Hetalia Axis Powers episode 29

I received my exam results today and it looks like I’ve gotten into the college I wanted. I can’t quite explain how relieved I am right now. So I’m in a bit of a giddy mood so forgive me if I start blabbing a bit in this Hetalia review.

This week we finally got something I’ve been clamouring for since he first showed up: Russia’s own episode. To think it took until episode 29 for him to get some proper screentime. It shows yet again Deen’s rather bizarre airing pattern with this anime. OK it’s not like Hetalia has a coherent timeline or anything but I can’t help thinking that this episode would’ve been far better suited to somewhere around episode 8. Possibly instead of one of those chibitalia sketches. Then again I’m not in charge of directing this anime, Bob Shirohata is. I took a peek to see what else this guy has worked on and he’s done pretty much nothing, apart from Gravitation, so it looks like he’s really hit the jackpot with Hetalia (have you seen the DVD sales for this!!! Fuck me, Hetalia sells well). You assume that these guys are professionals and therefore clearly will know better than you on how to make an anime. That is until you remember Endless Eight. Sometimes you have to wonder if you really would do a better job than these guys.

VODKAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I love Russia’s leap of fate from the plane. What makes it even better is that the Russians genuinely believe in WWI that snow was soft enough so they wouldn’t need a parachute (one of those random bits of information that I know that’s totally useless outside of understanding a Hetalia joke). It makes you wonder how many of those other apparently random things that happen in Hetalia were based slightly off historical fact. When England did his satanic chants in an earlier episode, it was only when I did a bit of reading that I found out that the English genuinely tried to curse the Germans in WWII by asking the rather famous satanist and black magic specialist, Aleister Crowley. So for America’s rather random leap of fate for Englands’s ice-cream, was that in fact a historical reference to the fact that all the Americans soldiers who went to England in preperation for D-Day get sick because they ate too much ice-cream? Or was it just some randomness thrown in by Hetalia because hey, it was still funny.

Who do you think would win in a fight if these guys fought Italy?

While I’ve called this Russia’s episode, this episode really belonged to the trembling trio of the Baltic States. Gods, I love how demeaning Hetalia is of them. They’re constantly portrayed as being a bunch of utterly hopeless twats, being constantly pushed down by Russia. I particularly loved that the only way they could think of escaping Russia was to ‘rely on Germany instead’. Oh gods Hetalia, how I love all those genius historical one-liners that you toss in. As much as I love watching the banter between the different countries, Hetalia wouldn’t be as good as it is without these little snippets of golden humour. While this wasn’t the best episode of Hetalia, it certainly up there. So Hetalia has kept up it’s recent good form, although I’m a little miffed that they’re still using Italy’s closing song. I was hoping for maybe something sung by Russia or the trembling trio. Something like ‘Hey hey Russia, leave me alone. Hey hey Russia, argh argh Russia’.

D'awww, he's so cute and yet so utterly useless

On a final note, can you guess what my two best results in my exams were? An A in English and an A in History. So what I lack in sheer fangirlism in reviewing Hetalia, I make up in with my superior writing skills and my historical knowledge. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going off to do some partying.