Angel's Reviews

Axis Powers Hetalia (Jan 24, 2009 – Mar 13, 2010) 
Director: Bob Shirohata
Comedy, 
Key Words: World History, Stereotypes, 
Studio: Studio Deen American Licensed Publisher: Funimation Entertainment 


Episodes: 52

It’s the fight between the Allies and the Axis during World War 2 gone crazy! This cute story follows Italy, the representative and embodiment of the country Italy, and his friends Japan, and Germany as they create the Axis while America, England, France, China, and Russia create the Allies and fight against each other. The story may seem hard core war but with the stereotype heavy show like this, it makes for a world of laughs!

My Thoughts: I love this show a lot! The story line is very cute and though sometimes confusing when they keep jumping back and forward between scenes, It was somewhat easy to follow. For those saying they don’t like anything they can’t learn something from, well it has that too. When they start talking about things that happen in their past and people important to the country, sometimes they will have a narrator explain and sometimes they will just have a little fact note to the side you can read to know what they are talking about. 

The characters are really awesome and show a lot of different personalities. Each character is a stereotype of their country, pretty much what the other countries see them as. And just so people understand, they don’t leave Japan out of the stereotype. America is the out of control ‘hero’ character who scarfs down hamburgers and milkshakes; England is always the gentleman with bad hygiene; France is always drinking wine and trying to get into everyone’s pants almost, sometimes also shows just how weak he is; China is always building China town all over the place; Russia is psychotic; Germany is strong, by the book, and military-ish; Italy is useless (based with the name); and Japan is quiet and rather formal. Canada… Who’s Canada? I’m just joking but that really is the stereotype of him, he doesn’t show up very much and when he does, no one really notices him.

Chibitalia is a rather cute part of Hetalia talking about Italy when he was much younger; almost a baby shows some of his past to give us more of a story line to how he is. Although it looks like Italy never really grows, I do see him getting a little more helpful as time goes on even if it isn’t very much. 

The animation is really pretty and nicely done, popping between true figures and then Chibi style to add to a gag. There really isn’t much to say on the artwork since its pretty much the same as most other shows that came out in the same year. All the characters again are stereotypes of what you would normally see, England has bad hair and bushy eyebrows, Germany is pretty strong looking and is blond hair blue eyed, pretty much stuff like that. It surprised me that they made America also blond and blue eyed since most Native American’s weren’t like that but I guess the artist pretty much played off the German, Dutch, and English blood in America. 

When we get into the discussion of English vs. Japanese dub, there really isn’t anything against both. The Japanese and English are both rather funny and loveable for each character, I could pick out each characters voice after listening to it for a moment. The English voice does have one thing that the Japanese doesn’t – accents. Most of the accents are rather done well and even the ‘terrible’ ones like British and French are rather good because you can tell that it was supposed to be that way. It adds a nice personality to the characters. Some of the words are a bit rushed, seeing as how these shows aren’t really the 30 min episodes but more 15 minute ones. 

English also had to change a couple of the jokes because they did not translate well but the original idea is still intact. Looking between the English and Japanese, you can tell that the Japanese show their views of the other countries including themselves and the English feeds more off the American view of the rest of the world. I’m a little sad that my favorite character, Prussia, didn’t get much screen time or even get introduced really in this season. 

Rating:
One of the best in my mind. The artwork might of been a little off but the story line and voice acting, plus the fact that both soundtracks are awesome no matter how you look at it gives it 5 stars!

Other Reviews:

LazyItalian’s Review - http://www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-749259/lazyitalians-review-anime#39035677 
Anime TV Episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=X0n-EMP_fHQ 
Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWXCaSF3ukk&feature=related
AnimeAmericaPodcast - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMXrHtgpnJA 
JadedOtakuMedia - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88UReHGifmA 
TanimeChan - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lh0GBCXmNk 
TeamHauntedFlower - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8tdZuFqyDE 

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