Plot and story:
This OVA is based on the manga event from halloween 2013 where the countries attend a halloween party and try to win the costume competition.
Although the scenes shown in the OVA are accurate (more or less) to how they were in the canon manga, the anime director removed plenty of scenes, characters, dialogues and even the "red string" of the event just for the sake of fanservice.
Characters:
After I had watched this OVA, I was in rage with how the anime director had degraded the characters.
One of the characters they degraded was (ze awesome) Prussia, one of the most loved characters in the Hetalia fandom. His lines were reduced from 19 to 1. One.
Another character that was degraded was Canada. He was supposed to announce who the winner of the costume competition was. Of course they didn't care about this scene and decided to focus on Hong Kong talking to Iceland for the first (and only) time instead.
Switzerland and Liechtenstein's dialogues with both each other and the others were completely removed, which was probably where I'd had enough. Neither of them had appeared in the previous episodes, so when I heard they were making this event as an OVA, I was happy since I'd finally see them along with other forgotten characters (Greece, Turkey, Cuba etc.). Then I watched the OVA. The forgotten characters' scenes got one cameo each.
The anime director even removed Switzerland completely from a scene they used in the OVA that he was supposed to be in. The hell?
Design and art:
As usual, Hetalia has good art. They used the same style as they used in Beautiful World. Nothing new other than the halloween costumes the countries wore.
They did a fine job with the anime adaptation of the costumes Hidekaz made.
Ending:
Like I said, they removed the "red string" of the event. The costume competition was the most important thing in the event. Everyone wanted to win this competition and were looking forward to the announcement of the winner. And when it was time to announce the winner - It was shorted down to a cameo.
Overall:
The OVA was literally made for yaoi fangirls who squeal over pairings like UsUk, FrUk, GerIta, HongIce etc.
All characters outside the pairings either got their lines/scenes reduced or completely removed, which was nothing but insulting to the fans of those characters and to Hidekaz who made them.
Even the "red string" of the event was cut short and overshadowed because of fanservice.
The yaoi fangirls may be overjoyed for the moments their fanon pairings got, but I'm not. I don't mind fanservice as long as it doesn't ruin the story, which is what the anime director did with this OVA. They focused more on pairings rather than the actual plot.
I thought the anime director of Hetalia would keep it professional and not ruin the amazing anime for fanservice, regardless of how many fans a pairing has. Looks like I overestimated them.
Hopefully, they won't do it again.
