Nov 10
For some reason, I am reading Hetalia.
This is the manga where various countries are anthropomorphized.
Hungary and Liechtenstein are the only girls. Yeah, I don’t know. The author’s notes are like this:
This is a matter of no importance, but I like to make England speak using typical Tsundere words. “Don’t misunderstand! The pound is high for my sake!”
I appreciate the shoujo-manga absurdity of this conversation between the Holy Roman Empire and Italy. I showed it to Mom. “…who’s “grandpa”?” “The Roman Empire.” “No!” (whole storyline here)
It is basically deeply inappropriate in every way. In what I’ve read, the only Muslim country to show up is Turkey, who is coincidentally also the only non-cute country. Bah. Egypt was there for like one panel at one point, and neither the rest of Africa nor South America have appeared yet. You’d think she he (!) could at least work Brazil in there…
April 7th, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Inappropriate? No way! I mean, a manga about World War Two, written by a citizen from one of the Axis countries, all about making the Axis countries cuter? No way! And surely they couldn’t have omitted the kidnapping of the twins Czech Republic and Slovakia and their brutal rape at the hands of Ger– oh, wait, they did?
I hate this manga. Probably because I’m in fact Czech. To all the people who say “it’s no big deal, it’s just for fun, it’s just a silly manga, who cares”: if Hitler had actually invaded America, if your family members had been sent to the camps, if you had seen your precious liberty being trampled underfoot due to the blasted cowardice of “self-determination” Britain and France, would you still say it’s just for fun?
I need to go gargle with sulfuric acid to get the taste of Worls War Two out of my mouth.
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