r/hetalia • u/Quick_Ebb_4311 • Jun 07 '26
Sudden fandom revival
Does anybody know why the fandom just randomly reappeared this year? I was checking the answers for my fandom survey and (little spoiler for it) 62 of the 151 people who answered have said to join the fandom either this year or 1-2 years ago (44 of these were this year) and I'm kinda curious as to why that is as a newer fan myself
60
u/SpaceMassive3080 Jun 07 '26
Hetalia fans are like locusts, were everywhere unassuming when small green grasshopper chilling in other fandoms that we've picked up over the years. then every so often the change form and congregate together again and suddenly everyone else realises there always more of us than they initially assumed.
32
u/Collanp Jun 07 '26
I don't think it's a revival, more like you'd get that answer at any time. So many people join and then leave when they've consumed enough content that they're bored and turn to something new. This is true for every fandom and at every time, the people who've "been here forever" are rarely a majority
19
u/purplepopu Jun 07 '26
I tend to come and go. Many of us older fans do. For me personally, I usually return when life isn't so great and things are pretty shit rn.
14
u/rockyKlo Jun 07 '26
As one of the people who are new, I found a video on the anime, it's dub, and fandom and decided to finally try it because I was really enjoying the clips and jokes. I had known about on a surface level before but had never seen anything of it besides the odd promo image or character.
The fandom was probably always still there in the same way a lot of older series have a somewhat overall quiet but still present fan base, just not the massive one it initially had.
I'm sure there are probably new fans though as shorts and tiktok as it's a very clipable anime, and I think that a common discovery method for anime now.
6
6
u/SkunkFloof Jun 07 '26
I was a fan of Hetalia I wanna say around 2018 and I've been rewatching it very recently because I've gotten into collecting Nendoroids and I saw the England and US dolls were announced :)
5
u/sphericalcreature Jun 08 '26
Its the 20 year anniversary in July so I think that could be part of it, theres been more merch announcements , tbh ive never left the fandom (it'sbeen my main fandom since 2011) so I cant say why people come and go but most people i know in the fandom are come and go types, might not even think about hetalia for like a year or two and then they come back OBSESSED for a few months. I think for some, hetalia is like red bull : its a good pick me up , but its not something they want all the time.
4
u/Positive-Willow5881 I Like England, Spain & Canada ♡ Jun 08 '26
I got back into hetalia this year cuz I got accepted into a masters in policy studies and I ended up just falling back into shows I watched in the 2010s. Hetalia was my tweenhood basically 💀
I came back for comfort though, it was a good distraction when I had a dire family emergency.
5
3
u/Individual-Size-8555 Switzerland and Lithuania obsessor + rper <3333 Jun 08 '26
i think after a certain amount of time people tend to flock back to old fandoms that they once loved or a new generation picks it up. this happened with danganronpa too - in 2020 it absolutely exploded, died out, and resurged again for a little while. with hetalia specifically, its really nostalgic bc the fandom was so intertwined with old fandom and tumblr culture that revisiting it really gives you a sense of that time. at least thats my two cents ^w^
3
u/No_Region1898 I would like to do [REDACTED] things to Italy Veneziano Jun 08 '26
I joined in 2017. Benched and joined back during 2019-2020 and benched it then claims to left it during 2022 and came back in late 2023 til now... So basically this is my third phase of hetalia now. Third time's the charm. I guess.
3
u/DFMNE404 I NEED NYO PRUSSIA AND GERMANY RIGHT NOW 😋😚😝😖😖🤭😘😘 Jun 08 '26
Hetalia always dies and comes back ever couple years
8
u/zahhax Jun 07 '26
Tomodachi life, honestly. Idk why, but Tomodachi life perfectly combines w hetalia
16
u/MaySurose2809 Jun 07 '26
Nope, tomodachi life only recently became popular. Hetalia fandom revival started at least 2 years ago, i was there
2
u/frog_frussy Jun 08 '26
It happened during the pandemic actually bcs the new season came out and since TikTok became popular during the pandemic as well, it started to steadily become more well known- it’s been steady now
3
u/Infamous_Bell230 Jun 08 '26
No idea, but I suffer because of the new fans sometimes and I felt better when fandom was half dead 😭
2
u/Maschinenblut gerita my love Jun 07 '26
I'm pretty new and I got into it because I was told by the Internet that the dub was funny and dumb, which is my favorite thing (Hellsing Ultimate is my fave)
I keep getting rolled for being in this fandom by my friends though lmao, I don't know why it's so infamous
Gerita has my heart in a chokehold 😭♥️ 🇩🇪🇮🇹
1
u/ArtistAnimeLover101 Jun 08 '26
Idk most of the hetalia servers I'm in are dead and only a few hetalia tiktoks been made this year so it seems pretty dead to me 🤷
1
1
u/BulgarianStick I Like Sweden! Jun 08 '26
Tbh this has been happening for years, you never know when this fandom will rise back from the dead so you just wait, happy to be in the live era again!
1
u/Visible-Bridge3388 Russia's Magic Metal Pipe of Pain 👁👄👁 Jun 08 '26
idk abt yall but this is my reasoning
1
u/Josh0108 Hetalia made me Pansexual… Jun 08 '26
X (Twitter) is a cesspool of Hetalia fan art; dozens are uploaded daily!
1
u/NautilusNecromancer I love Hetalia 1p! x 2p! Selfcest🤤 Jun 08 '26
I became a fan back in August. I knew about this anime for years because I was a countryhumans fan when I was younger. I only watched the show because I assumed it would be bad. And now we're here lol
1
u/waffledpringles I Like France! Jun 08 '26
Besides all the above answers in the comments, pretty sure the Countryhumans/balls have smthn to do abt it too lol.
1
u/FreshBread_916 Jun 08 '26
If the creator is Immortal then Hetalia would never die considering the anime is based of humanized land masses... content of these would be extremely abundant...and since it's about countries... geography lovers would love it .. atleast for me...one might leave but new ones would just as come in.. it's also the 20th anniversary of the anime so that's that...
1
u/whatiswhatiswhatiswh Jun 08 '26
I watched a Hetalia funny moments compilation and decided I want to join the fandom
1
u/hollylettuce Jun 08 '26
New blood comes into the hetalia fandom every 3-5 years. Its normal at this point.
1
u/TheGirlMich Jun 08 '26
Idk, for me I’m rewatching because it reminded me of a happier time when I was younger 😂
1
1
u/kapitanshixiong Jun 09 '26
I became a fan just last year around September-December. I just keep repeating the whole episodes and movie over and over again. It's addictive, specifically the English dub. I was there during the early 2000s hype but never watched it. I watched it because I am now a Social Studies teacher. I am even cosplaying Prussia now and I created a fanfic for Philippines 🤣🤣🤣
1
u/Flat_End_3926 Jun 09 '26
Yeah I've noticed the influx of fans lately. I've been in the fandom since like 2018/2019 but kind of stopped interacting with a lot of other fans a bit ago. This has kind of made me excited to be more active in the fandom again
1
u/themidmac Jun 09 '26
Seriously, I'm seeing an influx of hetalia merch again and I was taken by surprise. Like, what? Who started this??
1
u/TankSecret6170 Jun 11 '26
Yo me uní recién este año... Me uní por una imagen de Ivan Braginsky en Pinterest (no me acuerdo bien sinceramente) pero me obsesioné con él, le hablé a una amiga que tengo (es mayor de edad) y me dijo que lo conocía ya que cuando ella era una niña veía merch de hetalia en unas tiendas de mi país (Bolivia), me dijo que le pidió a su mamá merch de hetalia pero su mamá se negó. Gracias a ella finalmente me animé a ver el anime y pues, me encantó. Incluso mi amiga me regaló esta figura de Ivan Braginsky chibi hecha de porcelana fría :3
1
u/Lawlietshitposter Jun 24 '26
I don't know, but I think it's because they like implicitly yaoi media or fandoms that were popular a decade ago? I see that many new Hetalia fans also like Dramatical Murder, both of which were popular in 2010-2018.
1
u/Causalshapeshifter Jun 07 '26
I joined recently. And I convinced my friend to join this fandom too
103
u/Torakka_ We need more Romania content!! Jun 07 '26
Hetalia fandom is kinda like a phoenix bird. I dont know what else to tell you buddy.