So, the concept of nations personified as humans isn't new, actually this has been done since forever, and in caricatures you have popular characters like Uncle Sam, Marianne or Michel, who are known and well etablished enough that you don't even have to mention who they are most times (at least over here in Europe). So, what makes Hetalia special and unique? This anime is based on a webcomic that a japanese hobby artist did in his freetime, and was simply done because he's been reading some books on warfare and history. Hima (the nickname the creator got from his fans) from this point on has been exploring history by himself, going to the countries that he has personified as pretty people and making comic about his experiences. This approach results in a very interesting theme of the show: curiosity. The whole story – inconsistent, crappily drawn and poorly executed by the studio – is plain about understanding the world around us by drawing, learning new things, questioning our own customs and behavior, getting to know the differences between ourselves and others while maintaining an overall feeling of togetherness. It isn't a study or a scientific paper, and it doesn't present itself as such. There's no etilist feeling about the comic, and the anime is just as happy-go-lucky. This is so refreshing so see! History has long seemed unapproachable as a topic by many, because it felt plain boring and had nothing interesting to offer. While Hamilton (the popular musical everyone talks about) did this with crazy shows and music, Hetalia does it by making all of the characters relatable dorks whom you get invested in over time. No one of the protagonists is cool, really. They're all just being awkward idiots who try to get away with bullshit. One of my friends, now a history major, got really into American history thanks to the show, while I got obsessed with Italy and another friend of mine could rant about Russia for hours. As you can see, you often pick one character and flesh it out with fanfiction and other fan-made works which explains why the fandom is so big.
Now that I explained my good rating, let's talk about the anime's quality. It's plain and simple a mess. The animation is horrible, the execution is poorly done and the overall feeling I have about it is negative. If I had to introduce someone to the show, I wouldn't show them the first episodes of the anime simply because I feel second hand embarassment for its bad looks and cheap art style. It's one of those shows I feel like I have to justify my liking for when I talk about the first arc. But I feel that if it would have went down a more professional approach, it would loose its great feeling of foolish curiosity. I still feel great attachment and nostalgia despite the looks. I know this all sounds very messy and has no logical base like other reviews, it's just mostly about my attachment to the show and I can say, I still want to recommend it to everyone.
