Customer Reviews

Hetalia: Axis Powers, Vol. 1

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What if all the nations of the world were anthropomorphized hunky bishounen (or the very occasional cute bishoujo)? It would certainly change one's view of history, wouldn't it? It's the eve of the Second World War, and Germany is gearing up to invade Poland. Germany is a serious soul who takes both his orders and his vast responsibilities seriously. He has also acquired two important allies: Japan, soft-spoken, hard-working, and a bit naïve because he was until recently a shut-in, and Italy, a cheerful but profoundly spineless soul whose incompetence seems to undermine the so-called Axis Powers at every turn. As a consequence, Italy's nickname is "Hetalia."

The title of this popular webcomic turned printed manga Hetalia: Axis Powers by Hidekaz Himaruya is a portmanteau of the Japanese word hetare ("useless" or "incompetent") and Italia (Italy). Despite extensive footnotes supplied by the original Japanese edition and an invaluable new four pages of endnotes exclusive to the Tokyopop English-language edition, this portmanteau is not explained anywhere in the first volume. Fortunately, it's not "need-to-know" information, and Hetalia is an enjoyable piece of entertainment that takes one of the grimmest periods of 20th century history and transforms it into a most bearable lightness of slapstick--and on occasion bawdy--comedy.

This is not satirical social commentary. This is fun. It is therefore important not to try to take Hetalia seriously, either for its nuanced view of geopolitics or its depiction of the anthropomorphized countries. Both are consistently disappointing. The countries themselves are based upon broad-stroke national stereotypes--apparently American in origin, according to Himaruya--that are, if anything, divorced from historic context. The cheerful coward (Italy) and the straight man (Germany) make for a classic comic combination, and an ever-growing supporting cast of characters provides virtually endless opportunities for situational comedy, most of it delivered in the popular Japanese yon-koma (four-panel) format.

It is very much to Himaruya's credit, actually, that the large cast of characters remains distinguishable. Besides the Italy, Germany, and Japan trio, other recurring dramatis personae in volume one alone include the United States, Great Britain, France, Russia, China, Austria, Spain, and more. Each country has distinctive personality traits and character designs. Particular idiosyncrasies include the United States being on good terms with extraterrestrials (obscure reference to The X-Files, perhaps?) and China's penchant for ending every sentence with the nonsense syllable "-aru." Naturally, the characters are all attractively drawn, providing an abundance of surefire fan fodder.

In fact, Hetalia is already a heavy-hitting fan-favorite. The animated adaptation has a devoted following worldwide, which is bound to make the manga, handsomely published in a deluxe trim size with eight full-color pages, a popular proposition as well. Readers will come for the characters, stay for the comedy, and perhaps a few will even graduate to serious accounts of global history. At the very least, this is the wackiest story premise to cross manga in a long time--and that's saying something--and even casual readers will find themselves--perhaps in spite of themselves--eagerly wanting more. Recommended.

-- Casey Brienza

My, how should I begin this review?

I'll just say what comes naturally.

Right at the begining of the manga, you're greeted with a brightly coloured (and glossy) first page, which I'm glad they did that, since people were worried that Tokyopop were going to turn it into a plain black and white page.

The drawing style is pretty cute, depending on what "cute" means to you.

The line/script, itself, is very faithful to it's original Japanese and the original Japanese track of the anime. An example of this is that China/Yao's "aru" is present, and England is actually called "England" and not "Britan".

Don't let the innocent looking art fool you, for there is an f-bomb in the book, earning this manga a "16 and over" rating, along with other situations.

The first half of the book is a Prolouge, a chapter for the Axis (Japan, Germany, and Italy), and a chapter for the Allies (America, England, France, Russia*, and China).

Depending on your sense/taste of humour, you'll either laugh or the jokes will fly right over your head.

There's also a story (which I really liked) called "Chibitalia", which is basically about a much younger Italy along with characters like Austria, Hungary, and Holy Roman Empire.

Then, there is a story about the War of the Austrian Succession, featuring Maria Theresa of Austria, Austria, Prussia, and Hungary.

In English, there are a lot of mini-stories and 4-panel stories in this book.

All in all, this is an enjoyable book for those who enjoy "Hetalia" and for those who are curious about the series.

Just so you know, the book may drag for a while for some people due to some of the manga's jokes being...well, dry.

Read, enjoy, and have some pasta while you're reading!

(*He's actually "Soviet Union", however, he's named Russia in the series. The profile of Russia even mentions it, if you're curious.)

I really really REALLY love this manga. The bits of history, the comedy, the art style. It's all amazing. I just love all the characters, and how stereotypical they are. Yes, I enjoy the stereotyping, because...well, they exist for a reason, right? Of course, I do realize not everyone in a country acts like their country's personification. I know I don't. But I find it humorous. It's good to laugh at yourself every now and again, and trust me, with this manga, you will.

I highly suggest it, especially if you are interested in history and enjoy a good satire.

I found this series randomly online on day and purchased the book on a whim. I love it! It's cute and funny and I also love how it's still in manga form (reading left to right, back to front). Some people may disagree about the English translations, but I think it adds a whole new level of funny.

A fun and irreverent parody of events(?) and countries at the time of WWII. If you are looking for a serious manga, this is not the book for you. If, however, you are looking for a fun timewaster, this is the book! Out of print, so availability may be spotty.

I really liked the quality of this book. One of the best things they did was make the first few pages glossy and colored. Unfortunately since TokyoPop has shut down, this book has gone out of print and the lingering volumes are overpriced. If there is anyone willing to sell this book for a reasonable price, I would recommend for people to buy it.

I recieved the item when they estimated, even a little bit earlier. Lucky me! The book was in perfect condition, and was everyting I had hoped for :3 Fans of the series will not be dissapointed at all!

I'm content with my order, before I bought it amazon provided plenty information about the product so when I ordered it I knew what I was buying. The shipping was fast and I enjoyed the book so I guess you can say I'm very satisfied.

I find this book so funny.

Some parts of it is hard to understand, but if you read over you get it.

I don't really like the Chibi part I just skip it.

My favorite characters are America and England ^.^

So I think if you like manga that are just crack this is perfect for you.

I watched the entire anime series 1 and 2 before buying the manga. The anime is hilarious, especially for us older people who are students of European history. There are times when it is kind of rough, with a lot of foul language, but it was still hilarious, sometimes with touching moments (Holy Rome & Chibitalia, or America vs. England in the Revolutionary War). By contrast, the manga has funny moments, and has a more sweet tone to it - not a lot of potty humor like the show has, but definitely not a constant laugh-fest like the show. The manga art is certainly nowhere near the level of art in the manga I usually read - this all looks like it's rough pencil sketches designed to be finessed further later on. Not a 'clean' look. I am willing to suffer this because I want to support the mangaka, so I can see more Hetalia shows!

The reason I take off a star? False facts. This book was, of course, initially put together in Japanese for Japanese readers, and it has a lot of footnotes. Some of these footnotes are historical details designed to clue the reader in to possibly obscure wars and other events, especially in Europe. But there are 2 footnotes in this volume that really irritated me. Both are designed to explain American or English culture.

One says, "England's Spy Organization: Although England's government has adamantly denied the existence of their spy organization, it is so well-known that if you ask a taxi driver to take you to MI6, they'll know exactly where to go." Huh? Deny the existence? Maybe back after WWII. (Right? What about James Bond?) My English husband says they never attempted to deny the existence of MI6.

The next questionable footnote says, "In America, there are ice cream trucks patrolling neighborhoods all the time." (Yeah, right. I haven't seen an ice cream truck since about 1995, even in the summer.) "As if that's not enough, the calorie-starved consumer can buy massive buckets of ice cream. These legendary super-sized portions are not urban legends." So...Japanese people now believe that a gallon bucket of ice cream is designed to be eaten by a single consumer at a single session? They don't consider that you might have a family sharing the bucket, over the course of a few weeks? Misleading.

I realize Hetalia is a parody, but these particular footnotes bug me, especially because the historical footnotes are relatively accurate. I dislike the idea that Japanese readers are getting these dumb things proffered to them as facts.

I don't know whether I'll buy the other volumes, because I enjoyed the anime dub so much more. I might just stick with that.