Anyways, I know that this is a beloved series and maybe a lot of people will disagree with me but was anybody else disappointed by this movie?
First of all, I am not the biggest Hetalia fan out there but I did watch the whole series as it is now in English Dub form during the summer on Netflix and thought it was decent but not the best thing ever. What bothered me most about the show was that it was just split into 3-4 minute episode segments and that kind of annoyed me since I am so used to watching 24 minute episodes plus all the episodes were just random moments that never served any connections together at all. I have to admit though that there were a few jokes that made me laugh but all in all, it was a decent show to me and I could never understand how this is one of Funimation's most popular titles.
However, after I finished the series, I heard that there was a movie that was made and that the English dub was going to be released in the Fall and what surprised me most was that the running time was actually 90 minutes instead of 3 so I though this would be exactly what I wanted from the show,which was a fun adventure that involved all the character in one story solving one problem together. I was sadly mistaken.
First of all, I did not buy the DVD for the movie but I saw it with my subscriber account on Funimation.com so I was able to watch the movie online instead of paying $22 for it.
So first, what the movie did right was the beginning which started out with a problem happening and then the countries having a meeting about it. Clearly the meeting was the best part of the movie because the jokes the countries were making were pretty funny. After the meeting, the countries try to solve the problem themselves but after all of them failed to do so, they meet up and figure out what to do next. After that, the movie takes a complete dive.
This is when a random scene starts playing and while watching that scene, I start to have Deja Vu. Then I realized that the creator of this movie decided to put in random clips from the show into this movie for no reason at all. This starts to get on my nerves though, especially when something cool is happening in the actual story but then we are treated to about 2 or 3 more clips from the show for no reason and then go back to the movie. This gets more and more annoying when the movie keeps going on because it takes you out of the actual story and what bothered me even more was that 35%-40% of this movie were just random clips from the show
Finally, at the end of the movie
I mean, what the hell!? I at least thought the climax was going to be all the countries fighting together in one last battle to stop the Pictonians and Germany, Italy, or Japan giving the final blow but we get this?! Well that is all I have to say about the movie. Sorry if I offended any Hetalia fans out there who enjoyed the movie but I just have to know if there was anybody else that was disappointed by this movie after waiting for it for a while because I sure was.
Well to start out, I'm going to say this is Funimation's best work so far. I wasn't even 10 minutes in and I was already cracking up. I was already a die-hard Hetalia fan before this got dubbed, but hearing it in English made me love this even more. This movie is wonderful, but that's just my opinion.
The actual Hetalia anime is split up into 5 minutes because it had originally started out as a web comic. So that's why it's so short. But because it's so short, people can actually get a mini-history lesson in each episode. Not every part has to have a connection directly, which might have been Himaruya's purpose. It's different from other anime series, which makes it funnier and unique.
As for the movie, if you would've bought the DVD, you would've saw that in the Extras, the director Bob Shirohata and other Japanese VAs picked their favorite moments from Seasons 1 and 2 and put them in the movie. Shirohata had to fill up time to make the 90 minute movie so he put in about 20 minutes of flashbacks. If it bothered you that much you could've just fast forward past them.
The movie started out perfectly and ended perfectly. The Axis and Allies all came together to fight the Pictonians who were turning everybody into one of "Them". There was even a kick ass fighting scene which made me very happy. It stayed funny and exciting to the very end.
You may have thought this movie was disappointing but I love it. We're all titled to our own opinions so I'm not saying you're wrong. I just thought I'd put mine out there even though you asked if anyone else was dissapointed.
I agree with everything said in the post above from Otakugirl901. I actually believed the movie was pretty good up to the very end and I enjoyed laughing along with my favorite characters. I only hope that they come out with new Hetalia seasons in Japan after season three has been dubbed, because I honestly love this entire series and think it would be a shame if I couldn't hear more dubbed episodes. I also thought it was rather creative to have little "intermissions" weaving in and out between the movie, because it gave me a nice flashback of several of my favorite Hetalia scenes throughout the series.
But again, like Otakugirl901 said, everyone has their own opinions. Sometimes it's not even just the movie that people didn't like. There are people who don't like the dubbing of Hetalia at all and would prefer subs, then there are even people who dislike Hetalia in general because they think it's "annoying and pointless" or whatever else they may disagree with about the series. Everyone's entitled to their own opinions about this movie, and might I just take a moment to say that your opinion of the movie goes perfectly fine by me. I just hope the series will become more enjoyable for you in the future because I'd hate to think Hetalia may lose a fan due to it's recently-dubbed movie..
GOING MY WAY~ <3