Czech

Czech チェコ
Character Information
Name	Czech Republic (Česká republika)
Gender	Female
Hair Color	Brown (anime)
Eye Color	Purple (anime)
Height	162 cm (5' 3.78")
Debut Appearances
Volume	Hetalia: World☆Stars Volume 3
Strip	World☆Stars Chapter 67
Anime	Czech and Slovakia・Part 1
Voice Actors
Japanese	Sumire Morohoshi
English	Megan Shipman

Czech (チェコ, Cheko), also known as Czechia (チェキア, Chekia) but better known in the English-speaking world as the Czech Republic (チェコ共和国, Chekokyōwakoku), is a supporting character in the series Hetalia.

Attributes

A 'chibi' version of Czech from World☆Stars.

Appearance

Czech is depicted as a young woman with longish dark hair tied with a bun in the back, which appears to have been longer and in pigtails when she was younger. She is primarily shown wearing a light-colored dress shirt with a ribbon-like tie and knee-high boots, however a "chibi" style illustration of her accompanying her character profile depicts her in a darker military uniform. She seems to be a good deal shorter than Slovakia, roughly coming up to his chin.

Personality and Interests

Her profile describes her as "serious, patient, and very hard-working!" She plans her every move beforehand, and in her first appearance refers to independence from Austria-Hungary as a "starting line" and not a "goal". She also has a delicate and unique art sense. In further appearances she is shown to take great pride in her achievements, to the point where in her younger days she would gloat while Slovakia cried in front of her. While this has tempered more as she grew older, she still tries to maintain a composed and goal-oriented attitude. Slovakia describes her as having a "haughty" attitude.

Additionally, on Belarus's relationship chart it is shown at Czech is terrified of her.

Relationships

Liechtenstein

Main Article: Liechtenstein

Prior to her debut, it was revealed in character notes that Czech is on bad terms with Liechtenstein. After Czech and Slovakia get back on good terms following their separation, Liechtenstein asks them if they could pay her back the money they owe her, which makes Czech silently flinch.

Hungary

Main Article: Hungary

Czech is visibly perturbed and fuming when Hungary advertises her country's spas. She appears to be jealous, with Czech believing it is unfair that Hungary is more popular her when it comes to spas, since she puts in more love for them.

Slovakia

Main Article: Slovakia

After Czech and Slovakia gained their independence from Austria-Hungary, they decided to join together as one country as they've always been someone's underlings and had similar languages. However, when deciding on a name, Slovakia wanted a hyphenated name as it made them seem more like equal partners. He argued that the name without a hyphen made it sound like Czech was calling the shots, and then made Czech act out a humiliating pose where she was sitting on his back like she was dominating his, and they continue to argue while Czech jumps up and down on him. In character notes, it is stated that Slovakia always moves outside of her calculations when determining what to do. In flashbacks to their younger years, it is revealed that Czech would regularly outmatch Slovakia in strength and knowledge, which she would revel in while he cried. When reflecting on it in the present day, Slovakia notes that while she used to be tactless and rude, she's much cuter now.

In the years following their independence from Austria-Hungary, Czech frequently become annoyed by Slovakia's nitpicking over their name, which she finds inexplicably trivial. The issue resurfaces again after they leave Russia's sphere of influence, and the argument reaches the point where they decide to separate. However, once they begin living on their own they start to realize that, while they often annoyed one another, it was nice to live together with someone. Upon meeting once again, they both state that they're doing great on their own, though Czech admits that Slovakia does have some good points. Elated, Slovakia enthusiastically hugs her and says that he's so happy to hear that and that they both have good points, while Czech tries to get out of his embrace.

Appearances

Manga

Czech first appears in the eighty-fifth serialized chapter of World☆Stars (later published as "Chapter 67" in Hetalia: World☆Stars Volume 3) where she, along with Slovakia, gain independence from Austria-Hungary and form Czechoslovakia. After she registers their name without a hyphen in the middle, Slovakia becomes upset, claiming that it gives the impression that she's dominating him and not that they're equal partners. Following this, Czech is shown going through her journals and archives in order to get a better feel for what their cultures were like the last time they had autonomy, and Slovakia remembers Czech besting him in various areas and gloating. He says that she's much cuter now, at which she takes umbrage in a way that is reminiscent of her old self. They continue to argue over their combined name over the years, with minor changes occurring to placate Slovakia until they fall under Russia's sphere of influence. After freeing themselves from him, they immediately pick up arguing about this once more, and decide that it might be better if they split up. Bulgaria points out that they're getting a divorce, though they angrily insist that their separation isn't a divorce. One their separation is complete, she halfheartedly congratulates Slovakia on achieving what she sees as the trivial goal of having his name capitalized. She is later shown taking a bath, and states that everything is much cleaner now that Slovakia is not around. However, after getting out, she realizes that there is no one around to get her a towel, and is immediately spooked by a rattling noise in the house. She meets up with Slovakia in the next chapter, where they both discuss how well they're doing on their own. Czech admits that Slovakia does have some good traits, eliciting an enthusiastic response from Slovakia, who pulls her into a hug. Their reconciliation is cut short, however, when Liechtenstein reminds them that they still owe her money.

Czech as she appears in "Czech and Slovakia・Part 1".

Czech later appears in a story where she sets out to prove that, she, not Hungary, is the greatest nation for spas. She chastises Hungary for her advertisements having more sex appeal, though it's shown effective is attracting tourists, and Slovakia declares Hungary the winner in a match-up because she has bigger boobs. Ultimately, Hungary suggests calling in hot spring experts from Japan to decide, and a variety of animals end up enjoying the spas in both countries. Subsequently storylines involving Czech include her attempting to change her name to "Czechia", a meeting from before the Napoleon wars where Austria's allies discuss his recent weird behavior, and attempting to show off how great her spa is to Italy while he's on a quest to master the art of baths, only for him to wander off during her explanation.

Anime

Prior to her first anime appearance, Czech appeared during the ending sequence of Hetalia: World☆Stars as one of many illustrated chibi heads. She made her official debut in the episode "Czech and Slovakia・Part 1". This also marked the first time the character has appeared in color, shown with brown hair and purple eyes. This episodes, as well as the following one, adapted her introduction storyline with Slovakia from the Hetalia: World☆Stars manga.

Trivia

2006 concept designs for a Czechoslovakia character.

• In early development character notes from 2006, Himaruya states that Czech would be hostile towards Germany and Austria (though she couldn't do anything too spiteful as they are trading partners) and that he was thinking about basing her character on her rivalry with them.
• Originally, only one character for Czechoslovakia (チェコスロバキア, Chekosurobakia) was planned, with a possible design being that of a young girl (as Himaruya felt "Cheko" sounded feminine), while another was of a bearded man (as he felt Slovakia made the name masculine). Two other designs for the character were shown, one being a "musician"-looking character (who resembled Iceland), and another clean-shaven younger man who was a "ladies' man" (based off of a Slovakian classmate of Himaruya's). He would state that he was thinking about creating the character as a "tough brother" or "tough brothers".
• While Himaruya initially planned for the character(s) to be male,, he subsequently stated in November 2006 that he thought a lot about a female Czech, saying that "One voice keeps telling me, 'girls are cute, let's make Czech into a girl'". In response to another question, he contemplates making two versions of Czech, with one of them speaking with a local dialect. In 2008, when asked by a fan if Czechoslovakia would be brothers, Himaruya appeared to favor Czech and Slovakia being a duo of a young girl and older male, though he also mentioned that mysterious characters with curly hairs in the vein of Italy also came to mind. In 2011, when a fan asked if two characters appearing in an earlier blog post were Czechia and Slovakia, Himaruya confirmed that they weren't but was happy they "give off a sense of Eastern Europe". A couple of months later, Himaruya stated that Czech was planned to be the next female character.