Hetalia Storms the Otaku Front
Cosplayin' like it's 1942

>> Elizabeth (Friday, November 16, 2012)

Yes! Hetalia makes me feel closer to these country's causing me to want to learn about the real history of them. My favorite Hetalia Characters are England and Italy. Now I am making all sorts of Italian and English dishes. I'm also doing reports on them. History was my least favorite class, the I watched Hetalia and it became my favorite!

>> KandaYuFangirl (Monday, March 12, 2012)

Heh, I look at the lesson I will be doing for tomorrow in world history and it said Hitler and Nazi Germany I cracked up so hard cause I was like the O.o we are learning about Hitler from D.Gray Man and Germany being a Nazi XD

>> David (Friday, March 25, 2011)

Historical comics make the subject even more interesting and lively to me. For me knowing the real events behind the ones the artist is satirizing makes the comic even better, and this makes we want me to learn more. I've done a lot of research about the history of the different countries in "Hetalia."
Another comic besides "Hetalia" that inspired me to learn more about history is "Roswell, Texas," an alternate-history sci-fi comic. I had fun researching who different characters in "Roswell" were in our world (ie, Malcolm X appears in "Roswell" as a Texas Ranger, Lawrence of Arabia becomes "Lawrence of Albania," Elliot Ness is the major bad guy, etc.).

>> TheGermanVampireHarm (Wednesday, January 05, 2011)

I really do enjoy watching Hetalia. I discovered it a bit over a year ago and became a rabid fan. Hetalia has made me much more interested in History. Before Hetalia, the most I read were about the wars, and a bit of other things. I wasn't terribly interested. But now, with Hetalia, I see history in a much different light, and learning about it makes me happy. It may sound strange that now, when I'm in history class, and someone mentions a Nation's name, I think of that character. Hetalia is just cool like that. It has also helped me become more patriotic, and now I want to learn like three different languages and actually visit my countries of interest. I have also started reading more about other countries, and can recognize different flags with a glance. Hetalia told me about nations that I never new existed.
Hetalia is a good thing. I hope that more and more people will continue to support it.
Hetalia can bring world peace.

Thanks
TGVH

>> Donna (Tuesday, January 04, 2011)

Within the span of about 7 months, I became a huge fan of Hetalia. I've always been a bit of a history scholar/nerd and I think the fact that Hetalia adds humor to history make it that much more enjoyable. It's like "I like Hetalia because of history." rather than "I like History because of Hetalia." And if you are able to improve your remembrance of history then rock on. (I didn't even know a country like Liechtenstein existed until Hetalia)

And on a strange note, this series is actually inspiring me to lose weight and cosplay (hopefully as America or Russia)

>> Midori (Sunday, September 12, 2010)

So far, as I'm a huge fan of Hetalia, it has really helped me a lot, i know it's not accurate but it's an interest boost.
I never knew Prussia, Seychelles, Liechtenstein and other more countries and their facts until now~
We would have tackled the Prussian era around later this year, think how much advance I can be for getting an interest of it~!

>> Anata (Saturday, June 26, 2010)

I absolutely adore Hetalia. But I warn you of two things:

1. It's not always accurate.
2. Some people take offense to it.

I'd be careful not to take Hetalia directly as fact at face value.

Also, be careful. Some fans take it entirely the wrong way. 'Why does skool hate the Axis?? They are like soooo keeeute!' misspellings intentional.

And don't forget about what happened at AnimeBoston (not this one, I think). The Hetalia photoshoot decided to move somewhere else because their current location was closed. Some cosplayers then began to salute. Germany's WW2 salute. Right near a Holocaust Rememorial during Easter/Passover. While the people there take full responsibility and deeply regret their actions, sometimes it's just better not to bring swastikas to public areas.

>> Raina (Wednesday, May 05, 2010)

I love how this show got me hooked within the first 60 seconds of episode one. It's short, so I don't have to worry about making time to watch anime, it's hilarious, and it made me pay even closer attention in my history class, which had always been my favourite subject to begin with. (I like to figure out what episode/scene from APH correlates to what the teacher's teaching to the class at the moment.) I have yet to meet someone who has watched the show and not liked it. I'm in love with the webcomic as well. And the fact that it's got pretty much every anime boy stereotype in it a huge plus. (Not to mention I've already got a bit of a uniform fetish...)
If it were possible to marry an anime, I'd have to go with APH. <3

Ever since I heard FUNimation lisensed the show, I've been dying to know who's going to be cast in the dub (that is, if there's even going to be one, which I assume there is since this is FUNimation we're talking about).

>> Illyasveil (Wednesday, April 14, 2010)

I'm also quite a fan of this series, since it's hillarious and makes history a blast. Hetalia has also helped me in my history exams a lot too, believe it or not. My history exam results were never that good when I never watched Hetalia. It has intrigued me to many different aspects of history.

However, this light-hearted Anime is definitely not for people that are overly sensitive and politically correct. The Koreans were quite offended by the Anime by taking it too seriously and made the character not appear in the broadcasted Anime itself by making loads of people sign a partition or something like that. So, if you're going to take any offense, don't watch it.

>> Hannah (Monday, February 15, 2010)

This may be late, but I'd like to comment on the subject.

I adore Hetalia and its affect on the world. I've seen people from all ends of the Earth say they are fans of this take of our history, and it makes me smile how much more popular and accepted it is.
To be on subject, Hetalia has made me more interested in history. Usually I can never differentiate countries or wars between countries without forcing myself to remember names or dates. But with Hetalia, I can now see and remember things so much more easily. I would never have learned much about the ex-soviet countries as they display in Hetalia in a classroom (at least I haven't yet, and US history is next, so I'm severely doubting I ever will). It also, like others said, helps myself and even others immerse into a totally different culture and actually encourages me to learn more about said country (I've gotten a big interest in Finland lately, the language sounds so nice).

I think the best thing about Hetalia is that it doesn't center itself on the devastation of war and coerce us to think certain countries are terrible. It doesn't need to use senseless violence and propaganda to shove the thought of war into our minds. Sure we should know how bad and serious war can be, but isn't it much better that we're learning of peace and uniting with each other? Hetalia brings people together, it's becoming a great step toward world peace amongst fans. I personally think this would be better for people to grow up with than the history of our war put into grotesque detail. Stereotypes may be bad for people to grow up with, but it's easy to rid yourself of and it's better than continuing our violence.

I think Hetalia is helping a lot of people, not just with history dates and interest toward our pasts, but with our futures and our views of the world (the positive ones I mean).

>> Joseph Luster (Wednesday, February 03, 2010)

Nice, I was hoping people would come back to this article once comments were up. I haven't seen Hetalia myself, but it's interesting to read these fan perceptions of it in the context of history.

>> Megan (Tuesday, February 02, 2010)

I love history a lot, but I have always hated WWII. Watching how the countries interact according to their stereotypes allows me to overlook the (in my opinion) horribly boring war they are parodying.

>> Kiran (Friday, January 29, 2010)

Hetalia generally should not be the only reason one comes to love history; that I agree with. But sometimes, it can help students who nomrally hated rattling off dates and names to survive history class - and even look forward to that class. And of course, it also provides slight nudges in one direction or another; my public school has never mentioned the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but it was mentioned in Hetalia. Curious ("How dare my school not mention this!"), I began to extensively research the Commonwealth. Hetalia doesn't mention the Union of Lublin, the three-pronged government, the clan wars of Lithuania, or the Cossaks and their Uprising, but Hetalia did mention the Commonwealth, something I'd never learned about before, and pure curiosity combined with a pre-existing interest in history spurred me to learn more. For this reason, Hetalia can be considered educational.

Of course, there are fans who don't take Hetalia with the pinch of salt it should be read with. I've seen a couple fans who seem to think Poland and Lithuania should still be one country today, because they're "cute together". I wonder if they've ever heard of - or care about - the Polish-Lithuanian War, or realize that in reality, Lithuania was subordinate to Poland during the Commonwealth. I haven't seen these fans often, but they're out there. It is around them that I want to pull my hair out and shake them until they come to their senses.

But in general, I think seeing teenagers be able to spout off dates and specifics of history and understand how the world came to be the way it is today - while ENJOYING it - is something that really can't be a bad thing.

>> Jennifer (Friday, January 29, 2010)

I have always had a huge interest in history, but Hetalia has only multiplied that interest by a million. It's so much fun to see real history portrayed as bishonen characters and it also makes dates and countries and time periods easier to remember as well! I only wish Hetalia would have been around when I had world/US History classes!

Not to mention that now because of Hetalia, I want to see the world now. My hope is to someday visit every nation in Europe and Asia, and to live in England (He's my favorite character in the entire series!). Sounds lame, but I love it, and so therefore, it works for me!

>> Brad (Friday, January 29, 2010)

I believe it makes fans more tolerant of history? There may be an ulterior motive (boysboysboys) but the motivation is there to dig in or pay attention more. And it's not only an interest in history, but culture, language, fashion, etc. Fans are proud of their heritage and/or their country of residence. Some are too eager to correct, give source of, or elaborate the stereotypes and past of their nation, while others are equally eager to use it. You know, rather than just being fixated on the Japanese aspect of it (and the cliche that only Japanese or Asians do fanworks/cosplay right), this is one series that generally accepts that people from all over the world can contribute to make the series 'whole'. Even though a simple world news story may forever leave fans with the mental imagery of two (or more) pretty boys reenacting the article's content, I think the raised awareness and interest is an overall good effect of a series that started out so simple and is mostly based in humour.

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