English Dub Review: Hetalia – World Stars Episodes 9-12

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The conclusion of the look back on the Industrial Revolution, also a look at how some countries make spas.

OUR TAKE

And that concludes Hetalia: World Stars!…except probably not, since there are still a few more episodes from the OVAs to dub and Funimation didn’t list this batch as a finale, so I expect we’ll get those last three by next week at the earliest, but THEN we’re done. And it won’t be a moment too soon, because my nostalgia on this franchise has definitely worn off and I am ready to bury my memories of it back deep down in my early 2010’s files along with early Adventure Time hype, My Little Pony memes, and my collective knowledge of Homestuck that I could never fit in my brain to begin with. Anyway, this batch wraps up the Industrial Revolution six parter with the final two parts, and my issues with those two are the same as I had with the previous four, which is that I expected covering this span of time to be much more interesting than it actually turned out to be, whether through my own ignorance of history or maybe even undue expectations about what Hetalia could and should cover given its established tone and usual manner of covering these things. I guess that just shows how I have grown and this show has not.

The remaining two episodes of this grouping are a lot less focused, with the main theming of them seemingly about how other countries relax or find ways to relax, which naturally differs from region to region. My main takeaway from both of these is that they really wanted to get mileage out of Czech and Slovakia since they’ve honestly been the main standouts in terms of new characters in this season, and also that there is apparently an Australia character that we have been completely deprived from this entire time. Like seriously, of all the interesting country origin stories, we could get a hell of a lot of mileage out of how Australia was made! I’m just saying, if there’s ever going to be an eighth season, we need to make it ALL ABOUT AUSTRALIA. But just throw it on the pile of wasted opportunities, I guess. Anyway, we’ve still got one more batch of episodes left to cover, so we’ll see what’s left to talk about when those come out, but I still can’t get away from the sense of reuniting with an old friend that has somehow never grown up. Although honestly I am also that friend so…I shouldn’t be throwing stones, I guess.