I should’ve known when the episode began with Chibitalia that this would be a bad episode. This episode managed to highlight every problem that Hetalia has in the space of 5 minutes. I’m going to break it down for you now if you don’t mind.
::Edit:: Whoops, had this labelled as episode 12, sorry about that
This sexy body has been passed down through the Roman Empire family for generations!
1: Chibitalia
Chibitalia is not funny. Then again that’s OK because it doesn’t try to be funny. It’s aim is not to produce gags or make you laugh, it’s to make fangirls squee at cute stuff. But cuteness has a limited factor and there are plently of other anime out there that manage to be funny and cute, it’s not bloody hard!
2: No explanations
Now what on earth is going on here? England gets surrounded by imaginary magical creatures for some reason or another. As for why, there is no explanation. It quite possibly is a reference to some humorous moment in history but how are we meant to know? Unless you’ve read the manga, which alienates everybody else. It’s all well and good to say ‘this is for fans of the manga’ but how hard is it to stick in a subtitle, they’ve done it before.
3: Fangirl Pandering
The scene between Italy and Germany was the only part in the episode that brought a grin to my face. But let’s face it, the only purpose of this was to have Germany and Italy kiss each other so fangirls could squee. To be honest, Hetalia has generally been fairly good at steering clear from blatant pandering but it looks like it could only be a matter of time before hearts start racing and the shipping begins. Bleargh
4: No Planning
At the end of the episode, Deen suddenly remembered that they did something at the end of the last episode and plonked it back in again. This isn’t the first time, the entire Hetalia series seems to jump about with no connection between episodes, introducing characters 10 episodes after they’ve actually appeared, meaning the earlier episodes are left lacking, such as the episodes when the Axis Powers were stranded on the beach.
I do like Hetalia, I really do, but it just keeps being ruined by all these problems, most notably Chibitalia. I thought that chibitalia had ended with that last episode but they stuck ‘to be continued’ at the end so no hope there. With 26 episodes in this series, we are nearly halfway through by this stage. Lets hope it keeps up the form of the episode before this rather than this episode. And lets hope Chibitalia dies painfully…hee hee
blindability
Brian
Poro
jGLZA
Loba
TeamZer0
thaivuN
Bokutachi no BLOG 
if you don’t have a clue what’s going on, read the webcomic first. (i think that’s the whole point of the animes)
and you are pretty clueless if you don’t already know 99% of aph is fanservice-based.
kthxbai.
If you don’t get the show, don’t watch it. No one wants to know it’s flaws. We want to know what we agree is great about it. That’s the point of being a fangirl, isn’t it?
Yeah I agree with those problems (at least the first two).
The real problem I find with chibitalia here is that it’s really drawn-out. If they had cut out some of it and condensed some of the parts in previous episodes, it would have turned out better. However, I did feel that this one was better done than some of the previous ones, and you can rest assured that it will be ending soon.
The lack of notes would be a problem for someone who was not familiar with the manga. In the webcomic version, most little stories have notes with them, and those notes do a lot to explain what the strips mean, and the historical context of the events.
As for your final point, the fanservice is actually toned way down from what it was in the manga version, so you should probably be happy that it’s only at this level.
Sorry for the super-long comment, but I had to share my thoughts on this.
Gaah! I forgot you had a fourth point! God, I feel stupid right now. I don’t really have anything to say on that one, except that yeah, it’s been bothering me too. Sorry if I confused anyone with my last post.
@ zillas
The thing is, I’m one of the few people who go for the anime>manga philosophy. I don’t understand how people can prefer reading ‘bang’ rather than hearing it. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen an anime alienate people as much as Hetalia has
@ Osaka
I’m watching Hetalia because when it decides to be funny, oh god is it funny. For example in the France episode I laughed for a solid 2 minutes, something which is all too rare in anime or in television in general.
@ sephy
I agree with chibi being really drawn out, especially when you compare it with the quickfire jokes that the normal part does.
Sorry folks for being so negative and stuff but this episode was so dire that I could hardly ignore it
Episode 11.
Putting this as episode 12 just makes me come here because i think you’ve got episode 12 earlier than anyone else, and then i get bombarded with your pessimism. I don’t know if I spelt that right but who cares. You know, fine, the anime made mistakes. But only like … what, one? Two? Just … if it’s so horrible, stop watching it. Or ignore the bad bits as best as you can and enjoy the funny bits.
Also, it is fangirl/boy based. You’re going to get tons of stuff that’s designed to appeal to fangirls/boys, designed to pretty much be fanservice. So, yeah.
The manga version of Hetalia compared to the anime is similar to the Harry Potter book compared to the movie. You can’t just watch the TV version and think that you get it. I know that right now, chibitalia seems very confusing and even frustrating to some viewers. But keep in mind that chibitalia has come to it’s climax and is almost over, so if it’s boring you, don’t freak, we’re nearing the end.
And yes, this comic is all about the fan service, but it does have a good plot. For those of you who have read the manga version of chibitalia, you know what I’m talking about. ^^
Darn I got tricked, thought this was a review on a new episode…..but anyway, I agree on most of it and I didn’t like this episode in particular compared to others and yeah there should have been a mini explanation on the fact that England can see mythical creatures but Chibitalia isn’t that bad and it’s almost done so just deal with the little bit that they have left (FYI where have you been? theres already huge shipping fandoms, maybe not shiping wars but there are multiple huge fandom sites)
Actually, I think that thing with Britain was a reference to Britain’s traditonal beliefs in mythical creatures (or he was just drunk; he does that alot in the manga xD) but I don’t remember seeing anything like this in the strips so…
But yeah, I totally agree, Chibitalia was even more annoying than normal (chibis + emo = NO) but hopefully the ‘to be continued’ means that they’ll be dropping Chibitalia for a while
(btw, this was episode 11, not 12 ^^)
Whoops, sorry about the episode 12 thing. I’ve fixed it now.
@Rin and Kuniko
Is chibitalia really finishing? Oh thank the lord! But I heard Prussia comes into chibitalia later and drastically improves the story. So maybe they are keeping to chibitalia.
@Lizzy
I know about the shipping sites but they are easy to ignore. They don’t effect the enjoyment of the anime
My big worry about Hetalia when I was writing the season preview was that it would be complete fangirl pandering but for the most part that hasn’t been the case. I picked it to blog because it was so damn funny. But you would have to be the blindest fangirl ever not to realise how bad this episode was.
And I should probably say this now: I am not a fangirl. So I will praise Hetalia when it deserves it and critisise it when it deserves it. But cheers for all the comments anyway 🙂
Just wanted to note; the subtitles have nothing to do with the anime’s creators, so don’t bitch about it.
Honestly, this is a really…badly writted review. All you’ve done is bitch and whine.
@Kchan
What? I’m talking about Deen putting up subtitles to explain their own joke, not the English subbers. Whenever Deen have put up subtitles explaining a joke, gg have translated them.
I suppose you didn’t read any other episode reviews did you. Hetalia had this coming
Come on, people! Someone points out and explains their reasons for what flaws they see in a series you like and you start bitching about how they should stop watching the series if they find stuff to complain about? A tad immature, don’t you think? It’s not a bashing post, it’s reasonable critique.
I say this as a vivid fangirl of Hetalia, and I don’t agree with all the points presented but I think it’s great that someone’s actually making an effort to round the negatives of the series without totally shooting it down.
So anyway, I think the France-asks-UK-to-marry-him gag is intentionally stretched out to pan over three episodes to emphasize the scattered nature of the series’ structure. In my opinion the method works reasonably well (though not completely successfully) and even fits the series. But then again, I know what the gag is about, which is why leaving it unfinished twice doesn’t bother me and it’s actually pretty funny how they keep bringing it up.
And that relates to your problem number two that I totally agree with. The anime fails at being an independently coherent piece of entertainment, which is just stupid because it’s turning off potential viewers who haven’t read the original strips. It’s also pretty pathetic because it really wouldn’t have been so hard to make the anime sensible.
I love the fangirl pandering, and the original long Chibitalia story really is quite cute but the anime drags it along too long and it quickly becomes jarring as it’s not a short gag with three very short sessions in the episodes like the France-UK thing, but an actual story that gets little to no development every episode.
Yep, Chibitalia is almost over (finally!) but I think they’re probably going to save the ending for, well, the end. But as you said, Chibitalia is strictly for fangirls, and its ending is no different (the ending is a total fanservice) so yeah, just a heads up on that.
As for Prussia, I don’t remember him being in there, but he probably showed up and I just don’t remember. It’s kinda been a while since I’ve read the Chibitalia strips (they arn’t particularly my favorite, so yeah…)
Being british myself, I definately think the part with England was a referance to our mythology, like pixies, gnomes etc…tho i dont remember us having unicorn’s its all good. I never really minded Chibitali, I just watched it it was kinda cute sometimes, but having not read the strips or manga online (im going to do that now tho, as soon as i find them) I still find Hetalia pretty easy to follow. I can forgive Hetalia’s short comings cause when it wants to be it is so god damn funny, and I love all the characters. It’s just 5 minutes of good entertainment.
Hey, I jsut wanted to say that the part where Germany kisses Italy is actually a reference to the difference in heights between countries. Yeah, you’d only know it if you read the manga, but I just thought you’d like to know 🙂
Most anime is made after the manga is produced for a while. A majority of the ORIGINAL fanbase is in Japan, therefore it’s usually typical of them to read the manga/webcomic first before seeing the animated series. It’s like people usually read the book first, before wanting to see the movie.
And just like movies based off of books/videogames/comics, details will be left out. Many times, it’s important details.
Also, not explaining things in the anime will get people to read the webcomic/manga…it’s a cash thing.
My God, I can’t believe people complain about a blogger complaningXD…and crazy dumb fans who can’t bear to think and critizise a work they admire are beneath Hetalia’s level of brilliance, I swear to GodXD
I actually agree with most you’re saying here. I ended up liking Chibitalia a lot for the implications with the present time storyline, but it draaaaaagged. And Chibitalia’s voice gets on my nerves badly.
The scattered structure gets on my nerves way worse >.<
Also, I suppose you already know the reasons behind England's magical friends, but…it's a reference to the country's rich fantasy culture plus supersticious natureXD. In Hetalia, it's heavily implied that England CAN indeed see magical creatures (and can use magicXD), but the doubt remains about whether it's all real or in his headXD
England is surrounded by imaginary friends as a reference to the nationwide amount of fantasy writers born in England. He probably met them when all of his colonies left him, too. Plus there’s the referencing to opium, as well. So there IS reason beyond the manga.