Monthly Archives: June 2010

I returned today from spending three weeks in Japan, and I’m trying desperately to stay up until sundown — it’s Thursday, almost 5 p.m. — even though my body thinks it’s Friday, 9 a.m. Groan!

At any rate, in the spirit of continuing to draw attention to popular-culture depictions of Venice, allow me to introduce a webcomic/manga/anime version: “Italy Veneziano,” also known as “Feliciano Vargas,” from the series Axis Powers Hetalia. I’ll talk specifically about the anime version, since Season 1 has been licensed, subtitled, and made available on YouTube by FUNimation, and Season 2 is coming in September.

Axis Powers Hetalia is a historical comedy that personifies each country, leaping back and forth from WWII to the Roman Empire to something akin to the present day as it shows the characters (countries) interacting. The title, “Hetalia,” combines the Japanese word hetare — meaning something along the lines of wimpy/useless/faltering — with Italia. And, sure enough, northern Italy — Veneziano — is an airheaded, pasta- and girl-loving soldier whose immediate reaction upon seeing the enemy is to wave a white flag and surrender. He’s allied with Germany, who must constantly travel around the world rescuing him from capture, from being beaten up by enemies, and from being unable to tie his shoelaces. Yet despite his frustration, Germany considers Italy his only friend; in fact, none of the characters in the series can quite muster up the willpower to actually hate Italy. He’s so cute and harmless, after all!

Although you can watch the series from Episode 1, if you would like to see what I’d consider a representative sample of the show (each episode runs about five minutes), Episode 15 depicts Japan reacting to his new allies, Germany and Italy. Japan is shocked by the things they eat and their penchant for stripping down in public. Later, Germany drills Italy and Japan: Italy’s answer is always the same, Japan just doesn’t know what to do, and a eavesdropping France can’t believe he was captured by the Axis. After a quick side mini-scenario in which America is trying to clean out his storage shed, you’ll get a little lesson in history as Japan tours Rome and Italy gives him a present. Run past the silly credits and you’ll catch one final mini-scenario in which Italy is shaken by what he finds in Japan’s art library. (Please note that Axis Powers Hetalia is rated for mature audiences for language and sexual innuendo.)

So … that’s how one Japanese mangaka imagines northern Italy, anyway — as cowardly but endearing.

Image credit: Japanese cover of the Axis Powers Hetalia DVD. Italy is in the forefront, Germany in the middle, and Japan in the back.

New photo import

Okay I am testing again.

Thanks to a very generous husband, I have joined Dru’s iPad for travelers club. So one of first things that I did was to put Imagining Venice on my desktop and go to the google mapping app to view the city. IPad has a “you are here button”, so all we have to do when lost among the canals of Venice is to hit the button and we are found! Well maybe-we’ll have to be able to get to a place that is not blocking the signal. Good luck with that! I have a really good sense of direction. We’ll have to rely on that and the flow of tourists to help us find our way. So the iPad and WordPress will work as blogging tools. Now I just have to figure out the editing process in iPad.