After my last Hetalia post involved me pissing about with peoples comments and generally acting the idiot, time for me get back to my critical dissertation of the latest episode of Hetalia. Or I could just prat about like I usually do.
You know, I actually didn’t find this episode that funny. In fact I found it kind of creepy. You know why? Because of this:
What the hell is this? Look at the size of his head compared to his body! That creeped me out to no end. I know France is meant to be portrayed as a bit unnerving but this was too much. I actually couldn’t concentrate on the subs, that’s how weirded out I was. Chibi England was nowhere near as creepy as France was. Actually chibi England is pretty cute looking. Chibi England looks chibi. Chibi France just looks deformed.
I know people might think I looked at this and thought ‘chibi characters, bleargh’ but that’s not what I’m normally like with chibis at all. Chibification can be a fantastic comedic device. I just never found this episode funny. The only part about this episode I genuinely liked was England’s awesome ending song about rum and tubes. I never realised that people in other countries don’t call it the tube. If you called it a subway in England people would assume you want a sandwich in the subway sandwich bar. Do you have them in America? You must do, I think they’re in practically every country in the world.
That’s a Bouncing Betty Germany is holding. The reason I know that is from playing too much Call of Duty: World at War. I was never any good at snipers in these games but my friend was. The guy with the sniper always got these bouncing betty’s (they’re basically like mines that jump into the air before exploding) and everytime I think I’d snuck up on him a bouncing betty would get me.
Yeah, I think I’m suffering from brain drain after such a long post last time. So I’m going to leave you with yet another Hetalia copycat anime that’s been made into an anime. This time instead of countries, the Zodiac characters have been bishified.
See what you’ve started Hetalia!
blindability
Brian
Poro
jGLZA
Loba
TeamZer0
thaivuN
Bokutachi no BLOG 
…. *facepalm*
Oh Hidekaz </3
SO, THIS EPISODE LEFT ME BREATHLESS, RITE?
Btw Scamp, Guest post is ready~
I loved Little!England but France creeped me out too. His voice… His voice was exactly the same! So scary!
The episode itself was meh, but England’s punk rendition of Maru Kaitte Chikyuu was worth it.
Hmmm, zodiac signs huh? Probably not my thing, but who knows maybe it could work, especially if they concentrate on the myths of the different constellations instead of the arbitrarily decided traits that people with each sign are supposed to have. I welcome more bishified/chibified personification shows, just ones more like Hetalia and less like that train wreck that is Miracle Train.
It sounds like those fangirls in Sora no Manimani wrote it. I hope it features hot constellation action. “Lord Persius is such a hottie! Andromeda is so moe!”
I don’t know. I personally thought that young England in his own daydream was pretty funny; s’just a shame that the subs used the wording that they used. I think the subs said something like, “I’m whom they call the ‘man whose hair rustles in the wind!'” or something. The comic’s translation was a lot funnier, if only because it was phrased a lot more awkwardly — “The world’s shiniest is me!” and I think this is hysterical for some reason.
…So I laughed pretty hard at that scene. Maybe it’s just me.
Apart from that? Was a pretty boring episode, agreed.
Am I a bad fan (or a typical one?) for thinking that Starry Sky looks interesting? What little has been said about it looks interesting, anyway, I think. Probably because it’s said to be a reverse harem and I tend to like seeing those; if only because… “regular”… harems seem to outnumber them so much. Hopefully it’ll be more entertaining than Miracle Train, though. And I’ll be all kinds of thrilled if the chick isn’t a ridiculous Mary Sue.
Blah, screwwie subs…I’m still looking for a version that doesn’t cut after 2 minutes or go undubbed, so I’ll just talk about the first half…
I know what you mean about ChibiFrance….he looked kind of like Poland… o.O (haha, not that that’s a bad thing, of course!)
And I felt that they were….trying too hard in this episode…I don’t know, it was just a little…awkward (wrong word) for me.
And I agree, Monsturr…well, it looks better than Miracle Train (please) and, what was the other one? Calendar Boy? Hah!
Maybe I’ll watch an episode or two and see how it is. 😉
Alrighty, I actually found a better sub on YouTube (hah!) so I’ll finish up my post from above. (These need edit buttons)
My favorite part of this episode was when France was cutting England’s hair….I’m like:
Wow! It went from France–>Switzerland–>England! :O
And I liked how in the ending song England was saying that Tubes are actually Subways. *giggle* That’s the kind of England I know. 😉
I’m actually happy to see Chibirisu here. I was also looking forward to chibi France here, but instead it was shaved adult France stuck to chibi France’s body with adult France’s voice. It was just really weird, especially considering his cute appearance in the webmanga.
Not much really going on in this episode.
Starry Sky… well, it might be interesting. I’ll watch an episode or two. I can’t see how it could be any worse than Miracle Train.
Scamp! Scamp! Guess what!
The third season has been greenlit! You’ve got a ways to go, and I’m jumping for joy. Not just for the new season but for the prospect of more blog posts from you!
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-12-10/hetalia-anime-third-season-green-lit
@luffyluffy
Ah right I’ll e-mail you about that
@Siri
Ah yes, the voice! That just intensified the weirdness of the whole scene
@ExecutiveOtaku
Unfortunatly this series seems to be heading towards the corny defined traits of each zodiac sign. Both this and Miracle Train seem to be missing the point at what makes Hetalia so popular. It’s far more than just pretty boys FFS. I dunno, these Hetalia-copycats make me want to facedesk.
@Monsturr
Regular harems are sloowwlly dying down compared to earlier years where you found yourself drowning in bishojo’s. Admittadly the moe craze took that over. Are we seeing a dramatic increase in reverse harems now? If so, I’m surprised it took Hetalia to start that considering how popular Ouran was three years ago
@Humanity_Cat
Was that really switzerland? I thought it looked more Lithuania myself
@fable
Couldn’t be worse than miracle train? Oh dear, you’ve gone and jinxed it now
@Siri
Just when I thought the end was in sight too…
Oh, well, Switzerland was the first person who came to mind, but I can see Lithuania too.
i loved chibi-england in this ep…but i agree that france was a bit off. it made me raise an eyebrow since i think they were trying to create a little fanservice with a mature-sounding france and a tiny england. eh. weird. england cursing at france is still the best, though.
the ending song was awesome. can’t say much about england’s voice but the rock background was epic. i had no idea what he was talking about when he said “tubes” though…i didn’t know that that’s what they call subways over there. yes, in the U.S they’re called subways…or trains. tubes here would be like…sink tubes…or tubes of wrapping paper. it’s also slang for TV.
eh what? Zodiac characters? /facepalm
But i think i might try a few episodes. As well as Miracle Train and.. what was the other one? Calendar boy? D:
i love this episode. Switzerland–>England!” Hahahaha.. My thoughts, too. xD
UGGHHH.. These Hetalia mushrooms better be really nice. orz
Oh, and England’s MKC/ed song is a looot better in full version. The instrumental part with bagpipes + rock n’ roll is amazing~.
I thought this ep was okay… the best part was England’s Maru Kaite Chikyuu at the end. I’ve listened to it lots of times on You Tube, but it’s nice to hear it officially at the end of an episode. 🙂
And since others here have mentioned Miracle Train… Miracle Train unexpectedly had a really great episode this week, Episode 10. The train-station bishies have to imitate a Japanese TV cop drama to help their damsel-in-distress of the week solve her *coughstupidcough* problem. It was really entertaining…
We have subways but we call them subways or metros (or in Chicago, the L). “the Tube” is definitely exclusively British, like “mind the gap” and “jump the queue” and “snog” 😀
Now I want to hear ALL the countries’ songs!
I found this episode pretty cute on the webcomic *shrugs* guess the animation can’t be helped. Yay series 3!
Tubes…tubes…tubes… I really liked England’s ending.
But I also liked the Switzerland——-> England.
@blogger: yeah, i did find this in the comic buhyoo~ cute too! Although i like the anime version, it doesn’t really have this charm.. 😦
Next will have Poland. Finally. FFFFFFF PONIES. 😀
The anime should’ve add the distrungled old man in the author’s notes.
Medieval ages:
Old man: *sees young men wearing long hair and “dresses”* Hmph! Kids these days!
Modern times (Hidekaz coined it the 1990s):
Old man: *sees young men wearing long hair and baggy pants* Hmph! Kids these days!
Russia’s full version of the ending, with it’s Russian sounding…ness and TETRIS referances is one of the best so far.. Switzerland and Liechtenstien’s came out today, so I still need to hear theirs..
Plus, with France…
You realize he probably hit puberty at ate 5, right? As for the Zodiac thing… Me and the boyfriend are honestly looking forward to it, we want to see the Snake and Rooster characters, mostly because me and him are Snake and Rooster~ But Then again, this is someone who’s LEGIT watching Miracle Train.
I have Shinjuku’s character songs downloaded. But I still like Shodome better.. Stupid France clones..
I dunno why they’re bothering with another zodiac-themed reverse harem. There already is one, it’s called Fruits Basket.
Loved Englands song, it’s been the best so far.
@gw_kimmy
The mature sounding France and chibi England being fanservice? Sounds like the old uke/seme releationship. See, I know a little bit about yaoi myself!
@blissfullynaive
Miracle Train was painfully bad. As in so bad I felt ill. That doesn’t happen too often. I think it might be right down in my worse series I’ve seen in my life. Maybe not a F- but definately an F
@Jan Suzukawa
See above comment. Heh, I REALLY didn’t like Miracle Train. I watched it because it had the director of Nodame behind it but…yikes, what was he thinking?
@EurydiceQ
‘Jump the queue’ in an English phrase? I didn’t know it was considered slang. It’s weird when phrases you assume are universal are just local slang.
@luffyluffy
“France hit puberty at 5”. Yeah, that’s probably true
@graciepan
I’d forgotten about Fruits Baskets. Maybe when you hug the guys in Starry Sky they turn into several giant balls of searing hot gas and you shall be burned into oblivion.
so what happens when you hug a hetalia character? do they turn into gigantic continental pieces of land? …
note to self: dont hug russia
Great, they didn’t animate the penis case and the womanly dress part.
>|
Why i’ve been typing “Trap!France” all this time for? huh, HUH?!
Well he’s supossed to be prepubescent there so it kinda explains it.
Meh, this was supposed to be one of my fav strips…
Haha, hit puberty at 5. XD So true.
‘so what happens when you hug a hetalia character? do they turn into gigantic continental pieces of land? …’
So what would happen if you hug Sealand? XD
………. You drown XD
*HUGS GERMANY AND GETS SQUISHED*
My mum didn’t believe me when I said Call of Duty could be educational. I’ll show her that paragraph you wrote about the Bouncing Betty, Scamp, and maybe she’ll get me Modern Warfare 2 for Christmas. XD
If Deen had added Russia’s grinning face appearing out of the top of the tank that nearly(?) ran down Italy, it would have made my day. 😀
Starry Sky…that make…*counting* Thrre anime in the tradition of Hetalia? Miracle Train, Calendar Boy, and now this one. *facepalms*
France does look creepy. It didn’t bug me that much when I was watching the episode, but now that you mention it… yetch. And he was so cute in the manga version, too. At least his long hair was pretty funny looking, and I liked the different haircuts (France -> Switzerland -> England).
Starry sky? Well, at least it’ll probably be better than Miracle Train–it’s hard to imagine something worse. But seriously, how many Hetalia ripoffs do these guys have to make before they’re satisfied? They don’t even know what made Hetalia good in the first place!
haha yeah across the pond we don’t jump the queue we cut in line 🙂
…what the hell?
~kswolfe
Haha! That would be win!
@randomanon: That and other side comments of Hidekaz / additional notes make the strips so wonderfully funny and educational. Too bad they don’t get included in the anime. 😦
@luffyluffy: i need to buy a new set of headphones because i can’t fully appreciate Swiss & Liech’s songs. But they sounded cute. :3
@graciepan: Good point hahaha. Now that you mention it, Fruits Basket was about Zodiac Signs. And reverse harem. .__.”
@Scamp: So miracle train had Nodame’s director? But why was it horibble? D: (i love Nodame)
@Humanity Cat & luffy: “So what would happen if you hug Sealand? XD”
“You drown xD”
i feel sorry for the little guy now. xD
England’s hair have made ma shocked, it’s like hedgehog!!! (I mean the long-haired version)
Starry sky is from a visual novel right?
I’ve seen it, the opening is very cool!!! (I like the summer OP a.k.a the 2nd OP)
Actually, to be perfectly honest, when I saw the translation as ‘tube’ I thought there was a mistake. I’ver seriously never in my life heard that term before. I’ve heard ‘the undergound’ before, but that’s just another one of those ‘stereotypically British’ words here that we don’t use. We say subway mostly, though in Washington D.C. it’s called the Metro. But really, the tube? Didn’t know that. I’m always learning things from Hetalia and I love it 😀
Eh…. I’m the opposite. I’m used to ‘tube’ and ‘subway’ in literature and movies, but I assumed that both words are interchangeable in Britain. No wonder I’ve never heard a British use subway before…
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