Belgium

Belgium (ベルギー, Berugī) is a supporting character in the series Hetalia: Axis Powers.

Appearance

She has short and wavy blonde hair, later colored a brown shade, held back with a ribbon headband (alternatively green or red, but also sometimes seen as being black), and light green eyes. Belgium also has a cat-like mouth and is described as plain compared to her outgoing neighbors.

In her profile sketch by Hidekaz Himaruya, she is shown wearing a military uniform like most of the other characters, but it has varied in appearances in the various illustrations that exist of it: In an early-full body picture, she was shown to wear gloves, her boots were high-heeled with visible laces, and her tie had an elaborate black design. In a super-deformed character sketch, her boots were simplified (with the heels and laces removed), and her tie was changed to a neckbow. However, in a later chibi design, the neckbow was changed back to a tie (with a somewhat different design than before) and her pants became breeches. The uniform's color remained unknown for some time as well, until an illustration in Comic Birz revealed it to be khaki.

When dressed for the "Meeting Of The World" in both the published manga and anime, she wears an aqua dress and lavender bolero (with a matching lavender headband).

In earlier-drawn sketches, Belgium was shown in a traditional European dress and wore a slightly different headband (with longer ribbon "tails"). Though her official hair color was stated to be blonde, a 2009 "chibi" headshot sketch depicted her with pale brown hair and in later drawings, her hair would be brown.

In a 2010 chibi drawing of country's imports and exports, Belgium wears a green headband and has darkly colored hair.

Personality And Interests
It was revealed in Christmas Rampage '07 that she is the younger sister of Netherlands and the older sister of Luxembourg.

It is said that although she is mature and has a cheerful personality, she doesn't stand out much due to the flashy people she is surrounded by. She loves making waffles. A note in a later character chart by Himaruya indicates that she speaks in a Shiga dialect. Earlier notes on the character describe her as a tsukkomi ("straight man") type, and state that she is often pushed around by her siblings.

In her profile in the third manga volume, she is described as being "a diligent, kind, meddlesome and friendly older sister! Although her features stand out, her clothes are simple and not very conspicuous!". And that she "Loves Gourmet and tasty snacks!" Also in a separate translation it is stated that she is "a cheerful, good-natured, but slightly nosy older sister. And scary when she's mad!"

It appears that she is quite willing to help complete strangers, not even pausing to consider their intentions.

Relationships
Netherlands

Belgium is Netherlands' younger sister, however its said that they don't resemble one another much. When both were under the control of Spain, Netherlands fought to become independent and went to war with his sister, as she remained with Spain. He later attempted to reconcile with her to form the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. However, they'd been separated for 200 years and their differences were too great, with Netherlands working mainly on trade and being protestant, leaning towards England, and Belgium being very agricultural and Catholic, influenced by France. As a result, Belgium declared her independence 15 years later.

In Volume 4, Belgium said that her brother was handsome and tall, and that she thought he was cool. However, his stinginess with money was the only thing she saw as a flaw in his personality. When Netherlands bought herring from Lithuania and Poland, he used cheap salt to pickle it and sell it at a higher price. Both then and when he sold his own weapons to Spain, whom he was fighting against, after saying "money makes the world go round" Belgium was seen around the corner, crying, telling him not to be mean. According to Belgium, Netherlands reads romantic poems. When they saw Santa, she asked if he thought he would be willing to visit them. He said that he didn't mind asking and promised to bring her Santa. Some time later he gave her a sheet of paper that said "I'll bring you a real Santa today." She was excited that he kept his promise, however both she and Romano were startled when he showed up, dressed as a reindeer, carrying Spain dressed as Santa(the joke being that the Netherlands' and Belgium's Santa comes from Spain.) Though she had been happily telling Romano that her brother wasn't such a miser because he was going to do that for her, it said at the bottom of the page that he had invested 0 euros in it.

Netherlands' rabbit, in a conversation with Pochi-kun, said that, before Netherlands left for Japan, he'd had a fight with Belgium. As a result, he felt lonely, and thus was being a busybody, likely to keep his mind off of it.

Belgium, Spain, Netherlands, and Romano dressed as a group for Halloween, following the theme of Little Red Riding Hood. When Netherlands began to attack Spain for not working hard enough(in response to his comment about Luxembourg being a very busy person,) she was somewhat saddened.

During Christmas, a comic of Belgium and Netherlands as children was requested. Netherlands immediately made an agitated face before the video started. Belgium visited Netherlands who was, at the time, without an influential leader or much of a wealth difference among his people, in contrast to Belgium who was richer than he was. She invited him over and, when he came, she told him to take it easy. He was startled and impressed by her luxurious lifestyle, gaping throughout the trip, especially when they were eating, presented with something he considered a high class meal. She then expressed concern at that he wasn't eating. A shot of them both as adults had Belgium worrying that she was at fault for her brother's stinginess, however Netherlands insisted that he'd always been that way.

South Italy (Romano)
As a child, South Italy had a crush on the older Belgium. She found him cute and, as he showed off his ability to ask for a kiss in Spanish while tugging on her dress, she offered to give him a kiss on the cheek. He became flustered, stumbled over his words, and said he was actually fine, to which Belgium said he was quite innocent and apologized for teasing, offering sweets as compensation. She was depicted as serving young Romano when he was demanding food from Spain in his diary, seeming to find his demandingness amusing. In Boss CD, when they make churros, Romano says that he will get 80% of them, while Spain and Belgium get 10% each. He also gets incredibly flustered and tongue-tied when Belgium praises him for his hard work, even getting flustered to the point of meekness and admitting he hadn't worked much at all. Young Romano would refer to her by name and also said nyarome, possibly a cute version of yamero, Japanese for "you bastard" and other such things, something Romano calls everyone. However, he was said to have been taught by men, hence why he was using such a rude term. However, she wasn't bothered and found him cute nonetheless.

In modern times, they seem to have a good relationship, and she still finds him cute in the present. She happily shared with him that Netherlands kept his promise to bring her Santa, though they were both shocked that he simply brought her Spain.

Belgium, Spain, Netherlands, and Romano dressed as a group for Halloween, following the theme of Little Red Riding Hood.

Spain
Belgium and Spain seem to get along well, in contrast to his and Netherlands' relationship. While she was his territory, she lived as a maid at his house. It was noted that Spain built museums and art galleries in countries it controlled, and Spain and Belgium were shown holding and admiring canvases. Furthermore, when Spain put a large portion of his money into getting Romano nice clothes, she worried over him, saying that he had to do something about his own clothes, as well, which had become tattered. In the Boss CD, Spain helps Belgium with laundry and with Romano. They enjoyed friendly meals together, as well, including the churros that he and Romano made together. When her brother left to become independent, she not only stayed with Spain, but ended up having to fight her brother.

When she asked her brother to bring her Santa, he brought her Spain (as the Dutch and Belgian Santa is Spanish) instead.

Belgium, Spain, Netherlands, and Romano dressed as a group for Halloween, following the theme of Little Red Riding Hood.

Luxembourg
Luxembourg is Belgium's younger brother. In an old note, it was stated that he, along with Netherlands, often pushes her around. He refers to her as "Big sis", which subsequent blog post states he uses as a term of endearment for her. During the Halloween 2011 event, Belgium was sad that he couldn't come to America's Halloween party with them because he had too much work to do and his boss wouldn't allow him to go until it was done. However, she, Spain, Romano, and Netherlands took a picture of themselves and sent it to him, saying that he had to come and dress up with them next time, which he agreed to do. His promise was kept, and he made his debut in the Halloween 2013 event, where he charges at her in a costume, proud that he had scared her, but causing Belgium to faint. On a character relationship chart, Luxembourg states that Belgium always takes good care of him and she sees him as a "reliable little brother."

During the Christmas 2011 event, due to a request for Luxembourg's scrapped design to speak, Belgium had a nightmare about him, causing her to mumble in her sleep that she didn't know who he was and that he wasn't the Luxembourg she knew. Overhearing her, he became concerned and asked if she was alright.

In the Anime
Belgium is shown in a brief non-speaking cameo in the "Meeting Of The World" segment of Episode 01.

Belgium also appeared in a special unaired episode The Diary of the Awesome Me, part 2, where she had a non-speaking cameo when Hungary explains the history of Belgium's cat festival.

Belgium once again appears in Episode 94 where she is talking to chibi Romano, who is asking her to kiss him, but gets nervous. She later offers to give him waffles at her house, along with inviting Spain and Netherlands. though Netherlands says no due to not wanting Spain anywhere near him.

She makes another large role in Episode 109 in which she is shown making a proper introduction of herself, how she was in her younger days, and loosely describing Netherlands.

Character Songs
Hatafutte Parade (Netherlands and Belgium)

Trivia

 * In notes included in the special booklet for Hetalia: Axis Powers volume 3, Himaruya revealed that he initially drew a Belgium without any facial features, in order to imagine what her look and personality would be like before he decided on a friendly-type of girl. She also originally had no ribbon, though Himaruya noted that the design would have been innovative as it is rare for his female characters to lack hair accessories.EarlyBelgium_vol3.jpg
 * In an annotation in 'Netherlands and Japan’s Isolation' it is stated that Belgium was a farming nation during the time the United Kingdom of the Netherlands was established; however Belgium had started to industrialize in 1798, three years after Austria was driven away by France, while the UKN was founded in 1815. The split up of this country was initially not Belgium's intention, but Belgium wanted to see both her economical (industrial) and demographic (3.5 million Belgians vs 2 million Dutch)
 * Superiority over the Netherlands translated into political power. Holland, seeing Belgium as a territorial gain (in Hetalian terms: a maid) instead of an equal partner, refused. Thus the Belgian rebellion became the Belgian Revolution and Belgium was on her way to become the 5th industrial superpower and 4th largest trading empire of the world, a position she held until WWI.
 * Belgium is also called Alice by some fans. The name was ment to resemble the popular 'Alice in Wonderland' due to the similar personalities between them. Alice is also a popular name in Belgium which adds to the meaning. (According to statbel.fgov.be in 2008 Alice ranked 45 in the top 100 with 187 Alices, remarquably better then 2007 (place 62), while Alicia has climbed from 65 in 2007 to 37 in 2008. Emma is already since 2003 the most popular female name in Belgium).
 * Another reason why Belgium is called Alice is because of her similar appearance to Alice Margatroid from the Touhou series.
 * Belgium's Cat Festival is a festival only celebrated in Ypres, its official name is Kattenstoet (Dutch for Cat Parade) and originates from the cloth trade. When Monks created the Belgian coast to gain more land, the new land was infertile and salty, only grass would grow and afterwards farmers and villagers would keep sheep on these lands to fertilize them. The large amount of wool was then woven into cloth which made the County of Flanders really prosperous. The Flemish cities built cloth halls to stock and trade the cloth, but they faced one problem- there were mice. These little creatures were attracted to the warmth of the cloth and also liked the taste of it. To solve this problem, the city put many, many cats in the Hall to protect the cloth, and when summer ended, trade came to a stop and there was hardly anyone who actually wanted to keep all the animals alive, nor was there were any means to. Since farmers had to kill almost all their cattle (which were taking up space), and there was still no food for them, the solution was to kill the cats. They also wanted to celebrate the good trading year so they decided to combine both of them. The feast would be about cats and in the end, all the cats would be thrown from the tower of the Belfry. In 1817 they made an ethical adaptation: they stopped throwing living cats down.
 * It's clearly unknown and majorly disputed on what Belgium' sexuality is. Many people persume that Belgium is heterosexual due to tsukkomi meaning a "straight man" type. however, there is an argument that Belgium is infact Pansexual, due to the fact that she likes both men and women and often likes both. This causes minor clashes in the fandom, with the Pansexual fans backing up that Belgium has extensive LGBT rights and that Belgium was the second nation to legalize Same sex marriage in the world. Due to this, some fans may precieve that Belgium is infact lesbian and actually prefers women more than she does of men. To further support Belgium is not straight, the definition of tssukomi as given by supporters of Belgium not being straight is "The angry guy. Often used to describe a Japanese anime character who is frustrated, under appreciated, or just plain ticked off. The Tsukkomi attempts to keep a calm facade, only to be thwarted by someone, or something, they find irritating. Often resulting in violent actions.". This appears to not apply to Belgium today since she does not show anger towards anyone.
 * Despite the earlier notes saying she is a tsukkomi, Belgium does not appear to show any of these qualities at all in the anime or in the web comics.
 * Belgium has her first speaking role in Hetalia volume 3 when she meets with Spain and Romano.
 * In a blog post, Himaruya has stated possible options for her name, including Laura, Emma, Anri, Manon, and Marielle. No possible surname was given.