Hetalia: World Series

Written by Little_Wolf-18 on October 8, 2012 at 3:16 AM

The continuation: as crack-tastic, random, and unique as the first season, yet nothing really different.

Luckily enough, the story lost its narrow WWII focus. Though it can still be inappropriate in places, it doesn’t look quite as inadequate anymore as the first season did. But that’s the only thing that saves it, because a clever parody of country relations, negotiations, strife etc. still isn’t to be found here.
(Note: Actually, "Hetalia: World Series" is the third season of the Hetalia series; since both the first and second season went under the same name of "Hetalia - Axis Powers", however, I'll refer to them as the "first part/season"... makes orientation easier for me, since I'm not sure where during "Hetalia - Axis Powers" the first season ended/second season started. Just a note so nobody'll be getting confused. On with the review.)

Where “Hetalia” cites historical facts, events, gives dates or names, it still gets them perfectly right, and it gives a broader variety of those now that the mentioned focus got lost. That’s the upside. On the downside again, with it still being scatterbrained and now jumping freely not only between places and dates, but even between whole time periods, it can get even more confusing than before. (Am I honestly the only one around who expects some sort of chronology from an anime that *focuses* on history? o.o)

There’s a wide variety of male characters, with barely a handful of females at all (They actually included girls. SHOCK. … Anybody seeing my sarcasm? ;=.=) The characters themselves are the same as ever, and the few new characters are no better: stereotyped to no end; and clichés don’t work for all in all 101 eps plus a movie. Practically all characters from the first season have been reduced to one-joke ones; relationships can be rather confusing due to the missing chronology; and hardcore historical conflicts reduced to skits, where not everything might be as inadequate as it was with WWII in the first season, still aren’t entirely amusing.

The dialogue is no different from the first season. Quirky, random, stupid, gloriously simple… and where that might have been amusing at least at the start of the first season, by now it got so old it’s reduced to dust. There are sardonic and actually fresh moments, but these are few and far in between, and most of the humour is just overdone by now. Where the over-the-top voice acting might still save the dialogue, it is ruined by side characters drifting in and out of their accents, or having accents that simply don’t fit. ^^"

Music, animation, and art are no different from the first season, and don’t make me care about this anime at all. Ordinary music where there’s no dissonances; fast-paced scene changes, bright colours, simplified line-art, and plain to nonexistent backgrounds. There’s enough detail to get facial expressions across, yet side characters can be hard to tell apart (there’s only so many average-height blond half-chibified men you can draw without getting in danger of confusing them all). It is decent for its costuming, and where there’s children thrown in the mix, they’re hug-worthy judging from design alone (never mind their personalities…) but eventually, the art and animation don’t make me care about this anime.

As stereotyped as the characters are, the jokes still are no cleaner. However, on the upside, the anime still manages to be equally racist towards everyone, making it hard to take any personal offence.

But where that is an upside, “Hetalia” also is still plotless, obnoxious, and cheap. And where this worked for a while during the first season, where the characters in all their stereotyped faults were charming, during this second season, the borderline-stupidity got ultimately nothing short of yawn-worthy.

The results are still satisfying where there’s trivia to be learned or genuine anecdotes to be told. Its characters may still help you through sleep-inducing history lessons. If you didn’t get bored or rolled your eyes once during the first season, you might well stick through; the probability that you’ll like this as well is high. After all, this is not much different from the first season, except for its time frame and a number of new characters. For me, however, spoofs only work for so long, and usually not for 101 eps plus a movie.

I like the concept, frankly said. I might even have liked this season had I watched it first. Where the first season very much rubbed me the wrong way in its setting, it was as funny as it was wrong, at least for a while -- a while that definitely was not named 100+ episodes. Where this season seemed a little less controversial for its simple time setting though, one-joke characters, recycled lines and clichés, and ultimate plotlessness only work for so long.

Personally, I would much rather have seen this whole anime in a contemporary setting, or as something more clever and sardonic (along the lines of Gintama or Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei). But that is another matter. Ultimately, whether you’ll like this season or not probably will depend on how you felt about the first one. If you loved “Hetalia - Axis Powers”, you’ll most likely like “Hetalia: World Series” as well. If you didn’t, this isn’t getting any better.