Thanks to the recent LOL Korea dorama, almost everyone and their mom most likely checked this out (or are planning to). What a way to pique the interest of people who are supposedly apathetic to this series! All hail Hetalia?!

I won’t get into details about the first episode. Making a “summary” will be a major pain in the @ss, given how “fast-paced” and confusing it is. We can most likely rely on the more hardcore hardworking fans for that anyways.

I took a peek at the manga before the anime aired, so I’d at least have an idea about it, and though I found it entertaining, I can’t really consider the anime to be a “good adaptation” of it — and by good, I mean it can stand alone, and doesn’t require pre-watching biases for the series. I have yet to hear positive responses from people who watched the anime prior to reading the manga. Why am I not surprised? =/

I mean, the anime shoved these country bishies on the viewer’s face, all in one go, with their conversations running at 100 MPH or more, simultaneously too! Obviously, the poor watchers who never read the manga would be totally confused. The 5-minute-show would’ve ended without giving them the chance to take in all that has happened, chew, digest, and well, laugh at the “jokes”.

It’s like the anime wasn’t meant to be an “adaptation”, but just an “animated version” of the 4-panel comic. The Hetalia fangirls rejoice at how “faithful” the “adaptation” was, while the Hetalia newbies remain unconvinced of its popularity and just go “meh”, because it’s too freakin’ faithful and not newbie-friendly, hence the choppy storytelling.

So yeah, to those who are gonna watch Hetalia, unless you’ve already read the manga and found it amusing, I’d say “Beware”. I’d recommend reading the manga first, before anything else, and let that guide your decision to watch and follow the ugly webcast anime. If that doesn’t convince you, well I can always point you to the pimping of the true fangirls. I’m not in any way assuring that you’ll enjoy Hetalia this way, but it will certainly increase its likelihood.

Oh and I also read the comic strip with Germany’s encounter with a box of “tomatoes” (it’s a box of oranges in the manga), and found it hilarious. I don’t understand why the anime had to split that comic strip into two (or more) eps, since that would’ve made episode 1 less confusing and more LOL. Cutting it seemed like a poor excuse to feature Chibitalia for the sake of fans, IMHO =/ Oh well, it’s too early to be ranting and complaining since this we’ve only seen the first episode, but despite how I remain hopeful for the next episodes, I think I’m gonna stick to the manga for the time being, and get to know the countries first before watching the anime.

And before I end this post, I just want to say…

Italia is moeee desu~

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