Spain

Spain (スペイン, Supein) is a character in the series, Axis Powers Hetalia/Hetalia: Axis Powers. In 2008, Himaruya gave human names to some of the characters and he received the name Antonio Fernandez Carriedo (アントーニョ・フェルナンデス・カリエド, Antoonyo Ferunandesu Kariedo).

Appearance


He has somewhat curly brown hair, green eyes, lightly tanned skin, and wears a khaki-colored uniform with 3/4-length sleeves. He is often depicted with his favorite food, tomatoes. In the profile image at the right, he is depicted in a bullfighter uniform (from the Children's Day sketch series).

While Spain's skintone is often tan, he is also shown to be depicted with fair skin in other images.

Personality and Interests
A cheerful country bumpkin, Antonio was once a super powerful nation and traveler until he was tormented by England and Netherlands, beat up by a younger America, and was cast into war and poverty. Despite all his hardships, he remained optimistic and passionate. The source of his constant happiness is the sunshine that's cast over his land.

Although he means well, Spain happens to come off as insensitive and clueless at times due to his inability to "read the atmosphere" (it is said that he does not even try to assess the situation).

But it is suggested that he may, in fact, have "two faces", like Russia. Spain speaks in the Osaka-ben variant of the Kansai dialect in the Japanese version.

He is also very fond of children, especially both of the Italy brothers. It is shown that his ultimate dream is for both of them to live with him, and he had also expressed interest in marrying them when they were younger.

South Italy (Romano)
Main Article: South Italy

Antonio is rather affectionate to Romano, having raised him from the time he was a child and under his rule. As a result, Romano takes after him in his culture and customs.

In the years of having raised him, Romano often had difficulty trying to get Romano to do chores, and had wished that he could have acquired Italy instead, due to the younger brother's obedience and "cuteness." He also found Romano's frequent bed-wetting and harsh attitude to be annoying, though he eventually wound up having to bail him out when he was kidnapped by Turkey, though their kingdom wound up thrown into debt due to the Ottoman ruler taking over for some time.

After Spain's attempt to trade him for his younger brother, Romano became more bitter and jealous around him. Spain then tried to spoil him in an attempt to show Romano that he still liked him, even in comparison with his brother. Though it backfired, in Spain's opinion, as Romano would often refuse to acknowlegde him as his "Boss" and curse at him. Spain also had the habit of pulling on and twirling Romano's "erogenous" curl, causing Lovino to headbutt him and call him a pervert. Despite that, following one of the times Romano's done it, Lovino's curl is shown to have curved into a heart shape.

After gay marriage was legalized in Spain, Spain hurried to tell Austria, Italy, and Romano, who were all together. When asked who he "had in mind" Spain turned to Romano (though only after looking to Italy), whose response was "Three meals a day, pasta and a nap." Spain takes this as a rejection and laments to France.

France
Main Article: France

The two get along rather well, having grown up and fought in wars together, though Spain remains oblivious to France's more perverted tendencies and cannot see why Romano hates him. It is said in production notes by Himaruya that their relationship is actually undesirable, yet the two remain inseparable. In more recent strips, it seems Spain is aware of France's bad influence on him, and defeated him in The Battle of Garigliano with the help of his pet bull. Francis's first bird named Pierre is used for communication with him.

Austria
Main Article: Austria

He was conquered by Austria before the Italian Wars, and became part of the Habsburg family through an arranged marriage. A strip in Comic Diary 9 even references this marriage, depicting Austria with a wedding ring as he scolds Spain and lets him know that he will not acknowledge bigamy in their household (as Antonio had expressed the interest to marry both Italy and Romano).

The two remained in close contact as allies until the War Of Spanish Succession. Spain would later ally himself with France and Prussia for the War Of Austrian Succession.

In the Anime
Spain first shows up in Episode 01 at the world meeting, asking Russia if he's going to say something to stop the quarreling that is going on. He later appears in Episode 10, in a flashback to when England defeated his armada. France subsequently arrives and begins to beat him by hitting him on the head repeatedly with a stick.

Spain later shows up in Episode 14, as the cashier at a busy supermarket. In Episode 33 he shows up as the owner of a cafe, offering the customer instant coffee, as it is all he has due to the economy being bad.

The younger version of Spain appears in the Chibitalia segments in Episode 02 and Episode 04. In the segment in Episode 02, he offers Italy churros, but later is shown to be one of the other children that bullies both Italy brothers. In Episode 04, a depressed Spain tells Italy to do everything he likes while he still can (as the Italian Wars approach). The older version of Spain shows up in Episode 22, when he declares that he will back Austria up. He has also appeared recently in Episode 60 and Episode 61, when he claims custody of Romano.

Spain's Marukaite Chikyuu was released on the Hetalia: Fan Disk on May 25, 2010.

Trivia

 * According to a note by Hidekaz Himaruya, Spain was only originally going to speak in the Kansai dialect whenever he was excited or around people that were close to him. In addition, Himaruya also revealed that Spain might as well have "two faces" like Russia. He also stated in another note that while Spain treated Romano kindly, he was stern to his other colonies. Himaruya himself wondered why Spain was "historically stuck on Italy" that much, as it was stuck spending so much money to protect it and struggled to try to get it back after losing it in the War Of Spanish Succession.


 * Himaruya stated that Spain was also based off a friend of his, which inspired him to give him the Kansai dialect. In addition, it is said that all of the Spanish-language nations will speak in some variant of Kansai. Though Belgium is not one of them, she speaks in the Shiga-ben variant, presumably since she used to be one of Spain's territories.


 * A separate character for Castile was originally planned as Spain's older sister, but it is speculated that Himaruya may have forgotten about this idea, as he later drew a child version of Spain that seemed to hint at the Reconquista. Fans speculate that the younger Spain may have represented Castile, or alternatively Aragon (in the case of Castile being a separate character). It seems to be more likely that he represented Castile, as the Castilian culture and language makes up most of Spain, as well as his boss having been shown to be Joanna of Castile in the Boss Spain strips. In most fanfiction, he is used to represent the entirety of Hispania, especially during its days as a Roman province.
 * There is debate over whether his first surname is Fernandez or Hernandez. When Himaruya first gave him a human name, the katakana resembled the characters for the latter more (ヘルナンデス, Herunandesu), though it later appeared with the kana for "Fernandez" and became Romanized as such. It is unclear if this is due to a mistake by a fan or if Himaruya later spelled the name differently, though there is a noticeable debate over which spelling is the correct one in both the Western and Eastern fandom. Japanese fanworks often use either one, while international fanworks tend to use "Fernandez" more often. The slight difference becomes more apparent as Fernandez is a patronimic that comes from the first name "Fernando" like the Spanish King Fernando Of Aragon (Ferdinand II Of Aragon, husband to Isabella of Castilla as the Catholic Kings), and Hernandez comes from "Hernán", like the Spanish conquistador, Hernán Cortés. Both are common surnames in Spain.