How far can Anime/Manga go? (Images warning, 56kb ppl beware!)

[B Gundam]

This year, Axis Powers Hetalia, a popular webcomic came out as Anime.

However, it was instantly forbidden in - no, not the USA (doesn't like "un-American" or "not politically correct"), not China (doesn't like smearing the display of their government or armed forces), not Germany (currently paranoid about media being responsible for massacres at schools), but (South) Korea, for the stereotypical display of their Country.

Axis Powers Hetalia displays Countries as people, including their armed forces, though significant characters such as a contries ruler or population sometimes are often depicted as own characters.



The respective avatars of each Country have their respective stereotypical traits for comedic value.

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/2927/10536643.gif

Examples:

-Italy, the main character, has no clue of anything, is lazy like hell and a huge coward. The titular "Hetalia" is a combination of Hetare (useless) and "Italia" (Italy), as Italy is depicted completely useless in wars ever since the Roman Empire ended.
-America eats fastfood nonstop, declares himself the hero no matter what he's doing and is hopelessly stupid, though that doesn't stop him from making bogus ideas (painting the Fuji red to demoralize japan, create a weapon that makes people gay only to end up shooting himself with it)
-Germany obeys rules and orders and is strict to a fault, only surpassed by Austria in being irritated by laid back or salop behaviour. He is often depicted having to rescue Italy out of various pinches from Italy being attacked by England to Italy being unable to tie his own shoelaces.
-Japan is overly polite, shy, inexperienced with the outside world and has ominous fetishes (hentai)
-France is horny. Also a good cook, gaudy about fashion, but mainly horny to the extent that he doesn't differ gender.

Also, Hetalia's Anime mainly handles the era of World War II, with the Axis Powers (Italy, Germany, Japan) being the protagonists, though noone is really depicted as clear evil/villainous. Though the character Germany rather refers to Germany as Nation over its political status, the Germany in the anime is effectively Germany under National Socialistic rule, and we all know how certain people have a phobia when it comes to that topic. Germany himself is however, neither glorified nor demonized.

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/6228/f0d5db3ef6fbbb751ea2185.png

As the characters depict countries, their actions and traits consist of stereotypes of their Nation as well as historic events.

The reason Korea forbid Hetalia was because of Korea's antics. Though he is not more or less wierd than the other characters, the Korean government caught wind of his behaviour and promptly decided to make it a diplomatic matter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGzT1eUoC6Y

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/3249/kr4.png


Ironically, Korea hasn't showed up in the Anime at all yet as of now.
I personally also don't see how it is an international problem, as everyone is equally spoofed. Also, no touchy subjects are displayed as "right" or "wrong" or even joked about if its extremely touchy.

For those new to Hetalia, here are some strips of the webmanga:

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/9523/meeting01copia2ft0.jpg

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/1804/meeting02copia2jy9.jpg

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/3923/meeting03copia2qa6.jpg

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/4720/48321789.gif

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/755/meeting04copia2ad6.jpg

[Diocletian]

There's no Mexico, therefore I can't be offended.

[Datenshi]

It saddens me to no end to hear garbage about the show being cancelled because of petitions by netizens in S. Korea (there are actually two punch lines for that one; 1) the show didn't air in Korea, which means they're compaining about something they took the trouble of illegally pirating to see, and even richer, 2) Korea doesn't even appear in the anime version).

Anyhow. What you need to understand is that this isn't about anime/manga at all, but only a small part of the huge political problem that is strictly between South Korea and Japan. It's only one far less significant problem out of the many things that Korea finds wrong with Japan, from our former prime minister's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine to the dispute over Takeshima/Dokuto to the way our history textbooks describe our actions during WWII.

Now, I'm not going to take the typical 2-channeler stance and say all of it is bogus, but in cases like these I feel the heated emotions and national agenda came first and the reasoning was slapped on afterwards. Remember the Korean anti-Japanese protests back in 2005?

[kero_-_chan]

This Is Awesome! Where Can I Download This Anime? ^______________^

[Cobra Commander]

That looks like something I would watch and laugh at.