User blog comment:KatDWolf/I wonder..../@comment-1271618-20100303161740

It'd depend on Himaruya's headcanon too, I'd guess. Though he seems to have decided that Corsica is one of those territories that is a body part, as Italy refers to his nipple as "Corsica". Sicily? Nothing has been given on it, or Sardinia.

Sicily and Sardinia would probably be male if they were separate characters, it's the sort of feel I get. Speaking of characters, I had a translation typed up for a blog post on some trivia I found for some characters who have yet to appear (it was a sort of Japanese fan primer), but I accidentally hit "back" and i too much and it all got wiped out. Will have to do it again later.

But the translation for Portugal said that they might be a girl, though that bit of info isn't confirmed all the way. What is known is that s/he has a bad relationship with Spain (and that Himaruya considered drawing a comic on Portugal and Spain back in late '06, but has yet to actually do that story).

Czechoslovakia intrigues me due to all of Himaruya's little doodles and thoughts on it/them: First he thought of it as one character, then he thought of them as two, but the debate is which one will be the girl and which will be the guy? He seemed to think that Slovakia would be an older male and Czech would be a girl (I guess expanding on his ideas from the doodles that "Cheko" sounds like the name of a girl while "Surobakia" sounds like a man's name). Though it seems either way, we'll have a lose-lose situation: There are fans that think Slovakia should be female because the Slovaks were "more oppressed", yet if that's the case, there will probably be another big debatewar on if Himaruya is a sexist and likes to make all the girls "weak and stupid" again. But if he makes Czech the girl, there will be folks going on about how it makes no sense. Poor Czechoslovakia.

I'd go for them being a male and female either way, or possibly a duo of brothers (or sisters). But either of those options would probably bring on the rage too. It's an example of "you can't please everybody" for sure. Nonetheless, I'd like to see what he decides on.