Just because it's a TNH?

I predict that in the future, many high school graduates will score higher on quizzes about Axis: Hetalia than on quizzes about the causes of WWI and WWII.

Sucker bet. The sad truth is that that is true for many of them now.

And the truly frightening thing is that the entire "Hatoful Boyfriend" experience has some of the best writing, pacing, and plotting I've seen in years. Hell, even the linked playthrough(s -- the initial one was for the demo; there's a further link at the end to the a playthrough of the full version) can be a hell of an emotional ride. Or as they say on Tumblr, SO MANY FEELS.

I just watched the first episode with subtitles, and it's as odd as one might think from the descriptions. And for the first one: accurate as far as it goes, but it is just a summary.

*sorry, no actual dinosaurs, but lots of implied sodomy!

You know how these things go -- when you keep finding yourself in the same search results, feelings can develop.

88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

You'll be happy to know that the Hetzer at the Aberdeen Proving Ground armor museum, after forty years of neglect outdoors with one of its sides missing, has been restored, repaired, refurbished, repainted, and moved indoors to its own spiffy static display.

Wanna go visit? (You'll love the cammie pattern.)

I have to say that the "German Simulator" that uses the metaphor of a grocery store to show what it is like to be a German in Europe was good background to have while reading about the current financial crisis - if only to have access to the default broad stereotypes.

Original version, English Dub.

I mean, awful atrocities are presented as young boys hanging out...but at least they don't mysteriously exclude Russia and China from the party.

Its the sort of series that I'd hope a high school kid would pick up on, because they'd end up wanting more and getting info not in the standard syllabus.

Anime's been terrible lately, hasn't it.

To use a metaphor suited to the room, it's like if suddenly SF/F publishing was reduced to Gor and [insert what you consider to be the best SF/F published in last decade].

Making Light is the coolest melting pot of eclectic interests and backgrounds... so, hmmmm... intelligent and literate Making Light reader of (nearly) my age who tracks the best in current anime... your homepage has been bookmarked, good sir!

Googles "fujoshi"...

Oh dear. Not at all like any of the fans that I know, no sir! (But I am not going to even try to explain the intensely sexual Highlander/Mary-Sue fanfics which somebody pointed me at.)

My partner and I watched all of Hetalia, in dub, to see what the deal was. It is a source of much contention in anime fandom, particularly among those who like to borrow things to be Greatly Offended About.

Most of the time we just kept wondering when something was going to happen, something to justify the piles of fanfic and some of--quite honestly--the best fanart I've ever seen, but nothing ever did happen. We got to the end as bewildered as we began. Not that there weren't quite a few laughs on the way, because there were! Usually ones that caused us to clap our hands over our mouths and look around sheepishly as though we might get caught.

Is the show terribly non-pc compliant? Yes.
Does it make light of major tragic events in history? Yes.
Is it funny? Yes.
Did it get a huge passel of teenage girls to attend the "Hetalia and History" panel at Katsucon this year, girls who up to that point would have thought Franz Ferdinand was just a funny name for a band? Yes.

Amy Sakurai #29, Happy to make your acquaintance!

Fortunately there is hope for the future; any day now Shinichiro "Anime Jesus" Watanabe is returning to the small screen with Sakamichi no Apollon, a show about high school kids obsessed with jazz in the 1960s. Okay, so it's not quite Cowboy Bebop, but I'll take what I can get.

I second the recommendation for Madoka. I've also heard good things about Mouretsu Pirates, but I just wasn't able to get into it. Ditto Brave 10, which I felt like I'd seen a million times before. I also just tried Tatami Galaxy, which I recommend if you're in the mood for something different and experimental set in the mid-to-late 1960s. Upcoming soon is the sequel to Eureka 7, and I think I'll give that a shot. But really, Madoka is so good I blogged about it at my own place.

But seriously. It feels like Watanabe left long enough to realize how desperately he was needed, and then returned to redeem the industry. That said, I need to watch me some Tiger & Bunny. It was on as I was writing my M.Des. and editing my novel, so I had to stay away. Grr. Aargh.

and Dave @28: Not to criticize fujoshi for being fujoshi! Easily a third of my close friends are arguably fujoshi. Some close friends are also moe-watchers. It's just that when a show really panders to either of them it rarely bothers to do anything else interesting.

Also last night we tested out Mushi-shi via Netflix, having bumped up the quality of the stream. It still looks just as gorgeous as it always did. I'm half-tempted to watch a bunch of it over again, just to see it on a bigger screen.

I think I've always preferred the concept of Hetalia to reality -- some of the comics like the 'German Simulation' one and a lot of the other little extra ones are great, but parts of it didn't work so well when it wasn't just some silly drawings on the web.
I'm still active in that I cosplay it and do roleplay on Facebook, but it's an aggravating thing to be part of a community of(Though less so than Homestuck, that's a scary fandom).

I think the thing about Hetalia is to be a big fan of it you either end up being obnoxious and disrepectful[like the seminfamous 'Anime Boston seig heil' incident] or you get to a point where you enjoy it primarily for the fandom, the gorgeous fanart and fanfiction and the like, where I have reached and will probably stay for a good while.

It's still a fun show, but for a lot of people you end up going history and culture-berserk when you stay too long and yelling at people who drag their flags in costume.

@30 Leah : I kept meaning to catch that panel, a friend and I have been trying unsuccessfully to get a panel about Hetalia and history/cutlure since AUSA. Hope we can for Otakon.

That said, as a story? I love Homestuck, and will stick it out, regardless of the fandom shenanigans. Wish me luck?

I wish you best of luck, let's see if we can just grin and bear them.

This thing can't start soon enough, as far as I'm concerned.

No, seriously. Go there. It had me in stitches.

Thanks!

I'd seen bits of that before, but I didn't no where to find the whole thing.

(The sequels are good, too. I particularly like the USSR's attempt to invade Finland, and the Cuban Missile Crisis.)

(Why is it that when you notice the glaring error just in time to correct it, that always means there's another more glaring error you won't notice until it's too late?)

I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids.