Does Hetalia teach us history?

Q: Does Hetalia teach us history?
A: Yes and no.

I've been into Hetalia for almost three months, ever since I discovered it one very unusual and hot November day. Since I'm a history lover, I immediately fell in love with Hetalia. For these three months, I've learned many things I didn't even know about, not to mention my history and geography knowledge extended. But, then, I happen to come across many discussions on Net, about the question: "Does Hetalia teach us history?" Two political and historical parties were formed, arguing with each other and expressing their opinions. One party's answer is "yes", while the other says "no". There were couple of them, like Switzerland, who were neutral. Soon, I found myself in bewilderment about the whole situation. I hate being neutral, so I tried to think of a reasonable answer. What was the answer? Yes or no? If yes, then how? If no, then why? The question was left unanswered, until one day, I woke up in 4 AM with the idea for essay.
Let's start from the beginning. The next two paragraphs will be a little digression, but that doesn't mean you can skip them. Totally opposite – you have to read them, in order to understand the rest of the text… or else I will ask Russia to test his pipe on you.

When I first began watching Japanese anime (not Hetalia, just anime in general), I had absolute zero knowledge about Japan , its culture, history, language. I will only mention I didn't even know they use kanji as a writing system. You could imagine my shock when I saw one random anime girl do literature (or was it history) test in kanji. Anyway, back on the story.

By watching anime or reading manga, I grew more and more attached to Japan. Anime didn't teach me Japanese, it motivate me to start learning it. However, I did learn a couple of words and facts from anime. For example: I learned what bento is; that students clean their own schools; how Japanese people get over fears; I was introduced to the writing system…

But, all of these examples are just facts. The real love and knowledge were gained when I actually started learning Japanese. Anime gave me facts that motivated me to learn Japanese.

The same story is with Hetalia. It gives us the facts that motivate us to learn history. Of course it can teach you some things like  who Allies and who Axis were, but even if you are a complete history-hater, you had to know at least this fact, or else you have been living under a rock ever since your birth (and I'm not saying this because I'm history nerd). Or geographical positions of some countries, the same comment as above. Other than that, you had to Google or look in encyclopedia or Wikipedia for more information. Am I right?


I will take two examples that crossed my mind in 4 AM:
+Panjandrum
+Anglo-Japanese alliance

Will these examples prove anything? It certainly will IF you read without skipping the sentences. Let's start from Panjandrum. If you watched episode 48 with subs (I'm sure most of you did), you could see a long description about Panjandrum (which covered more then half of the screen where sick Arthur was laying, but that's the other story). From first sentence, you learned that it is a weapon, another fact. I doubt anyone read the whole unreadable-yellow-fast-moving text. Now, you are being motivated to Google-ed it or look at Wikipedia for better description or pictures.

Another example I take is Anglo-Japanese alliance, just in case you didn't understand the first one. The anime doesn't show how, why ,where, with how much tea or cat fights, the alliance was formed. It just gave us the fact that motivated us to read more about the topic.

In the other words, Hetalia does and doesn't teach us history. By watching Hetalia, we lean facts that motivate us to learn history. The result? We soon find out we have learned history (this isn't of course, referring to whole history) without dull and very long school lessons. All Hetalia fans know that learning history by imagining personified countries, rather then listening to an hour of lesson. Besides, it helps us unleash our imagination, if you have some in the first place.

This is literally, the end of essay. Wait, that doesn't mean you can stop reading and go watch Hetalia episodes for hundredth time. I still have a couple of things to say. First, I hope you understood the text, or at least its main purpose. Second, I hope that this will convince that both parties, the one that thinks Hetalia teach us history and the other that thinks it doesn't, are right. Third, this isn't an invitation for another Internet war, we have enough wars in the real world. And, fourth if you didn't like or misunderstood the text, then you wasted good ten minutes of your life reading it.

And, finally the least, but not the least, comments, praises or critiques are highly welcome. I have nothing against critiques (seeing I' ma critic a bit), as long as you have a reason for writing it. Tell me why exactly you didn't or did like about my essay. If you are going to write one lined rude remarks like: "Your essay sucks.", "Stop talking nonsense, long live Hetalia.", "Die infidel (yes, it's taken from Assassain's Creed), I will most likely100 % ignore them.
Thank you for reading
Bermael


P.S. This is the last, I swear. If you don't know what Hetalia is, or never watched/read it, I hope these facts motivated you to start watching/reading it.