Netherlands

Netherlands (オランダ, Oranda; also known as Holland), is a minor character in the series Hetalia: Axis Powers. He represents the country of Netherlands (of which Holland is a region, see Trivia for explanation of the naming problem). He is the older brother of Belgium and Luxembourg.

Appearance
Netherlands has somewhat short, spiky pale brown (or blond) hair with sideburns, and eyes that have varied between being amber, green, or blue in different colored artwork. He is shown to be quite muscular and about the same height as Denmark, and has a small vertical scar on his forehead. He also wears a long, blue and white striped scarf, shown in his formal debut in the series as well as a uniform sketch.

Personality and Interests
Netherlands is said to be a strong strategist and world-dominating type of man who likes really young women (aka Lolita Complex, or lolicon) and thinks nothing of using some types of shady drugs.

In Volume 3 (p. 20) of the manga the character profile says that he is "The solemn, neat freak, downer, Hokuriku-dialect speaking, scheming older brother. (Hokuriku is the region west of Tokyo on the Japan Sea side of Japan.) Of course he goes Dutch. Of course his kitchen and garden maintenence is flawless. By the way, he loves bunnies! The raw materials for his cooking come from Germany!".

Also on a different page (p.61) it is stated that he also is "a neurotic, solemn, free older brother" who "hates tied things and messy gardens".' 

As mentioned in Christmas Rampage 2007, he once fought with Turkey over the title of "The Tulip Country".

The notes in Rampage also revealed that he has another sibling, Luxembourg.

Netherlands is depicted as a smoking a marijuana blunt in one sketch, further reflecting the infamy of marijuana and other drugs in Amsterdam. In his formal debut in the series, he is shown constantly smoking from a pipe.

In the Battle For America strip, he is mentioned to have beat up both Sweden and Finland after they built a villa (New Sweden) in the "new world". Finland proceeds to worry about what would happen if Netherlands found the baby America.

Netherlands also owns a pet rabbit, whose name is not yet known.

Belgium
Main article: Belgium

Netherlands and Belgium are said to have had difficult relations, stemming from when they were both under Spain's control. When Netherlands left to become independent, he fought against both her and Spain in the Dutch Revolt and the Eighty Years' War.

He later tried to reconcile with Belgium so they could both form the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but due to their irreconcilable differences (Netherlands being better with trade and influenced by the Protestant British versus Belgium being better with farming and influenced by the Catholic French), it did not work out and Belgium declared her independence.

It is said that she is often pushed around by both Netherlands and their other sibling Luxembourg.

Japan
Main article: Japan

Though Netherlands acted aggressive towards most others, he refrained from acting this way towards Japan to convince him to open trade with foreigners, due to having had a companionship with him for years before.

Also, in the Netherlands and Isolationist!Japan comic, it is shown that Netherlands is visibly bothered by the fact that Japan signed a peace treaty with America.

Spain
Main article: Spain

Netherlands became a member of Spain's household when the Burgundian-Hapsburgs acquired the crown of Spain. Their relationship became very difficult up till the point where Spain believed Netherlands hated him. Eventually he left and later beat Spain up to be recognised as an independent country.

In the 2010 Christmas Event they are spending Christmas together.

In the Anime
The silhouette version of Netherlands briefly appeared in Episode 39: The Battle For America, where he was drawn slightly more "monster-like" than how he appeared in the manga strip. He is voiced by Hiroki Yasumoto in this cameo. He also makes a shilouetted appearance in Episode 64, on a war relations list.

In December 2010 Nobuya Mine was announced as his seiyuu.

Trivia

 * Though notes on Netherlands were given as early as 2007, his actual appearance remained shrouded in mystery until Hidekaz Himaruya drew an illustration to commemorate Group E in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Before the illustration, all that was known of his appearance was that he had blond hair and green eyes (though he appeared with somewhat different colors in the FIFA group shot). His silhouetted form also briefly appeared in both The Battle For America and an illustration in the webcomic version of The War Of Austrian Succession.
 * Due to both the Netherlands and Holland being referred to as Oranda in Japanese, his name is commonly translated as "Holland" rather than "Netherlands" (which would be the more technically-correct term as Holland only refers to two of its provinces). However, both names are sometimes mistakenly used interchangeably for the entire Netherlands, similar to the tendency to refer to the United Kingdom as "England". It should be noted that sometimes the Dutch people refer to their own country as Holland.
 * It was believed by some fans that the scar on Netherlands' forehead was either a result of the Dutch Revolt or from one of the historical floods such as the Great Storm of 1703 or the North Sea Flood of 1953. But as Netherlands appears as a teenager with the scar in the 1500s (in volume 3), these theories have been rendered moot and it remains unknown as to how he received it. Another possibility would be the flood of 1421, which killed 10,000 people.
 * An early answer to a question in 2007 described Netherlands as a tsundere type of character who loves to fight, and that was xenophobic. However, it remains to be seen if the latter is part of his characterization or if he is still a tsundere type.
 * Netherlands has his first speaking role in Hetalia volume 3 when he says to Belgium that he doesn't want snacks if Spain is around.
 * In Volume 3 both character profiles of Belgium and the Netherlands say that they are older sisters and brothers, not depicting who of them is older. However this could imply that their sibling Luxembourg is younger then them.
 * In a recent blog post, Himaruya has mentioned fan suggested options for his human name, including Tim, Govert, Abel, and Mogens.