Hetalia Axis Powers: Paint it, White!

PseudoJord★ 6

Axis Powers Hetalia (or Hetalia: Axis Powers, if you prefer) has much to be proud of for itself. Starting off as a webcomic in 2006, it has since spawned a manga, a Drama CD series, an anime series, and now a theatrical film. The movie makes several departures from the main series, most notably having a storyline as opposed to simple sketches, although a few appear in the beginning to ease the viewers into the movie. This new approach brings a few interesting twists to the Hetalia mold, but unfortunately, the movie tries too hard to stay true to its roots, giving very little newexperiences to fans in regards to characters and humor. Aside from knowing that Hetalia is about making cultural stereotypes of several countries into characters representing their respective homes, some of the basic quirks of each "nation-tan," and the fact that it's a comedy, there's not much need for prior knowledge to understand this movie. Being a fan might make you appreciate it more, however. Story (no spoilers): (5) The Hetalia movie stylistically deviates from its sketch-comedy roots in the anime for a plot-driven story, and this decision brings a few ups and downs. For one, seeing the characters outside of sketches and finally into a full fledged adventure can be quite a thrill for long time fans. Now, here's where the issues start, and there's (unfortunately) a few of them. The plot of "Ginmaku Hetalia Axis Powers: Paint it, White" is a fairly typical alien invasion story, complete with faceless invaders, UFOs, and extraterrestials speaking perfect Japanese. Trying to balance plot and humor, the movie never gives the viewers a sense that the characters are ever in any real danger, and the resolution to the entire movie was rather anti-climactic with very little catharsis in the end. Humor in the movie also took a hit. The focus on plot means that the edutainment aspect of Hetalia loses out to situational comedy, relying on the established character gags to make funny reactions when the time comes. The unfortunate part is that the movie never makes an effort to be funny without the established character gags. Virtually no jokes or gags in the movie haven't been done already in the anime (Canada's invisibility, China's numerous Chinatowns, so on and so forth), even though the setup in the movie is completely different. More on this in the characters section right up ahead. Characters: (5) What made the Hetalia series so successful has undoubtedly been its large, quirky cast of characters. Embodiments of cultural stereotypes made for hilarious interactions, especially in the skits. Staying true to the stereotypes, the movie doesn't spend much time developing each character, and that becomes a problem. The characters, completely driven by established quirks, become ridiculously predictable. While this isn't a problem in sketch comedy, watching the same character gags over and over for a full hour becomes a chore. Be prepared to watch the entire movie with England and France constantly beating each other up, even in the most crucial moments, America laughing for 60 straight minutes, Japan struggling to (and failing) to ever raise his voice, Italy running away from everything, Germany yelling at everyone, and so on. The movie focuses almost entirely on the main players of World War II (Russia, China, America, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan) with very little appearances from anyone else aside from small cameos, which was a little disappointing. Iceland is the only new character introduced to the anime here, though he eventually made an appearance in Hetalia: World Series anime as well, so he's probably already well known to anime audiences in the West. Art and Animation: (8) Okay, since the last two sections have been a bit critical, let's look at some of the more positive aspects of the movie, shall we? The art-style remains virtually unchanged from the anime series aside from new costumes for the main characters, which means that for the most part, it's pretty good. The animation takes a step up for for the movie incarnation, though it's not particularly noticeable outside of the more fast paced scenes. Sound: (7) The voice-acting cast is the same as from the anime, and they still do an excellent job of portraying the personality of each character to a tee. The music takes on a more theatrical, epic sound for the movie as opposed to the usual happy-go-lucky pieces that are used in the anime (though they're still there in the light-hearted parts, don't worry). Whilst the music isn't very memorable, they do a good job of setting the mood, which is the most important part anyhow. With that said, the theme songs "WA! Wa!! World Ondo" by the 8 main seiyuus and "Mein Gott" are songs that will stick in your head for a while. Enjoyment: (6) Even with the promise of a plot, the Hetalia movie doesn’t do much to distinct itself from the series it spawned from, and gets repetitive quickly. While this may come as a disappointment for those who sought to see some completely new Hetalia materials, as I did, fans that are a-okay with a little more of the same of what they love will probably find the movie enjoyable. Chances are, that’s most of the fanbase.

literaturenerd★ 3

Overview: I'm VERY happy to finally write this review of the Axis Powers Hetalia Movie. Why? It means I will never have to review anything else Hetalia related ever again! Plot: Wait a minute...does this mean APH actually has a plot?! For the movie adaptation of Hetalia, yes it does! Do they finally do what the series was allegedly created for and finish telling the story of WW2 with our anthropomorphic Yaoi countries? Hell NO! Instead we get a plot about aliens invading Earth. So Hetalia went from being all about WW2 to being about space aliens? (Insert joke about the History Channel here)! The aliens wishto end conflict on Earth by erasing all the world's unique cultures and making every nation completely bland and homogeneous. Yes, the Hetalia movie is a long rant against the forces of globalization and the erosion of traditional cultural heritage. (slow clap). It may have been a REALLY obvious allegory that would make even Frank Herbert facepalm, but at least the Hetalia writers tried harder than usual this time. That is to say the Japanese writers tried harder. The American script was written entirely by Funimation voice acting legend Chuck Huber, who just makes gay joke after gay joke. Honestly, at least Chuck appreciates who the fanbase is and WHY the show is actually popular. Chuck gave the fangirls exactly what they wanted, so I can't really blame him. Art: The art and animation for the official movie was honestly WAY better than the series. The use of CG was surprisingly well done and we even get a fight scene that looked decent! I'm serious, it looked better and was better choreographed than some of the later episode fights in Bleach! Entertainment: "Italy...WHY DID YOU BRING A CAT WITH YOU!!!" Literally about 95% of Hetalia's entertainment is derived from Patrick Seitz's absolutely incessant yelling and over the top German accent. I'm not quite sure why Americans seem to believe that Germans just yell at the top of their lungs all the time. Probably because of that one short, Austrian guy that died 70 years ago. The closest the movie gets to honestly being funny was when the various countries tried to impress the aliens with their own native cultures. America takes them to Vegas, China cooks for them, Russia forces them to watch ballet against their wills, and England nearly causes the annihilation of mankind by trying to give them a sample of his horrible cooking. That was almost funny! Overall: 3/10 Was it a surprise to anyone that this movie wasn't very good?! The art is an impressive upgrade, the voice acting is fine, and the bare bones of a decent allegory and cultural commentary on globalization are...almost there at times. The latter being sort of like a rejected episode of South Park that was never quite finished. However, the humor is pretty awful and the movie quickly gets tedious and annoying. Honestly, if you want to watch a stupid comedy featuring ethnic stereotypes and horrible German accents, I would recommend Beerfest. At least it is WAY better than Hetalia.