basilmemories (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
basilmemories) wrote2010-04-12 05:44 am
basilmemories) wrote2010-04-12 05:44 am
Essay: Hetalia or, “if you’re going to hate it, please do it right”
Quick question, do you hate Hetalia? If you answered no, you don’t have to read this thing, if you do, keep reading.
Do you have very strong feelings about the series based on racial issues? If so, read on.
Have you read the series? If not, keep going.
Do you judge others entirely based on your opinions that you have gleaned from a incomplete viewing/reading of the material and/or the opinions of others? Great! Please give this thing a read.
This is a true story. I have a dear friend, a very, very dear friend whom I consider an intelligent person. She has a good grasp of history, tends to be a voice of reason when it comes to wank, and in general acts like the nice, sane person you want in your fandom. ...But get her around Hetalia and she becomes an uncompromising, stubborn person that is willing to shout “Oh look, racism!” at the smallest piece of the series that catches her eye. Pictures in magazines, merch, fandom secret posts, you name it, she’ll react to it and I just hope to god that I’m not around when it happens.
So it’s understandable that I was saying “oh FUCK” when the story broke about the asshats doing the Nazi salute. I don’t care where or when it went down. What matters is that they did it at all. No, it’s not fucking cool, and even if I begrudgingly admit that even something like that is none of my business if it’s done in a private setting, it doesn’t fly if it’s done in public. That “apology” doesn’t fly either, there’s too much of her pinning herself to a cross and expecting it to work. The only good thing is that I think some of the fandom that were starting to go down the bugfuck crazy road (as what happens in all large fandoms), have stepped back and looked more carefully at their past actions. People are being more sensitive about the cultures represented in the series, and that’s good, but it shouldn’t have happened at all. But in the middle of me cursing a blue streak at those cosplayers, another thought crossed my mind.
“Oh son of a doubleplusfucked bitch. My friend is going to hear about it. Fuck me with a rusty pike, this isn’t going to be fun.”
And she did. For the most part I tried to keep it to “yeah. Fandom was flipping their shit about it.” But the conversation still was headache-inducing because of a double-standard. You see, she hasn’t seen the series, or at least she hasn’t seen much of it. She doesn’t WANT to see more of the series because essentially she said “I could tell how it was going to end up”. Now that’s fine, I’ve bailed on series because I didn’t like it. I’ve even had some strong opinions on those series even, but I understand that I don’t have the complete view of those series. I can say “man X show portrays women badly” but when someone brings up proof that, no, it doesn’t, I’ll admit that my view is based on incomplete knowledge. She... really doesn’t do that when it comes to Hetalia.
In a number of cases, this seems to be the common mentality among people who hate the series. So then the question is for the average Hetalia fan, how do you have a meaningful discussion with someone who disagrees with the series? The question for the person who disagrees with the series is, how do I get my facts straight without watching the canon? Ideally my comment for the latter is “just watch/read it and come to your own conclusions, or admit that you might not be right” but that hasn’t gotten me anywhere with my friend and it probably wont get the average Hetalia fan anywhere with someone who thinks that the show is inherently racist.
So here is an essay on what is problematic, what some people think is problematic, and the parts you may have missed.
Common Assumptions
First of all it’s quite understandable why some people come away from the series thinking that the show is racist. Even playing alongside Hetalia characters in my LJ game I still had issues with the beginning of the series. Italy wasn’t a wuss in ww2! Japan is depicted as too noble! And they don’t even touch on Germany’s issues about Hitler! Yeah sure it’s a gag manga, but some jokes aren’t funny. If I hadn’t known the players and seen a few of the modern strips, there would have been a very good chance that I’d be in the anti-Hetalia corner right now. But therein lies one of the problems about the series. Firstly, until recently a lot of the strips were scattered and it was just plain hard to get ahold of most of the canon. Secondly the translations you could find were out of order, as this is very much a series where the author shows more sensitivity to the darker parts of history as the canon goes on. So you would find a modern day strip from near the beginning, a modern day strip from more recently, and one could assume that the guy was just an asshat who didn’t know how to handle things.
Another problem is that a lot of the author’s notes weren’t easily accessible either. While some of them are normal things about Turkish music he liked or what was going on in his life, a good number of them revealed his feelings towards the countries as he portrays them. In this case it’s revealed that he thinks Japan is messed up in the head, and encourages people to look up some of the horrible things that Japan did during the war. In the strips themselves it’s revealed that Germany doesn’t want to annex Austria and other indicators that he’s probably not thrilled with the idea of Hitler at all. Italy is shown as having tiny balls of steel and attacks the Ottoman empire... as a kid. Many of the characters get fleshed out as time goes on and they grow into something that is not just a stereotype, not just a stand in for armies/the current administration, but characters that come into their own and even may disagree with how their country is being run. In a way they become this composite of their own character and this Fisher King sort of being, and it’s fun to analyze as well as watch.
This leads to the next problem. Since until recently a lot of the source material was hard to find, people introduced to the series only really saw a few modern/historical strips and a good amount of ww2 chapters. This leads quite a few people who gave up the series to believe that the series is ww2-centric, and that not going into detail about the tragedies that occurred during the war is a way to make the axis powers look like the good guys. The fact of the matter is that most of the series takes place either in a modern-day or pre-1900’s setting. Because of this the characters aren’t defined just by their actions during the war, but also in things like the world cup, the time when Prussia was at war with Austria, to the days of the Holy Roman Empire, and England’s inventions.
And here is what I consider the biggest issue. The double-standard applied to the series. My friend commented that she’d dislike the series less if it was historically accurate. In this case she referenced that America is portrayed as a eagleland stereotype. Fair enough, in the early days of the war the US did not want to get involved in that shit, and it wasn’t until pearl harbor that America snapped and more or less did the political/military version of “...WHAT did you just do? Hold still so we can come can come over there and kick your ass properly”. But at the same time she, and a good number of other people, claim that if you’re going to have WW2 Germany, then he needs to be anti-Semitic.
Now... I understand where she’s coming from on this issue. I’m pretty sure if I was raised in a similar situation I’d have the same feelings. But. I hate the trope that everyone who didn’t get out of Germany in WW2 is either a Nazi or brainwashed. “Sure” those same people who think Germany should be a Nazi say, “Not everyone was”. But if you claim that Germany is not a distinct character and is instead a complete representation of the population and politics of Germany at that tine, then those people are effectively claiming that so much of the population had that mindset that it is virtually indistinguishable from that trope. I’m not going to put words in the mouth of any other person who had family in Germany during the war, and there were many people who bought into that racist dogma or went along with it because of the added benefits to the country’s economy. But as someone who grew up hearing stories about my family’s experiences, I know that not everyone in Germany was a part of it or wanted to go along with it. It doesn’t work both ways. You can’t say, “Not everybody in America wanted to be a big damn hero and get involved in the war.” and at the same time say “But Germany needs to be anti-Semitic”.
The Flaws
Not that this isn’t to say that Hetalia doesn’t have problematic elements, it does! For instance it plays to the “Chinese people really love food” stereotype that’s sadly common in anime. Despite that Italy gets his moment of glory, for the most part he’s depicted as the weak, artistic country. What’s even worse is that Italia Romano, south Italy, is depicted as being just as weak even though he’s meant to incorporate the mob too. Then there’s the fact that the South American, Mexico, Middle Eastern, and African countries get little to no representation. You can say all you want about how Korea is depicted (and you better believe I have problems with it too), but focusing on the euro-centric/asia parts of the world really annoys me. The anime goes even further and cuts scenes that make Japan look bad, such as when he betrays China. It also lightens the skin tone of two of the characters. While I’m not comfortable with Turkey getting his skin tone lightened, the range of skin tone in Turkey is enough that I’ll only grumble about it a little. However the fact that it happened to Egypt too makes it more then just a coincidence. I watch the anime as an extension of the manga, but I’m more then willing to say that the animators need to get shaken a few times until they stop making stupid decisions like that.
But this isn’t something that’s limited just to Hetalia. Sadly this kind of thing is a prominent undertone in many Anime, good and bad. The biggest one I can think of is “Baccano!”, a series that is in my opinion, amazing. It’s got a wonderful cast, a great story, and characters that all have their own quirks and depth. The issue is that the main bulk of the story is set in the 1930’s before the war, and the author/artist took their references from media at the time when they created the characters that were people of color. In the books the author makes it clear that the characters condemn racism and the cast boasts a good number of strong female characters, but there are parts of the books I just skim over very quickly because I can’t stand how they depict some of the characters. Then there’s G Gundam. Holy shit if you want a series that’s offensive on so many levels, just watch this thing. I choked down the series just to see if it would get any better, but the racial stereotyping drove me up a wall. Say what you want about Canada, but at least in the series he’s not a burly, axe-wielding lumberjack. One could even look at Gundam Wing and see the Stoic Japanese pilot hero, the Deceptively Smiley American pilot, and other traits of the main characters, and come to the opinion that Gundam wing also has some problematic undertones.
But then why are there so many Gundam fans that hate Hetalia? Other canons like World of Warcraft, Black Lagoon, and just about the entire comics fandom are loaded with subject matter that can be downright offensive and cringe-worthy. Yet these fandoms also have people who fundamentally disagree with everything related to Hetalia. So what’s different? In my opinion, it’s that Hetalia tells you right on the box that the series is about anthropomorphized countries and their wacky adventures. It’s not until you’re interested in an episode of Black Lagoon that you hear Revy call someone a racial slur. It’s not until you’re in the middle of the comic that you get Captian America making disparaging comments about France. It’s sadly easy to focus on how much fun you’re having killing scorpions and raiding a troll village instead of stopping to think how much World of Warcraft culturally appropriates and misrepresents Vodou and the Jamaican people (or at least their accent). Once you find that you like a series, it’s easier to say “listen yeah I know that’s bad, but the canon is good overall”. With Hetalia I found that it was similar. Like I said, if I’d had gone into it without my friends telling me the good points, I’d probably be bashing it just as hard as some of my friends. When I discovered the good points, it became easier to say that Hetalia is flawed, but it also has it’s merits.
In Conclusion
So despite it all, am I really saying that you need to like Hetalia? No. Hetalia is a series that has flaws that should be recognized, and I have just as much of a problem with a fanbrat saying that Koreans should “get over it” when they’re upset at how the series portrays their country. The fans can be batshit, the source material has issues that should be discussed and not glossed over by fandom, and as much fun as the series is, some people need to realize that history is a sensitive thing, it doesn’t matter if you’re talking about the Siege of Leningrad or the Napoleonic wars. No matter what the event there is going to be someone who has strong feelings about it and you should respect those feelings. My problem is when people say that the show is bad and you should feel bad for liking it... without doing the research.
It’s a small punch in the gut to have your friend read a comment or a fandom secret from a fanbrat and then glare at you like you’re now the representative for every part of that fandom and canon. It’s aggravating to have to have the same conversation time and time again with someone who only heard a few things or read/watched a little of the series, made up their mind, and refuses to budge from that position. You simply can’t have the best of both worlds. Either you haven’t done the full research and thus you admit that your logic might be fallible, or you take the time to research the entire canon and then come to a decision.
The point of it all is this: no, nobody’s saying you have to like this series. Nobody’s saying you can’t believe that it doesn’t have problematic issues. But for the love of whatever figure you deem holy, please don’t throw around accusations of racism without doing the research. My friend’s justification for judging everybody in the fandom is that racism is a serious charge and people should be judged if they enjoy a series that is as heavily insulting to other cultures as she claims Hetalia is. In my opinion, she’s right. That’s why it’s so important to make sure your opinion is founded on the most complete view of the topic as possible... or admit that you might not have the complete picture. Accusing something of being racist in everything from its very foundations and everything that's built on it, is one of the heaviest condemnations I can think of. It places that piece of media at a societal raking of somewhere above sewage water and somewhere below a pile of shit. It says that this object has no real place in an open-minded society and it insinuates that people who are fond of that object are racist as well.
And that kind of accusation is not something that should be done without proper research.
Do you have very strong feelings about the series based on racial issues? If so, read on.
Have you read the series? If not, keep going.
Do you judge others entirely based on your opinions that you have gleaned from a incomplete viewing/reading of the material and/or the opinions of others? Great! Please give this thing a read.
This is a true story. I have a dear friend, a very, very dear friend whom I consider an intelligent person. She has a good grasp of history, tends to be a voice of reason when it comes to wank, and in general acts like the nice, sane person you want in your fandom. ...But get her around Hetalia and she becomes an uncompromising, stubborn person that is willing to shout “Oh look, racism!” at the smallest piece of the series that catches her eye. Pictures in magazines, merch, fandom secret posts, you name it, she’ll react to it and I just hope to god that I’m not around when it happens.
So it’s understandable that I was saying “oh FUCK” when the story broke about the asshats doing the Nazi salute. I don’t care where or when it went down. What matters is that they did it at all. No, it’s not fucking cool, and even if I begrudgingly admit that even something like that is none of my business if it’s done in a private setting, it doesn’t fly if it’s done in public. That “apology” doesn’t fly either, there’s too much of her pinning herself to a cross and expecting it to work. The only good thing is that I think some of the fandom that were starting to go down the bugfuck crazy road (as what happens in all large fandoms), have stepped back and looked more carefully at their past actions. People are being more sensitive about the cultures represented in the series, and that’s good, but it shouldn’t have happened at all. But in the middle of me cursing a blue streak at those cosplayers, another thought crossed my mind.
“Oh son of a doubleplusfucked bitch. My friend is going to hear about it. Fuck me with a rusty pike, this isn’t going to be fun.”
And she did. For the most part I tried to keep it to “yeah. Fandom was flipping their shit about it.” But the conversation still was headache-inducing because of a double-standard. You see, she hasn’t seen the series, or at least she hasn’t seen much of it. She doesn’t WANT to see more of the series because essentially she said “I could tell how it was going to end up”. Now that’s fine, I’ve bailed on series because I didn’t like it. I’ve even had some strong opinions on those series even, but I understand that I don’t have the complete view of those series. I can say “man X show portrays women badly” but when someone brings up proof that, no, it doesn’t, I’ll admit that my view is based on incomplete knowledge. She... really doesn’t do that when it comes to Hetalia.
In a number of cases, this seems to be the common mentality among people who hate the series. So then the question is for the average Hetalia fan, how do you have a meaningful discussion with someone who disagrees with the series? The question for the person who disagrees with the series is, how do I get my facts straight without watching the canon? Ideally my comment for the latter is “just watch/read it and come to your own conclusions, or admit that you might not be right” but that hasn’t gotten me anywhere with my friend and it probably wont get the average Hetalia fan anywhere with someone who thinks that the show is inherently racist.
So here is an essay on what is problematic, what some people think is problematic, and the parts you may have missed.
Common Assumptions
First of all it’s quite understandable why some people come away from the series thinking that the show is racist. Even playing alongside Hetalia characters in my LJ game I still had issues with the beginning of the series. Italy wasn’t a wuss in ww2! Japan is depicted as too noble! And they don’t even touch on Germany’s issues about Hitler! Yeah sure it’s a gag manga, but some jokes aren’t funny. If I hadn’t known the players and seen a few of the modern strips, there would have been a very good chance that I’d be in the anti-Hetalia corner right now. But therein lies one of the problems about the series. Firstly, until recently a lot of the strips were scattered and it was just plain hard to get ahold of most of the canon. Secondly the translations you could find were out of order, as this is very much a series where the author shows more sensitivity to the darker parts of history as the canon goes on. So you would find a modern day strip from near the beginning, a modern day strip from more recently, and one could assume that the guy was just an asshat who didn’t know how to handle things.
Another problem is that a lot of the author’s notes weren’t easily accessible either. While some of them are normal things about Turkish music he liked or what was going on in his life, a good number of them revealed his feelings towards the countries as he portrays them. In this case it’s revealed that he thinks Japan is messed up in the head, and encourages people to look up some of the horrible things that Japan did during the war. In the strips themselves it’s revealed that Germany doesn’t want to annex Austria and other indicators that he’s probably not thrilled with the idea of Hitler at all. Italy is shown as having tiny balls of steel and attacks the Ottoman empire... as a kid. Many of the characters get fleshed out as time goes on and they grow into something that is not just a stereotype, not just a stand in for armies/the current administration, but characters that come into their own and even may disagree with how their country is being run. In a way they become this composite of their own character and this Fisher King sort of being, and it’s fun to analyze as well as watch.
This leads to the next problem. Since until recently a lot of the source material was hard to find, people introduced to the series only really saw a few modern/historical strips and a good amount of ww2 chapters. This leads quite a few people who gave up the series to believe that the series is ww2-centric, and that not going into detail about the tragedies that occurred during the war is a way to make the axis powers look like the good guys. The fact of the matter is that most of the series takes place either in a modern-day or pre-1900’s setting. Because of this the characters aren’t defined just by their actions during the war, but also in things like the world cup, the time when Prussia was at war with Austria, to the days of the Holy Roman Empire, and England’s inventions.
And here is what I consider the biggest issue. The double-standard applied to the series. My friend commented that she’d dislike the series less if it was historically accurate. In this case she referenced that America is portrayed as a eagleland stereotype. Fair enough, in the early days of the war the US did not want to get involved in that shit, and it wasn’t until pearl harbor that America snapped and more or less did the political/military version of “...WHAT did you just do? Hold still so we can come can come over there and kick your ass properly”. But at the same time she, and a good number of other people, claim that if you’re going to have WW2 Germany, then he needs to be anti-Semitic.
Now... I understand where she’s coming from on this issue. I’m pretty sure if I was raised in a similar situation I’d have the same feelings. But. I hate the trope that everyone who didn’t get out of Germany in WW2 is either a Nazi or brainwashed. “Sure” those same people who think Germany should be a Nazi say, “Not everyone was”. But if you claim that Germany is not a distinct character and is instead a complete representation of the population and politics of Germany at that tine, then those people are effectively claiming that so much of the population had that mindset that it is virtually indistinguishable from that trope. I’m not going to put words in the mouth of any other person who had family in Germany during the war, and there were many people who bought into that racist dogma or went along with it because of the added benefits to the country’s economy. But as someone who grew up hearing stories about my family’s experiences, I know that not everyone in Germany was a part of it or wanted to go along with it. It doesn’t work both ways. You can’t say, “Not everybody in America wanted to be a big damn hero and get involved in the war.” and at the same time say “But Germany needs to be anti-Semitic”.
The Flaws
Not that this isn’t to say that Hetalia doesn’t have problematic elements, it does! For instance it plays to the “Chinese people really love food” stereotype that’s sadly common in anime. Despite that Italy gets his moment of glory, for the most part he’s depicted as the weak, artistic country. What’s even worse is that Italia Romano, south Italy, is depicted as being just as weak even though he’s meant to incorporate the mob too. Then there’s the fact that the South American, Mexico, Middle Eastern, and African countries get little to no representation. You can say all you want about how Korea is depicted (and you better believe I have problems with it too), but focusing on the euro-centric/asia parts of the world really annoys me. The anime goes even further and cuts scenes that make Japan look bad, such as when he betrays China. It also lightens the skin tone of two of the characters. While I’m not comfortable with Turkey getting his skin tone lightened, the range of skin tone in Turkey is enough that I’ll only grumble about it a little. However the fact that it happened to Egypt too makes it more then just a coincidence. I watch the anime as an extension of the manga, but I’m more then willing to say that the animators need to get shaken a few times until they stop making stupid decisions like that.
But this isn’t something that’s limited just to Hetalia. Sadly this kind of thing is a prominent undertone in many Anime, good and bad. The biggest one I can think of is “Baccano!”, a series that is in my opinion, amazing. It’s got a wonderful cast, a great story, and characters that all have their own quirks and depth. The issue is that the main bulk of the story is set in the 1930’s before the war, and the author/artist took their references from media at the time when they created the characters that were people of color. In the books the author makes it clear that the characters condemn racism and the cast boasts a good number of strong female characters, but there are parts of the books I just skim over very quickly because I can’t stand how they depict some of the characters. Then there’s G Gundam. Holy shit if you want a series that’s offensive on so many levels, just watch this thing. I choked down the series just to see if it would get any better, but the racial stereotyping drove me up a wall. Say what you want about Canada, but at least in the series he’s not a burly, axe-wielding lumberjack. One could even look at Gundam Wing and see the Stoic Japanese pilot hero, the Deceptively Smiley American pilot, and other traits of the main characters, and come to the opinion that Gundam wing also has some problematic undertones.
But then why are there so many Gundam fans that hate Hetalia? Other canons like World of Warcraft, Black Lagoon, and just about the entire comics fandom are loaded with subject matter that can be downright offensive and cringe-worthy. Yet these fandoms also have people who fundamentally disagree with everything related to Hetalia. So what’s different? In my opinion, it’s that Hetalia tells you right on the box that the series is about anthropomorphized countries and their wacky adventures. It’s not until you’re interested in an episode of Black Lagoon that you hear Revy call someone a racial slur. It’s not until you’re in the middle of the comic that you get Captian America making disparaging comments about France. It’s sadly easy to focus on how much fun you’re having killing scorpions and raiding a troll village instead of stopping to think how much World of Warcraft culturally appropriates and misrepresents Vodou and the Jamaican people (or at least their accent). Once you find that you like a series, it’s easier to say “listen yeah I know that’s bad, but the canon is good overall”. With Hetalia I found that it was similar. Like I said, if I’d had gone into it without my friends telling me the good points, I’d probably be bashing it just as hard as some of my friends. When I discovered the good points, it became easier to say that Hetalia is flawed, but it also has it’s merits.
In Conclusion
So despite it all, am I really saying that you need to like Hetalia? No. Hetalia is a series that has flaws that should be recognized, and I have just as much of a problem with a fanbrat saying that Koreans should “get over it” when they’re upset at how the series portrays their country. The fans can be batshit, the source material has issues that should be discussed and not glossed over by fandom, and as much fun as the series is, some people need to realize that history is a sensitive thing, it doesn’t matter if you’re talking about the Siege of Leningrad or the Napoleonic wars. No matter what the event there is going to be someone who has strong feelings about it and you should respect those feelings. My problem is when people say that the show is bad and you should feel bad for liking it... without doing the research.
It’s a small punch in the gut to have your friend read a comment or a fandom secret from a fanbrat and then glare at you like you’re now the representative for every part of that fandom and canon. It’s aggravating to have to have the same conversation time and time again with someone who only heard a few things or read/watched a little of the series, made up their mind, and refuses to budge from that position. You simply can’t have the best of both worlds. Either you haven’t done the full research and thus you admit that your logic might be fallible, or you take the time to research the entire canon and then come to a decision.
The point of it all is this: no, nobody’s saying you have to like this series. Nobody’s saying you can’t believe that it doesn’t have problematic issues. But for the love of whatever figure you deem holy, please don’t throw around accusations of racism without doing the research. My friend’s justification for judging everybody in the fandom is that racism is a serious charge and people should be judged if they enjoy a series that is as heavily insulting to other cultures as she claims Hetalia is. In my opinion, she’s right. That’s why it’s so important to make sure your opinion is founded on the most complete view of the topic as possible... or admit that you might not have the complete picture. Accusing something of being racist in everything from its very foundations and everything that's built on it, is one of the heaviest condemnations I can think of. It places that piece of media at a societal raking of somewhere above sewage water and somewhere below a pile of shit. It says that this object has no real place in an open-minded society and it insinuates that people who are fond of that object are racist as well.
And that kind of accusation is not something that should be done without proper research.
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I think -- and this is from the pov of someone who has barely touched Hetalia -- the frustrating part about anti-Hetalia wank on the topic is that HideKaz is very careful to basically say, "This isn't the true spirit of Germany, so Germany won't behave this way. He thinks his current boss is crazy. He'll do it, because he's the Boss, but he's not okay with doing this and becoming this". It takes into account a world view that encompasses the German people's sense of guilt and shame since the war, rather than just an at-the-time-Germany-was-Nazi-Germany approach, and in that way has a broader approach to the overarching view of that country in context of, well, history continuing on after.
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I think this part often goes unchallenged because seriously, who ever wants to say anything that could be interpreted in any way as "you're overstating the holocaust"? I sure as hell don't. And even as I wrote that I cringed because there is a connection between "not everyone was a nazi" and people who try to downplay just how terrible the holocaust was. There's... just no good way to do it. At all.
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eta: to clarify, I think we mostly agree? I'm just sort of :? on that point.
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Or a fandom that thinks that Germany is only Germany with Swasticas plastered over him. Not to mention the fetishism for SS uniforms, even though Germany in canon didn't even wear the swastika.
A big part of the Hetalia dislike isn't just the subject matter (which can indeed rightfully offend, especially if, say, you're Korean, or not from a "western" country), it's the fandom itself.
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The issue is that some people come into the fandom for the history and stay for the history. Some people come into the fandom for the Bl elements and stay for the history/characters. Others... come for the Bl, stay for the Bl, and generally have the racial common sense of a fig newton. Unlike the other canons mentioned, when someone does a stupid fanbrat thing in Hetalia, it's more loaded then when they do a stupid fanbrat thing in Naruto/GW/exc.
These days I hope that the more mature parts of my fandom are going to be on guard and stop the idiots before they can do something stupid. I say "hope" because, well, every large fandom has the potential to go fucking crazy. A lot of times the more sane members of that fandom just bow out and go "I like this show, but I'm fine with just watching the show and never dealing with you idiots again." Hell, for the most part that's what I even do when it comes to large fandoms.
Seriously I have never been in a Kuroshitsuji forum and I don't want to. I love Higurashi to death but considering that series and some of the official art, I don't want to know what sort of parings the fandom aggressively ships. Back in the day I sorta almost liked GW before the fandom's crazy made me hate the series.
In the end the issue lies with anime fandom as a whole. We need to encourage a fandom where being mature and respectful is important, especially to the tweeners/teenagers. To be honest we don't smack them down hard enough when they do something stupid, and we really should. Sure then they whine more, but after about half the fandom kicks them and tells them to grow the fuck up, they might get the message.
tl;dr damn kids get off my lawn.