Rewind: Hetalia

Chibitalia! Chibi Hungary, Spain, Austria, Italy, Germany, and France.
Edited and cropped from a screenshot. Cute little countries, aren't they?

Hetalia: Axis Powers and its sequel series swept the fangirls up by a storm. Why? I guess the personified, stereotyped countries cater to each caricature that girls squeal over: the cute, the strong, the cool, the cat-lover, the "hero" (Italy, Germany, Japan, Greece, and America respectively). The list goes on.

These characters from these shorts are particularly popular prey for the yaoi fangirls. I avoid that territory, but I see why Hetalia is such ripe material for them. Not only are there an abundance of male characters, but there are already some jokes built into the script. I  didn't catch most of the jokes when I first watched.  I'm fact, I couldn't even understand why it was rated TV-MA (even now, I lean more toward TV-14). Now, I get most of the less appropriate jokes, and I wouldn't sit down to watch this with my grandparents.

Still, you don't have to like yaoi to enjoy Hetalia. This is not to be filed away in the yaoi or shounen-ai categories. Most of the comedy revolves around the caricatured countries.  This show pokes fun at every well known country, and plenty of lesser known ones. England is portrayed as a bad cook. Italy is obsessed with Pasta and can't do anything on his own. America thinks he's the hero in every situation.  Whether or not that's accurate, he'll try to take charge, munching hamburgers while he's at it.  And then there's Sealand. Poor boy is forever trying to get the nation's to recognize him as a country.  Even my spellcheck doesn't recognize him. Still,  whether or not you call him a country,  you have to recognize his cuteness in that sailor costume.

The Allies' relationships at the beginning of WWII.
Click to enlarge. From Axis Powers ep 5.

Hetalia is actually somewhat educational, too. Trivia about the countries is included throughout the series, especially trivia about WWII.

The ending theme continues to amuse me.  I almost always have to sing along with it,  and I even know what some of it means. You'd think I'd be tired of it after hearing it over 150 times (including the variations sung by each country).  I'm not.

I've enjoyed all three of the Hetalia series. They're not amazing, but they're fun enough that I recommend trying out one or two episodes.

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On another note, Rewind posts have moved to Friday! But I guess you can see that for yourself. It's just more practical with my homework schedule this semester. I might even move this to an every-other-week thing. We'll see.