What is it ?

Hetalia (or Axis powers Hetalia) is a manga by Hidekaz Himaruya, originally a one-shot and a web comic created in 2008. It's a manga that plays a lot on the stereotypes of each countries and put the characters in extremely laughable situasions, The characters being in fact human representations of the countries.

The title is a porte-manteau of "hetare" (incompetent" in japanese) and "Italia" (So, Italy), which litteraly means "The incompetent Italy" !

Indeed, the character who's the most represented in the first volume is Italy, and the scene takes place (only at first) during World War I. Then, it continues with World War II, in which she HE hasn't being really useful to the axis powers (so to his allies, Germany and Japan). And speaking of allies, there is of course The allied forces in the manga, France, England, America (I seriously think he should have been calles United-States, but oh, well...), Russia and China.

I was talking about the stereotypes that makes the manga a satire. I will go a little deeper into this with the characters already presented this far.

Italy is a young hyperactive man who has great artistic skills, but he is weak and can run fast only if he needs to flee. Ah ! yes ! He also loves pastas a lot !

Germany is physically strong and always shows himself to be strict and who follows rules, as the good soldier he is. He tends to yell at others, a lot, and wanting to give orders to everyone.

Japan is someone calm, polite and reserved, but still curious and wants to learn more about the other nations. He is rather shy and nudity makes him uncomfortable, which however doesn't prevent him to like Yaoi. But hey, what can I say ?  JAPON !

France - cocorico ! - loves good gastronomy ( He is, in fact, a great cook himself ), art and roses. His default : his huge sexual appetite towards almost everything. Ah, and of course, he always feel the need to pick on Engalnd.

Speaking of him, England considers himself to be the archetype of a Gentleman. How ever, he is cynical and sarcastical, and somewhat of a quick-temper. He is also known to be really bad at cooking (they all know, except himself.) He believes in magic and in magical creatures.

America is optimistic, full of energy and is rather strong. But he is a megalomaniac and wants to always be the hero. He sometimes has ridiculous and surreal ideas to solve problems. His culinary tastes - that France blame to be England's influence - are limited to hamburgers and milkshakes.

Russia is always smilling and kind, or at least in appearence. But in reallity, he is a cruel and sadistic psychopath (Even though, apparently, he isn't on purpose ???). He scares everyone. He likes vodka and sunflowers. His not so secret desire : that all the other nations become one with him.

China is very frank and honest, yet also very humble. He ends his sentences with «-Aru» which is a chinese accent stereotype. He adores pandas.

You may be thinking that for a satirical manga about the different nations, it musn't have a lot historical content, right ? Or, if there is, it must be boring. Wrong.         ( Though, to be fair, there are more anecdotes than anything else... And this only counts for the manga. The anime is different... The real thing is that it makes you interseted in history.)

-dead link-

Original link

Found on Zero-chan

Oh, yeah, that last one, I better explain it because it is a little more subtil. Some fans (most likely girls) love to imagine that some characters end up together, if you know what I mean *Cough,cough*.

In any case, it's a really interesting manga. It is in fact one of the most popular manga in the world, even though it isn't published in everywhere. Where I live, for example, there is no bookshop selling it, I can only buy it via internet.

And voilà ! I do hope that it was interesting for you !

Cordially, Florhana.