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REVIEW: Hetalia GN 4 & 5




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kazenoyume



Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 425
PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 2:58 pm Reply with quote
Latvia and Lithuania look alike?? Are you sure you weren't talking about other characters? I agree there's a lot of sameface in the series, but Latvia is a little blond kid with short hair and Lithuania is an adult with long brown hair.
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RestLessone



Joined: 02 Aug 2009
Posts: 1426
Location: New York
PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 3:32 pm Reply with quote
I really like the physical quality of these books; the paper is nice and the binding feels sturdy. Compared to the original releases, when TP was still going through the usual venues instead of just Right Stuf, it's far better.

Still...I wish they would translate the Japanese honorifics and the stereotypical verbal tic that China has. Volume 4 definitely had the honorifics, though I couldn't find any in a flip through of 5. It just takes me out of the series, as the character are literal representations of other nations. In order to mimic the manga's original feel, wouldn't it makes more sense to use the English equivalences for non-Japanese characters?

(As for touching strips, I'm partial to one entitled "Davie", which Himaruya uploaded on his blog. It uses almost no text, except a few English words. Many of these strips do end up polished and included in physical releases, though.)
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kazenoyume



Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 425
PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:15 pm Reply with quote
RestlessOne wrote:

(As for touching strips, I'm partial to one entitled "Davie", which Himaruya uploaded on his blog. It uses almost no text, except a few English words. Many of these strips do end up polished and included in physical releases, though.)


Honestly as much as I enjoyed the two France strips featured in the volumes, I think that Davie pulled off the whole nations and mortality thing a lot better. Maybe it was the use of a child to do it, or the simple, almost wordless approach, but it was so lovely.
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RestLessone



Joined: 02 Aug 2009
Posts: 1426
Location: New York
PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 10:49 pm Reply with quote
kazenoyume wrote:

Honestly as much as I enjoyed the two France strips featured in the volumes, I think that Davie pulled off the whole nations and mortality thing a lot better. Maybe it was the use of a child to do it, or the simple, almost wordless approach, but it was so lovely.[/quote
Agreed. The France strips' dialogue makes the 'moral of the story' a little heavy-handed. Of course, being that the strips involve adults and are from an outsider's perspective, the words are necessary.


I really hope it eventually makes it into a published volume. I want to own it! Most, if not all, of Himaruya's recent blog comics have been cleaned up and included, some I'm hopeful!
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championferret



Joined: 15 Jan 2004
Posts: 765
PostPosted: Mon Jan 20, 2014 12:44 am Reply with quote
While I'm not really into Hetalia anymore I do own the 4th book in Japanese and I just wanted to say that the reason they probably didn't translate the word 'kawaii' was because it was actually written in roman letters in that part (I think it might have actually been spelt 'CAWAII' though), as a way of showing that that's what Taiwan said even if she was speaking her own language. Given the popularity of the word it makes sense to leave it as is.
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