Hetalia Axis Powers episode 32

Two posts in one day? I think this is the first time I’ve ever done that! Mainly thanks to Hetalia and Sora no Manimani getting subbed on the same day, which just so happened to be the same day I was making my monthly roundup. Hetalia gets blogged before Manimani because it attracts about 10 times more hits. I’m not exaggerating either, I’ve actually seen the search term ‘Scamp Hetalia’ come up a few times. Come on Hetalia fangirls, could some of you read my other posts?

It might be hard to convince you to watch something else when Hetalia is producing episodes of this quality though.

I'd be pretty scared if he turned up in my dreams aswell

Mwahaha, I absolutely loved this episode of Hetalia. The Roman Empire is great isn’t he? He’s turned up a grand total of twice, here and that epic song by the island, and both times he was hilarious. The horror Germany got when he saw his idol in the flesh and he turned out to be some letch, ah the poor lad (nice little historical reference there too. Every great military conqueror wanted to emulate the Romans. Or Alexander the Great. Come to think of it, where is Greece? I think he’s appeared once when he was unloading his shopping really slowly and that’s it). Ah, there was so much about this episode I loved, even though it was only 5 minutes long. I think I’ll have to split this post up a bit to tackle this properly.

 1: Historical Comedy

I love it when Hetalia tosses in random lines that just kill when taken in historical context. I already mentioned Germany’s idol, but there was also Rome’s own description of his rise to power being the highlight (I just beat up a few Carthaginians) along with his freeloading personality. Ah, he’s a great character. Shame this is most likely the only time we’ll see him for a long time. He probably only comes along as often as Christmas…oh wait.

2: Personality Quirks

 I’ve talked enough about Rome this far but it was Germany that made me laugh the most in this episode. He’s perfect foil to pretty much any character in the series. He’s probably become my favourite character thus far, mainly due to his embarrassed and over-the-top reactions to everything and anything, particularly to Italy sleeping in his bed. I know a lot of this is fangirl fodder and I could see the inevitable doujins that could spring as a result of his conversation with Rome, but if they’re still funny then who cares! One of my worries before I started Hetalia was that the fangirl pandering would be far too jarring for me to handle but for the most part that just hasn’t been the case.

(BTW you have to love Japan answering the phone in a housewife costume)

3: D’awww Moments

 Normally, Hetalia sucks at these but this time they pulled it off remarkably well. Even more remarkable was that it wasn’t the Germany/Italy combo that pulled it off. It was Rome all by himself. Actually that was quite a sad moment at the end, Rome getting that one day out of heaven to see his grandson. In fact I’m hugely impressed Hetalia managed to pull that one off and made me feel as sad as I did during Grave of the Fireflies. OK, I take that back, nothing will ever toss me into that pit of despair that Fireflies did, but for a ridiculous historical comedy like Hetalia, that single poignant moment was far beyond what I thought it could achieve.

Germany looking frightfully bishie. Why if I wasn't a hetrosexuel male, I might...

I’ve said it time and time again, Hetalia could be one of the greatest anime comedies of all time if it was able to produce episodes like this more frequently. Maybe at the end of the series I’ll make a post about the ‘ideal Hetalia’ where only the best episodes are chosen to create the perfect 13 episode series. Actually I have loads of ideas for posts when this series comes to a close. But for now, in true Hetalia fashion, let us make a toast with our boots for one of the best episodes Hetalia has produced.

Cheers, Kampai, Santei, Prost, Salute! And hundreds of other languages I don’t know about!