Anime & Manga News

Kids Station Responds that No Korean In Hetalia Anime [Updated on Jan 15]

by dtshyk
Jan 13, 2009 1:27 AM | 132 Comments
According to Yumiuri Online, Kids Station officially responded to South Korean Netizens' request to cancel the airing of "Axis Powers Hetalia". They said "We didn't know there has been a protest in South Korea. However, no Korean character will show up in the anime."

Netizens in South Korea has been claiming that Hetalia manga is insulting Koreans and conducting a protest campaign to collect signatures.

Ref. The Korean character in Hetalia manga

Source: Yomiuri

Edited on Jan 15th==================
Korean Congresswoman States "Hetalia anime is a criminal act"
At a diplomacy council of South Korean Congress, a congresswoman Jeong Mi-Kyeong stated that Japanese animation Hetalia was considered to be a crime on a private level.

Source: imnews.com

20 of 132 Comments Recent Comments

necr-

Mar 30, 2012 10:56 PM by deadpool3943

Gosh it's just an anime! Just for fun. They don't really need to take it seriously.. -___-;
I actually hoped Korea would appear in the anime, but it seems that he wouldn't.. DX

Oct 1, 2011 1:36 AM by removed-user

I'm typical Korean who hates Hetalia to death. I just hate the fact that Korea is cute little guy who follows Japan all the time. Bull shit.

Sensitive? Sure. But any country will be sensitive if country like Japan, which gave most suffering to your own and distorting history for their nationalism, describe your country as if following every single stereotypes of your country that '2ch' created, you must get angry. We are tired of Japan's shit of altering history all the time, and cannot bear it any more.

Sep 2, 2011 3:32 AM by ringoo4

Hey guys, I'm sorry to disappoint you guys with this answer, but as a Korean/Japanese girl (my mom is japanese and my dad is korean), I've had many jokes on me.

I was raised here in Korea since I was young, and to tell you the truth, Koreans (that were born in Korea) just like getting mad/worked up over anything. You see tons of funny jokes that make you want to crap your pants in Japan and other countries like Saturday Night Live from America or Hardo Gay from Japan. (Just a few examples) However, if a celebrity were to perform these kind of acts, Koreans will immediately take action to shun this "disgusting being".
I can say that Koreans just love taking a stand against things. It may be in their culture, and what I told you is just one of many examples. If a male celebrity is dating a female celebrity, the female fans will go through hell to get that female celebrity out of the entertainment buisness. Etc. Etc.

http://blog.naver.com/tkrhkehrud?Redirect=Log&logNo=10040718230

This netizen isn't mad about the being imprisoned by Japanese. He wasn't even alive when this all happened, honestly.
He's mad because (taken directly from his words):

1. The character looks stupid (and his clothes are all wrong)
2. The character's a pervert.
3. "독도는 우리땅이라구요" -->"Dokdo is our land"
4. The character follows the Japanese.
5. The character only takes pride in his land.

*However, like many of you have already stated, all of the other country characters had their own cute faults as well. So in other words, this person was just mad because Japan said it and he has an immature hate for them IMO.

http://agfei95.blog.me/30041003241

This person is mad because

1.Our clothes are wrong
2.They claim that Koreans are brothers with Chinese.
3.They claim that Koreans enjoy touching Japanese women's breasts.
4.They claimed that Korea's birthday is May 1st when it is in fact August 15th
5.They claim that Korea is important/vital to America.
6.They portray Korea as someone who takes pride only in his own country.
7. They clamed that we created the (han-jja).
8. The anime is stupid/weird/retarded.

*As you can see these Koreans are just being sensitive and a bad sport. As someone who's been born in another light and lived here long enough, I understand how they feel and act, yet I do not agree with them. It's just somewhere in their culture.


However, let's face it here: if they wish for their country to not be insulted through broadcast (almost) worldwide, whether it be with other countries or not, that's their choice.

Nov 16, 2010 7:34 AM by cherryberryf

May 3, 2010 12:36 PM by kariya-kun

At least they have a Korea in the series. Where the hell is my Republic of Ireland character?

May 3, 2010 8:45 AM by Sakata-san

Alwerien said:
What the. I'm not sure what should Italy say then XDD. Being made fun of...it goes for all for them >.> Jeez.
I always thought Korea was cute :<


Exactly.... >__>

Apr 15, 2010 5:10 AM by bwub

There's no singapore so am i going to protest? are koreans fucking stupid?

Apr 14, 2010 4:55 PM by JiakBaKaEng

Well, many other countries are being portrayed in their respective ways as well. Of course, people would find stuff like that insulting, but it's time to be more open.

Mar 24, 2010 3:16 AM by AlexSadist-sama

mr_utopia_man said:
People take nationalism way too seriously.


Fantan said:

But it's satire. These things shouldn't be taken seriously for god's sake.

Korea will be missed.


agreed with you both.
awww that sensitive people.. ;A;

Mar 24, 2010 3:09 AM by BRabbit

First, on the textbooks, when teaching American History, there is over two hundred years of histrory to cover,
Oh my, Such Long History! Puh-lease, we here have 1300 years history and manage to cover it for 12 years... WWI and WWII are practically teached one whole semester... Though we learn only things, concerning Europe... Sadly, we can't cover it all too, but we have a really long history, y'know?

And I understand the koreans. From far as I read here, their situation is similar to ours with Turkey. They ruined our empire /not exactly... But with all those skillful khans and kings, we made some cool history... Maybe we could have become something, by the time of King Simeon, we were reaching 3 seas AND Byzantian Empire was paying as /what was the word... no, not debt... get my point?/. They enslaved us for 500 years and did nothing for us! My dad always say, "I wish we were enslaved by England for example... They would've take care of us, unlike them. And then the comunism, blah-blah, and now we're one of the poorest in Europe. We can use all those 1300 years of history to wipe our butts, nothing else. So yeah, almost nobody here likes Turkey, and we never will, cause we're that much of a stupid patriots. So try to understand the koreans! Even if the japanese are sorry, even if this is a joke - it's still the same. All this hatred just can't go away. We, bulgarians, will react the same if Turkey did that. ;)

The funny thing is, probably almost no one here even knows that there's such a country in Europe. It pretty much sucks to be patriot, cause you know it's all in the past. Curse year 1396 ><
I don't hate the turkish people, it's not their fault, but something like that won't pass by. Probably the koreans feel the same way as I do. You guys just... don't know what it's like ;) I wouldn't mind making fun of for WWII though... We pretty much sucked for allies anyway, it'll be fun. Plus, Japan did nothing to us, so why bother ? ^_^ Besides, we're pals, quite some japanese people are living here fter they grew old xD

Mar 19, 2010 10:54 PM by Nao-stani

Which is why I started watching it... I found this lovely topic, and as part German, I loved the fact that the sterotypes we tend to joke about ourselves are in there, even thought they don't always hold true.

Feb 14, 2010 12:31 AM by Yemi_Hikari

Oh my... .__.

Sep 20, 2009 9:15 PM by DarkRabbitReaper

Sana said:
The Koreans missed something major about Hetalia:

IT IS SATIRE!


Yup... and we should all get mad at Animal Farm because it satires the human race as nothing more then pigs. Or we should get mad at a modest proposal, for wanting to ... if you haven't read it, I won't spoil it... but it should be banned for its over zelous suggestions... even though the peice of work helped to draw proper attention to a need at the time. Oh... or we should get upset about Pet Shop of Horrors. I saw the Anime and it had quite a bit of satire on the human ego there... I am being sarcastic about this... these peices are actually very good peices of work...

Jul 7, 2009 8:40 PM by Yemi_Hikari

The Koreans missed something major about Hetalia:

IT IS SATIRE!

Jun 28, 2009 1:16 PM by monopura

Sotoriel said:
But what most people don't realize, for those that are a bit oblivious to world history or let alone the cultures of others, is that Korea was occupied by Japan during this time, and let's just say that resentment and bitterness STILL exists as of today. I know to some people you want to say "Just forget about it and move on," but that's just something you really can't do. It's just something really personal and touchy, and so in a sense, I see why they are overreacting.


I knew that Korea was occupied by Japan, but so was China during this time frame. Yet we didn't see China complaining about their character. There is also some rather bad blood between China and Japan, though not as bad as Korea if I recall.

I have only seen the anime, does anyone know if there was something particular about the character that they took offence with? Because... it is ridiculace if it was just because they had a character in Hetalia... but if there was something particular that they found... I guess off beat?

Actually... I can think of France and Germany possibly holding a simular grudge... because there are lands that are still disputed over which should belong to which country. Doesn't help that one peice of it is known as a wheel or hubub of commerce in Europe.

Jun 26, 2009 9:55 AM by Yemi_Hikari

Well, to some degree, they do have a right to complain, but at the same time, it's a bit overreacting of Koreans to do that.
But being a Korean and all, I guess I could see why.

But what most people don't realize, for those that are a bit oblivious to world history or let alone the cultures of others, is that Korea was occupied by Japan during this time, and let's just say that resentment and bitterness STILL exists as of today. I know to some people you want to say "Just forget about it and move on," but that's just something you really can't do. It's just something really personal and touchy, and so in a sense, I see why they are overreacting.

At the same time though, the series in general is supposed to be sheer satire and parodies, and so it is a bit over the top to complain about it, especially when there are far more... umm... "interesting" characters such as Italy and England, ahaha. But you know, before you dismiss this as "stupid" or "ridiculous", do realize that there's a lot more behind the relationship between Japan and Korea, ESPECIALLY during that time period.

Jun 23, 2009 6:40 AM by nolongerusingbye

CRY MOAR

Jun 22, 2009 7:42 AM by Rafira

Pinkydragon said:

Either US textbooks don't point out the minor details... or they don't add anything that doesn't associate with America. >_>; Probably the latter.

Anyways, I would recommend not bashing Koreans for complaining about a character supposedly representing them. They do have the right to complain you know.


First, on the textbooks, when teaching American History, there is over two hundred years of histrory to cover, not to mention, the conutry is huge, so the World Wars get maybe one, perhaps two chapters. So, minor details on a LOT of things get cut out. Thus, if it doesn't play a part in American History, it ends up cut.

Then there are the World History textbooks. Most focus on the European part of the war, not the Asian part. And I also think that teachers don't cover it, because... do you know how many countries and island names there are for the Pacific area? A whole lot... which caused problems. And most haven't covered this themselves, as truth be told, the European part gets shown the most.

Minor details get left to college classes and I will tell you this... even then there is SO much information, they tend to not get covered. Which is why most people find histroy a very boring subject, but I love it!

...

Second, we aren't saying that they shouldn't complain about representation. That wasn't the issue. The issue was that they tried to censor work that most of them didn't know the full story behind. They just heard about the anime, and went up in arms. It's kind of like how some people heard about a human sacrifice in book four of the Harry Potter books and went up in arms... they didn't have the full story. In fact, the story was not completly true.

...

Windy... part of the reason that we're saying the Italy has more right to be offended then any other country is because Italy seems to be the main character, and the one that ends up made fun of the most. Truth be told, any person of a country has the right to be offended by something, but unless it is really something that is majorly overboard, which this show isn't, they don't have the right to censor this.

...

Song of the South is missing from American Disney releases just because someone took offence at the movie, when there is nothing wrong with it, just like Axis. This makes my mom mad, because she can't get a copy for over here. And the biggest bad part of that... this is one of the first movies to have the main adult role playied by an actual African American, and he is the first to receive an Academy Award amoung the black community, though it was an "honorary" one. And Baskett's role is awsume!

In other words, for me it isn't an issue of whether or not someone should or should not be offended, but whether that offence is good enough reason for cencorship.. most of the time... it isn't.

Jun 22, 2009 7:33 AM by Yemi_Hikari

I wish I could Take the stand on TV and address the Korea thing. I would say what other people are scared to say. I don't give a Damn what people in Korea thinks of me. I also have friends that live in Korea If they get pissed then that is there fault. Every Country gets made fun of and they actually cried over something like this. If I just had 2 minutes on a special broadcast people from that country would want to kill me.

Jun 16, 2009 1:11 AM by Mario1-7

Related Database Entries

It’s time to ditch the text file.
Keep track of your anime easily by creating your own list.
Sign Up Login