Hetalia - Axis 3 - On Reparations and Contraction

The third episode of "Axis Powers" talks mainly about how Germany and Italy were forced to pay reparations to France after the first World War (for those of you who don't know, this was a condition under the Treaty of Versailles). The collateral, of course, was territory owned by the two nations. Immediately, some serious problems should become apparent.

• While post-WWI Germany favored an industrial economy (albeit a little late on the world stage), if their land was ever seized they would still have room to build new factories elsewhere. That said, quality of life would suffer from the inevitable mass-migrations that would follow, just like what happened in the real industrial revolution.
• Post-WWI Italy, meanwhile, could only try to maintain an agricultural economy, which meant if they were to lose their most coveted land, they'd not only suffer from migration effects, but significant GDP losses as well due to being able to grow less and less with each successive takeover.

If you think about it, Italy was screwed from the start. Italy did have a rather satisfactory economic strategy, but if France started taking land, there would be no way for it not to fail. It would go like this: Italy would fall behind in payments due to internal economic losses. Someone (most likely France) would take Italy's land, causing the successive year's harvest to diminish. Italy would not be able to make that year's payments. More land would be taken, and the next year's GDP would fall ever further. Rinse and repeat.

No wonder Italy went to Germany for a job.

This is one of the major problems hard to address in macro-economics: momentum works both ways. On the one hand, if growth starts, then the following years will see an acceleration of said growth in a sort of chain reaction. However, if a recession begins, then it will only continue to increase in magnitude year-over-year due to cycles not unlike what we see above. Generally, it will be a non-market factor which causes the starting or stopping of a growth period or a recession period. This could be due to a national tragedy, a government movement, a technological revolution, or all sorts of things.

That said, the most important thing to remember is that, if we're entering a recessionary period, the ultimate enemy is time. If we can reverse it before the fiscal year is up, then we're good. Now, that almost rarely happens, but it is a good goal to set.

Hetalia - Chibi 2 - How Italy Became A Victim of Bullying

The Chibisodes of the Hetalia series are centered around Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. It goes into the history of the Empire's fragmentation, its assimilation into other countries and the sociopolitical conflicts which plagued the continent for centuries. It does all of this with an unparalleled childlike humor.

The narration goes on to discuss how the motivations for conquering Italy post-Empire were largely based on the rich volume of resources these lands possessed, as well as the cultural and religious backbone which kept the country flourishing in more abstract ways.

Hetalia - Axis 1 - The Modern World Conference

Hetalia opens with a hilarious introduction set in the modern 21st century. The nations of the world have all gathered to hold a meeting not unlike G20 or the UN General Assembly, in which they attempt to solve the world's problems through open forum. It sounds pretty straightforward, until the countries start bickering with each other over how things should be done.

Now, what really struck me when watching was not the way the countries were arguing, but rather, how one country in particular was fast asleep in the corner of the room. That country happened to be Greece. Now, this episode preceded the Eurozone Crisis by a small margin (2009 versus 2011). That said, this short scene speaks volumes about the events which led to the crisis. Put simply, Greece's main problem wasn't the lavishness and overspending, but the fact that as the nation started to collapse, they simply went to sleep.

Hetalia - Introduction

The Hetalia series is a webcomic-turned-anime which tells the story of Earth's militaryand political conquests, from the Roman Empire to the Modern Era. The nations of the world are personified as quirky men and women who all live together but cannot seem to get along, turning the world's depressing past into something far more comical and lighthearted. Throw actual history trivia into the mix and you have a truly phenomenal artistic work on your hands.

The real kicker, of course, is how the series manages to cram so much information into tiny, five minute episode blocks. There is so much information being presented in so little time that it can be hard to digest all of it the first time around. All of these qualities make Hetalia a phenomenal series for analysis.

The first batch of articles will be split as follows:

• Axis Powers - These articles will be categorized as Axis #, where the number indicates the episode number. These articles will focus solely on the WWI and Modern World plots of the series.
• Chibitalia - These articles will be categorized as Chibi #, where the number indicates the episode number. These articles will focus on the the sideplot centered around Chibi Italy, Holy Rome and Austria.

As the first season had twenty-six episodes, you can expect up to fifty articles from it alone. We'll focus on the second season and World Series in the future, but that is a long way off for now.