Since I read about this comic book at asahi.com, I have been curious about it. I bought and read it as I came back to Japan to visit my parents.
Himaruya Hidekaz, Hetalia: Axis Power, Gentosha, 2008
The author started to post the cartoons online while he was studying design in NY. He became interested in the stereotypes based on the nationality, and in this cartoon, each country (mostly European but including the US, Canada, Japan, China and Korea) is literally personified, and interacts with each other in the form of young males. The cartoon soon became popular online, and 100,000 copies were sold in the first month of the publication.
I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it probably serves as an accessible media of ‘world history’ for the younger generation. You do not learn a lot about historical facts from the cartoon, but its cute drawings and anecdotes might spark the reader’s curiosity in history.
On the other hand, the idea that a single person embodies a nation is uncomfortable for those who study history like me. Over-simplification is anathema for historians, and the idea of this cartoon sits at the opposite end from what historians usually prefer.
Many of the descriptions are disturbing, too. This volume, as subtitled as “Axis Power,” devotes many pages to interactions among Germany, Japan and Italy. Germany is depicted as a masculine, disciplined, efficient military general, and Japan is a young, reserved, yet technologically competent prince (probably the emperor), while Italy is a cute and friendly but weak and useless boy which blindly follows Germany. All these characteristics are no doubt problematic and alarming in our eyes— Interwar Germany without Hitler? Quiet and rational Japan and Emotional Korea? Today’s stereotypes casted over WWII? There are so many disturbing elements in this comic book.
This cartoon deals with the problem of gendering the nations in a curious way. Just like many other Japanese cartoons, some of the characters, although they are all male, show a great deal of femininity and metro-sexuality. Actually it is hard to tell their sex from the drawings. The author could almost ignore the gender problem by following the Japanese way of cartooning.
I totally agree with your concerns. The idea of personified nations as characters can of course be fun, but these national-level stereotypes, especially when applied to a period of history like this merely reifies the idea of a “national spirit” that was one of the reasons behind the horrors of mid-20th to start with.
I’d be surprised if there was a “history manga” that didn’t offend in terms of national stereotypes or one-sided ideological leanings. The two I’ve seen (Kankanryuu and A History of Taiwan in Comics) were pretty bad.
嫌韓流 and 小林やすのり’s 台湾の歴史 have very strong political opinions. But Hetalia does not have such a strong message but focuses on a more entertaining aspect. Because of its ‘innocent’ look, the reader of Hetalia is less careful in absorbing the information, I’m afraid.
I have similar issues with the politics of Hetalia myself, even though I admit I do enjoy it. I suppose that, as opposed to the kind of oversimplification inherent in political cartoons contemporary to any era, this kind of moe anthropomorphism applied to history does make the political agendas of the author more opaque. It’s a dangerous kind of subtlety when the effects of these events still hold so much relevance to the political context of today. I enjoy it for the same reasons I’d enjoy any webcomic, and appreciate why it has the kind of fan-base it does, but it often just strikes me as being in rather poor taste.
Hi
Just dropping by… I think this is the most sanest post I’ve read regarding this comic book given the recent issues this comic book engendered. I personally think the book should’ve been keep as a webcomic, not be created into an animated series as well.