San Valentino strip and a question regarding the lost(?) Valentino text file.

[chou-addicted.livejournal.com]

Hello, I've recently read the English scanlation of the Buon Valentino strips and had to notice that the translation leaves a very important part out that hints that Germany is HRE and Italy possibly knows this. Since I don't visit here regulary I don't know if this has been discussed yet, but I'm really interested to hear how other people interprete that particular scene.



The page I'm talking about is this one.


The scanlation can be found here but unfortunately leaves out a few bits which I will explain below.


The flowers Germany gives to Italy are stated as being heliotropes and Germany says he chose them because heliotropes feature in Greek mythology which Italy happens to like. Now, if you look up the symbolic meaning of the heliotrope flower you will find that it means "eternal love and devotion". Read that again. Himaruya wouldn't possibly have mentioned the type of flower if he hadn't looked up the meaning first (just like with the red roses prior in the strip). Italy then thanks Germany for the flowers and follows it up with this: "Germany giving me flowers...that is almost like b[ack then]..." before getting interupted by the waiter in the next scene. In Japanese the last word starts with "mu..." and the only logical follow up would be "mukashi" => back then / in the past. This strongly suggests that Italy might know that Germany = HRE or it could simply mean that Italy remembers a similar scene where someone else (=>HRE?) gave him flowers possibly the last scene from the valentine comic strip (see below) that was shown as Germany's memory.




What do you guys think about this?

Btw, I remember there being a follow-up / alternative ending to the valentino manga in text form on Himaruya's page where England, USA(?) and Spain come to the restaurant where Germany and Italy are and Spain makes Germany realize his 'mistake' i.e. thinking that red roses = love confession. I think Germany ran out of the restaurant and Austria comforted him and he later apologized to Italy and tells him he wants to be friends with him (or something... I can't remember...too much time has past since I've last read this!). Does somebody still have this saved somewhere on their computer?

Comments

[bei-kun.livejournal.com]

Ohhh snap! I smell /coughshipteasecough/ a scandal!

My OTP senses are definitely tingling. Thanks for posting this!

[loveless-chan.livejournal.com]

I can't help you. I didn't know there was a written continuation, but I love the flower symbolism!

[chou-addicted.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you could actually call it a continuation since it was written somewhere in the middle of the comic strip (when he wasn't finished yet) and the text file didn't mention some scenes that later appeared in the manga such as the Chibitalia part and I also think Prussia didn't appear in the text file at all...it might be an alternate continuity or just a ditched idea after all...

Yeah, the flower symbolism is just awesome *_*!

[bosscookie.livejournal.com]

Oooh thanks for posting this! It is really neat to see the symbolism!

[ichii-lemoncat.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I really hope that you're right!

[ammattilainen.livejournal.com]

Oh my god.....I can't help you, but thanks for the information anyway ^^

GerIta is my favorite ♥ ♥ ♥ I hope that Himaruya-san decides to continue buon san valentino..... It's such a cliffhanger.... ^^

[emsiecat.livejournal.com]

*Has a sudden urge to go hug a bunch of Heliotropes* Thanks for this. I never realized there was a symbolism behind the flowers he gave (I didn't enter the fandom until after this Valentines day event, so I missed out on all the good theories/posts/comments etc).

I reallyreallyreally hope the whole HRE=Germany theory is true and they both realise it someday (a mushy happy ending is needed!).

As for the follow up, I didn't realise that existed either so I'm afraid I can't help there.

Thanks for posting this though.

[maiyura.livejournal.com]

What an insightful connection. Sorry I can't help you with any further information, but I really appreciate you sharing your thought! XD

[anubismito]

Wow! Interesting!! I didn't know this end could exist.

I just found a site with Himaruya's stie backup
http://www.google.co.jp/search?q=himaruya&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=ja&btnG=Google+%E6%A4%9C%E7%B4%A2&domains=megalodon.jp&sitesearch=megalodon.jp
Maybe there could be *still searching*

[plumora.livejournal.com]

Adding another useless comment to the list, but I haven't seen that extra strip either, so thank you.

Ah, that flower symbolism. My heart is all aflutter! c: I would die if Himaruya did a Germany=HRE strip. DIE. It has to happen eventually, right?

[daemoninwhite.livejournal.com]

Well, he did promise that HRE and Chibitalia would get a happy ending eventually ... then again, after the Bloodbath I trust him just about as far as I can throw him.

[misty-rain.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I can't help (sorry), but I LOVE your comments about Heliotropes, and that line Italy said about "back then". Seriously, I was having a bad day, but that's like a bright little ray of sunshine.
Sorry I can't help you in return, but thanks for your post! <3

[loveless-chan.livejournal.com]

I have my own little theory about the whole HRE and Germany thing. I don't think Germany can be him entirelly because the german territory used to be only a part of the whole Empire, right? So as I like to think, when the HRE dissolved into other countries, each of them got a piece of him and Doitsu is the one who has HRE's heart, that's why he still has some kind of feeling for Italia... s2~~

[idraax.livejournal.com]

That fits with my head cannon too! I think that his memories are scattered throughout the land, so he might remember bits and peices....well one of my head cannon's anyway. I keep changing them...

[gloomykuma.livejournal.com]

I can't help you :C

But ohhh my gosh, the flower symbolism...

Thank you for sharing your insight ^^

[vysnia-cerasus.livejournal.com]

Woah, what!? Where did you see the alternative ending? I remember hearing on 2ch that Himaruya said Spain was originally supposed to have more of a role. If that's true, I hope somebody saved it.

As for Megalodon, that site had a massive information loss recently. I don't know if it archived any pages from Valentino. This is the first time I'm hearing of lost text or plans to finish the story. He did leave that unclickable "Next" button with that flashback, so it looks like he intended it to be longer but never got back to it. He did that with the Volume 2 Countdown story too D:

[vysnia-cerasus.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, never mind. I re-read what you said! But thank you so much for telling us about this. Do you remember how far along the story was when he wrote that text? It's really a shame WebArchive is blocked from saving old versions of Kitayume, though I could also understand why Himaruya would want some things buried and forgotten.

Thank you for sharing! That's really interesting and I hope that someone on 2ch might still have the copypasted text. But then again, some of that fandom doesn't like sharing much, probably in part due to netiquette concerns on their side.

post 3, I am so sorry!

[vysnia-cerasus.livejournal.com]

Valentino was split into three parts too, wasn't it? So do you remember if you saw it on "var", "tdn", or "vale"? That might help narrow things down a little more. Sorry, just going to check to see if Megalodon '08 caches have anything, but if this comic went on hiatus back in '07, he might have taken down that text by '08.

Re: post 3, I am so sorry!

[anubismito]

Yeah, I found the ones at Megalodon, but there's no difference with the current comic U_U;; I'm wondering if there's a 2007 backup >_

Re: post 3, I am so sorry!

[vysnia-cerasus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I just tried to look at Himaruya's Hetalia index for 2007 and it looks like Megalodon's lost data for that year o_o. But even archives of the page from 2010 aren't working, so how much data have they been losing related to his site?

For a while, Himaruya accidentally reverted his Hetalia comic index to its 2007 look and you could find broken-link comics there, such as a certain strip we shall not say the contents of here. 2ch was confused about it. But it looks like he fixed it, because it now looks like this:
http://www.geocities.jp/himaruya/hetaria/

He's kept the old gallery and "Unfinished" status for Lietuvis as he did in '07, but he added new comics, got rid of the broken-link ones, and changed the text color to orange.

And speaking of texts

[vysnia-cerasus.livejournal.com]

http://www.geocities.jp/himaruya/gakuen.htm

I found this. It looks like it's the original idea for Gakuen Hetalia before he decided to include Seychelles. All the images are broken, but the text is there. DougaBBS used to have a few of the images, but I didn't save them D:. They were sketchy little doodles of Japan in his uniform and England and France in uniform. Netherlands and Ryukyu seem to be mentioned here.

[lonym82.livejournal.com]

I love the flower symbolism <3 <3 <3 thank you for translating what type of flowers they were and what they mean.
I also love the 'back then' part. Even though we know it happened , per the flashback scene, it's nice to hear Italy talk more about it. That said I don't think Italy knows Germany is HRE. I feel the 'back then' line is more of a general comment about a guy giving him flowers.
I am a huge supporter of Germany=HRE though ^^

[kanami-yuuta.livejournal.com]

dont know anything about that but omg thanks for the explanation!!

[kanami-yuuta.livejournal.com]

also i don think Italy knows germant's hre... he just happened to happened to remember the same scene---

but then I could be wrng

[onlyhereforthis.livejournal.com]

"Heliotropes" sounds like it'd be TV Tropes about the sun.

I love that waiter

I'm kind of slow, so I didn't really understand the Chibitalia bit at the end there the first time around until I read the comments. Then I was like "Wait, what?!" and had to reread it.
But yeah, HRE=Germany, twoo wuv, why not? *shrug*

[daemoninwhite.livejournal.com]

I love you for the first sentence.

[deadtree.livejournal.com]

....lmfao ♥

[paperteuk.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of slow, so I didn't really understand the Chibitalia bit at the end there the first time around until I read the comments.
Glad to know I wasn't the only one. XD

[mizu-takishima.livejournal.com]

The Heliotrope thing is adorable, but I'm even more amazed at the "back then" translation and stuff! Thanks so much for sharing! 8D

[disneyotaku.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting! I never noticed that before! (and Heliotropes are now my favorite flower~)

But with the way Italy was talking and the direction the comic strip was going, it makes me believe that Holy Roma is Germany. Even in actually history, the Holy Roman Empire dissolved and became what is now known as Germany.

/therewasacontinuationwithSpainandAustria??!?!?!?!?!?/

AND lets not forget that Hima-papa promised us a happy ending with Chibitalia and Holy Roma (though WHEN this will be accomplished can only be told in time -.-')