Finland

Finland (フィンランド, Finrando) is a character in the series Hetalia: Axis Powers. In 2008, Himaruya gave human names to some of the characters and he received the name Tino Väinämöinen (ティノ・ヴァイナマイネン, Tino Vainamainen).

Appearance
Finland has short blond hair and violet eyes (originally colored blue in some early illustrations, and are brown in the anime). He wears a light blue military uniform with a cross neck-charm on the jacket, and sometimes wears a white beret on his head.

He is the shortest out of the five Nordics and stands at 170 cm, but only when he's wearing a hat. There is approximately a 12cm height difference between him and Sweden.

He is also often shown in the role of Santa Claus, due to the fact that Santa is claimed to live in Finnish Lapland.

Personality And Interests
Finland is described as being simplistic, gentle, and honest, as well seeming rather adult-like. He's very talkative, especially around Sweden, thinking up jokes to lighten the atmosphere. He loves to think of interesting and unusual festivals that no other country could imagine, and actually likes the taste of salmiakki. He also happens to love saunas, and the Moomins.

Before gaining his independence, Finland used to be an underling. Out of the five Nordic nations, it is said that he suffered the most hardships in his life.

Estonia
Main Article: Estonia

Finland and Estonia are very good friends, having known each other for a long time. After fleeing Denmark's rule, Finland stopped by to visit him, while Sweden offered for the Baltics to come join them as family. Though Poland refused to let them go, Sweden and Finland eventually gained partial custody of both Estonia and his younger "brother" Latvia.

The two men are known to come up with strange festival ideas together, though Estonia snatched the "leader" position away.

Sweden
Main Article: Sweden

The two ran away together after not being able to handle living with Denmark. Though Sweden considers him his "wife", Finland insists that he's not (even in the present day, as shown in Christmas Rampage 2007). The two of them own a dog named Hanatamago.

Finland found Sweden to be frightening at first, though warmed up to him over time. It is revealed that Sweden knows how to sew, and he managed to alter some of his own clothing so that Finland would have extra clothes, as their 12cm height difference was very noticeable.

It has been said by Hidekaz Himaruya that Sweden is a homosexual, but only has strong feelings towards Finland.

In The Anime
Finland first appears in Episode 01, seated next to Sweden at the "Meeting Of The World". He gets his first speaking role in Episode 14, when he offers to tell Sweden a joke about Russians, to pass the time in the long line at the supermarket.

In the anime adaptation, his light blond hair is changed to a more yellow shade, and his eyes are now brown.

Name
Though his name is rendered as Tino in katakana, some fans opt to use the more common Finnish name Timo when referring to him by his human name, as Tino is rarely used in Finland.

His surname Väinämöinen seems to have been inspired by the Finnish folklore character of the same name, who was sometimes thought of as a deity as well.

Trivia

 * His birthday corresponds with the date that Finland gained independence from the Russian Empire, on December 6th, 1917.