Memes in fandom

This is a list of popular memes that exist in the fandom for Hetalia: Axis Powers. While some of these memes have basis in the original manga and anime, others have been coined entirely by fans.

Canon based memes

Catchphrases/Verbal tics

Aru

Ending sentences with aru is common among fans of the character of China or people who refer to him.

- Chuugoku can really handle that wok, aru :D

Ending sentences with 'aru' is a supposed Japanese stereotype of how Chinese people speak, thus Yao, who represents China, often ends his sentences with aru.

Baka, Baka, Baka

When fans talk about Britain and America's relationship, they often make fun of the way Britain says baka (meaning "idiot") most noticeably found in his song "Pub and GO!' and Episode 26 when he becomes drunk.

Buhyoo and CUUUUTE

In one Comic Diary strip, Spain became enthused by the sight of the young Italy brothers' haircurls making a heart and began to loudly express how "cute" it was.

In fan comments, the exclamation Buhyoo (used by Spain in the strip) is used to refer to things that fans consider to be cute, along with a drawn-out "[That's so] Cuuuuuute!".

Chigi

A verbal tic South Italy has when frustrated, or if one would pull his curl, causing him to become aroused. Though he has yet to say it in the actual manga, he is heard screaming a shrill CHIGI in his character song and at the end of his version of Hatafutte Parade, as well as when headbutting Spain in Episode 78. A token Chigi is often found in comments referring to this character.

Da-ze

Da-ze is a verbal tic South Korea uses extensively, which is a typical way in Japanese male speech of making a sentence more assertive. For instance, in the example below, the emphasis placed on "da ze" replaces the emphasis that would in American speech be placed on "your MOM".

This video sucks, it must have been made in Korea... Your mom was made in Korea da-ze!~

Kesese

Kesese is Prussia's laugh, as evidenced by a number of tracks on his drama CD. Kesese can commonly be seen amongst comments made by fans of Prussia or comments referring to him. The same laugh can also be heard from America, but with a higher pitch.

KolKolKol, Yonda~?, and Da?

Russia's chant when he is upset, threatening someone or taking pleasure in someone else's misfortune. It is often seen in the webcomic strips and a hoarse KolKolKol can be heard on the drama CDs or in his version of Marukaite Chikyuu. Russia's KolKolKol in the anime is more 'cutsey' than those in the drama CDs and in his Marukaite Chikyuu, though in at least one instance in the anime, the usual hoarse version is heard. KolKolKol can often be seen in comments from fans:

- Poor France D: I'm sure Russia enjoys that D:

- KolKolKol I bet he does c:

Yonda~? is a catchphrase of Russia's (meaning something like "You called?"). He'll often appear out of nowhere with a Yonda~?. Comments about Ivan or referring to him may contain a token Yonda~?.

A lot of fans also use Da? as a sentence ender for Russia and in comments relating to him (meaning "Yes?" in Russian), and similiarly to China's aru (see below), is derived from an American Cold War-era stereotype of how Russian people speak.

Let's Get Married or MarriageMarriageMarriage

Let's get married comes from the Russia's Older and Younger Sister strips where Belarus breaks a doorknob that 'dared separate' her from Russia and says "Now then brother, let's talk about marriage! Let's get married! Let's get married! Let's get married!" Let's get married!, Let's Get Married!, or MarriageMarriageMarriage can be seen in fan comments referencing Belarus, alluding to her seemingly obsessive desire to marry Russia. This is often said as "KekkonKekkonKekkon".

In the English dub, her chant is "Marry me! Marry me! Marry me!".

Maple and 'Who?'

Canada sometimes utters Maple for no specified reason, though it is notable he says it when being tormented (e.g., when Cuba mistakes him for America). Fans will often insert a token Maple into comments talking about Canada.

Fans also commonly comment with Who? in discussion of Canada. This is a reference to Matthew's polar bear, Kumajirou, who can't remember who Canada is and always asks Who?, as well as to the other countries who often overlook him.

- OMG! Is that Canada I hear in the next episode?

- ...Who? XD

Another joke is to link somebody to the karaoke version of a Marukaite Chikyuu and tell them it's Canada's version.

Ve~ and Pastaaaaaaa

Ve~ is a sound North Italy makes (for no apparent reason). Seeing Ve~ or Pasta (with numerous a's) in fan comments is quite common, with the use of Pasta spawning from Italy's obsession with the food and his dragged out 'pasta' in the first episode of the anime.

Italy's Erogenous Zone

Started in the original webcomic. North Italy's 'erogenous zone' is the curl of hair he has and was discovered when Germany started becoming curious about it, going so far as to touch it. South Italy 'saves' his brother and tells off Germany for doing something inappropriate, but fails to convince him and winds up with his curl pulled as well. From then on, jokes about both Italies' curls have appeared in almost every medium.

Because countries such as Greece, Turkey, Taiwan, Norway, Austria (though his curl represents Mariazell and both Germany and France have pulled it without any reaction other than annoyance), Canada and South Korea have similar curls, jokes and plot ploys have been developed from them, though any sign that they too are 'erogenous zones' has yet to be shown.

Marukaite Chikyuu

Because of the different versions of Marukaite Chikyuu sung by each country's respective voice actor, it has become a common meme to either perform a version of the song in:

Japanese but lyrics are changed to suit the country in question

English but lyrics are changed to suit the country in question

The language of the country with the lyrics changed to suit the country in question

An opposite sex voice with the same lyrics

Nekotalia

Main article: Nekotalia

Nyotalia

Main article: Nyotalia

It has become common to depict characters as the opposite gender in either fanart or fanfiction (for example, Germany as a female or Hungary as a male). In addition, designs of the opposite gender exist for certain characters, as Hidekaz Himaruya drew them for fun to see what the nations would be like. However, Himaruya also noted that when drawing the characters, he came up with their designs as if they were completely different people (if they were designed as females to begin with). This is presumably why some of them lack certain distinguishing details that their original versions had.

So far, the characters drawn by Himaruya include the Axis and Allies, Spain, South Italy, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Taiwan, Canada, Sweden, Belgium, Belarus, Ukraine, Vietnam, Wy, Prussia and Austria.

Fanon based memes

Color Police

A meme that first originated on Pixiv. In this art meme, the nations are depicted as belonging to different teams of police, each with a different color to describe their team.

Red Police (Spain)
Orange Police (Belgium and Switzerland)
Yellow Police (China)
Green Police (North and South Italy)
Blue Police (America)
Purple Police (Russia)
Pink Police (England)
White Police (Japan)
Navy Police (Norway)
Turquoise Police (Turkey)
Olive Police (Greece)
Gold Police (Egypt)
Black Police (Germany and Prussia)
Violet Police (France)

Five Meters

An in-joke started by a fan about Prussia during a discussion about the average penis sizes of men in various countries. As it was based on a recent survey using empirical data, information on Prussia was absent due to the dissolution of his country. After one fan stated that Prussia was "five meters long", the joke quickly caught on as a meme and fanworks with Prussia can often be seen referencing "FIVE METERS".

Shimeji

A shimeji is a desktop mascot that walks around your screen. The first Hetalia related shimeji to be made was Denmark's, which was made by haagen-dazs on deviantART(who unfortunately, deactivated their account). Ever since the Denmark shimeji was made, there were even more shimejis of other different nations, such as Japan, England, France, Norway, etc.

Videos

Anime Endings/Openings

A relatively common meme in anime fandom, but seems to have boomed in the Hetalia fandom. Anime endings/openings are animated by fans to portray the Hetalia characters in place of the actual characters in the series. Some examples of these include the Hetalia version of the Azumanga Daioh opening and the Hetalia version of the Baccano! opening.

Commercials

Commercials are animated by fans to portray the Hetalia characters. The best example of this is a series of fan animations of the Apple iPod dances with black silhouettes of the Hetalia characters and the Hetalia recreation of a pocky commercial.

Caramelldansen

Probably the most expansive meme in relation to anime. Caramelldansen features character(s) 'bouncing' their hips from side to side while opening and closing their hands above their head in time with the beat of Caramelldansen by the Swedish group Caramell, as remixed by SpeedyCake. Hetalia characters are usually featured individually, in pairs, or in a group (e.g., the Nordics or Baltics). While there are a large number of variants, there exists a "Perfect Edition" which features all characters that existed at the time of its creation dancing with characters they have interacted with in the webcomics.

Dance Dance World Revolution

This meme was originally created by yuumei on deviantART and is accompanied by music by NIGHTkilla from Newgrounds. The original features the character of America.

The meme features the country in question dancing from side to side with their national flag in each hand with little icons (e.g., Hello Kitty for China, or Tomatoes or 'Ve~' for Italy) flying from the flag each time they wave it. Some countries have numerous versions; their videos can be found on YouTube and/or deviantART.

Versions currently exist for America, Britain, France, Turkey, Greece, Japan, Germany, Prussia, both Italy brothers, Finland, Sweden, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Canada, Norway, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Australia and Hong Kong.

Nice ------

On YouTube, it is quite common to find videos of Hetalia characters doing a continuous pelvic thrust in their underwear to the song I Like Your Booty (But I'm Not Gay) by Dana Swanson and Nick Ingkatanuwat. The song originated on the television show Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which spawned the meme; the string of Hetalia videos started with 'Nice Florida'.

Currently existing versions: (some of these videos may be considered 18+; please be careful!)

America- Nice Florida

Britain- Nice Big Ben

Denmark- Nice Copenhagen

Poland-Nice Warsaw

France and Britain- Nice D0ver!

Prussia- Nice Königsberg

Greece- Nice Thessaloniki (Fans have noted that his 'vital regions' are notably bigger then the others. This could be a joke on Greece's sex prowess.)

Japan- Nice Kansai...?

South Korea-Nice Seoul

Russia- Nice Primorsky

Germany-Nice Frankfurt

Canada - Nice Montreal

Lithuania - Nice Neringa

Sweden - Nice Stockholm

There is also a live action version for China - Nice Beijing(s) as well as live action versions of the ones for Poland, Prussia and Finland.

There is also a gag Canada version entitled 'Nice Toronto' though all that is seen is the Canadian flag as the background, as a reference to how no one notices him.

RomaHeta

RomaHeta is a series of fan videos that circulated on Nico Nico Douga. They play out as an RPG featuring characters of the Axis, the Allied Forces, Prussia, Belarus, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Canada, Austria, Spain, and South Italy. Hungary, South Korea, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia also make appearances as outside supporting characters.

In the series, Japan creates a game that can send people to the second dimension. However, this proves to backfire when it sucks him and a bunch of other nations into its programming, trapping them in the computer. In order to return to their world, they must beat the game.

While training, it is revealed that the Japan in their party is an "error" and an evil duplicate, and that the real Japan has actually remained outside of the computer (though he assists the others from outside the game). America attempts to gather all of the other trapped nations, but the Allies and Axis soon face off against each other. It is revealed that some of the nations have become contaminated with a type of virus. While Germany, Prussia, and Spain are healed, Russia is unable to be cured and is revealed to have been behind the manipulation of the fight, having worked with the evil duplicate of Japan (with Belarus following after him).

The Italy brothers are later revealed to have also been corrupted by the virus, and the other characters must destroy the altar they guard to free them. However, the destruction of the altar only triggers a transformation in the two, who power-up into white robed, "holy" forms and attack the others. Though South Italy is eventually taken out, a still-infected North must be restrained and is nearly killed by a statue. The ghost of Holy Roman Empire intervenes to save him.

The Allies move on to Russia's base to destroy another mind-control artifact, but have to fight both Russia and Belarus. Russia is about to kill America, but Belarus sacrifices herself and reveals that she was secretly working with America to save her brother from the evil Japan. This causes Russia to go catatonic with shock.

It is later revealed that Belarus survived the attack, as the evil Japan proceeds to manipulate another nation. Belarus and Liechtenstein journey into Russia's mind and manage to free him from the mind-control, but the evil Japan reveals his newest ally to the other nations: Canada.

The "holy" versions of the Italy brothers quickly became popular in fanart on Pixiv as a result of the video series, along with the names of the spells used in the game (ie: South Italy's Rosario Impale and Spain's Passionate Breakup attack).

However, due to controversy that arose in the Japanese fandom over fanart for the game being more popular than actual Hetalia fanart, the author discontinued the video series and made their videos private, opting later to delete them. They proceeded to release an official statement about the discontinuation, as well as regret that they didn't get to animate the battle with Canada and other planned plot points. Despite the deletions, copies of the videos continue to re-appear on other sites such as YouTube.

HetaOni

A meme that is growing in popularity on sites such as YouTube and DeviantART is HetaOni. Also known as Heta Demon (ヘタ鬼) in the Japanese fandom. The 16-part series(ongoing) is based off of the Japanese horror game Ao Oni Jikkyou, replacing the canon characters with Hetalia characters. It originated on Nico Nico Douga by Tomoyoshi, entirely in Japanese, before being translated on YouTube by SotetAG.

The series starts off with the Axis Powers and Prussia after a World Conference Meeting, standing in front of a supposedly "haunted" mansion. They decide to go inside and explore. Soon they are interrupted when a plate breaks and Japan goes to investigate, but comes back to find the others have disappeared. After alien attacks and various other strange happenings, the Allies, and Canada, also arrive at the mansion, becoming locked in as well. Characters suddenly disappear and a time paradox is revealed. Eventually other characters, such as South Italy and Belarus, arrive as well.

On deviantART, the series has spawned fan art of the characters running from deformed aliens, or breaking clocks. A particularly popular thing is to draw a character with a bloody clock, because of the time paradox in the series, or falling numbers/clock-style numbers, as well as a fireplace. Another popular thing is to draw Italy laying with a rose. On YouTube, there is a collection of various MADs of the series, featuring the characters beaten, crying, bloody, or in other situations. On a more comical note, there are also many videos and fan arts making fun of the strange pictures of the characters used in the game, based off of the character pictures from Ao Oni Jikkyou, the strangest being Germany's, America's and England's. Some version of The Seven Colors of Hetaoni also could be found around niconico. A Vocaloid song, "Rolling Girl" sometimes was used in some MAD videos such as this one.

Examples of HetaOni MADs:

Servant Of Evil Series

Another meme present on Nico Nico Douga and YouTube involves the creation of MADs based off of the Vocaloid song "Servant Of Evil" and the other songs related to it.

In the original song, Rin Kagamine is the "Daughter Of Evil", a tyrannical ruler who fell in love with a prince (represented by KAITO), whose feelings, unfortunately, were focused on another girl (played by Miku Hatsune). Enraged, Rin orders Miku's kingdom burned, causing a revolution to occur. Her brother and servant Len, who knew of her kinder and gentler side in addition to her cruelty, decides to switch places with her and be captured by the villagers she wronged. The "Daughter Of Evil" (in actuality Len) is then beheaded, while Rin is left free to run, but distraught by her brother's death.

In some cases, the MAD author will also do videos based off of the two sequels to the song: "Regret Message" and "Re_birthday". However, this is not always the case. It is rare to find MADs based off of the original "Daughter Of Evil" song which preceded "Servant".

In the Hetalia versions, sibling pairs are usually used to further mirror the songs. Fanfiction and fanart have also been done with this theme.

North and South Italy

Versions: "Servant of Evil", "Regret Message", and "Re_birthday"

In a MAD based off of "Servant Of Evil", North Italy plays the part of Rin, while South Italy plays Len. North Italy sees that his brother has become interested in Spain (in the role of Miku Hatsune), and orders South Italy to kill him. In the end, South Italy decides to switch places with his brother when the revolution occurs, and has his head cut off by Prussia with a sword (in the role of Meiko). Austria, who is also included in the storyline, plays the part of Kaito.

The "Regret Message" followup contains North Italy reminiscing over happier times spent with his brother, and the wish that they both secretly expressed in the end: To be reborn and meet again.

The artist of both videos had also done a doujinshi based off of the "Evil" story, which was used as the basis for a short "Re_birthday" video, in which South Italy is reborn.

America and Canada

Versions: "Aku no Maple" ("Servant Of Evil") and "Regret Message"

America and Canada have also been featured in MADs, though their roles are subject to vary. In this particular MAD, America is the "evil" twin and Canada is his servant.

There is also a version of "Regret Message" for America and Canada, following the plot of the original. It also includes brief flashes of other characters, such as Russia, Japan, and Britain.

Germany and Prussia

Version: "Servant of Evil"

Germany and Prussia have also been used to portray the siblings in MADs, though depending on the author, either brother may be the "evil" one.

America and England

Version: "Devilish Brother" ("Servant of Evil")

While most Hetalia videos based on "Servant of Evil" contain the original Vocaloid audio and stick to the original storyline, another version has been found where a different version of the song is sung by Shion Kaito. It keeps the same tune, but the lyrics have been altered to revolve around the Revolutionary War and America's relationship with Britain. In general "Servant of Evil" terms, America would be the servant and Britain would be the "evil" twin, but their roles are described in many different ways throughout the song.

Sound MADs

There exist several MADs in which music is played to Hetalia characters, as the vocals are replaced with voices of Hetalia characters, or sounds from the anime or drama CDs, usually edited to fit the tune of the song. The majority of videos in this category originate from Nico Nico Douga. They tend to have sounds that can range from simple and catchy, to fast-paced and chaotic.

Here are a few examples:

パ//ス/タ Pa//s/ta

【APヘタリア】　トマテイ　【音MAD】【APHetalia】 Tomatei 【Sound MAD】

【ヘタリア】シュウデン・マタ・ナイツ【手描き】パスタ~ 【Hetalia】 Shuden・Mata・Nights 【Animation】 Pasta~

Suplexing or Wife's Last Stand/Attack

This meme usually depicts one character holding on to the waist of the other character while throwing themselves backwards so that the captured character's head hits the ground and the offensive characters ends up with his/her back parallel to the ground. Sometimes this meme is turned into a chain, with one character holding another character's waist who holds another characters waist etc. The 'weaker' character usually throws the 'stronger' character backwards, though the strength of either character could be debated e.g. South Italy suplexing Spain, North Italy suplexing Germany, Taiwan suplexing Hong Kong.

This famous meme in the Japanese anime fanon comes from a security video tape of a woman 'suplexing' a thief in an elevator.[2]

This is -----

There is another YouTube meme stemming from the many 300 parodies, of the scene where the King of Sparta would normally say, "This is Sparta!". There are several variations of this, replacing "Sparta" with other object or food memes in Hetalia, such as Italy's "Pasta!".