who loves anime) then I think you should totally start watching or reading Hetalia, if you haven’t already. If you're not an otaku, I think this particular series will be a great way to start getting sucked into the amazing vortex of exaggerated facial expressions and a lot of subbing and dubbing that is anime.

The series is based on different countries represented by different characters and gives a lot of insight into our history in a fun and entertaining way. One little word of caution- the show can get VERY stereotypical. It doesn’t mean to offend anyone; it just very blatantly incorporates common stereotypes into each characters personality. Like Greece being a total cat lover (and I mean TOTAL) or Italy’s obsession with pasta.

The English dubbing is very good with each country having their own distinct accent, in contrast to most anime that I watch that is either dubbed very badly or just has wrong subtitles. My favourite Hetalia characters as of now are (roughly in order)-

  • Germany (Ludwig Beilschmidt) - I could write a whole paragraph explaining why he’s my number one but I'm trying to make this as short as possible. HE. IS. AWESOME.
  • Italy (Veneziano/Feliciano Vargas) - Because pasta!!!
  • France (Francis Bonnefoy) - I don’t know why he’s on this list. Though his hair’s pretty, well, pretty!
  • Hungary (Elizaveta Hédeváry) – She’s by far my favourite female character on this show, what with psychotic Belarus and... Oh wait, Lichtenstein is also a pretty good girl character... the others usually freak me out.
  • Russia (Ivan Braginski) – Cute and cuddly on the outside, practically pure evil on the inside, what’s not to like?


Hetalia just happens to have one of the most ridiculous theme songs of all time. Each character has his or her own rendition of this song. And I, being the utterly weird person I am, have memorised almost all of them.

When I sleep, the only thing I hear is Feliciano’s voice singing, “marukaite chikyuu” again and again. I need help.

Hetalia is very informative when it comes to most history topics. Seriously speaking, I don’t see why we all don’t just watch Hetalia episodes instead of sitting through history class. But one thing’s for sure, I’m not gonna be able to keep a straight face while learning history because each topic will trigger some sort of idiotic but still funny memory. Thank you Hetalia, you have turned me into a retard that randomly smiles to herself while the teacher explains about the hundreds of deaths during a war. 

I leave you all with a random Hetalia GIF 



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