Rarely do I feature doujins because of their apparent inaccessibility. However, a WebComi doujin shouldn’t be so bad. For my first WebComi doujin feature, I present… Hetaria!.
My friend Anne, gave a link in her journal on what she said to be was CountryxCountry slash. At first I thought how that’d be funny, so I gave it a check only to realize that it was more than just your usual CountryXCountry slash, but rather a WW Axis Power Country slash, even with appearances of Allied powers. Hidekaz Himaruya… YOU ARE A GENIUS!!! m(_ _)m
Himaruya-san created a Web Comic called “Hetaria”. Hetaria features an anthropomorphication of the different Axis countries as they fight in the first World War (and later the second World War). Or that’s what it’s trying to present, but the insanity revolves in the little exchanges that happen between the countries during the war. The story generally revolves around Italy who was, as illustrated, a good for nothing country. Hence the pun on Italia by giving the name “Hetaria ((Hetare means useless.)) ”
(( you can read the translation of the comic below)) …. I know. Having been a History major, I know first hand that poking fun at historical events has its own dangers. Change of perspective. Change of details. And the danger of transmitting wrong information to the next generation (Hello, Showa Kids!) But when it says it’s just comedy, it should be taken lightly. It’s not like it’s propaganda or something.
Hetaria is closer to a parody of nations than it is a historical outtake on WWI and II and some bits before and after that. Having studied these guys, it’s funny how well Himaruya captures the country’s attitudes during the World Wars. Example, Italy is helpless without Germany’s help. He is often whiny, clumsy, and often apologetic of his actions. Germany is deeply annoyed at Italy’s whimsical attitude but since they’re allies, he has no other choice but to help. Japan is very straightfaced and often curt and direct. He even goes to the extent of saying “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand you.” as a line to capture Japan’s then inability to freely communicate their thoughts.
The representations are hilarious, and maybe even BL friendly, if you take the crack further. The stories somewhat follow history (esp. how Germany saves Italy’s ass all the time). And for me, as long as the historical connections go well with the crack, it works fine by me.
The art for Hetaria is cute and wispy. The mangas can be a little rough and sketchy and well… I find some of the kanjis hard to read, but it’s a funny read nonetheless. If you love to take a crack at history, Hetaria’s one funny comic you should start reading.
Hetaria. I love you. You have set my heart ablaze with your insane Axis power crack and insanity. *bows*
If you’d like to read more Hetaria, you can just click on the image below. :3 (( DISCLAIMER: I would like to pose no claim to the art featured in this website. This is Hidekaz Himaruya’s work and I don’t own it.))
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Translation for the comic above.
[ Why is this guy so useless? ]
Italia: I ate a really stinky pizza in this place. It was made by some Englishman ((Thank you Mieko for the translation!))
—
[It was the Imperial blood that drew us in but, it wasn’t originally this bad, right?]
Italia: Hey check that out, Germany. What’s going on there.
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Board: Why the world don’t need Italy
Professor: Tomatoes have been a key ingredient in their motivation for global conquest.
Professor: The continuous consumption have rendered them useless as a consequence.
—
Italia: Oh, the old guy’s saying some stupid things.
[ I see…]
Really, some harsh comments.
I live in the U.S. of A. I don’t have a problem at all of how America is stereotyped, cause most of it’s true. Almost scary true. O.o I don’t think all of us American’s are as caring, and opened to strange ideas like Alfred, but for the most part we are. (And most of us run on fast food, too. XP)
I can see that you dislike how your country was sterotyped, but I find Korea’s comics funny. Plus Korea is really cute in the comics!
But you are opened to your own opinions as am I. But I might have to disagree on the “beating Hidekaz Himaruya until death” That’s just sick.
Ehm….. have you seen the character of my country..?
Well…. It’s Italy, guys!
What we should say about that?
Ok… we are what we are, but like that idiot?
… I JUST LOVE HIM XD
C’mon, we should laugh a little more!
Why people must get angry so easily? It’s a joke!!!!
Good work Hetaria!
I don’t think it’s necessary to get worked up over this. If he was seriously drawing WW2 and he did this, I admit I’d be a little upset. But it’s not. It uses WW2 as a backdrop and most of the focus is on how the countries interacted. It does treat them in stereotypical ways, but all the characters are stereotyped to the extreme. I think if the stereotypes bring people to hate a certain country, then yeah make a huge fuss over it. But from what I’ve seen most people love Korea and America as the characters in the manga. And most people seem to find it funny about how their country is portrayed. My country, the UK, is made out to be schizophrenic in how he speaks to unicorns and fairies,he’s a terrible drunk and he crossdresses in a brittania outfit. But he’s also an awesome tsundere type!! And I love how our relationship with america is portrayed so cutely. I didn’t really like how closely linked we were until reading hetalia.
I didn’t mean for this to turn into a rant.
Anyway my point is to take it with a pinch of salt. Yes, it’s making stereotypes, but that doesn’t mean we have to take that stereotype seriously. Are all blonde stupid? No.
Well, it’s not that smart of you to say like ‘comedies should be treated lightly’, cuz comedies are often satire and sarcasm of some serious issues. People even easily get manipulated by the message meld in comedies thus it could be much more dangerous. Beside, ‘Hetaria’ seems to get not even close to historical evidence, mocking other countries with illogic statements. From what I’ve known, Korea has never insisted that Chinese characters were invented in Korea. To me ‘hetaria’ is nothing more than a loser’s whine.
Russia and his sunflowers are made of win. And I agree with Korbinnian; Hetalia’s just a parody of world history. Unfortunately, I heard that they might have to edit out Korea’s appearance in the anime due to “issues” with, IMO, one of the funniest characters.
I’m still kinda miffed that the Philippines isn’t here… Sure, we didn’t have too much of a big part (I can only think of all the times we’ve been taken over), but still, it’d be funny to see how he’d parodize us. Maybe we’d be the stereotypical “bakla” (gay) guy, or the domesticated housewife. Probability’s more likely to lean on the former, though. And it’s all cuz of Spain.
<3? (<_<) <3. (-_-)
This isn’t intended as a show/comic for people with such serious demanours. It’s merely for laughs and poking fun at the heavily-stereotyped nation-tans. (I mean, America thinks he’s a ‘hero’ and tried to use a burger as a cold-compress, for god’s sake! And Russia literally runs on vodka…)
I do wish there was an Australia-tan… We feel left out down here, Himaruya-sensei! Though, I guess he’d get mixed up with Austria for the similar-sounding names… Still, we participated in WWI and WWII… And I think we’d join Finland and England’s disdainable food group with our Vegemite…
Your translation of the Japanese in the comic is a little off.
Lee, I hope you are a troll. If you are serious then you are quite a fool.
Are you guys serious? They are supporting Axis Powers, who were world of enemy..
This animation severely criticizes the United States,Korea and Canada This makes stereotype of the country.. This animation should not appear on TV..
Hidekaz Himaruya if you come to Korea, you will be beaten until death
No, I actually find it all cute. Its really just a good-natured comedy. Its not meant to make anyone puke or anything, and the way they treat the countries is actually funny. You’re not meant to take it so seriously, really.
I’m Chinese and I’m not bothered by it at all. The entire point of Hetalia is basing the characters off of and mocking the stereotypes. China isn’t as cheerful as Hetalia makes us to be, but yeah, we DO say “aiyaa” a lot, and we DO bicker with Korea over who invented what, and Shinatty-chan? No matter who invented bootlegging, it’s so the Chinese who perfected it.
Really? Does anybody get bothered by the author’s moe! treatment of the Axis nations and militarism? Or apparent ignorance in history(esp. WWII) or creating stereotypes? I wanted to puke when I saw how the author treated Canada or Korea.
Ahh, APH. How I love thee. And kristel, I don’t particularly see America as an uke XD But then again, I pair him up with England who is the UK-e.
I hope that this review has spread such a great idea to other people~
♥The anime adaption is most likely to come out next year~
Hehehen. Anon has hit me. :3 I wonder if this was my old teacher… lol. He’d probably kill me. XD But I don’t think he reads japanese though. ;A;
Well, Hetaria’s comics started in WWI and Himaruya-san just extended all the way back during the 1400s forward to the 1950s. I just followed how the story began in sequence. :3
I can be more detailed about it on how, in WWI, but as I said, Hetaria is a parody of nations. It is an imagined story of the past. An outtake. It need not be historically correct, for one history is heavily warped in this story. Nonetheless, it is still a funny read and presents a hint of historical reality. Especially the way they act. lolz. :3
Although I do admit of the mistake of calling it WWI Axis Power Slash. lol. Axis powers didn’t even exist in WWI, lolz… but it’s a shorter way of saying Japan, Germany, and Italy. :3 Edited though. o> Thanks.
You keep making a very embarrassing mistake by continually referring to the wrong war.
Thank you for visiting Mieko! YAY FOR A FELLOW HETARIA FAN! And thanks for saying what that kanji is. ;A; I really should get my glasses soon! ;w;
Hi, just happened to find your post on Hetaria while googling.
I believe the Kanji in question in footnote 3 is “野郎” (yarou), slightly derogatory term for “guy”, “bloke” or something like that. The whole line reads
“I ate a really stinky pizza the other day, it was made by that
Englishman*…” (*anthropomorphied England, the country)
OMG, you make me want to read Japanese.
…I’m guessing USA is an uke.