America's Storage Room Cleaning: The Moment that Changed Hetalia
Hetalia: Axis Powers Episodes 17 and 20: America's Storage Room Cleaning Parts 1 and 2 are probably some of the most consequential episodes of not only Hetalia, but for the Hetalia fandom as a whole. Both for how it broke away from Hetalia's satirical mold, as well as how fans reacted to it. Or at least how I reacted to it.
This episode, which aired in 2009, has been talked about to death. So much so that almost all conversations about it have been had. However, as someone who can't seem to shut up, I'm offering my two cents.
This is the episode where we not only get a deeper look into America's character but also get to see the American Revolution. And instead of portraying this conflict in a funny or satirical light, the whole thing is played out like an emotional, character-driven tragedy.
Let's start by talking about America. We all know how he is. Loud, obnoxious, optimistic, in your face, ambitious, light-hearted---he's more or less portrayed as a giant kid. Seeing as he's still a relatively young nation regarding his history, it makes sense. Especially since most of the other countries in Hetalia are much, much older. In fact, his physical age is stated to be about nineteen years old. Pointing to him being an adult but still being quite young and inexperienced.
As a result, you don't expect to have many serious moments with this character. Not only because of the way he's portrayed, but because of Hetalia's genre being comedy. Up until this episode, you're given numerous laugh-out-loud scenes, funny one-liners, and even a few problematic jokes along the way. Overall, Hetalia is not a series meant to be taken seriously. Still isn't, even in 2025.
But this is what made America's Storage Room Cleaning so jarring.
This is an episode that nearly drops everything Hetalia is known for. There are no laughs. Hardly any jokes. No silly one-liners. No slapstick. No problematic moments that make you cringe and think, "Ooooh, this hasn't aged well." If anything, I'd say this is an episode that has aged like a fine wine. (And no, I'm not just saying that because I'm American).
While going through an old storage room in his house, America mentions that he often has a hard time cleaning it out, as its contents manage to dredge up all kinds of bad memories. Mentioning that it's not always easy looking at one's own history.
And it's here where we get our first look into the history between Britain and America. We've gotten little glimpses of it before in prior episodes when the Hetalia crew was trying to hype us up for this one. But here is where we get to see the pieces put together.
America goes through a few different items, each one detailing a different part of his and Britain's history together.
We see a set of handmade toy soldiers that Britain made for America when he was a young child. One that Britain put a lot of work into, seeing as he nearly broke his hand. America even mentions that Britain painted each soldier with a different face, further showing just how much time and effort he put into the gift.
We see an old suit. One that Britain got for America as he got older. Britain emphasizes the importance of dressing nicely in public. Even though America isn't a fan of the suit, he agrees to keep it and only wears it for special occasions.
These scenes give you the impression that Britain and America have, or at least had, a close relationship in the past.
And then we get to the bayonet. The one with a deep scratch in the side.
Upon seeing it, America is quickly reminded of a confrontation he had with Britain during the American Revolution. Standing in the rain and backed up by an army, America declares his independence from Britain. The latter of whom is deliberately shown to be alone, with no army at his side.
And then America says this:
"Britain! I am no longer a child, nor am I your little brother."
This establishes the nature of their relationship. While not related by blood, they're family. Growing angry, Britain charges at him. America blocks him with his bayonet. The gun flies out of America's hands, and Britain is given a clear opening to shoot him. But he can't bring himself to do it.
Falling to the ground, Britain begins sobbing. As America looks on, we get flashbacks to Britain and America when the latter was a child. Britain holds out his hand with an offer to go home. An offer that a happy, smiling little America cheerfully accepts.
Then the scene flashes back to the war, with Britain continuing to break down in front of his little brother, questioning why and how everything got this way. To which America tells Britain that he knows why. Watching the disheartening scene unfold, America sadly says:
"What happened? I remember when you were great."
The whole episode gives you such an insane, in-depth look at America's character, and even Britain's to an extent. The story is portrayed as a tragedy of two brothers torn apart by conflict. Brothers who love and care about one another but no longer see eye to eye. One desires control, and the other desires freedom and independence.
By depicting America and Britain as family, this episode gives you a vivid window into how this could be seen as a tragedy, but one you know is necessary for one of the characters to grow. It almost plays out like a soap opera. There's just so much you can read into. I feel as though I've only scratched the surface with this post.
The reason this episode is, in my opinion, the one that changed Hetalia and its fandom is because this is the episode where we truly got to see the sheer brilliance of Hetalia's potential.
World history is hardly a pretty picture to look at. History, real history, is often violent. Ugly. Controversial. Unsettling. Complicated. And in some instances, downright horrifying.
And yet, on the other side of the coin, history can be incredible. Inspiring. Powerful. Though-provoking. Intellectually stimulating. Beautiful. And at times, even hopeful.
America's Storage Room Cleaning is an amazing episode because of how they portray such an incredible moment in history. It's treated like it's a serious and intense drama. Because, for America and Britain, it is. It's an episode that prompts the audience to think, "If this is how the American Revolution is portrayed using these characters, then how can other conflicts be depicted?"
And I believe it was this episode of the anime/chapter of the comic that led to the creation of the historical side of the Hetalia fandom. Now, I have no doubt that side of the fandom would've formed eventually, regardless of whether or not Hetalia tried to play it straight. But this episode absolutely fueled it, as evidenced by the copious amount of fanart, fanfiction, fanon, headcanons, and cosplays this episode has inspired.
I know there are other moments where Hetalia delves into serious territory. Joan of Arc, the battle of Grunwald, the protests in Russia, etc.
But this is the moment where the audience caught a glimpse of what Hetalia could be. The potential to portray history in such a unique and different way, the likes of which you don't see everywhere else.
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I love when Russia is absolutely scary, savage, clever and ruthless!! Not many people notice heâs good at making innuendos, but many know that he likes just straight up bullying lmao
More on what I said earlier about Alfred being particularly drawn to distant/reserved/cold/guarded people. The thing about it isâŚit's not necessarily that they're just tolerating him. Oftentimes itâs their personalities â but that doesnât always mesh with his desperate craving for attention, praise, and physical touch, so heâll take whatever he can get.
Arthur: He isnât always open about his feelings and tends to downplay them. For him, a compliment often CAN be âOh, thatâs not badâ. He is tactile at times, depending on his mood and the circumstances. As seen in the series he does put his hands on people a decent amount, and while I imagine Alfred savours these moments, he isnât easily satisfied.
Kiku: He does not care for physical contact and likely doesnât give Alfred much. Personality wise, he may offer compliments, but theyâre so polite you canât always tell if theyâre sincere or not.
Natalya: They lived together for a while and apparently Natalya wore ALFRED out in some way, haha. I like to imagine they eventually became friends, and well, we all know Natalya is very closed off and serious. She likely doesnât show much physical or verbal affection to anyone who isnât her family.
Lovino: He isâŚnot verbally affectionate. He might be more physical, though. Not necessarily affectionate, justâŚtouches people a lot, probably. Heâs Italian, haha. He lived with Alfred for a while, too, and there was that whole scene where he grabbed Alfredâs shirt and knelt on the ground⌠đ
Not sure how much they keep in touch in modern day, but Lovi did comment on every one of Alfredâs food posts to bash them, and that means he at least pays attention to what Alfred posts. Pfft. Anyway, I like to think theyâre also sort of friends.
Tolys: While he and Alfred did sleep in the same bed, Iâm not sure how physical he is in general. Heâs probably a bit jumpy if anyone tries to touch him without making it obvious. I doubt heâd want to be sneaked up on, given his relationship with Ivan.
But I will say he might be one to compliment Alfred. đ¤ Heâs not as closed off as some.
Once again Iâd like to think theyâre friends, but Iâm not sure how much he tries interacting with people outside of the Baltics, Poland, Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. I wouldnât be surprised if he was nervous about interacting with anyone outside that sphere due to Russiaâs influence.
_
Anyway, those are just a few friendship headcanons of mine. Although I do kind of ship all of them with Alfred to varying degrees, and I imagine that these dynamics could shift if they became romantic.
The great and horrible thing about hetalia is its very core: the symbolism of a person representing an entire nation. Itâs easy to use, and potentially abuse (in the worst corners of this fandom, if you know what I mean) a hetalia character for something utterly malicious because of this weakness. Generalizing a whole nation for a stereotype⌠yes in a way hetalia is that. But all the same, it is amazing what sort of doors these hetalia-nation-people have opened for me. Would I ever think about areas of the globe the same way? From my West Europe and USA centric history and social studies classes, I would have never known about the little intricacies of Eastern Europe and Eastern Asia. Would I have known much about Nordic countries, or even Austria-Hungary? No. Without my interest in humanoid nation beings, would I bother otherwise? I read historical hetalia fanfiction, and then that stemmed into other parts of my life. I also started to fall in love with historical-fiction and I still love the genre to this day. Additionally, I started to be interested in culture. Not a lot of course, but more than I would if I had never run into this fandom.Â
I do not think this is the typical experience for a lot of hetalia fans. Our fandom is scattered into many different directions, so perhaps it was not your love for history that blossomed from hetalia, but rather your love for fanart, or shipping (hot, sexy, probably blond) men, or maybe even just a first taste into anime. But this is how this fandom has and will affect me.
Ya boiâs first analysis : Germany and Spainâs friendship
Aaaaaah, hello people. Today, Iâm feeling very rant-y,and thereâs something I needed a grasp on : Germany and Spainâs friendship. So I guessed I just told myself âHey, what not make that the first post in this new blogâ because why the hell not. So there we are! Letâs skin out and overanalyze one of my favorite friendship, and also talk about one of my two favorite characters! This analysis might seem a little overdone, or mention some things I personnally believe to be true, but Iâll try to be as accurate as possible.
So, letâs go!
Interestingly enough, this post was meant to also be coupled with a Germany/France friendship, but I realized they were very different, because modern days France is much closer to Germany. It is to be noted that both of them have a relationship similar to Germany because of one thing : they both knew HRE, and pretty well at that (although France more so that Spain, but Iâll talk about that another day.)
Even though they âshouldn'tâ know each others very well, there is a sense of familiarity in their relationship. I mean, they are EU buddies and stuff, but their relationship isnât the same as the one Germany has with Greece- which can be seen as purely professionnal. They do seem to be actually friends.
For example, Germany was important enough for Spain to mention him in his Marukaite Chikyuu, in the part where he sends a mish-mash of positive messages to his friends. (https://youtu.be/DXxUOZsnJHk, at 1:28) He asks Germany to smile- and I think thatâs really important.
See, I think it might not be the most obvious think, but I like to think of Spain as Germanyâs emotional support. While most people would say Italy might be more suited for this, being as emotional and terribly close to Germany as a friend, thatâs part of the reason he canât be his emotional support. Germany needs a lot of teaching about how to befriend others and interact with others, and in that regard, Italy can be compared to a friendship teacher. He's undeniably Germany's first and most precious friendship but I'd like to underline that they can't, for the life of them, emotionally connect. And thatâs okay!
The fault is in both of their natures. Italy doesnât understand Germany very well- heâs shown several times to be needlessly scared of him. He needs Germany to care for him in a way which makes it very embarassing for Germany in return to receive Italyâs help, even when he does need it. It is also noted than in a way, the parallels between HRE might block Italy. Worse than that, HRE and Italy couldnât understand each other for the life of them, no matter how in love they ended up being, and I think thatâs totally understable, but coming to the point where Germany needs to read manuals to understand his best friend is far beyond understanding. Not to menion, Italy is naturally guarded about his true feelings, that he tends to hide with his stupid smile.
But Spain in all this? Is Germany that special?
Itâs true that it may seem like Spain can be anyone's friend and emotional support, really, but when you think about it for a minute, heâs very careful about who he gives his heart to, no matter the subjectivity. He has a very specific list of friends that he will follow to Hell and back. But it doesnât include anyone.
The proof of that is Spain treating Romano differently from his other colonies. This judgement has no subjectivity whatsoever, but Spain choose he liked Romano better, so he took better care of him. In fact, Spain is very likely to ignore people he doesnât like that much.
Spain isn't as soft and happy go lucky as he seems to be, and he clearly wouldn't go out of his way to cheer someone he doesn't care about.
Now, examples of this support can be seen throughout the series. Iâm sure you all remember the famous âfusosoâ spell? The one he uses to cheer Romano up? Well, he has his own chants to cheer Germany up when he gets stressed by the EU problems (his own issues as well.)
â (Spain) is very optimistic and when he sees the hardships Germany has to overcome, he sings songs for him so that he gets better. â (Right there : http://www.hetarchive.net/blog/2011/08/23/blog-entry-1240/)
It does annoy Germany, and may seem like Spain being a big stupid douche while Germany is working the heck off, but him singing reminds me a lot of the cheer-up spell- and I donât think it ever was a way to mock Romano or Germany or anything. Spain tends to act that way when he doesnât know what else to do to help someone- heâs very âsimpleâ in his relations, and thatâs why he acts like an airhead a LOT of times.
Also, worth mentioning, since itâs what Spainâs Marukaite Chikyuu refers to?
(Not to be biased or anything, but I find this scene adorable. Also you can find it there :Â http://www.hetarchive.net/blog/2014/10/02/blog-entry-1549/)
Honestly. Spain being worried about Germanyâs wellbeing, He tries to help him the best he can, and Germany DOES listen to him, and let Spain take some of his time to teach him how to smile, even though he doesnât understand what the hell is Spain doing.
In the end, maybe I just want to see them friends. But- all in all, the little interactions they have now and then radiates sympathy and good relations and nice feelings. It seems like cute friendship feels. Itâs good enough for me!
Now, whether you see them as friends or not is up to you! But I personally think that they are nice friends. Germany is, I think, highly insecure about the worth of his friendship, so he might not even notice when he grows closer to people, but Spain is all in all supportive of the German boy.
After all, Spain is right. Germany should really smile more!
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Idk if you've watched Kung Fu Panda 1 but there's this one scene where Tai Lung (villain) first asks his master "nicely" if he could get a prize but when master refuses Tai Lung beats him up + blames him by asking why he would deny his "best student" his inheritance. I feel this is much like Kiku during the medieval to WWII era. It's not real affection, it's this bitter, twisted entitlement. He's like "EVERYTHING U HAVE IS MINE, I'M THE BEST PUPIL, I DESERVE IT! WHY WON'T U GIVE IT TO ME?!
This has been sitting in inbox for like a week as I tried to find time to rewatch KFP 1, but I still havenât gotten to that scene so Iâm answering this w/o full context.
Anyways, I think I agree and disagree? I think that as he grew older, Kiku stopped regarding Yao with as much respect as before and stopped placing value in Yaoâs opinion of him. He stopped caring about what Yao thought and started detaching himself from his old âmentorâ, instead choosing to be his own independent nation. Their paths just slowly diverged, and I think by WWII or even the Imjin Wars, Kiku had accepted that they would be nothing more than distant neighbors at best; there was no more bond between them. So, I find it unlikely that Kiku is still hung up (I guess) on what Yao will and wonât give to him? I think he feels Yao is backward in his ways, and that their relations are already down the drain enough that he can just take whatever he wants, regardless of whether Yao allows him to. He doesnât expect Yao to give up his power easily, and he doesnât expect Yao to just hand Kiku a victory. So I think the âwhy wonât you give me everything you ownâ mentality is a little off? just because Kiku knows Yao wonât budge; it was never a question in his mind. He would have to win what he wants.
I think there might be some entitlement though, especially with Kiku viewing himself as the next ârulerâ of Asia (? to be revised based on more research) and him being pretty egotistical and arrogant about his strength. Yaoâs been in that position for a really long time; heâs the Middle Kingdom after all, and the tribute system heâs built solidifies his power over his section of Asia. But now heâs declining, and Kiku thinks heâs the perfect person to step in and take over (heâs perfectly poised to increase his empire with modernization and fervent nationalism) and his pumped up ego warps his perception of things. So perhaps heâs got a bit of entitlement too; he is perfectly capable of inheriting what Yao had (and then some.... :|), but I still think he knows Yao wonât give up without a fight. (Kiku thinks heâs just a stupid old man by now, but he humors him. He wonât be fighting for long, anyways.)
Also if this is referring to the song analysis I did a while ago, youâre definitely correct in saying the sentiments between Yao and Kiku are very bitter and a confusing mix of negative stuff that my analysis focused less on because idk, it fit the mood of the song better and also I just wanted to be sentimental for a bit lol (hence why I said the analysis would probably fit better in a human AU instead of nationverse)
A friend asked me this. Her brother insists itâs a comedy because the concept is inherently funny, but she doesnât agree.
I think itâs satire/parody, with comedy, fantasy and slice of life elements.
Parody/satire - of history, ofc, making fun of geopolitical relationships and stereotypes of peoples all over the world (except South America/Africa/Middle East... smh). The basis of each strip is usually a fun fact or anecdote, like the average walking speed of germans vs austrians or the unusual food coloring of american pastries.
Comedy -Â Most of Himaruyaâs strips are done in 4 panels, the format of gag manga, to setup a punchline. Comedic timing is woven in the pacing of the show. Hence anime episodes are only 5 min. The humor is all over the place, shifting between absurd (Germany kicking Italy out in a box labeled âF**Kâ), crude (Ukraineâs boobs announcing her presence), dark (Russiaâs heart literally falling out), slapstick (Hungary & her frying pan), and savage (Canada being forgotten)
Fantasy - While not in-your-face, thereâs a philosophical side that touches on themes of love, family, death, and identity. Violence and war are alluded to (See: Lithuania in bloody sunday, Chinaâs scar), but we mostly see charactersâ mundane routine, complaining, drinking, just...living. Makes you wonder: How do nations get born or die (Rome, Prussia)? What is life like for these characters -- awfully lonely, as we see in that France episode. Can they form bonds with humans? What happens if a land is in civil war; what does âillnessâ, âmarriageâ, or âfamilyâ mean for them? Yes, magic exists (see: the magic trio), as do aliens (tony), and talking animals (kumajiro), but the real âfantasyâ is the melancholic sense of mystery about the world. I think thatâs neat.
Slice of life - hereâs where the deeper characterizations and angst comes from. Thereâs usually no âplotâ in slice of life - no beginning, end, or climax. Hetalia can jump from modern day to ww2 to ancient era, to alternate universes (see: nekotalia) in the same episode. With its vignette-style storytelling, it can cover any combination of characters in any timeline. Sure, the first seasons followed Italy, Germany, and Japan but has since expanded to other regions - east europe, asia, oceania, etc. You go into it thinking itâs rainbows and pasta. But like slice of life implies, it shows the highs and lows of life. Loneliness, insecurities, bonds falling apart -- this is the stuff that fleshes characters out and fuels angsty fanworks. Youâll definitely find at least one character or situation that you relate to. Again, isnât that NEAT?
