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The Human Touch: Hetalia Bridges the Gap

What I’ve found is that sometimes it’s hard for people to get excited about history. Many feel like history is an impersonal subject and that countries are just lines on a map. And that’s because many people can’t connect with history because history lacks a personal touch—a human touch.

For a government class, I have to do a reading on The History of the Peloponnesian War. I don’t want to read that. It’s not a long reading, but it’s more than two pages, so it gets a big “nope” from me.

And as I was looking through this textbook, I found myself wishing there were Hetalia characters that directly represented Sparta and Athens, so that maybe I would actually enjoy the reading a little bit.

See, Hetalia creates that “human touch” that history usually lacks. Hetalia gives a human face and human emotions and human ambitions to a country that before was simply a geographical location. Hetalia bridges the gap between historical events and what it means to be a person with feelings and desires.

Civil Wars are no longer just battles that tear a country part from inside, they are battles that tear a person apart from inside—battles that manifest in the inward struggle and conflict of a human being (the personification). And we, as other human beings, can relate to that.

It is one thing to read about the American Revolution in a history class. But it’s another thing to watch the Hetalia episode and physically see the pain on England’s face and have it hit you that this is hurting him. Your heart stops then aches when you think about how Russia—no, Ivan Braginsky—was left defeated and alone after the collapse of the Soviet Union. These images cause fans to suffer and feel in ways they probably would never have if they had merely read a historical summary out of a textbook. 

Hetalia was never a way to gloss over war or sugar coat history. Hetalia was a way to make you want to rip out your heart for things you didn’t give much thought before, to make you laugh and cry and feel sincere, profound emotions about historical events that barely mattered to you before.

Hetalia has always been, and will always be, a way to make history move you.

image

#this is why i love hetalia #not because of the gay countries #though that is a part of it #but because it makes everything seem that much more personal #i can relate to the characters more and i want to learn about them #the fact that they’re (mostly) immortal just makes it all that much sadder

I feel like adding something, even though the post is already perfect.

I am lucky. I always loved History, also because my mom teaches it and gave me all the passion about it, about seeing how much there is “behind” only a series of number and events. Not everyone is so lucky. A lot of people didn’t have a person telling them about how much a King suffered or why a war was important or the real - hidden - reasons about some important revolutions, nobody ever show them how much History is about us all. Maybe they are still teens and their History Professors just want them to fill a test, take a good makr and never show their face again. For those people, Hetalia si a goddam miracle, because before they didn’t care about something and probably they would have a big big  “black hole” about a lot of stuff that actually still influences their/us lives. Now they want to learn a lot. Maybe with a Numbertalia, I would have been good at math.

Maybe it’s because they like a fictional character. Well, who cares? The reasons sometimes are not so important.

What’s important is finding the Beauty in every thing in the world. Also in a maybe boring book.

This made me tear up, guys. This is so beautiful.

Hetalia has given me the chance to relate to country personifications and just love the way that they interacted with each other.

Let’s not forget the most important aspects of Hetalia

  • It promotes learning about other cultures
  • It encourages interconnectedness
  • It encourages people to look on the brighter side of things.
  • It promotes world peace.

For something that a lot of people think is all just silly fun and games with gay countries and silly antics, we all know it’s so much more than that.

This post is so beautiful.

You know, Hetalia is a way better show than people give it credit for sometimes. Some people say bad things about it because it’s not accurate or offensive or just another pointless cartoon.

But Hetalia is a whole lot like School House Rock or Bill Nye. It’s a fun way to learn about something and it gets stuck in your head so the next time you hear about The Italian Wars or Prussia or Sealand, you can say “oh I know that!”. You also find yourself wanting to study more about it. You go look for books or look it up online to see if it is accurate and what do you know— America actually DID order 25cm condoms from Russia!

But it’s also short enough to leave you wanting to learn more, and to capture your attention. Some people have trouble with watching an anime that is 30 minutes long with 100 episodes or so. These are 5 minute bursts and each minute has something new going on, and it may take some time and some rewatching, but you finally GET IT and it’s awesome!

The best part are the characters, because they are made of clever stereotypes and all those seemingly-offensive puns are so well put-together, it can actually create a legit personality. You can find yourself thinking of yourself or your friends. Maybe you have a stiff German friend, or a tough-as-nails girlfriend who you knew since you were a kid, or a grumpy brother who swears a lot. The best shows you can watch are the ones which you can identify with, and even if your friends don’t see your logic if you say “you’re so much like Japan” or “you’d totally be Poland”, you can see it and it makes you happier.

It’s clever, it makes you happy, it helps you to learn, and other people may just see some weirdos shipping countries, but we’re actually a lot smarter than given credit for, especially since happiness can lead to success

Also, on a slightly unrelated topic, Hetalia is a way that brings people from all over together- not just Americans or the English or the Germans. t The way it shows that all countries have their faults, odd bits, or shortcomings, using comedy, shows that we can all be united under the assumption that we’re all unique in our own ways. It is a way of releasing borders by showing that while each country is vastly different than the other, we are all the same because we all share the same historical pain, while not being the same history, we can relate because all countries have experienced war or some horrible catastrophe. It also shows that we have shortcomings and we all have troubles and faults. And that’s what keeps us united as humans, which Hetalia shows by showing countries as humans because countries, no, nations, are all united with our faults and differences and similarities.

posted 8 years ago - 8,464 notes via lledxela - reblog
  1. karenusia reblogged this from heartofhetalia
  2. d-l-landcaslil reblogged this from crispyliza and added:
    This made my day! I still love Hetalia so much. It changed my life. And it is/was way less toxic than some people try to...
  3. ember--hearts reblogged this from breitzbachbea
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  10. kanftt reblogged this from ita-ships and added:
    Just yes
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