Austria

Austria (オーストリア, Osutoria) is a character in the series Hetalia: Axis Powers. In 2008, Himaruya gave out human names to some of the characters and he received the name, Roderich Edelstein (ローデリヒ・エーデルシュタイン, Rōderihi Eederushutain).

Appearance


Austria has violet eyes and somewhat wavy brown hair, with a wild strand that represents Mariazell. He wears glasses, a long navy blue coat with a white jabot, and black pants (colored tan in some earlier artwork). He also has a mole on the lower left of his face, which acts as an erogenous zone for him.

When he was younger (as seen in Chibitalia), he wore a deep fuchsia jacket and purple pants. In the anime version of the storyline, his jacket was changed to blue and his pants were changed to black, to match the clothing he wears as an adult.

Personality And Interests
He is usually described as an aesthetic, well-spoken, young master type, who was initially aloof until he was saddled with too many burdens. He gives higher priority to his hobbies rather than his work, and is more optimistic and quiet in comparison to Germany who is more serious and work-oriented, though he does seem to have a temper as shown when he is seen yelling or acting paranoid. His interests include the fine arts, music (the piano in particular), and cake. In the first drama CD, it is revealed he is not an outdoors person and is afraid of marine animals (such as crabs and starfish). Despite being musically talented, he has no sense of direction and frequently gets lost; this is based on a joke Himaruya heard about an Austrian salesperson getting lost in his own storehouse.

Germany
Main Article: Germany

Austria and Germany were allied in both World Wars, and lived together for a while during that time. He gives Germany advice in his confusion over Italy in the Valentines Day strips. They appear to be very close, although he annoys Germany at times with his behavior.

Hungary
Main article: Hungary

The two still have a very close relationship, despite the dissolution of their alliance and marriage. The marriage was mostly a valuable war alliance, as the two promised that they would support each other in war. As children, he was often beaten up and defeated by her when it came to wars, but when they got older, she was forced into becoming his servant while they were both under the rule of Holy Roman Empire.

Throughout the anime and manga, the two share many moments that suggest that they still have feelings for one another. For example, in the Buon San Valentino strips, Hungary is given a gift from an anonymous source, but when described the man has many of the same facial features that Austria has. She also seems to enjoy watching him play the piano. When Germany was sent to forcibly annex Austria, Hungary tried to stop him, asking him "to please consider his feelings."

Italy
Main Article: Italy

Chibitalia spent a lot of time at Austria's house where he acted as a maid. Austria was one of the many people to believe Italy was a girl until one day his voice finally broke, with Austria thinking he "had a feeling this would happen for some reason."

Prussia
Main Article: Prussia

Prussia takes pleasure in annoying and humiliating him in whatever ways he can, and had fought against him in wars in the past, most notably seizing Silesia for himself in the War Of Austrian Succession.

On numerous occasions when he finds himself alone and crying, Prussia will mention that he is happy alone unlike a certain "stupid aristocrat". In the Christmas Strips, Prussia has to tell himself that he rather be alone than be with others ''"because clustering is for the weak. Yeah, like that stupid aristocr--". ''Prussia often talks about Austria in a negative tone. In the Maria Theresa arc of the anime, Prussia seems to be hell-bent on humiliating Austria, and shows, on multiple occasions throughout the episodes, a strong desire to see Austria beg for his mercy during the battles. He went so far as to hire a painter to paint Austria's face and defeat so that his failure would forever be a part of history.

In the present day while living with his brother, Prussia also freeloads off of Austria and has a habit of stalking him. Also, in Prussia's blog, it is implied that either Prussia and Austria are both living together in Germany's house, or that Austria associates with the brothers very often to sort out their messes.

Despite their cat-and-dog relationship, Austria seemed seriously concerned when (during the blog segments) Hungary hit Prussia over the head wih a frying pan and knocked him unconscious.

Switzerland
Main Article: Switzerland

A former childhood friend of Austria's. In their youth, they were close, but Austria was weak and unable to fight as well as Switzerland expected him to, and had to be bailed out when he'd get beaten up in war.

They eventually grew apart, and Switzerland denies that the two of them ever used to be friends. Although he did, Switzerland still never forgot the times when they were.



In the Anime
Austria made a very brief appearance during the Chibitalia segment in Episode 02 as one of four characters kicking Chibitalia in the air. In Episode 04, he gained control over and made Chibitalia his servant. Later on, he became the parental figure for Chibitalia and some other young countries, scolding them when they did things wrong but also inviting Chibitalia in to listen to his piano skills.

In Episode 06, we see an adult Austria for the first time.

Name
The inspiration behind Austria's given name, Roderich, may have come from Roderich Mojsisovics von Mojsvár, an Austrian composer and opera writer. The name may also be a reference to "Republik Österreich", the local term for the Republic of Austria. Edelstein literally means "gemstone", and is a predominantly Jewish surname of Germanic origin.

Trivia

 * The date given for his birthday, October 26th, is also the date of Austria's national holiday. It celebrates Austria's Declaration of Neutrality, signed in 1955.
 * Austria is the only character given an outright "birth year" (976) in his profile, though Korea originally had one as well (1919). The "birth year" corresponds with the year that the March of Austria was founded, which Austria grew from.
 * June 8th, his and Hungary's wedding day, corresponds with the date of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise.
 * In a character note, it says he spent some time in a wheelchair.
 * Also in a character note, it says he wears glasses not because he has bad eyesight, but because he thinks he would look plain without them.
 * It seems that Austria's natural hair is straight as seen in flashbacks of him as a child, a drawing by Himaruya of a few countries eating breakfast, and a Chibitalia strip in which he combs his hair to achieve his wavy-esque hairstyle.