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Very small vacation, but I'm back home now.
And what should be in the mailbox but......HETALIA DVD 3!!!!! *O* So giddy, I jumped up and down, several times. *U* (Oh, and my brother's order of Shin-chan box 3 parts 1-2 came with.) But now, the fun is over. I _just_ finished all the episodes on the new DVD. Now it's time to wait for the next release. x_x...
I didn't order the Hetalia movie along with DVD 3, even though it was also on sale. I'm hoping that, in the future, Funimation will license the Hetalia OAVs, and maybe even bundle it with the movie.
Honestly, when I watched the Hetalia movie before, I didn't have as much fun with it, as I thought I would. I tried to figure out why it didn't really work for me. (I've been beating my brain out about the same thing with Underworld.) I hate it when I don't understand stuff, especially about myself.
So, my first theory was that the movie was too long. The Hetalia series is formatted into very short episodes and sporadic, 4-koma webcomics. Maybe a movie format wasn't able to hold some kind of appeal aspect that the series was able to do for me. Now, what that appeal aspect was, I could only speculate based on precedent(s). I used to watch a cartoon series called Recess. It was an unusual format for Disney TV series at the time, because each episode was only 15 minutes or less. But I found that that short time-frame format forced the comedy to be paced quickly, with no time for any type of lag in the story. When Recess got its own movie, that format suddenly allowed all this lag to creep in and slow down the usual fast pace, that I had liked about the comedy. Perhaps this was the same phenomenon with the Hetalia movie? 0~0???
So my second theory was actually counter to a previous claim I had made about Hetalia. A while ago, I was beginning to think that the majority of the fun of Hetalia was more in the fandom, than in the actual series itself. Perhaps this was an effect of re-watching all the fun from past Hetalia cosplay gathering videos. When I watch those memories, I feel like the fans are even more fun than just sitting and watching the anime. Even though watching Hetalia still manages to make me laugh out loud (which is a remarkable feat), I still don't watch my Hetalia DVDs as often as one would think. In fact, I only recently put some of the DVDs in to (re-)watch. But I am online everyday, checking-in with the Hetalia fan community. Sometimes I think a fandom can make a series more enjoyable than actually watching the series. Again, I had a precedent with this same phenomenon in the Slayers fandom. Much more than re-watching the anime, I was more addicted to being online, reading fanfics, drawing fanart, and participating in the fan community. It was actually more fun than simply watching the very anime that the fandoms were built around. It's a strange phenomenon, but can't be denied. After all, the proliferation of non-cannon fandoms of a series is proof of the powerful experience of a fandom, vs the mere series alone. It seems even more valid, when it comes to Hetalia. I, like many other people, were simply not interested in history, until Hetalia. Sure, there are some people who were history majors or history buffs first, then gained some interest in Hetalia, but I can't help but think that most Hetalia fangirls are more interested in the personified countries, than a history lesson. That was the only way I could explain the appeal of Hetalia. The personified countries, as _characters_ were just too much fun. And even though the series is rife with stereotypes and potential offenses, considering those stereotypes as the mere "character quirks" of _characters_, rather than any larger comment/opinion on a race/nation, is part of the appeal of Hetalia. I mean, no one wants to believe any stereotype that any food from England sucks, but watching a series where a character consistently can't cook well, no matter how determined they are to continue cooking, is a very popular running gag. Whether it be Akane from "Ranma 1/2" or Orihime from "Bleach". The best part about Hetalia is that it leaves so much open-endedness for fans to create their own "user generated", and thus, exponential, fun. Basically, Hetalia just sets up the characters, their relationships, and exemplifies how actual history inspires embellishments to character back stories. It's like a meme! Not only can the fan-ficcers/fan-artists go nutz with their own takes on the story or characters, but Hetalia also offers alternate versions of each country-personification, to build *more* fandom upon. So much interesting fanfiction is based on the Hetalia Cardverse's implied character relationships, and I myself love to draw Nekotalia fanart. Hetalia just lends itself to fandom growth. So here I was, beginning to believe that the appeal of Hetalia was more in taking the countries as characters in a cast, rather than having anything to do with history. Then I watched the Hetalia movie, and one of the only differences between it and the series, was that it wasn't really a parody of historical events. So was that the reason the movie didn't really work for me? Was that the *real* reason that the series _does_ work for me? Now I'm all confused (about myself). @_@;
Regardless, I love the series, the fandom, the characters, and the fact that I finally learned some history that managed to stick to my brain. ^_^ I can't wait for the next DVD volume! I hope they continue the series beyond OAVs! ^o^
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