things reading about Nazi Germany will do to you

[kindkit]

As you may know, I've been reading some books about the Holocaust.

Well, today at work we happened to get in copies of Axis Powers Hetalia, which I had to put price tags on. The cover image of the first volume (link goes to amazon.com) shows Germany as a pretty young man in his stylish uniform greatcoat, which doesn't seem to have insignia but is the kind of coat worn by both the Army and the SS. So cute! Such a fun, friendly cover!

My god, was I squicked.

Depicting Hitler-era Germany as a desirable young man is disgusting.

Sorry if you're a Hetalia fan--I know at least one person who is--but I think the whole cutesy concept is, to put it in the mildest possible terms, dodgy.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

South Korea has protested about Hetalia pretty heavily, too and managed to delay the release of the anime (don't google this or you will run into lots of anime forums insulting Koreans in vile terms) so it's not just you.

[kindkit]

*nods* I hate to be humorless or buzzkilling, but the whole concept really does skeeve me mightily.

[lilacsigil]

If you're not running into Hetalia comms and telling them they're wrong, wrong, wrong, you have every right to talk about your reaction!

I like some pretty dodgy humour, but Japan's problems with history (not all Japanese people, obviously, but the way history is taught and written about in most mass media) plus happy-happy WWII cariactures just strikes me the wrong way.