Hetalia Blog
This is my first viewing of the show Hetalia. I found it to be very strange and the comedy was a bit corny. I will discuss the show in the lens of its comedy and allegory to historical events.
Hetalia uses humor and satire to make commentaries on the powers that were present during historical events, the most prominent of which being World War I. Italy, which during the days of ancient Rome was one of the strongest empires in the world, but now was depicted as some pasta-loving goofball, showing how weak of a country Italy was during World War I. I found it weird that the show made humor and made Germany a more likeable character despite the atrocities committed during the war. Germany is portrayed as hard on the outside with a soft heart in his interactions with Italy and other countries. This definitely was not the full story in how Germany is represented in the textbooks. While some of these representations appeared to be stereotypes that were meant to be taken lightly, like how China appeared to talk differently than the rest of the characters, other representations, like when Germany says that Japan had modernized really fast and that was positively conveyed, were shown in a more serious tone. Also, why was Japan the most dripped out country of them all. Seems a little bit biased.
When searching up how others feel about Italy and the representation about Italy, I related to the article by Annette in how she said that the fan base is productive. There were many, many threads dissecting how the fan's cultures interact with the work and different ways of understanding Hetalia in enunciative productivity. The fans are self-aware and can argue and discuss what elements of the show that they find to be inaccurate and what is more relevant to the contexts of the war.
Overall, I felt like the show related a lot about representation and how a country was represented by a single person. This had a lot to do with stereotypes and I found it interesting to see what different stereotypes there are for different countries. It made me more aware of their uses and how to avoid making stereotypical takes in the future.
Hi Ryan! I really liked how this anime brought historical events to life in such a humorous way. The portrayal of Italy as a pasta-loving character was very comical to me. I especially enjoyed how it used humor to address serious historical themes. I like how Germany is portrayed as a strict but soft-hearted character, which contrasts with the brutal image often depicted in history. It allows for the countries to be seen in a humane way. I find the impact of stereotypes interesting in the sense that some countries were seen lightly and others were seen with more gravity. I think this anime serves as an influential platform for navigating our understanding of global history.
