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I wanna see X.

Sepherest wrote:

KanjiiZ wrote:

Is Hetalia the new thing to hate on? My god, with all the people cosplaying Hetalia, you would have thought people liked it more than the backlash it gets on the internet.

The people who cosplay Hetalia have become quite infamous online for some incidents that have occured at a few conventions, among other things which have helped to fuel the Hetalia hate. Personally I'm a huge fan of the manga, but the anime adaptation just doesn't work. I'm glad Funimation tried to change things up a bit in the dub but to me it seems like it's really only for people that are extremely interested in the series. I had planned on picking it up but it looks like the special edition only comes with a bandanna, and...I wanted a little more than that for a bonus.

Ok... I gotta know what they did at the cons... please share!

Does it have anything to do with the rumors I've heard of people adding Nazi bands to their uniforms? 'Cause I mean, Hellsing is just as guilty for that as well.

Or the terrible, terrible fangirls?

Basically the fans are known for being quite loud at conventions. I was at Conneticon this year and I must say there were quite a few Hetalia cosplayers and there was a panel for it. While I did catch them singing songs from the show a few times I didn't find them too obnoxious.
But it seems that at Anime Boston this year a group was doing a photoshoot of the Germanic countries, and they chose to do a sieg heil pose for their pictures. This was about a block away from a Holocaust memorial, as well as the convention taking place during a weekend that fell under Passover. This caused quite a stir among the APH community, especially under what could be considered appropriate for fans to do while in cosplay. There are others who have had pictures done in what others have found disrespectful, such as the misuse of flags or doing shoots at war memorials and monuments.

To me the fans just need to execute a bit more sefl-control about how they act, since APH does cover some topics that are people are still sensitive about.

The stories I've heard about Hetalia fangirls at cons usually involves not respecting flags as symbols of other countries and just tossing them around like any old prop (and these are actual flags, not just something that someone drew/sewed up a week in advance). And I thought there was some hubbub at Anime Boston where it either was Easter Sunday or Passover or they were near a Holocaust memorial and acting rather rambunctious.
And it's certainly not as if cosplayers from any fandom don't act up at times but with the military uniforms and historical repercussions it sounds like the Hetalia cosplayers don't need to do as much to accidentally cause a ruckus.

Sepherest wrote:

I'm glad Funimation tried to change things up a bit in the dub but to me it seems like it's really only for people that are extremely interested in the series.

Really? From the reactions I've seen, the dub has turned hardcore Hetalia fans off buying the DVDs. They're horrified by Funimation's strategy of making the dub "purposely vulgar and offensive." Moreover, they're extremely insulted to be referred to as a "certain demographic" for whom "the dub will be exactly what they're looking for." Umm, no. Whoever that "certain demographic" is, Funi, it's not people who were already Hetalia fans. At the very least, it's not me.

I read about that actually. It was wishful thinking that I thought people wouldn't do something that retarded. I mean, the Hitler isn't funny to begin with (not because I have a strong ethical code, it's just not funny), why would you do that when you know what you're wearing represents? Damn, my whole view of Hetalians changed.

garfield15 wrote:

vashfanatic wrote:

R.G. wrote:

No,Hetalia is not Strike Witches for girls.

Hetalia is Strike Witches for male homosexuals.

Nope, every single last person I know who either reads or watches Hetalia is female.

Actually, the three guys I know that like the show are, in fact, homosexual so I think there is something to that.

Well, and I do admit that I am not in as much touch with the RL anime fan base ever since I graduated college and entered the work force.

I don't think it is quite the same as Strike Witches per se... yes, the "everyone is potentially gay for everyone else, let your 'ship wars begin!" is as much a marketing pull for otaku gals as "cute girls + awesome machines!" is for otaku guys. But the real difference lies in their offensiveness: Hetalia has to face the accusation of ethnic stereotypes, whereas for Strike Witches it's shots of prepubescent girls' cameltoe.

I am not sure which is worse, though I personally lean toward the latter.......

swienke wrote:

"Destiny" in particular still gives me chills just thinking about it: it's one of the most emotionally complex songs I've ever encountered in an anime.

Oh, agreed, though in-series it tends to get almost overused. Still, that track embodies the word "epic" to me, any time I am reading something else that is getting really epic, that song starts playing in my head.

Anyway, I'm not ragging on Erin for her opinions, just the presentation and organization of this particular column was a little off. Let's get you relaxed after the con and back in your game! And seriously think about making a new streaming category if you feel you need it. You are not Bamboo, you are your own woman! Very Happy

/quits column for good now

@Erin and anyone else that this may apply to: I definitely recommend checking out the manga for Hetalia before forming a final opinion on it. I'm a huge Hetalia fan, but I could never recommend the anime to someone unless they were already a big fan of the manga. After a while I only watched the subbed episodes to hear the voices and was usually disappointed by it. The dub is a lot more entertaining than the sub IMO, but it's not really a good feel of what Hetalia is either. It's just infusing some life back into the anime, since Studio DEEN ripped it out from the manga-to-anime transition, but they worked with what they had and so the result is totally different. I love both, though.

Also @Erin: Yes, Gakuen Hetalia counts as canon. So does Oresama no Blog/Oresama no CD (the result of Himaruya's 2009 April Fool's celebration).

I like the X series, if only for the fact that it's probaly the only satisfying ending we'll get to the story. Every once in a while Clamp makes a comment saying they haven't given up on ending the manga, but at this point I feel they're just jerking us around.

swienke wrote:

Erin forgot to mention the soundtrack though, which I think is one of, if not the best orchestral anime soundtrack out there.

You're right, I did forget about that! I think I even wrote that down in my notes. The soundtrack was really great.

vashfanatic wrote:

Anyway, I'm not ragging on Erin for her opinions, just the presentation and organization of this particular column was a little off. Let's get you relaxed after the con and back in your game!

Thanks! Not every week can be a winner, statistically speaking.

CCSYueh wrote:

I thought the name translates to something like useless Italy.

Yep, broken down: hetare (useless, worthless) + Italia (Italy) = Hetalia ^^

yamiangie wrote:

Hetaila got the rating it got because among things the allies sent Italy back to Germany in a box with the F bomb written on it.

Welllll, it's more like because the dub is (more) tasteless than the Japanese. You can tell from the little clips of the dub online that it's kinda going for that TV-MA rating, haha.

Ojamajo LimePie wrote:

Really? From the reactions I've seen, the dub has turned hardcore Hetalia fans off buying the DVDs. They're horrified by Funimation's strategy of making the dub "purposely vulgar and offensive." Moreover, they're extremely insulted to be referred to as a "certain demographic" for whom "the dub will be exactly what they're looking for." Umm, no. Whoever that "certain demographic" is, Funi, it's not people who were already Hetalia fans. At the very least, it's not me.

I'd say the fandom is more split in half. There are plenty of fans that support the dub too. Either way, if they want more merch localized, buying the DVDs is the way to go...

I dont know if this has been mentioned or not. I dont feel like reading through 4 pages. But one reason Hetalia is rated TV-MA is because of the dubbing. If you want to know what I mean go find FUNI's dub clip of Romano on Youtube. It is funny, but the fowl language is probably what got it that rating. I remember reading somewhere FUNI said instead of just rating each individual episode they just decided TV-MA across the board.

swienke wrote:

Although I'll agree that the first half of X is better than the second half, I'd definitely say the whole thing is shelf-worthy. Of course, I'm biased since it's one of my favorite anime.

Erin forgot to mention the soundtrack though, which I think is one of, if not the best orchestral anime soundtrack out there. "Destiny" in particular still gives me chills just thinking about it: it's one of the most emotionally complex songs I've ever encountered in an anime.

I feel lame for not saying anything original, but I really, really agree with this. I was in no way disappointed with the second half. I loved how all the various fates came crashing down onto me; even though I was told straight exactly what would happen, I was still moved, time after time as the tragedies struck.

And so Tony Oliver doesn't feel totally unloved, I adored his work as Sorata in the dub. I think it's pretty hard to play an earnest, hardworking, unlearned kid, and i think he succeeded completely on those levels. He was just pleasant to listen to. His calling outs of "Missy!" certainly didn't grate on my ears. I thought it was unendingly cute, but that's probably just me.

Also, a o.O at your "I'm just glad there is a dub in this age of austerity" statement. This show was dubbed and released a good while ago. Plus, it's not like Funimation regularly works with any of these voice actors, as far as I know. It's just a re-release, so retaining the dub shouldn't be surprising, right?

Also, as a straight male who finds Hetalia adorable and amusing, as well as being a person with similarly oriented friends who think the same, I think that we should drop the labels and just say that a wide variety of odd balls like Hetalia.

Hopefully, despite the lackluster review of the second half, I'll still enjoy X in its entirety - by the end of the week, I should have the Remix Bundle TRSI offered on my shelf. Anime hyper

This is actually a complete blind-buy for me, however one of my favorite things to say is this: if it's CLAMP, I'm sure to buy it, and if it's something new to me from CLAMP, I'm sure to love it.

As for Hetalia...oh boy...honestly, when I started watching it, I couldn't understand for the life of me why this show was so popular. It really seemed so stupid (the animation was pretty, I gave it that, and the voice work was nice) and the theme song got so annoying to the point that I wanted to smack it out of my head. However, about twelve episodes in or so, I started to love the series - and didn't even know why. Maybe because it was so stupid. I'm not so obsessed with that I'm willing to cosplay as the characters or run around with the flag of my favorite country in my hat or something (I do admit, I yell "Pasta!" in my best Italy voice at one of my co-workers to annoy him since he hates Hetalia to death - ah, so much fun!), but I do like it well enough. Again, don't know why. Maybe because it was just so silly that I fell for its charms. Maybe because of the hype around it persuaded me. Maybe it was my attraction to the animation. Who knows. Anime hyper

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