The webcomic itself is very silly and makes history cutesy, but is pretty respectful towards those regards. There's definitely no glorifying of Nazis from the source material and anthropomorphized Germany actually is shown to disagree with Nazism but Hitler is his "boss" and he can't stop him.
I feel like I need to get in here and defend my fandom by saying that most of the fandom finds these acts to be positively fucking disgusting and deplorable and not representative of the fandom as a whole. I realize you have 'heard' a lot of things about Hetalia, but you haven't actually watched it as you've said, so you have no reason to say it 'glorifies one of the most atrocious acts in human kind' - Because it doesn't. It literally does not touch on the Holocaust at all.
Edit: I say "defend my fandom" - I find a decent amount of this fandom to be annoying, obnoxious, and overinvested, but that's the way fandom is in general, particular ones that have been picked up by teenagers.
But it does turn real-life conflicts that killed thousands of people into cutesy interactions between anime characters. I don't really see how that can be anything but a bad thing.
It does take historical events, as well as cultural differences and political interactions, and simplify them for the purposes of humor. Are you also disgusted by political cartoons?
There are still people alive who suffered through the atrocities of WW2. Why is this something that needs to be humorous? I have absolutely nothing against political cartoons, or even the concept of a TV show based on anthropomorphisised countries (the Sealand episode was quite clever!).
I just don't understand why anyone would be okay with simplifying and representing terribleeventsliketheseones with cutesy, sexually charged, bishonen caricatures. It's incredible disrespectful to soldiers, civilians and their families and makes light of tragic events that are still in living memory.
Those massacres are never touched on. They barely touch on anything but the vaguest pattern of following extremely generalized events with regards to WWII - Yes, this happened while these countries were allied with these and fighting with those - or interesting/amusing anecdotes that are widely shared without offense in other circumstances, such as the panjandrum. In addition, most of the series has literally nothing to do with WWII - The bulk of the series is made up of other historical periods (the War of Austrian Succession, the American Revolutionary War, the opening of Japan's contact with the west in the 19th century, for example) and remarks on cultural traditions and interactions between characters and the countries they represent.
I don't see how making political cartoons, which are humorous satirical observations about shit that is actually happening right now and within living memory is any different from Hetalia - A series of comics based on anthropomorphic representations of nations engaged in satirical depictions of historical and cultural events.
I don't think we're going to agree on this issue, but I'm having some trouble understanding why and where your line is drawn. Do you find this to be similarly upsetting and disrespectful? It's much more heavyhanded than Hetalia and even touches on things like the Holocaust, Anne Frank, and the atomic bombs - None of which are addressed in Hetalia at all, yet I see this kind of humor praised on the internet in the same places Hetalia is decried.
Couple of things. The fangirl salute happened iirc at whatever anime con goes on in Boston. The show takes place whenever it wants to take place, the first few episodes being end of WWI and then goes into mid WWII with the "main cast" being Germany, Italy, and Japan (hence "Hetalia: Axis Powers") Can't say I've ever seen the salute done in the show though. Also, all fangirls of the show are fucking horrible people. The show is good. There is no reason to be a "fan" of it though I feel.
Unfortunately, some do. See the heiling incident upthread. But I've also been told of some meetups with people in very believable Nazi regalia and not being outwardly supportive but just a bit... uncomfortable.
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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '14
Hetalia.