(This post was delayed by kittens, exam scores, and slow subs.)
I was kind of surprised when I heard that Kugimiya Rie was going to voice Liechtenstein, because no matter how many lolis she plays, in my heart I will always think of Kugimiya as the lady who played Ecthel in Riviera: The Promised Land. In the audio drama, she still manages to pull off Liechtenstein admirably, but in the anime, her first line comes out sounding creepy.
Come play with me, Onii-sama! Come play with me forever and ever...
Once upon a time that wasn't really long ago, some people on an imageboard were posting pictures of Liechtenstein and Hungary, and one user (who was almost certainly an obnoxiously heterosexual male) said he would have to check out this Hetalia thing that had such cute girls. I earnestly wish that I could have seen the look on that user's face when he found out that female characters are about as common as leap years in Hetalia and it's mostly a comic about how the US and the UK have a Special Relationship indeed. I'll bet it was the same face I had when I figured out that Knights of Ramune & 40 Fresh wasn't really about giant robots at all.
The anime's version of the "little brother" scene? Fail. The manga had Liech going under a sort of Eeyore-style cloud of woe, and the drama CD was even better with a scare chord and echo effect on the words. In the anime, she just looks vaguely troubled. The anime version cuts out part of the setup, which I initially attributed to time constraints (five minutes an episode means you have to be concise), but then they threw in a long unnecessary pan across the ribbons in the shop, which kind of messes up the punch line. In Strawberry Marshmallow, the funny part of Miyu getting punished by the other characters is that it always cuts directly from Miyu doing something dumb or mean to her lying facedown on whatever she got knocked into. If they put anything in between those shots, it wouldn't be as funny. The amusement in this particular 4koma was that it has Liechtenstein silently freaking out in one panel and "buy whatever you like" in the next. The sequence with the ribbons makes it less funny because it's putting too much material between "yama" and "ochi".
Oh sweet potato pie, they animated the hetare tomato strip. That was back from Hetare 1, wasn't it? Back before anyone looked remotely like a human being? And they even left in most of the bizarre Engrish behind the scientist guy. Wow. That is special.
This is probably my least favourite strip out of all Hetalia comics, but even then I do like how Italy is eating pizza while listening to a lecture on how tomatoes make you useless.
You know you're a horrible person when your first thought at this frame is "apply directly to the forehead". Followed immediately by "Romano has a really nice waist".
I was originally going to say that sleeping wearing any clothes at all in a warm country like Italy (possibly without AC during this time period, even) is pretty hardcore and not hetare at all, but then I realised that Italy Veneciano's censor-friendly tank top was coloured the most hilariously inappropriate shade of fuschia you could possibly imagine. I think the animators were getting revenge for not being allowed to draw manly Italian chests.
Is it just me, or was the dialogue during Italy's phone call altered from the manga version to make it sound more suggestive? Why is it that they're not allowed to draw men sleeping shirtless but apparently can throw in all the Bro Yay they want? And wasn't the Land of the Free shown quite free of his shirt a few episodes ago? At least we get black-tank-top-Romano to mitigate the madness.
The light is off when Romano starts strangling Veneciano, but it's on when Germany comes in the room (hence why I was able to see the actual colour of Veneciano's shirt). There's a lamp next to the bed, but it looks to be a small reading lamp, and also seems to be gone during Germany's scene. For some reason, I love the idea that the Italies were able to get up, turn on the light, call Germany, and then lie back down, yet could not do the slightest thing to untangle the hairs themselves. Or maybe they travelled through time to get a clap-activated light from the future. Either one is awesome.
Feature: 07/01/09 | Posted By: Tally Solleni | 0 comments | Hetalia: Axis Powers
