Yes, but it’s
just a comic gag.
Some
examples would be Romano’s “Neapolitan Tornado” or Japan’s “The Final Arcanum…Sincere Regret” [whatever that means].
My personal
favourite is France’s “Eiffel Attack.”
I have! I’m guessing this is a blog recommendation, so go and follow them!
I don’t know why they cut this out of Buon San Valentino in
the anime, but I’ve always loved this scene.
Basically, America gets upset that England didn’t give him
any chocolates on Valentine’s Day.
When England finds America to give him some chocolate,
America obliviously tries to play it off, as if the whole matter hadn’t even
happened. The way America excessively stuffs down his chocolate is arguably a childish way of showing England that he’s not needed – [when he
actually is.]
Yeah, not buying it. America’s feelings were definitely hurt
here. Why else would he be “grumbling” about it?
I have some idea that I’m willing to share. It’s quite sad and hopeless, actually.
Post coming up tonight!
Hmmm. Since I both agree
and disagree with this, I’ll play devil’s advocate 😈 😉
The series is based on
stereotypes. Stereotypes are generalizations predicated on the culture and
society in which you grow up. That said, it’s inevitable that stereotypes of
different nationalities are going to vary across the world. They’re also
inherently biased.
As you said, coming from
an Eastern society, this influences how Hima conceptualizes these national
stereotypes. To say that Hima’s stereotypes are inaccurate is a self-defeating
argument. They’re accurate from his point of view, and again, are inherently
biased.
It’s self-defeating in
the sense that anytime you attempt to apply stereotypes, it’ll be based on
where you’re from. With that logic, any stereotype someone comes up with will
always be seen as inaccurate to another person, who holds a different view of
what that stereotype consists of.
That’s where the fandom
comes in. Because stereotypes are so wishy-washy, it’s impossible to
characterize them accurately, not to mention that a stereotype is a generalization;
it’s function isn’t to pay attention to small details. This flexibility of stereotypes allows fans to mould characters to fit their own
understanding of their culture.
In other words, the series
wouldn’t function well if it wasn’t based on stereotypes.
However, regardless of
the presence of stereotypes, this series is a historical comedy. While they may
be a few misunderstandings and limitations of language spanning across diverse audiences,
Hima should still be held to account for the research he incorporates into his
writings.
If you check out his
blog, he does do quite a bit of research and travelling. Obviously, he’s human and
mistakes will happen, but since the series’ initial premise was historical in
nature, he should be aiming to be as accurate as possible.
The series gets a lot of
criticism, understandably, for some of his earlier characterizations of the
characters. In my opinion, I think what happened is that Hima never imagined
that the series would grow so big, and so he just did whatever he wanted with
them. If you notice, later characterizations are more culturally-sensitive, but
these older depictions will still haunt him and be brought up from time-to-time.
[I’ve explained this before, but I’ll use an older example
just to prove the consistency in characterization]
Yes.
Italy used to be composed of several city-states, which were
considered to be something similar to sovereign nations in their own right. The
concept of what consisted of a nation was different then.
While the name Veneziano is clearly a tribute to the city of
Venice, we know that it’s possible for the nations to evolve and gain new
territories/titles as understandings of nationhood and borders change.
In other words, he
could have been born as a personification of Venice, but evolved to represent
North Italy as it was conquered, divided, and amalgamated into being seen as
one region of the country. It was predicated more on where the foreign rulers’
jurisdiction over Northern Italy ended rather than how the people organized and
identified themselves.
Here, Chibitalia is taken over by France via his conquests
in Florence and Naples (this is Romano’s territory, so he was also conquered here too).
Milan, a northern city-state, is also mentioned.
Hima also explicitly refers to him as already representing
several parts of Italy here.
I don’t know, we’re straying into speculative territory here. I like to work from the strips, and base my interpretation on the facts presented. Personally, I find it hard to believe that America wouldn’t know what a cold is, let alone being able to experience the symptoms and yet not link it to illness.
[Just a side note I forgot to mention before]:
In “In just 2 minutes you can grasp the exterior of the European economy,” we learn that the nations get sick as a result of recessions. It doesn’t say anything on whether or not they can get sick as a result of exposure to it.
However, I concur, as @guiltipanda pointed out, Romano contracted Chorea as a result of its prevalence within Southern Italy. But, my addition to that point would be that it has to be a significant political/societal problem as stated in the strip listed above. Remember that the nations have a stronger immune system than your average person.
In other words, the nations can contract illnesses from their people, it just has to be major.
[My speculation] While we haven’t seen it depicted where America directly views illness within his population, he would have had to.
1) Consider previous leaders who died of illness.
2) Consider how prevalent illness was without modern medicine + during times of war (especially in the trenches).
Likewise, although Canada barred America from seeing England when he acquired a cold after the Revolution, he was still aware of the existence and possibility of personification illness. He’s naïve and inexperienced, sure, but not to that degree. That’s why I would attribute it to both a consistency error and a logistical fallacy.
As for Hungary, unfortunately, I still have a ton of requests to get to beforehand! I’ve often see people claim that her love for yaoi is fanon. It’s…canon, not that it makes it anymore right. It’s not a mischaracterization, but is more of a miscalculation in how she’s depicted.
I completely agree with you.
That’s why I mentioned the possibility of it being a consistency error in the post. Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense given the lack of strength America has shown when he experiences economic depressions.
I.e. During the Great Depression, he’s visibly weaker, low in spirits, and is lacking in confidence to the point that he shivers in the face of the other nations’ anger. That’s not something you would typically see from him.
He is, it’s just more implicit. Hima’s hinted a few times before at the possibility of him hiding and containing a whole other side of himself.
Sure! I’ll save Hungary, my idol, for another time.
Let’s go over some misconceptions about Romano, shall we? Post coming up tonight!
Ellawritesficssometimes 