also, for those of you who don't realize the BEAUTY (or even the point of) hetalia

[thekatiepark]

let me start off by saying:

HETALIA IS NOT ABOUT HISTORY, NOR IS IT ABOUT COUNTRIES. HETALIA IS ABOUT PEOPLE.

Comments

[whatpipeswhy]

WORD. Above everything else, Hetalia is basically about a bunch of guys just like the kind you might randomly meet at the bus stop or at work or anywhere, who happen to be a little odd in that their lives are intertwined with history. But they act more like random people you might meet out in the wilderness known as "civilization" than most fictional characters. Maybe people have gotten so used to the way most fictional characters and relationships are written (and to realism equaling gloomy) that Hetalia strikes them as weird and off and wrong.
(Meanwhile, you were raised on pokemon and I was raised on rugrats, so we have a very special perspective on things.)

[thekatiepark]

honestly, my favorite thing has to be how people complain about hetalia being unrealistic for not having any angsty or depressing things when it totally does. himaruya just doesn't THROW THEM IN OUR FREAKIN' FACES like pretty much every other author out there (except for the authors of pokemon but we've already discussed this). exposing things through subtext is an art and he's pretty much perfected it.

[whatpipeswhy]

I wish his other series were scanlated, just so I could see if they have the same delicious subtext and writing and characterbuilding. Sadly I think they won't get scanlated because they're about ordinary people, and the only reason hetalia ever got western fandom's attention is because someone went WHUT WWII PERSONIFICATIONS THIS LOOKS WANKY and posted it on 4chan.

Sigh.