Wednesday Anime - Axis Powers Hetalia - Italy (North and South)

A couple of my personal favorites are these guys~

Basic Statistics:
Name (Human name): (North) Italy Veneziano/Feliciano Vargas
Age (by physical appearance): 20
Gender: Male
Birthday: March 17
Hair Color: Brown/Auburn
Eye Color: Brown/Amber
Height: 172 cm (5’7.7”)

Appearance:

He has short brown hair and brown eyes, with a curl sticking out from the left side of his head, which acts as his erogenous zone when stroked or pulled. He wears a blue WWII military uniform, a black shirt and tie, and black boots. As a child, he wore dresses and was often mistaken by others, especially Holy Roman Empire, as a girl. 

When not in his uniform, he can often be seen wearing a white sailor suit-style top (with blue collar, necktie and sleeve bands) and blue shorts.

Personality and Interests:
Italy is a cheerful, energetic and dopey man, who went from being a kin of the once great Ancient Rome to an irresponsible crybaby. He loves pasta, pizza, gelato and cheese. Although he relies on Germany a lot, Feliciano doesn’t really listen to what he says and just daydreams or wanders off to someplace. His hobbies include cooking, siestas, painting and singing.

In the webcomic and the 1^st Drama CD, it is noted that he frequently gets a lot of stomach pains due to his overindulging on gelato. Feliciano has a compulsion of wearing his birthday suit for his daily 3PM siestas, and usually (almost every time) forgets to put his pants on, causing Germany to have to lend him a pair of his own. His public display of his...er, birthday suit has become notorious enough that Switzerland will fire (or most likely shoot) upon him if he’s caught streaking through Swiss territory.

During one point, he would easily surrender and wave his white flag around (It was said by Germany that Feliciano manufactures those white flags from thin air) and almost at every time he’s caught in a pinch, he would wave his flag around and start whining thing about he’s too young to die or he still hasn’t eaten his pasta yet or even more, he doesn’t taste good…(*sigh* I feel bad about those nations who had him under their care…)
He also has the verbal tic of making a ‘Ve’ sound and in the anime, he also makes other onomatopoeic sounds as well, his most notable chant being ‘*herahera’.

(Note: *herahera is a Japanese onomatopoeia which means “acting foolishly” or “frivolous”. Herahera~)

Though he was relatively weak and timid as a child, he was able to take on Turkey single-handedly at one point in time. According to Germany, when Feliciano’s hands and legs are bound, he seemingly…dies. And apparently, he also has a brother who is just as pathetic and weak-willed as him.

And the character I’ve grown fond of (well, one of the guys I’ve grown fond of over time…):
Basic Statistics:
Name (Human name): (South) Italy Romano/Lovino Vargas
Age (by physical appearance): 22-23
Gender: Male
Birthday: March 17
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Green/Hazel

Appearance:
Romano has dark brown hair and has more of an olive complexion unlike his younger brother but in later artworks, there is almost no visible skin tone difference between the two. His eyes were originally supposed to be green but were later changed to hazel or dark brown in later colored works.

Like his brother, he has a long wild curl (that also acts as an erogenous zone), though it rests on the right side of his head, as opposed to the left. He is shown wearing a khaki uniform in a different style than Feliciano’s (but more similar to Spain’s), with ¾ length sleeves.

As a child, he didn’t necessarily wear a maid dress like his brother but simply just an apron, however, in some strips, he is depicted wearing a maid dress and apron just like his brother’s, though the colors are unknown.

Personality and Interests:
Romano is typically friendly, sweeter and kind to women, but instantly reverts into being strict and less social towards men. Despite appearing to be tougher than his younger brother, they both are equally cowardly and ineffectual, if not even more. He’s stubborn as they come and has been described as being quite timid. Though he isn’t skilled with his hands (always fumbling or sorts), it is said he is a good pickpocket. He also has the habit of speaking in profanity, often towards his brother, Germany, France or Spain.

As a child, he often slacked off and slept when it came to doing chores, though he was rather clumsy when he actually bothered to do them. In certain strips concerning Spain’s control over Southern Italy, it was revealed that the young Romano had a bed-wetting problem and often had trouble finding the toilet due to the vast size of Spain’s mansion. Also as a child, he had the disease Chorea as a child, and that sort of played a part in his clumsiness (if not, it’s just lazy old Romano…). Spain attempted to heal him by making him dance the Tantarella; Romano appeared to recover from the disease, whether due to those efforts or not.

When using grenades, he seemingly has no clue of the correct way of throwing them (throwing the pin rather than the actual grenade, a habit he sadly shares with his brother…). In another strip, it’s shown that he is often controlled and led around by his own Mafia. It’s partially due to the long influence of the Mafia that Romano’s view of the world is solely biased and bleaker than Feliciano’s.

While Feliciano eats a variety of food other than pasta, Romano refuses (I dare say.) to eat foreign food, especially if it happens to be cheese or potatoes. He has the verbal tic of saying/making a ‘Chigi’ (or even ‘Chigigi’) sound when he’s agitated or when his hair curl is pulled.

In the present day, the two brothers don’t really get along very well: Romano refuses to acknowledge his brother’s mere existence, though Feliciano is more than eager to be around his dear big brother. As a child, Romano often felt jealous and inferior to his younger brother, due to Feliciano inheriting their grandfather’s talent for art, while he could barely draw anything. Even though he’s like that, he’s shown to have at least a subconscious care for him. Usually when it’s mentioned or hinted that he cares about Feliciano or even his previous caretaker: Spain, something always happens that angers him and he instantly reverts back to being in an angry state. 

-Arice215

Wednesday Anime - Axis Powers Hetalia Part 2 - U.S.A. and Canada

Another personal favorite of my mom - U. S. of A.!

Basic Statistics:

Name (Human name): America/Alfred F. Jones

Age (by physical appearance): 19

Gender: Male

Birthday: July 4

Hair Color: Blond

Eye Color: Blue

Height: 177 cm (5’9.6”)

Appearance:

He has short and dusty blonde hair with an **ahoge, representing Nantucket, sticking up and blue eyes. He wears a tan uniform and a brown bomber jacket with the number ‘50’ on the back (representing the fifty states). His glasses represent the state of Texas. America is often seen holding a hamburger or a large-sized soft drink (usually cola) and flashing a ‘thumbs up’.

(Note: **Ahoge is similar to a cow-lick. And I’m pretty sure that a lot of you know what a cowlick is.)

Personality and Interests:

Alfred is a cheerful, energetic and somewhat conceited young man who is obsessed with heroes, justice and freedom. He has an annoying habit of sticking his nose into everyone’s business, which make it difficult for him to make friends. He especially loves eating hamburgers and junk food, to the point of breaking into tears if he doesn’t get one, and can even eat strange and (almost) inedible-looking things due to inheriting England’s sense of taste…or lack thereof because as a child, he grew up eating England’s food (Poor kid.) Alfred is also known for not being aware of how “the atmosphere” is when he’s around others (at one point, he was told to read it.) He and the personification of Italy share that same trait and thought that it was a book and made a pact together to find and read it. It has been noted that it’s not that Alfred lacks the ability (unlike Italy, who clearly lacks the ability) to “access the situation”, he simply chooses not to. 

On multiple occasions in the comic, it has been shown that when calm OR serious, Alfred can become very logical, reading further into things than he usually would, and can actually read the atmosphere. His hobbies are sports, games and making movies. Furthermore, when he introduced himself to Japan, he stated that his hobbies were “quick-draw, archaeology and adventures” which Japan misinterpreted (to him) that Alfred’s hobby was lechery. Notably, he also possesses an abnormal amount of strength, shown that even as a child, he easily swung a full-grown bison around (much to a shocked England) and once seen running around, dragging a heavy Rolls Royce that belonged to England, behind him for an hour in order to ask permission to borrow it. In a crossover game (also made by the same mangaka), he was able to stop a car with the heel of his foot.

Alfred is shown to be ignorant of the geography outside his own home, believing that maps of the United States constitute the “world map” and that he can simply get to other countries by car travel. Also, he was shown becoming concerned about his weight and it is mentioned that he has invented strange diet machines as well as becoming obsessed with exercising (in which he became paranoid about his rising weight, as he was unaware of his building muscles…typical.) Aside from being afraid of ghosts and weighing scales, he’s scared of Marmite. It was also revealed that he has at least 238 weaknesses, one of those being Dora the Explorer (I’m sorry…what? I’ll pretend I didn’t know that). As he is obsessed with heroes and happy endings, he hopes that his future would also be that way.

Though he is friends with an alien named Tony and other weird creatures, he doesn’t believe in England’s magical friends, faeries or unicorns, except on Halloween. 

It was also mentioned in a Hetalia Christmas event, he was jealous of all the kids in his country that get presents from their fathers. That may have stemmed from (or referenced) to his fast growth (as a nation) and young age, and how he missed out on a lot of his childhood things by growing physically mature so quickly, as well as what seemed to be the lack of parents for most of the nations, even if he was practically raised by England (on a more brotherly relationship) and having a brother, namely Canada, who was raised by England AND France.

Along with USA, of course, we can’t forget his dear brother: Canada!

Basic Statistics:

Name (Human name): Canada/Matthew Williams

Gender: Male

Birthday: July 1

Hair Color: Dark blond/ Blond Orange

Eye Color: Violet

Appearance:

Matthew’s hair is wavy and most of the times depicted as two-toned; lighter blind on top and more of an orange (or darker blond) shade on the bottom and tips. He has violet eyes and sports a curly ahoge off the top of his head, just like his brother: Alfred. 

He is always seen wearing a heavy tan winter coat and pants as his military uniform, though when dressing casually, he’s usually shown wearing a hoodie (sometimes with the Canadian flag emblem on it) and a pair of jeans. He wears glasses like his brother, yet he also sports a pair of goggles on his head at times.

Often drawn a little shorter in his fanarts, the official art of Canada makes it rather clear that he’s either the same height/build as his brother or very close to it.

Personality and Interests:

In contrast to his loud and obnoxious brother, Matthew is calm, shy, sensitive and hates fighting (yet it’s said that he’s a really strong fighter!). Despite that, often confused or mistaken for his brother, he always manages to find himself in trouble for some incidents or whatnot that his brother has caused. When not being mistaken for Alfred, almost all of the other nations tend to forget of his existence and because of his invisibility; he once got sat on by Russia, mistaking him for a ‘comfy’ chair. He is rather passive aggressive and was once even able to make Alfred cry by arguing with him for three hours straight and pointing out every single one of his faults. Matthew is also said to love maple syrup as in one chapter, he offered some to Alfred for his coffee. And according to the mangaka, he always has been a skilled tactician. 

Matthew also has a pet polar bear named Kumajirou, who (unfortunately) always forgets his owner’s name. In return, Matthew always forgets Kumajirou’s name as well.

Next issue will be the 2 Italy characters. Watch out for it!

-Arice215-

(Photo credit: all photos from kitayume site)

Wednesday Anime - Axis Powers Hetalia Part 1 - France/Francis

This segment in my blog has been dormant for sometime because my daughter and I have been too busy with other stuff. Now that she is going back as an anime-freak, I have given this Wednesday meme to her to write about.

So, welcome the first post of my daughter's Wednesday Anime series. She will be writing articles about her favorite anime characters and shows.

Here's the first post for the series:

(Photo credit: hetalia.wikinet.org)

Axis Powers Hetalia is a Japanese webcomic created by Hidekazu Himaruya. The comic centers around the historical  happenings during World War II  and  gives history  a comedical outlook.  The series  involves anthropomorphic representations of the world's nations,with the storyline jumping  from  pre-historic WWII to modern day. The  anime is very  stereotypical  with  the characters and  it  may  be  offensive to others but it is definitely a  humorous and would make history classes less boring and more interesting!

Today, I am featuring one of the main characters of Hetalia: France.



Basic Statistics:
Name (Human name): France/Francis Bonnefoy
Age (by physical appearance): 26
Gender: Male
Birthday: July 14
Hair Color: Blond
Eye Color: Blue
Height: 175 cm (5’9”)

Appearance:
He has shoulder-length blond hair, blue eyes and a slight amount of facial hair which he believes makes him look like an "*onii-san." His facial hair represents the Gorges du Tarn, or Tarn Gorges, that he’d been growing since the late 18th century (and yet he looks like he isn’t a day over 20…) He wears a long blue coat with matching caplet, red pants and brown boots, even though it has been said by both England and America that he sticks out like a sore thumb dressed like that. (His reason was that he looks fashionable and that the others’ outfits look like trash…oh France, you.) He is depicted, if not often, with a rose (which inadvertently is also used to censor his genitals when he goes out nude)

Personality and Interests:
Francis was once considered a large nation, but after the death of Napoleon Bonaparte, he became useless during wars and instead used wine to attract tourists top his country. He has a very intense rivalry with England, and enjoys fighting with him over trivial things like “who is more perverted amongst the two of them”. His hobbies are agriculture, fashion design, sketching, singing, manipulation activities and wandering around art museums and fashion boutiques in Paris, especially odd or chic places.

Photo credit: hetalia.wikia.com

Francis is infatuated with most of the nations and is well known for seizing every opportunity to make inappropriate innuendos and showing his affections, often by streaking or being touchy-feely.  He is very attracted to beautiful things. He said “be gentle to the ladies and be gentle to the earth.” Is his motto. He admits to being “the dandiest among the dandies”. And he loves himself so much that he doesn’t even bother to learn or remember English and considers French the “language of love”. In addition to that, he refers to the others as insignificant characters to himself.

Stated once that he’s afraid of computers (even though he isn’t intimidated by other technologies), Germany (and claims that he hates Germans in general, despite the fact that he gets along well with Germany and Prussia as of late), Russia, Switzerland (as he would shoot him down if he passes over to Swiss territory), an angry England and quite possibly, Turkey. It seems that gardening relaxes him along with reading Japan’s new manga(s).

He’s referenced his old age several times, saying things like how his waist is always creaking; his back hurts and had to surrender to sleep early in the day. Although, he gets very upset when he is called a grandpa as opposed to a big brother (a self-proclaimed title) and claiming he is still young.

He also holds a belief that those who have been “toyed with history” are always reborn, but into a normal life and get to live regular, happy lives. He manage to confirm this when he met a girl, during the modern century, named Lisa who had come to France for her birthday, which he believed to be was the reincarnation of Joan of Arc.

(Notes: *onii-san means ‘older brother’ or ‘big brother’ in Japanese)

Arice215