News

Hetalia Manga Gets 3rd Musical in Summer 2024

The staff at the "Hetalia~The Fantastic World~ Blu-ray Disc Release Commemorative Event" revealed on Sunday that Hidekaz Himaruya's Hetalia - Axis Powers manga will be getting a third stage musical adaptation this summer at the Nippon Seinenkan Hall in Tokyo, Morinomiya Piloti Hall in Osaka, and the Kyoto Theater in Kyoto. The official website for the stage musical adaptations started streaming a video announcement:

This will be the first time the stage musical will be held in three cities.

The new musical is the third installment from the new series of Hetalia musical adaptations. The first musical from the new series, titled Hetalia ~The world is wonderful~, ran in December 2021. The second musical titled Hetalia ~The Fantastic World~ ran in April 2023. Both musical stage plays ran in Tokyo and Osaka.

The franchise has inspired a series of stage musicals in Japan. The previous musical, Musical Hetalia Final Live ~A World in the Universe~, ran in March 2018.

The new anime of Hidekaz Himaruya's Hetalia World Stars manga debuted in April 2021.

Himaruya's Hetalia World Stars manga is the latest manga in the franchise. The manga launched in Shonen Jump+ on the same day the online manga service launched, but it went on hiatus in April 2018. The manga resumed in Shonen Jump+ in April 2021. Shueisha has published four compiled book volumes for the manga. Himaruya launched a new manga about Japanese prime ministers in Shueisha's Jump SQ. in December 2020.

Himaruya's original Hetalia - Axis Powers manga takes the archetypal characteristics of countries and regions throughout the world, and anthropomorphizes them as (mostly) bishōnen characters. Right Stuf released the manga in North America in collaboration with its former English-language publisher, Tokyopop, and its Japanese publisher Gentosha Comics.

Sources: Hetalia musicals' website, Frontier Works' YouTube channel, Comic Natalie