Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
leodia
this series aged so poorly. i always thought the concept of personified countries/landmasses/locales was really interesting, the character songs and themes are fun, and himaruya's art in the webcomics is nice. the humour is so blatantly racist and awful though more often than not. it has its moments like how america yells "i'm the hero" and poor canada always getting ignored, but lord.
i watched this series when i was 13-16. coming back to it as an adult, unfortunately i have grown up and see the jokes as racist shock humour or just straight up racist without the humour. as an adult coming back to it i also just cannot get over white seychelles and himaruya retroactively making her darker skinned. i think finding out about that is actually what killed any love i had left for this comic
Read at the sourceKirbyCoded
Hetalia was a phenomenon. It cannot be overstated how popular it was during the tail end of the 2000s up through the mid 2010s. Cosplayers online and at conventions, roleplayers, fan content on Livejournal, DeviantArt, YouTube—it was practically inescapable. You couldn’t move five feet without bumping into some friend group’s cosplay photoshoot or an AMV. If you’re watching Hetalia as of the time of writing this review, it’s a safe assumption that you’re either nostalgic, a general internet or fandom enthusiast, or fourteen. And if you’re fourteen, I implore you to please seek out better gag anime such as Lucky Star, Azumanga Daiou, Way of the Househusband, or, if you’re well versed enough in anime tropes, Saiki K.
That being said, I will not sugarcoat this. Hetalia is… not great, to say…
Read at the sourceBosnom
Hetalia was my favorite anime for a good portion of middle school. I've seen every episode multiple times over, and watched the whole movie for a birthday party with friends, so I am more than capable of saying that this anime is absolute dog shit.
It has great entertainment value on an ironic and nostalgic level for me, but when it comes down to actual content it's..... bad. Zero plot, little to no character development, awful pacing etc. Not good. Though, the voice acting is enjoyable, and the theme song is debilitatingly catchy.
On an unironic level it's a bad show, BUT, if you're looking for something that'll really send you back to your cringey problematic middle school past, this hits the spot.
Read at the sourceLuxuriousHeart
There is nothing worse than wasted potential...
This is the most disappointing anime I've ever watched. Not kidding, this was a great idea, but the execution was so bad!
Good
The great thing is the idea of the story. The idea of countries being personified and represented by humans is so unique and refreshing. I've rarely seen it done in any media, and I think it's the only one in anime. It could have gone in many directions. It could have been an amazing educational and fun thing that would've merged well together. It could have been a hilarious satire of our modern day world. It could have gone in other directions that I can't even think of. They instead chose THIS for the direction to go in. I literally can not. I still rate it a 4 because it's a great plot bunny. I just wish someone…
Read at the sourcememetendo
This may be the only anime I will ever review. There was a point where I was a bit obsessed with the series and I've come here to defend it.
TL;DR It's so bad, it's actually amazing, and it's not meant to be anything but such.
Axis Powers Hetalia (which I will be abbreviating as "APH") is a satirical, historical comedy about amphomorphic countries. Each character represents a different country of the world and their interactions represent historical events, focusing mostly on the events of WWII.
Story 6/10
Art 4/10
Sound 8/10
Character 9/10 Enjoyment 10/10
Overall 6/10
Before I dive in, it's CRUCIAL to know that the series is based on a webcomic that became way more popular than it should have. Both the manga and anime are really a collection of comic strips and there is not supposed…
Read at the sourceThatCrazyElitist
Have you ever imagined how this world would be if every country was a person? Neither have I. And this is exactly what Hetalia is about, that and jokes about pasta. We watch our hero Italy struggle to..... well what, I really have no idea what the characters in this story try to achieve. And wait, did I say 'story'? What story actually, is there a story in Hetalia? This anime has no story, the characters are stereotypes of countries, the art is pretty bad and the music is 'certainly interesting'..... And guess what? I actually liked this show. Though, the fandom is kind of creepy, please stop shipping countries.
~Story~ 0/10
Well, there is no story to begin with. Our main characters are Italy, Germany and Japan and most of the time they are 'fighting' in World War II, though our main char…
Read at the sourceRawr018371
I started watching Hetalia, mainly because my friends were talking about it, and I felt the need to find out what in the world they were so happy about. After watching Hetalia, I couldn't stop re-watching the episodes or re-enacting the voices (dub version) because of how great the anime is. Falling under the 'Comedy' genre, it is by far my favorite to help cheer me up when I'm down.
If you are offended easily by your race or religion, I do not recommend this anime to you. Some swearing is included throughout Hetalia (it's very rare to hear if you were wondering).
Besides enjoying it and laughing at scenes from the show from time to time, it actually helps you in Social Studies/History class in school. Knowing about the wars, and all the events that have happened in history is WAY MORE…
Read at the sourceCharlesBarkley
Oh, man. Never in my life have I seen such a large neckbeard gathering. I was going to watch it since I heard a lot of praise about it. The fanbase is even more terrible than this anime. The concept sounds unique. Nations are represented with a single character, going through historical events such as WWI and WWII. The art is good enough, I suppose. However, everything else just makes me want to vomit. You know those anime that are just there for shipping and yaoi and other stuff like that? Yeah, this is one of those. Except Hetalia takes it to the extreme. This anime's sense of humor comes from people loudly yelling "baka" a lot and terrible punchlines. They don't even do the stereotypes correctly. Honestly, how could you mess that up? The soundtrack is so terrible I want to cut my ears o…
Read at the sourceliteraturenerd
The idea of creating a story with characters representing countries or aspects of a single country has been done many times in literature. Midnight's Children with India and Pakistan as Saleem and Shiva. The Tin Drum with Oscar Matzerath representing the German people during the Nazi period from 1933-1945. 100 Years of Solitude, where almost every facet of Colombian history and culture has a character devoted to it. Where does Hetalia fall when matched up against the aforementioned 3 novels. Well...nicht so gut. Hetalia relies on very simplistic stereotypes and slapstick humor that isn't really that funny. You won't actually learn anything about history from watching Hetalia either. According to Hetalia, WW2 was about the saintly Germans and Japanese fighting the moronic Americans and evil…
Read at the sourceArkanium
This is my first time reviewing so I apologize if there is anything that isn't very good or professional in reviewing but I will try my best.
So, Hetalia Axis Powers. I first found this anime when I was searching for a historical anime in the forums. I asked and well, I found this. I decided to give it a try after seeing some images in Google but when I actually watched the anime, I found out it was only 5 mins so I got confused on whether I am watching fan made videos or this is it. So I didn't watch it. Months after that, I just accepted it and watched the whole series and I have to say, I am grateful I decided to watch it again.
Story: 7
I can only give the story a 6 because it has no real story. Just mostly little strips that last a few episodes. Though that is the case, those little…
Read at the sourceElfsire
I decided to watch this anime after seeing cosplays for it at the mcm Expo in October last year.
I started watching without consulting any reviews and I must say my cat face exposed itself on many occasions. >(0_0)< * poor artistic impression
Now Hetalia's only down side is the five minute episodes, I was laughing so much during this anime I found it hard to breath at times. However it was hard to stay focused because the episodes ended quickly and I had to load the next one up.
Characters were on the mark, no one can fault cute little Italy. He portrays the new country very well and upon meeting him and right up to the end I loved him.
Russia provides the darker humor and is great, he is a good balance next to the little air headed Italy. I often wonder what a big dinner party with all…
Read at the sourcemrzkitty
wow... just.. WOW!! this anime blew my mind!!! it was amazing!! i loved everything!!!!
ok lets start with the story.. again AMAZING! the whole concept of this anime is to teach world history in a new, fun, and quirky way.. that goal is definitely achieved.. i learned things in world history that my teacher never covered including myths and etc and since it teaches in this hilarious way its easy to remember everything you learned too.
now onto the art: in my opinion the art was magnificent i loved how cute everyone was in their chibi forms!! and i loved how each individual counties character form matched their countries persona's like how canada looked almost exactly like america because the countries dont really have much cultural differences.
sound: good no problems
character: here's…
Read at the sourceLoneObserver
The title "Hetalia" reveals itself the nature of this anime, the combination of "hetare", "useless" on a free translation, and "Italia" is, itself, a cynical reference to the poor outcomes of the italian army on many conflicts on the course of history. So, if you have special bonds to any country, be prepared, watching this anime may be a trial by fire.
The main reason for that is the historically based storyline and the socially accepted esthereotypes that make the characters be who they are.
But, first, I should explain who are these characters and why the history is so relevant for this anime, after all, some of you readers may not have heard much of it before.
Hetalia is an anime based on the events occured on WW1 and WW2, mainly. This is valid for the "Axis Powers" season as well a…
Read at the sourcebaskervwatson
It's probably a good thing that these episodes are five minutes long, because that's about all one could take of this without there being a plot. I thought that many of the episodes were amusing, but the fact that there is so much commotion going on at any one point in such a short amount of time made me struggle to keep up. Talk about speed-reading.
I think that as something to amuse purely because the characters are bishounen and hyper, it does it's job. But that's about it. There isn't anything especially witty and if this is trying to be a satire, it has failed incredibly on many levels, least of all historical accuracy. But then again, I'm probably taking it far too seriously and expecting too much.
Guess I should pop some speed with the rest of the tweens if I really want to enjoy…
Read at the sourcesen_mcgrath
If you just got out of a holocaust musem, you might want to skip this one. However, if you are in the mood for a screwball comedy about adorable nations poking fun at some of the darkest parts of our past, then I highly reccomend it.
This ONA follows little to no plot, but rather presents a series of skits and shorts like a variety show. Some of these take place during the WWII era, some take place in the present, some during the American Revolution or Austrian Succession ect. While the show is primarily a comedy, it sometimes deviates from this to present some drama that tugs at fangirl's heartstrings. Some moments are actually really touching or depressing, but then goes right back into screwball comedy.
The cast mainly follows the main Axis Powers: Japan, Italy and Germany, as well…
Read at the sourceFlyingHigh13
When I first heard of this series, it was from my anime-obsessed friend, who had recently turned me over to anime and manga. Now, this was at three in the morning, mind you, and I didn't feel like reading the manga, so I searched for the anime. Upon finding the first episode, I had to pause it every few seconds to read what they were saying, because it was going by so fast. After a minute or two, I decided, 'Screw this, I'm going to sleep'. About a month later, I decided that I would really try to watch the anime. Once I got past the first rapid-fire scene, I found it to be extremely enjoyable. Having a lot of time on my hands, I ended up watching thirty episodes in one day. The 26th episode is by far my favorite. (More than one of my family members/friends have received threats from Busby…
Read at the sourceotaku_tonma
When I first started Hetalia I was obsessed with Bleach. I mean obsessed, I even had dreams about the series. But that changed.
When I first heard about Hetalia I laughed at it. The idea seemed completely stupid. I read a few reviews and laughed. People said it was confusing and the art was rubbish. That put me off. A week later I was ill and bored. I wanted to watch some anime, but was completely up to date with everything. I decided I'd give Hetalia: Axis Powers a shot.
By the end of the evening, I felt so much better. I watched about 12 episodes and simply loved it! The ending theme (Marukiate Chikyuu) was great, the characters all really good and the jokes had be rolling around. For the first episode or two the plot was confusing, then I realised, there sort of wasn't one. I mean the…
Read at the sourceinkmouse
This is definitely a funny series. It incorporates all those stereotypes we know and joke about, and also informs about some they used to have in war time (as in what the Italians would say when they were at gunpoint in war). However, if it's good satire on accurate history, you won't find it here. Each episode is only five minutes long, so you already know it'll be rushed.
Simple things like the way the relationships between different countries are presented aren't really true. Yes, France and England hate each other, but then there's the enactment of the American Revolution that, like I've said before, is totally inaccurate.
Yes, I know, it's a cartoon, but I love history and I can't help pointing out little details when it comes to all those little flashbacks and also presentation of…
Read at the sourcetomorulez
I hardly ever laugh out loud when watching anime, but that all changed when I saw an episode of Hetalia: Axis Powers, a webcomic turned anime by Hidekaz Himaruya. The first episode opens up in a UN-like setting, where we are introduced to the characters. The characters of Hetalia are the personifications of countries. The characters live up the their countrie's stereotypes, and act out parts of history filled with gags, laughs, and pasta.
Story. 8
The storyline of Hetalia is very original, and it's obvious a lot of research was put into creating this series. But if you are looking for a deep plot filled with twists, this is not the anime for you. Each episode is sort of like a series of comedic skits, and even though North Italy is suposed to be the main character, many episoded revolve…
Read at the sourceMoWriter
I jumped into Hetalia Axis Powers with high hopes. Online friends and real life friends gave the series such high praise. They swore that Hetalia was one of the best anime they'd seen. At appearance, Hetalia looked as good as they said, with a great set of beginning episodes. As the series progressed, however, I began to feel that Hetalia was just an over-hyped series that didn't deserve the credit that it was getting.
At first, I loved the story. With every country represented by a single character going through the events of World Wars I and II, what wasn't to like? The beginning of the series brought up the relationships between the countries very well, and stuck with the important, historical points of the two wars. As the series progressed, however, the story began to steer away from…
Read at the source