Hetalia World Stars: Season 7 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Hetalia World Stars: Season 7 Blu-ray Movie Review

Hetalia World Stars is a quirky comedic anime series that follows in the footsteps of the past generation versions of the popular Hetalia franchise. Created by Hidekaz Himaruya, Hetalia World Stars is the latest season of the long-running series. The series features animation by Studio DEEN (Diamond Daydreams, Fantastic Detective Labyrinth).

Produced by Akinari Ito, Maasa Murakami, Norihiro Kurosawa, Sachi Kawamoto, and Yoshinori Hasegawa, Hetalia World Stars continues to provide fans with the off-the-wall formula that made Hetalia a smash hit. Now in its seventh season, Hetalia is zanier than ever. Fans of sketch comedy will want to check it out for its unique approach to comedy in the world of animation.

The stars have aligned for one more season of Hetalia. The season is ripe for more comedy and conflict. Both the Allied and Axis nations spreading cheer with an abundance of goofiness and fun. School is underway and so much more!

The changes of culture and other huge events causes some new commotion with the Hetalia World Stars. This season features more stars than ever before on the show with the inclusion of Slovakia, Czech, and Portugal. Goofy comedic antics continue with more stars and escapades unraveling the nations like never before.

The seventh season of Hetalia has a big cast of “country” stars. Who are these stars? Italy (Daisuke Namikawa), Japan (Hiroki Takahashi), Germany (Hiroki Yasumoto), Austria (Akira Sasanuma), Prussia (Atsushi Kousaka), Belgium (Eriko Nakamura), Spain (Go Inoue), America (Katsuyuki Konishi), Australia (Keiichiro Asai), Latvia (Kokoro Tanaka), France (Masaya Onosaka), Seychelles (Megumi Takamoto), Hungary (Michiko Neya), Netherlands (Nobuya Mine), England (Noriaki Sugiyama), Liechtenstein (Rie Kugimiya), Czech Republic (Sumire Morohoshi), Finland (Takahiro Mizushima), Luxemborg (Taku Yashiro), Russia (Yasuhiro Takato), Portugal (Yuichiro Umehara), China (Yuki Kaida), Slovakia (Yūsuke Kobayashi), and last – but certainly not least, in my opinion - Sweden (Keikou Sakai). Though these goofballs are all over the place, Hetalia World Stars brings them all together for the show.

The animation on Hetalia World Stars is excellent. This is one of the core strengths of the production. The series has a clean and vibrant animation style. The art style is certainly creative with showcasing these goofy characters. The animation direction by Hirofumi Morimoto (Is This a Zombie?, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen) imbues the production with some nice ingredients for success. The background art is certainly one of the key takeaways. The line art is also well detailed and helps the series to have a more polished and sophisticated appearance. These components of the production are essential to the series creative success.

The character designs by Mariko Oka (Jing: King of Bandits, Hetalia The Beautiful World) are worthwhile as well. The characters are named after various countries and the design elements certainly keep these elements of the production in mind. The approach is certainly more energetic than your typical sketch comedy. The style is light and charming. The effort certainly provides the production with some nice attributes behind-the-scenes.

The cinematography by Akira Shimozaki (Hetalia The Beautiful World, Bakumatsu Crisis) is one of the most effective components of the production. The visuals certainly provide a lot of compelling and worthwhile elements to the viewing experience. Shimozaki has a solid understanding of the craft: imbuing the series with a colorful and lush backdrop. The results are certainly effective for the production.

The score by Conisch (Hetalia The Beautiful World, Linebarrels of Iron) isn’t going to blow anyone away but it is a decent enough score that suitably provides some energy to the series. The production has a abundance of themes for the characters and the composer tackles the comedic sensibilities of the program with a creative approach.

Written by Kazuyuki Fudeyasu (Beyblade, Claymore), Hetalia World Stars is a strange and quirky anime series. There is a feeling that the production is mostly aimed at late night television viewers wanting a quirky production in the vein of something one would see on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim animation block. The series has fun with its concept and explores the sketch comedy landscape with plenty of energy. There is nothing too original about the scripting (the emphasis is on making people laugh, not providing something truly groundbreaking).

Directed by Hiroshi Watanabe (Fantastic Detective Labyrinth, Jing: King of Bandits), Hetalia World Stars is a decent enough comedy series. The production certainly could be better if it focused more on the character development and adding some deeper components. Nonetheless, director Watanabe has plenty of fun with the simple goal of entertaining audiences with some laugh out loud comedy. The series isn’t for everyone – it’s not really my cup of tea – but it is a decent enough series.

Comedy is always such a subjective thing. The series is certainly not going to appeal to all viewers. It is only going to appeal to those who enjoy the kind of zany humor the series provides. If one doesn’t like the sense of humor used on the production, then it is likely that the series will not appeal to viewers and will seem like it is a lackluster effort – despite some other impressive elements – and said viewer will be more inclined to consider it not to their liking. This is no surprise for a comedy series. Audiences with a more sophisticated sense of comedy might find some elements to be a bit less enjoyable but those who can enjoy goofy antics might be more inclined to enjoy the series for what it is.

Hetalia World Stars: Season 7 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from Crunchyroll, Hetalia: World Stars is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition in the original television aspect ratio of 1.78:1 widescreen. The presentation on the release is excellent. The picture quality excels with great clarity, depth, and detail. The high-definition visuals look exceptional.

Color reproduction is superb and certainly enhances the presentation overall. The encoding is effective and free from egregious compression woes. This is a solid presentation from Crunchyroll. Streaming is certainly less impressive than the physical product so it is nice to see that Crunchyroll is focusing on providing a strong physical release with good video quality despite being a company that also provides a streaming service.

Hetalia World Stars: Season 7 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release includes a selection of audio options: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround sound and Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 stereo (with English subtitles). The lossless audio quality on the release satisfies with excellent dialogue reproduction. The soundtrack sounds crisp and clear (with a good degree of detail in the audio soundstage). The score is well integrated in to the sound mix. 

Though the surround English dub option isn't as robust or detailed as more action-oriented anime series, the mix nonetheless offers a slightly more enveloping soundstage for the production. The Japanese language version is only available with stereo audio but fans who are purists and want the original version will prefer the lossless stereo audio provided to the original language audio.

Hetalia World Stars: Season 7 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The release comes with an attractive o-card slipcover and the inside cover-art uses different art for the release. A nice touch for the edition. This is a nice element for Crunchyroll. Funimation edition used to notate a digital copy code on the package (or included DVD discs) and these elements were always a little disappointing when all one wants in the Blu-ray presentation.

Promo Videos (HD, 1:40) showcase the series and provide some more promotional material for viewers.

Japanese Blu-ray Commercial (HD, 00:17) highlights the series with a short video clip advertising the production.

Textless Closing Song (HD, 00:47) showcases the closing theme video without text credits attached to the video.

Hetalia World Stars: Season 7 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hetalia World Stars is far from perfect. The series is an over-the-top sketch comedy production. The series is all about the comedy and the off-the-wall shenanigans. This type of comedy isn't for everyone. Nonetheless, viewers who enjoy silly comedy series with an emphasis on providing laughs above all else will find it has some merit. The animation is worthwhile and the production benefits from some nice production merits (including effective character designs).

The Blu-ray release from Crunchyroll has a worthwhile video and audio presentation – one which will please series fans. The release includes a small selection of bonus features. The Blu-ray release comes with a nice looking o-card slipcover with the first pressing. Fans of Hetalia World Stars should consider a purchase.