Misconception: He’s emotionless.

Reality: He’s expressive through non-expressiveness.

Ex: A smile for him isn’t expressed as obviously as it is for some of the other characters. Still, that doesn’t negate the fact that he has feelings. I mean really now.

Misconception: He’s humourless.

Reality: He has an implicitly “evil” and “mischievous” side. In other words, he’s often playful, albeit subtly.

Ex: He’s the one to come up with France’s punishment after the 2007 April Fools’ Event. This entails getting France to praise everything about England’s culture for a whole day.

Ex: When at war with each other, he was glad to have a legitimate reason to punch Denmark.

Ex: He goes along with the Nordics’ plan to host a secret birthday party for Iceland. 

Again, the humour is subtle as he wordlessly teases Iceland and makes light out of the latter’s confusion over them meeting outside.

Misconception: He’s intimidating inside and out.

Reality: His external appearance is intimidating, but he’s tender and sweet on the inside.

Ex: During the stereotypical café arc, Sweden’s customer is initially terrified of him. Nonetheless, Sweden gives away the meal for free.

Ex: He acts as a parent to Sealand.

Ex: Ladonia refers to him [and the other Nordics] as an Uncle.

Ex: He’s good at sewing + uses this skill to adjust smaller clothes for Finland.

Misconception: SuFin is canon.

Reality: Sweden has confirmed feelings for Finland, but Finland doesn’t reciprocate.

In a lost 2007 blog post, Hima confirmed that Sweden has homosexual feelings for Finland and only acts this way towards Finland. [That’s literally what the translation says].

Ex: Finland has repeatedly denied being Sweden’s “wife.”

Nonetheless, the two do share a close relationship, enough for Finland to refer to Sweden as “Swe.”

Ex: The two spend their New Years’ Eve together in 2009.

Ex: This one-sidedness is seen as early as when they were first colonizing America. Finland spots America in the wild, and Sweden proposes the option of them having kids.

Bonus facts:

It’s left unclear as to whether Sweden can see magical creatures.

He and Denmark used to hate each other, but have recently calmed down in their temperaments. Of course, this is to be expected from their present welfare and collectively-oriented nations.

Regardless, the two still tease each other in the present time. 

[Denmark and Finland are imitating Sweden here.]

All in all, a somewhat mysterious, yet thoroughly entertaining character.

Iceland, huh? For such a minor character, he’s perhaps one of my favourites, mainly because his personality is so interesting and, well, relatable.

Let’s get some clarifications out of the way first: Norway is Iceland’s older brother. They’re related.

After having an excavation done on his land, Iceland finds out that he has no strictly Icelandic indigenous people. Instead, it was Norwegians who had first settled there before travelling elsewhere.

Now, this is important in establishing a tentative ground principle in understanding the family trees in the series. I’ve found a pair of relatively consistent rules too: It seems that nations are biologically related when…

1) There is one dominant nationality of sibling #1’s people living on the other sibling’s land – Ex: in this case, it would be early Norwegians initially settling on Iceland.

And/ Or

2)  The nations of the siblings are typically next to one another – Ex: America and Canada, Netherlands and Belgium, Germany and Prussia, & Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.

I know it’s messy, but remember that these rules are exceptive and only apply when Hima explicitly makes them siblings. You can have nations, like Spain and Portugal, who look alike due to similar ancestral influences on their histories and cultures, and yet, they’re only listed as neighbors with no biological relation.

It’s important that I make this distinction only because the Nordics all refer to each other as brothers in an affectionate way, despite us knowing that they’re not actually related. Again, the only ones who are confirmed to be related are Norway and Iceland.

There’s also the presence of brother figures in the series. Regarding Iceland, he sees the other Nordics as older brothers.

What’s sad is that he didn’t get to meet most of the Nordics until the 18^th century.

While Denmark may have raised him…

…right from birth Iceland sensed that Norway was his older brother.

Now for Iceland’s personality.

Predicating from his childhood and geographic isolation, Iceland is unsociable. The irony is that he also feels lonely.

No one really knows anything about him, and he’s often the odd man out.

Despite this alleged unsociability, Iceland still worries about making friends.

Arguably, Iceland is closest with Norway, who likes to “stick” into the former’s business.

While Iceland may snap at Norway and the other Nordics, he secretly appreciates their concern – especially Norway’s. He doesn’t hate any of them.

In fact, this somewhat erratic moodiness is actually part of Iceland’s personality.

His contrasting warm (volcanoes, hot springs) and freezing climate gives way to a polarizing temperament. As such, he’s noted to have a hot and cool side.

This unpredictability in mood, metaphorically understood in terms of how you never know when a volcano will explode, is seen in Iceland right from birth.

His cool side relates more to his unsociability and shyness.

What’s more, his hot side doesn’t always have to do with his temper or irritability. It can also mean the playfulness and mischievousness of a young child.

Another fun fact is that Iceland is able to see Norway’s magical creatures, albeit refusing to acknowledge this ability.

All in all, akin to his climate and geography, Iceland isn’t static and is therefore far from your typical stock character. He has a profoundly rich and complex personality stemming from a childhood filled with neglect, isolation, and loneliness; the problem for him now is whether he’ll be able to reconcile all this and open himself up to others more.

I get asked about this a lot, so I thought I would clarify a few things…

“Why do the nations’ eye colors keep changing?”

Hima directly answers this question on his blog by stating that there’s “sufficient freedom” regarding the eye colors of the nations. This would include sometimes adding light brownish or greenish tints.

Although, this obviously doesn’t explain why Sweden and Finland have solid brown eyes (and darker hair) in the first episode of the anime. Regardless, that’s an animation inconsistency, not a canon one.

Likewise, if you’re wondering why eye colors go from blue to violet to green, as seen with the Nordics, there’s actually a justified reason for this.

Hima provided a chart years ago revealing the different range of hues/mixes that each nation’s eye and hair colors can assume.

“I tried to put every character’s hair and eye color in order. Being that this is something like an approximation, they do things like change in illustrations. But it’s like this, and I hope it’s good and easily understandable.”

That said, there isn’t really one correct eye color for the nations, nor is there one correct hair color; it’ll always differ slightly.

Make sense now?

You can find the chart here:

I think it’s possible! You just have to read the material closely to understand the progression in their relationship. There’s a tendency for people who have only watched the anime to discredit any possibility of the ship, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that. It’s very gradual, but Finland does eventually learn to understand Sweden for who he is.

Post coming up tonight!

The purpose of this post is to delineate the fact that nations that have cultural influences on each other are not biologically related. While the influencee may adopt traits from the influencer in some cases, it doesn’t always constitute a biological relation. What’s even more confusing is that there are specific adopted traits that the nations use to mark a biological relation.

I know this sounds obscure, but it’ll make sense when I go through some examples.

Romania and Bulgaria vs Romano and Veneziano:

A gag with Romania in the series is that he claims that he’s a descendant of Rome, and, therefore, an Italy brother.

However, even though Rome did, in fact, instill significant cultural influence in Romania, Romano is quick to reject this claim. He identifies the presence of a curl as proof of biological lineage from Rome. Remember that Rome is said to have had many grandchildren and adopted grandchildren.

Source: Hetascanlations, World Stars Chapter 163 + Hetarchive (Bamboo Thicket, eng trans., October 30th, 2014).

Later, we see the same rejection occur with Bulgaria, who has Roman ruins.

Source: Hetarchive (Bamboo Thicket, eng trans., Oct 22nd, 2014).

England, America, Finland, and France: (+ more)

As I’ve stated before, England and America are not biologically related. England is stated to be the fourth and youngest sibling in his family, consisting of Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.

Source: Hetarchive (Bamboo Thicket, eng trans., Aug 4th 2010).

In the Battle for America, it’s explicitly stated that England becomes America’s brother. We also learn that because America was a “melting pot” of several cultures at the time, he inherited certain physical traits from his colonizers.

Source: Hetarchive, The Battle of America.

For example, in the trio’s feud to make America their little brother, Finland notices that America looks like him.

The distinction between cultural influence and blood relation is necessary otherwise it would lead to a slippery slope where all nations are related to each other. So, unless explicitly confirmed by Himaruya, nations aren’t related to each other regardless of their histories. Arbitrary as the biological relations may be, you work with what’s given to you.

Lastly, I’ve seen people comment that there’s a confirmed biological relation between America and Finland. That’s not the case. Finland says that America has some genes from his people. Remember that America emerged as a personification representing several cultures. The genes are the traits, but because America has so many cultural influences, they don’t consider each other to be blood-related.

The fact that America didn’t identify with Finland as a family member in the first place is telling of this cultural influence, as well as the fact that Finland offers to become a father figure for America, who in the context of the strip had been feeling jealous of kids who get presents from their fathers on Christmas.

Source: Hetarchive, Christmas 2010 Event.

France and Canada:

Similar to the situation with England and America, Canada inherits France’s hair.

Source: Hetascanlations, World Stars Chapter 192.  

France, America, Canada, and Seychelles vs England, Hong Kong, India, Australia, New Zealand, Hutt River, Sealand, and Wy:

We learn that France’s cultural influence is a dominant trait that prevents America, Canada, and Seychelles from inheriting England’s bushy brows. Although, interestingly enough, Seychelles had initially been designed to have one thick eyebrow and one bushy one to represent English and French influence.

Source: Hetarchive, Seychelles profile.

Meanwhile, without French influence, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Hutt River, Sealand, & Wy inherited the bushy brows.

Source: Hetarchive (Bamboo Thicket, eng trans.,Nov 12th 2013) + Hetascanlations, World Stars Chapter 269.

Of most importance and what I can’t stress enough is the example of Hong Kong. It proves, with the most clarity, that cultural influence does not have a causal relationship with biological relation.

After becoming English territory, Hong Kong’s eyebrows grow bushy from the resulting English influence on his culture.

Source: Volume 6, A wise man has no specialty.

It’s said that England put a curse on him to have his eyebrows become so thick, but you also have to remember that England’s eyebrows themselves are cursed. The implications would be that his influence caused the curse to pass on.

Source: Volume 5, Special Booklet.

Point is, as far as Himaruya’s concerned with his characterizations:

Cultural influence ≠ biological relation.

Misconception: Finland has a sweet, child-like appearance, so he must be weak.

Reality: Finland’s a warrior, and is noted to possess immense strength and resilience.

Ex: He’s so cold-resistant that General Winter has no effect on him. They even get along. 

Ex: He’s visibly disappointed when Sweden calls off a battle during one of the Polish-Swedish wars. Not to mention that he was excited about engaging in the fight.

Ex: His patience isn’t endless. It’s said that if you poke him ten times, he’ll forgive you, but once you pester him enough, he’ll get you back ten times harder. 

[There’s a slight difference in the translation, but it’s basically the same thing.]

Misconception: Like Iceland, Finland’s one of the tamer Nordics.

Reality: Finland’s actually quite strange.

Ex: He loves nature and enjoys being covered in grass.

Misconception: He’s Sweden’s wife = Sufin is canon.

Reality: He is not Sweden’s wife. Sufin is not canon.

Sweden calls Finland his wife, but Finland does not accept the label.

The two do share a close relationship though, enough for Finland to refer to Sweden as “Swe.”

Although, Finland is often just as perplexed by Sweden as the other nations are.

Misconception: He’s a jittery, nervous, and shy person as a result of being overshadowed by the other Nordics.

Reality: He’s soft-spoken, and quiet-voiced, but is far from quiet. In fact, he can be a very talkative and bubbly character at times. Nonetheless, he is said to be overshadowed by the other Nordics.

Ex: Finland jokes with Germany about his boss, despite the fact that the humour goes right over Germany’s head.

Ex: Finland’s noted to be a particularly nagging person.

Bonus Facts:

He lightly teases Iceland and once asked the latter to call him Big Brother.

He’s offered to act as a father figure to America.

He loves saunas, sweets, and alcohol. Bonus if it’s all combined together.

He’s had the hardest time out of all the Nordics, likely stemming from the fact that he’s historically been an underling to other nations.

The nations are two-fold representations. By that I mean that they have a literal body and a figurative body.

Bear with me, things get a bit tricky, but I’ll break it down to the best of my ability.

Basically, the figurative body is what influences the nation’s physical body.

The figurative body is composed of two parts.

1) There’s the geography of the nation. The landmass is sometimes referred to as their body or house, despite the real physical one that they possess.

The geography can influence both the physical appearance and personality of the personification.

Ex: Since Sealand’s geographic body is small, so is his physical one.

Ex: Iceland’s contrasting volcanic and freezing temperatures respectively causes him to have a hot and cold side.

2)  There’s the personality of a nation. The personality of a nation (not to be confused with the personification’s personality) is defined in terms of culture in the manga [x]

If the culture is well-developed and thriving, then the personification will also thrive and be able to grow; to age. However, if the culture is repressed, then the personification’s growth will also be stunted.

The reason I’m outlining this is essentially to show how geography/climate and historical events are reflected in the personifications’ appearances and personalities. Information on the impact that this has on their health can be found here [x] [x]

What this post will focus on, however, is why some nations have scars and either suffer from or are affected with other physical symptoms.

Let’s go over some examples.

Ancient Rome: 

Before dying, Rome was noted to have many wounds and scars – a physical reflection of the turmoil his people suffered from.

Lithuania: 

We know from his time spent in the USSR that Lithuania acquired several scars on his back. The military repression of several revolts and the banning of diverse cultural practices in favor of an atheist state very likely had a role in causing these scars to appear.

Latvia: 

Latvia’s case is similar to Lithuania’s. While we don’t know if he has any scars, we know that Russia pushing down onto his head ultimately stunted his growth. How I interpret this is that it’s a metaphor for political repression.

Put another way, Russian control stunted Latvia’s growth, which, in turn, was reflected in the personification’s physical body.  

China:

It’s hinted that China gained scars after being betrayed by Japan in WW2. It’s both a literal and symbolic stab to the back.

Germany: 

Each time America engages in reckless financial activities, a new wrinkle develops on Germany’s forehead.

Finland: 

Estonia’s quest to become a Nordic causes Finland’s back to be itchy whenever he’s talked about.

Bonus cases that aren’t so clear…

Russia: 

When he’s not wearing a scarf, Russia is shown to be wearing bandages around his neck.

Netherlands:

An unknown event caused him to develop a scar on his forehead.