Thoughts About The End Of The Hetalia: Axis Powers World Meeting Scene

Also known as "Feeling disappointed and sad about the end of the Hetalia: Axis Powers world conference scene". Why did the aforementioned scene have to end? I’m definitely going to miss it. I wonder if I’ll get to see another episode with a similar scene like this?

But, you know what, that feeling of sadness and disappointment isn’t just because this awesome scene has come to an end. It’s also because of how it ended and what came after it, which certainly can’t be described as a good thing.

The world meeting scene happened in season 1, episode 1 of the Hetalia: Axis Powers anime and manga series by Hidekaz Himaruya. This scene introduced us to characters like America, Russia, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, and more.

Some of the good things about this scene:

• Being able to meet many of the countries of the world
  
• Getting to know some of the characters
• This was the perfect beginning to the series thanks to how funny, humorous and interesting it was
• This scene definitely has rewatch value - you can watch it over and over again and not get sick and tired of doing so

Don’t want the Hetalia world meeting scene to end

It was definitely sad when this scene ended. I wish it could have gone on longer considering how interesting it was. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing a scene like this again in later episodes of Hetalia (there are more scenes like this, right? I certainly hope so). 

Another reason to feel sad and disappointed about the end of the Hetalia world conference scene

It feels like this scene ended so abruptly, actually. After Italy yelled “pasta” and we saw the opening credits of Hetalia: Axis Powers (#ad), I thought that, right after that, we would get back to the world conference and we can see other countries or we can find out more about the countries that we’ve already met. I thought we might even get to see more speeches.

Unfortunately, that’s not what happened at all. Italy yelling “pasta” was pretty much the end of the aforementioned scene. After that and the Hetalia opening credits, we move on to another scene.

Abrupt scene change

You know, that wouldn’t have been so bad if the scene change hadn’t happened so abruptly and if we’d actually gotten to see any one of the characters that we just met during the meeting.

Meeting a new Hetalia character - the Roman Empire

But, no, instead of seeing characters that we already know, we get introduced to yet another new character - the Roman Empire. He didn’t even show up during the first part of this episode so his sudden appearance was abrupt and it seemed like he came from out of nowhere. What happened to the world meeting and the characters present in that meeting?

Moving from the present to the past - why?

Another problem with this scene change is how we clearly moved from the present to the past. This was made more obvious thanks to the appearance of the Roman Empire. 

• What’s the reason for this scene change? 
• Even if the world meeting had to end, why did we get introduced to this new character now? 
• Why did we go from the present to the past? 

It would have been much more interesting and definitely better if we got to see what each of the characters did after the world conference ended. 

Conclusion

So, what about you? What’s your take on this? Do you wish that the world meeting scene didn’t have to end or that, at the very least, we didn’t suddenly change scenes from the present to the past? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below or by reblogging this post.   

Notes:

• pic is from Amazon.com; link shown above
• originally published on my Hetalia Archives blog on Mar 27th, 2015 10:57:21am

Thoughts on the Chibitalia Scene in Hetalia: Axis Powers Episode 1

The Chibitalia scene introduces us to some of the Hetalia characters in their chibi forms, which should be pretty cute but isn’t really all that nice. What's there to like and dislike about this scene?  

Chibitalia scene in Hetalia: Axis Powers

The Chibitalia scene happens right after the World War I scene in season 1, episode 1 of the Hetalia: Axis Powers (#ad) anime and manga series by Hidekaz Himaruya. This is the last scene that happens before episode 1 ends.

Scene changes in Hetalia episode 1

The scene changes in this particular episode have gone from ridiculous to completely ridiculous. Seriously. Totally not amused at all. Look at this:

1. First, we were in the future with the world meeting scene
2. Second, we were brought to the ancient past with the Roman Empire scene
3. Third, we go to what is presumably the present with the World War 1 scene
4. Fourth, we are taken to the past with the Chibitalia scene

What’s up with that? Where’s the chronological order and what’s with all the scene changes?

Chibitalia Characters

In the Chibitalia scene, we see some of the characters as chibi. They should have looked cute and, well, they sort-of are, but not really. 

They have the potential to look really cute once the art improves because, as usual, the quality of the Hetalia art in this episode leaves much to be desired. But I’ve seen cuter chibi versions of the Hetalia characters so it is possible for all of them to look cute.

Chibi Italy

We are directly introduced to North Italy who tells us about his Big Brother France and another big brother who isn’t named yet.

We see him standing with a blond guy (not France, someone else. We see Italy in-between France and this other blond kid) and I'm actually not sure who this guy is. Is that Finland or the Holy Roman Empire or someone else entirely? Do you know who that other person is?  

Some confusing parts in the Chibitalia scene

• We are told that Italy used to live with some of the other countries, which seems to imply that he was once a part of the Holy Roman Empire
• Then, he was suddenly taken away by his grandfather, who was apparently the Roman Empire
• Why did Italy’s grandfather take him away? Why did he suddenly go back to seeing France and the Holy Roman Empire?

Unanswered questions in Chibitalia scene

All these questions aren’t answered in the Chibitalia scene. A lot of this probably has basis in history but that shouldn’t mean that Hetalia shouldn’t make things clearer for its audience especially for those who may not be all that well-versed in world history or for those who might find this stuff interesting but who don’t have much time to research these things.

Conclusion

So, what about you? What do you think about the Chibitalia scene in the Hetalia: Axis Powers anime? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below or by reblogging this post.

Notes:

• pic is from Amazon.com; link shown above
• originally published on my Hetalia Archives blog on May 26th, 2015 5:04:14am

Questions About The World In .hack//xxxx Manga

I found this unfinished post in this blog's (Anime Meta (Anime Archives)) drafts list. The post's last updated date is listed as Friday, January 3, 2014. Yep, this has been sitting on my drafts list for practically forever already. It's definitely time I got 'round to publishing this.

Besides, like I mentioned in my other blogs, I have a lot of unfinished posts stored on the drafts pages of my numerous blogs (particularly Tumblr and Google Blogger). I'm now trying to finish all these articles, so I can publish them already and decrease the number of my drafts.

This post is about the .hack//xxxx manga by Hiroshi Matsuyama. This manga is an adaptation of the .hack games with some changes. You can check out my review of the .hack//xxxx comic here.

While I was reading through the first few parts of this graphic novel, I had a lot of questions about how the game world worked and exactly how said game was played.

It seems like you need to have prior knowledge before reading this manga such as having played the game. If you're completely new to the .hack series before starting to read this manga, you might end up being terribly confused a lot of the time.

That's what happened to me. As I continued to read this graphic novel, the number of questions I had kept on growing. This included wanting to know more about the game's items and magic system as well as how the game itself was played and how everything in it worked.

The following are some of the questions I had in no particular order:

Character Classes

The character sheet shown in the .hack//xxxx manga (#ad) included the classes of some of the characters. Unfortunately, it did not explain what these classes are and what they mean.

We find out that:

• Mistral is a Crest User
• BlackRose is a Heavy Blade User
• Kite's class is Twin Blade

But what do all these terms mean? What are these classes? Are they randomly assigned to the players, or can you pick your own class?

We also discover that Helba is a hacker. But how does this work in the game world? Is hacker one of the classes in the game, or is she an actual hacker? Or maybe both?

The same questions can be asked about Lios. Just replace "hacker" with "system admin" since that's apparently what he is.

Game Items

I found BlackRose's mailbox interesting, but exactly how does it work? What else does it do? Who sends her mail?

The staff that Elk is holding looks pretty cool. I wonder if there's more with a similar design in other anime.

Game Concepts and Ideas

We find out that Mistral likes trading, but how does that work? I wish we'd gotten more information about this.

How do you get wings in the game? Can the characters really fly? How is that possible? Balmung has wings and can fly, but what about the others?

Game Level

• How do the characters level up?
• How does leveling up work in this game?
• What's the level of Kite and the other characters?

Miscellaneous

• What is the BBS?
• What's CC Corp?
• What's with the illegal program?
• What's with the virus?
• How does the Pluto's Kiss virus work? Why is it called Pluto's Kiss?
• If they got rid of the virus years ago, then how was it able to return?

• Why is the game known as The World?
• Who are the lost ones? What are they supposed to be? Why is Kite searching for them?
• What is the Epitaph of Twilight?
• If you get killed in the game world, do you die in the real world?
• Why would hackers be permitted in The World?
• What is resurrecting confused judgment? How did BlackRose figure it out, and why isn't it explained to the reader?

Conclusion

I think there's lots of good concepts and ideas here. The magic system of .hack//xxxx seems really interesting. Such things fascinate me, so I'd love to learn about the intricacies of this world. I just wish all of these things were explained in a better way. Perhaps future manga chapters or volumes would expound on this some more. I certainly hope so.

Your Thoughts and Opinions

So what about you? What do you think about this? Feel free and welcome to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment or by answering the poll below.


*Notes:
- Pics are from Amazon.com; link shown above
- Text was added to pics using Canva