Hetalia Axis Powers episode 35 + Hetalia feature length movie?

Yes, a feature length movie about Hetalia. I really don’t know what to say. I certainly don’t have enough space to talk about it as my opening paragraph so I guess I’ll tackle that issue (plus I had already typed out most of this post before I heard about the news and I’m not changing it now). So for now I’ll focus on the awesome episode at hand.

Err...who are you?

This episode was split into two gags, which as you can all see worked far better than the mountain of unrelated gags that was the approach the last episode decided to take. First up was…errr, I’ve forgotten his name. No really, when he first made his dramatic appearance to the G8 summit, I’d totally forgotten which country he was. My first thought was actually that he was one of the Baltic countries, possibly Estonia. Yes, I remember a country that’s a measly 45,000 square kilometres in area (hurrah for Wikipedia) before I recall that there’s this fucking massive country sitting on top of America. The thing is, Canada really doesn’t make any impact on world politics. I was talking to some Canadian students this week (no, I did not deliberately seek out some Canadians for my Hetalia posts. I’m dedicated to blogging but not quite to that extent. They just happened to show up and history just happenned to come up in conversation) and they were saying that Canadian history is pretty limited and they mainly focus on British history, with the occasional bit of French.

Hey, Greece stole Sealand's hat!

But let’s get onto the part of the episode that I really want to talk about. There comes a time in a comedy that one single joke can leave you in a heap, incapable of breathing with tears streaming down your face. This particular bit of dialogue between Greece and France was one such time. It certainly didn’t help that I have a cold so the laughs came out less as hearty guffaws and sounded more like a warthog being raped. The slightly abridged version of the dialogue goes like this.

Greece: In ancient times, people played sports in the Olympic Games

France: You know Greece, I’m not really into sports

Greece: In those days the men played the sport completely naked

France: You serious! Man that’s awesome, we should so restart these Olympics!

 

As with everything in Hetalia, it’s slightly grounded in historic fact. The fellow who restarted the Olympics was indeed a Frenchman, Pierre de Coubertin, and he did indeed get inspired by the excavated Greek ruins. Unfortunately, Wikipedia said nothing about the man enjoying the sight of hundreds of naked men making horrible and painful mistakes during the relay races, which would’ve made the entire scenario even funnier, if that was even possible. The man had a pretty famous quote to his name. I’d heard it before but I never realised he was the one who said it.

The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle, the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well

Which loosely translates as

It’s not about winning, it’s about taking part

Which means that Pierre de Coubertin was also the world’s first sports pussy. Ah I kid, sometimes I wish the rest of the world would take that line a bit more to heart. Would stop all the bloody drug-taking that goes on in the Olympics at the moment. Pierre must be turning in his grave at the sight of them.

Lulz, Cuba. He has a pretty badass voice doesn't he

And Hetalia continues to impress. If anyone here is also watching the new FMA (and you should be) then you will know what I mean when I say these two are similar. The first part of the anime was rather lacking, but have really picked up for the past two months. I still consider the first season of FMA better than this new one but with every passing episode the gap is getting smaller. With Hetalia, I didn’t consider it a great comedy but with every passing episode since 26 it’s been fantastic. I even went so far as to raise it’s score on MAL from a 7 to an 8 (I’m a harsh marker so 8 is a very good score). Long may it continue, right into this upcoming movie.

Yeah, the movie. I really don’t know what to make of that news. If you think about it for a second, Hetalia has been an absolute hit for Studio Deen. Hetalia has been selling incredibly well and they are also making a chunk of money off random other merchandise like character CD’s and pasta sauce with the face of Italy plastered on the label. The natural course of events a studio would take would be to earn even more money. In that sense a movie would make sense. But this is Hetalia. Bloody Hetalia guys! What on earth are they going to do with an hour long movie? I’ve heard there are longer strips in the manga but does anyone seriously think that those strips will cover a feature length movie? In a full length movie you could include the entire history since the Romans in Hetalia style. Well, there will be more news on the subject on 30th September so keep your eyes glued for any more info on this truly bizarre announcement.

And now for something totally off topic. Would anyone like to join me in a game of Fantasy Anime League? It’s a club on MAL that works slightly like those fantasy football leagues you see occasionally. I would’ve made a separate post to ask people but I would’ve been mortally embarrassed if nobody replied so sticking it in a Hetalia post is the logical option I suppose. Basically, you just join the club and follow their instructions to pick your team. When you’ve picked your team, leave me a comment with your MAL username and I’ll set up a mini league between us. I’ve only played the game once so don’t worry, you could get beginners luck. Anywho, I hope you do join me and enjoy your weekend!