Hetalia: Axis Powers | Themes of Media & Nationalism
The Plot Of The Anime
Hetalia: Axis Powers is a anime that takes on nationalistic and political topics and turn it into a satirical animation. In each short episodes, we can see that the nations and political groups are represented as human characters (anthropomorphized countries), where we can see the interactions of each nation through their stereotypical personalities and status, which I personally believe is genius way of retelling stories of historical events towards the broad and younger audience without incorporating much distressing or graphical content. Moreover, each short episodes are commonly themed around major world events like WWI and WWII, however it does expand into minor or fictional interactions between the characters.
The Issue In Question
Visual media, especially these anime episodes, represent a powerful narrative regarding nationalism and the cultural identities for each nation, as seen reflected from our real world's history and events. However, they are mainly expressed through stereotypes, which may not represent the nation or can differ from other nation's perspective as stereotypes are very subjective. Like I said, visual media itself is a very powerful medium to persuade (rhetoric) or bring in knowledge to their targeted audience (knowledge = power), through exaggerated expressions and art style choices. In this anime, the stereotypes are represented in a very exaggerated way, while making the show comedically and entertaining, can misrepresent the entire nation and its people in the real world. For example, Italy the character is represented as very sensitive, while Germany is represented as serious and aggressive. While an average viewer relates to these stereotypes, it doesn't actually represent all of the nation's population and can further push those stereotypical standards. The visual rhetoric element additionally can be powerful in ways to persuade people in a way propaganda does, using exaggerated elements to falsely favor people in serious real world situations.
The Issue Addressed In Japan & Beyond
Visual rhetorics and media have long been used to convince people to support or participate in nationalistic goals, however through creativity and exaggeration, it can also leak some misinformation of traits from specific nations or political groups to pull more power in from the people to those organizations or nations sending these media. One notable example is from Germany during WWII, where they would hand out visual rhetorics in forms of cartoons, portraying other countries like the United States as "corrupt" while displaying themselves as the more powerful and trustable nation. The visuals in propaganda are usually fantasized through body proportions and special added effects to bring in additional meanings, often for exaggeration.
On the other hand, visual media such as Hetalia can be beneficial to teach people in the real world about each country and culture, as well as the interactions in a less graphic way. However, the false representations and stereotypes are still relativity common in order to persuade the audience about what the country's identity is and their reason for their motives in historical events.
My Personal Takes
Today, I am very influenced by the media from around the world, whether that be social media, films, or the news. Social media would probably be one of the most influential, especially political memes that I happen to keep stumble into. The creators usually create exaggeration and stereotypes based on the government and the so called daily lives of the people in order to create comedically effects as well as to send a deeper meaning about their society, typically harsh like China or North Korea. All of this would shape how I perceive other countries and it does show how powerful media like Hetalia can be when they represent a real world country through their own stereotypes.
I agree with you that media has often been used to sway public opinion and promote nationalistic goals, as seen in WWII propaganda where Germany exaggerated other countries' traits to paint themselves as superior. Hetalia: Axis Powers takes a different approach by using humor to explore historical events and cultural stereotypes. The show personifies countries with exaggerated traits, like Italy’s love for pasta and Germany’s strictness, making history less intimidating. While it relies on stereotypes, I think its aim is to entertain and spark discussion rather than mislead people.
