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Funimation Streams Hetalia, Tokyopop Confirms Manga Plans

The North American anime distributor Funimation announced on its blog on Friday that it has begun streaming the first four subtitled episodes of the Hetalia - Axis Powers historical comedy anime on its own website, YouTube, and Hulu. Funimation announced the license of the 52-episode series in January. The blog also noted that the dub for the series will give the characters accents.

Also on Friday, the North American manga publisher Tokyopop officially confirmed its license of Hidekaz Himaruya's original Hetalia manga. The Amazon online retailer had listed the first volume of the manga in early April. Tokyopop plans to release the first volume on September 10, "just in time for International Hetalia Day."

In a separate development, the official Japanese blog for the Hetalia anime revealed last month that a new game, Gakuen Hetalia Portable will be available on Sony's PSP system this year.

Both the original manga and the anime adaptation take the archetypal characteristics of about 20 countries and regions, and anthropomorphize them as (mostly) bishōnen characters. The story re-imagines various historical eras including World War I and II.

Thanks to Rachel for the news tips.