If you're going to attempt the English RP accent...

Has it occurred to you that maybe the English VAs Funimation hires are not talented enough to produce Queen's English accents? Their actors are mainly American and Canadian, with a few guys I know for a fact are Australian. Some of them might be having a bit of a rough time producing just the right accents for Queen's English.

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Actually, the argument that "it's not meant to be serious" is not an excuse, it's the point. After watching a few episodes, I realized that all the characters were accented parodies of their respective countries. Let me tell you, as a chinaman myself, when I first saw the China character I felt my skin crawl! It felt wrong and creepy, and yet, that was what all the other characters were like too! It's a wrong and creepy anime!

And that's fine, that's what this kind of show is like. It's a borderline homosexual parody of the relationships between countries in that time. No offense is intended, it's just a creative take on WWII. So why so serious?

Oh, and fyi, Funimation is a Canadian company, and even though they employ Americans, it's led by Canadians. You shouldn't use this point to accuse the entirety of American actors of being incompetent, because it's such a small sample and what they are doing is likely intentional.

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Hmm. I said this before and I'll say it again; the way England is voiced is a deliberate action according to the style of humor of the anime, not laziness, lack of skill or an attempt to offend another culture. This is evidenced by how all the other characters are portrayed and the tone of the anime. Granted, it's not the kind of humor that is for everyone (believe me) but it's something that is consistent with the intended style (a quasi-homosexual parody of World War II political dynamics).

I think the real issue you are having is that you are offended my this portrayal of England in this gay and cutesy manner. But you have to realize that all the characters are being portrayed in the same, silly, creepy manner. I don't think any of this is particularly offensive either - at least none of the characters are eating each others feces or something.

This reminds me of the controversy in which some Koreans boycotted this anime in Japan because of the portrayal of Korea - even though he was a minor character who was newly introduced. Being detached from a subject is key to humor, and it's hard to be detached to something like national pride. Still, as a parody, one has to take this in stride and realize that the intent is not to offend but to re-imagine a brutal international altercation into... something like this.

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Well, first of all, I'm not making a homophobic rant and I was surely not putting any words in your mouth. I'm pointing out the (intentional) vibe that a lot of viewers and fans get out of the anime (cute boys doing cute things) and I was not trying to decry any of that. In fact, I think it's the charm of the show.

However, I really hope that you get the point that none of the characters are totally accurate with their stereotyped accents. This is especially true in the cases of the non-romance language derived tongues (China, I'm looking at your rice-eating arse again) where the idea of getting the right accent is silly - the Chinese to English accent is unnatural by nature. England isn't the only one with this kind of treatment and yet you seem to be only focused on this case. So England has a right perfect accented dignity while the others do not in this silly satire? Lighten up - besides, making weird voices is funny and entertaining.

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I never insinuated that you were a homophobe at all, this discussion isn't about you. In fact, it looked more like I was the homophobe. But that is a silly accusation to make on a forum about Hetalia of all things! I wasn't using the word "homosexual" as a pejorative, it was an adjective.

And my argument with this whole thing is that ALL the accents in the show are poorly done as a way to satirize those countries. Remember that I am a Chinese person making comments on China in this anime - he talks in a stereotypical accent in both the English and Japanese dubs! It sounds wrong. It's played for laughs. It's played for everyone.

And as for bringing up Dawkins' portrayal in SP; have you seen their depiction of Mel Gibson? Or how about Tom Cruise? Complete accuracy to those people's culture and dialects were not top priority to the creators of South Park. In these examples, twisting and mocking the way these people speak is an element of parody. The same holds true in this anime.

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So of all the strange things the characters do and the interpretations of the relationships between them, it's their accents which are more offensive? Let me put it this way: this is a humor anime. Yeah, it's got elements of politics in there, but it's primarily satire. Everything that it does is done for humor and maybe commentary. So what if England's accents are not perfect? All the other characters are the same thing (i.e. non-English characters fall back on English pronunciations).

This is not to be taken seriously; if this were a Drama movie then there would be issues of cultural tolerance and credibility. But this is a kinetic comedy animation; where characters are literally bouncing off of each other and doing wacky things. Their wacky voices are part of that bouncy, jovial feel.

When you are dealing with comedy, you have to accept absurdity. And sometimes that humor crosses into the territory of hate speech, but the best remedy for that is for the humor to expose the fallacies and absurdities of all facets of a subject. I feel that there is this one episode of Spongebob Squarepants which deals with all-encompassing humor very succinctly.

And the idea of an Englishman making a mocking accent of American English sounds very charming. I can just imagine Hugh Laurie in such a role! That's what good humor is about: exposing all the strangeness in our own and other cultures, so it's all good. And I can't see anyone in the states being particularly offended by that - there are a lot more troubling issues to take heart right now. Americans have been made fun of the British before and we've come to go with it; being called a Yankee was a joking insult on Americans by the Brits during the Revolutionary War - now we've named a baseball team after it. No need to be so serious.

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