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Axis Powers By Himaruya Hidekaz

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It comes as no surprise that a manga personifying the world’s nations using stereotypes and history has been controversial since its creation in 2006. Perhaps one of the most controversial aspects of this manga, Hetalia: Axis Powers by Himaruya Hidekaz, is the personification of the nation of Korea and the depiction of this character. Hetalia: Axis Powers’ depiction of Korea can be seen as problematic and racist in its characterization of Korea and the character 's relationships with other characters. Korea is depicted as an annoying, disliked, and sexually deviant character. This depiction is problematic because of the colonial history between the nations of Korea and Japan. Furthermore, Korea constantly copies Japan’s inventions and claims everything originated from Korea. This is a common stereotype of Koreans in Japanese media, implying that Korea, the nation, is not capable of creating anything original.
In the strips of Hetalia: Axis Powers that feature Korea, he is depicted as generally disliked and an annoyance to the characters around him. For example, in the strip “Britannia Angel”, Korea appears yelling and jumping around happily, with “crossed” eyes showing excitement. The neighbouring countries and “older brothers”, China and Japan, look upon him with annoyed expressions and sweat drops (iconography for nervousness or exhaustion). Japan says, “I want to move somewhere quieter” while China responds with “I can’t believe I share a border with [South Korea]”.

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