Hetalia: Axis Powers vol. 2

As promised, and to wrap up the year, my thoughts on vol. 2 of “Hetalia:”

If you liked the first one, you’ll like this too.

Seriously.  There’s really not much else to say about this.  It doesn’t feel as unfocused as the first volume, but there’s still no real narrative tying everything together.  So you wind up with a volume of loosely-connected, yet admittedly funny, gag strips about the various interrelationships between the countries of the world.  This time, the focus is off of the Germany/Italy relationship as America/Japan and Russia and his “sisters” (older sister Ukraine and little sister Belarus) get more of the spotlight here.  So yeah, it’s a slight improvement over the previous volume but it also makes me glad that this series is only three volumes long.  Based on what I’m seeing here, I don’t think the concept could or should’ve been stretched out longer.

There is more to say about the preview of “Chibisan Date” included in the back of the book.  This is “Hetalia” creator Hidekaz Himaruya’s first serialized manga, and it’s about a struggling artist on Nantucket island off of Cape Cod.  While his art looks great in the transition to long-form serialization, the slice-of-life story offered here comes off as rather dull.  The events here feel dull and rather pointless, and lack the detail and spark that creators like Fumi Yoshinaga or Kiyohiko Azuma bring to their works.  Coming from the creator of “Hetalia,” I’m sure this will be of interest to people who really like that series.  As I only “like” it, I think I’ll be taking a pass on this.