hetalia | Curious Idea on the Characters

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Curious Idea on the Characters

After going through the wiki, fanon, source material and even the TvTropes page, I guess it's safe to say that there are a lot of characters in Hetalia. And needless to say, it's come a long way from the original main characters but it got me thinking. With all the attention Himaruya put in a good chunk of the major supporting Nations (I could name the Nordics, Poland, Lithuania, Korea, the Frying Pangle...), and the fact that World War 2 is not the only emphasis by this point, I've come across some confusion on who the actual main characters still are; even the Hetalia Archives seems to have largely dropped the distinction at least between the main and major-supporting ones. But I'm more inclined to think now that asking who the mains are sorta pointless by this point.

Am I right in thinking this?

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Nah you're fine thinking this. The characters that Himaruya likes to put emphasis on change from time to time depending on what he's interested in. For instance, when he was interested in the War of Austrian Succession, he put emphasis on the Frying Pangle as well as France and Spain because they were the main players of that time period. The way I see it, the "main characters" so to speak change depending on the time period that Himaruya takes interest to. Does this make sense?

Very, very much. In fact I guess it's safe to say that there aren't really any main characters anymore. Just major ones and minor figures.

Heck, even TvTropes has largely dropped any distinctions in its character page.

I think "main" would still officially be the World 8. No matter how you look at it, they're the first in line for all merchandise relating to the series, and Italy's still the title character.

It probably seems different if you go in with no bias at all, but at least personally, when I'm not looking for main characters, I find they're absolutely everywhere.
So yeah, Himaruya's being awesome and letting us see the minor characters a lot-- it defeats the purpose of having a "world" history type series if the world's left out--, but I don't think it's reached the point yet where we could really say any one supporting character has had more screen time than any of the World 8. Maybe Prussia, but he seems to be a special case.

Nordics do seem to be getting a lot of extra attention, lately, though. Spain did for a while before that, too. I wouldn't be surprised if it's actually just that Himaruya puts some time aside to switch from what he has planned, to giving fandom what they seem to want.
Maybe by the time Volume 5's out we'll really see. There could still be a continuing focus on the World 8 with side stories for other characters, or we could really see it turn around. ;u;

I think its safe to say that many of the supporting cast are approaching if not equal to the attention given to the world 8. In fact, given the topic I wouldn't say that WW2 is the focus anymore. It hasn't been for a while come to think of it.

There's a core cast and a peripheral cast that changes periodically. The Core cast is the main 8 (Italy, Germany, Japan, America, Russia, China, France and England) and each one has a peripheral cast around them depending the time period. For example the core cast of the 3 main micronations (Sealand, Wy, Seborga) is related to the main core cast via Seland-England relation. The core cast of the Nordic Strips is related Finland-Germany or peripherally via Finland-Estonia (Estonia is related to the Baltic Trio core cast that is related to Russia, and he is the core cast of the Mochi and Nyotalia Strips).
Is slightly complicated but every secondary character is always related in one way or another to one or more of the 8 main characters that form thecore of the Hetaliaverse. (Something like a 8 degrees of separations game with the G8).

I'm very much inclined to agree with you. Even in the beginning Hetalia was not that WWII-centric and Himaruya explored a lot of historical periods. It's true that around the start of Hetalia, certain characters received more attention than others but now that he has introduced more and more countries and even more historical and cultural plots, many characters have begun to receive a lot of screentime as well. While it is true that the World 8 has been the focus of merchandising and the movie, these are not under the control of Himaruya (it's just easier for marketting and movie plots to focus on a clear-cut group). BUT what has been under his control are the cover pages for his volumes. The first 3 featured the World 8 in some capacity but the 4th had many chibi characters with a proper-sized Italy and now the fifth features Romano, Spain, Hungary, Austria, and Prussia. I think that's very telling. Italy is and always will be the title character but I'm not sure he would qualify as the one and only main character anymore. I think as the series progresses, Himaruya will attempt to give each nation his or her due attention and so I think that the idea of a main character in Hetalia will become more and more ambiguous and even unnecessary.

That said, I am in agreement with osoro about waiting for Volume 5. If it's structured so that the World 8 are given main stories and the rest of the cast is featured in side stories, then we'll know. If the formula is radically different to accommodate episodic main stories featuring any of the characters then your theory will be proven (to a degree).

I guess we'll find out when it's released.

Hmmmm. I'll agree that there seem to be certain major "core" characters and minor characters, but I'd also like to think that maybe it's like how some of the Degrassi shows work? (One episode focuses on a group of characters, and the next episode focuses on different ones, and so forth and so forth.)

That seems like the kind of format he's been going for lately, as well as basing it on something interesting he's learned and wanted to express it somehow. Honestly, if I had to simplify it, I'd say that the WORLD is/are the main character(s).

*scuttles back towards CAPTALIA and Tumblr*

I guess that makes sense. ^^

I always think of it as the Axis and Allied powers, since Hetalia is usually centred around WWII.

But it really depends on the situation. History has no main character, so it's safe to say Hetalia won't really either.

The Hetalia Archives still has the World 8 listed separately from the others, if for no other reason than they're treated differently in terms of merchandising. But from number of appearances characters like Prussia and Spain tend to appear more often than China, for example.

I also got the feeling that even Romano had more screen time than say America.

I am waaaaaaay late to this discussion, but the way I like to see it, Hetalia is structured so that one can focus on those they love -- the Frying Pangle might be the main characters to someone, the Nordics to another, and so on and so forth.

Certainly, like everyone else has said, it started with the World 8. But I think it's wonderful that it's expanding.

~~/patiently waits for more Romania~~

Well, you're not late for anything. XD

And yeah! Somehow, that's also the vibe I get from some of the fanon and canon.

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Curious Idea on the Characters

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