InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Wait for the shake!"

lissiel (lissiel) wrote,
@ 2008-12-28 18:54:00

YOU GUYS
THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER.

World History, with adorable bisho's instead of countries, in webcomic format. YES. I know. My brain explodes with the awesome too. <3

Canada, in particular, is amazing. <333

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	callitropsis 2008-12-29 11:33 am UTC (link)
	Pretty much my only exposure to Hetalia has been through camp, which makes it sound like it's all boys except for one token fangirl, and pretty heavy on the stereotypes and feminization. Is that accurate, or just the CFUD filter distorting it? (Reply to this) (Thread)

mitsuhachi
2008-12-29 11:43 am UTC (link)

That's...accurate, if somewhat exaggerated. There are far more boys than girls, but the girls there are are kind of fabulous. There is a lot of feminization (and not always in ways even I'm comfortable with, honestly)but I wouldn't say the stereotypes are so bad, any more than it always is when you're talking about something like "national character". And they're generally pretty good natured even about that.

That said? I don't think this is one you'd particularly enjoy.

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callitropsis
2008-12-29 11:52 am UTC (link)

^^;;;; Thank you.

Yeah, America was the first to get into camp, and was pretty adorable, but then that sparked a huge wave of other people apping the same canon (as often happens, especially when the canon is easy to get into), and around the third time that somebody described a boy character as a "housewife" for one of the others, I started to think that perhaps this was not the political satire for me. XD

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mitsuhachi
2008-12-29 12:21 pm UTC (link)

...Ok, it is not THAT bad. There is ONE count of such a thing even being implied, and the character so-described made a huge WTF??? face. That was the POINT of that joke. Argh. Argh.

Honestly, I think that as long as you avoid strips about Italy--who is SUPPOSED to be a laughingstock, and is the source of pretty much all of the feminization-as-humiliation--it's really funny, and often thought provoking. Living together is a metaphor for political domination and so on--it makes the story work on both the happy-frou-frou level and the messed-up politics level at the same time, which I really enjoy. And, I mean... read the Canada strip. That's Hetalia when it's good. I can't help it if fanbrats focus on the bits of stupid and make them worse. -o-

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callitropsis
2008-12-29 12:47 pm UTC (link)

Really, I think you were right that it's just not going to be my speed -- Canada's strips are cute, but they don't hook me the way they seem to have grabbed some other people. It's a concept that sounds great! But I don't know, maybe it's the format, maybe it's just my sense of humor; the execution doesn't push my buttons.

...And as much as I might not share their excitement, I do respect a lot of the Hetalia players in camp. I don't really think it's fair to call them fanbrats just because they enjoy the strips differently than you do.

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	mitsuhachi 2008-12-29 01:13 pm UTC (link)
	That may well be the case. I'm not that familiar with camp. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	mitsuhachi 2008-12-30 01:22 am UTC (link)
	Argh. Okay. You'd think that I'd been in fandom long enough by now not to need reminding that "personally frustrating to me" isn't the same thing as "invalid". But apparently I do occasionally. -_-; Thank you for doing so; I'm sorry for being a brat. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	callitropsis 2008-12-30 12:25 pm UTC (link)
	^_^;; I think everyone needs the reminder occasionally, and I know how easy it is to get protective of something you've just fallen hard for. ♥ Thank you. (Reply to this) (Parent)