Italy

Feliciano Vargas (フェリチアーノ・ヴァルガス Ferichiaano Varugasu) is a main character in the series Axis Powers Hetalia. He is the representation of northern Italy (イタリア Italia), and is part of the Axis Powers. He is also referred to as Italy Veneziano (イタリア=ヴェネチアーノ Italia Venechiano), and has an older brother known as Italy Romano (イタリア=ロマーノ Italia Romano).

Appearance


He has short brown hair and brown eyes, with a curl on the left side of his head acting as his erogenous zone when stroked or pulled. He wears a blue uniform, a black shirt and tie, and black boots. In the earlier strips, his hair was smoother and his curl was drawn smaller, a change which was noted in a gag illustration. Feliciano's eyes were depicted as gray in the earliest artwork of him, but quickly changed to brown.

In his first appearance in both versions of the manga and the first two episodes of the anime, he wore a tan uniform that looked almost similar to his brother's, aside from being drawn as a jumpsuit in the manga (though it was shown as a two-piece suit in the anime).

As a child, he wore dresses and was mistakenly thought to be a girl by Holy Roman Empire and others. Often when not in uniform, he can be seen dressed in a white sailor suit-style top (with blue collar, necktie, and sleeve bands) and blue shorts.

Personality And Interests
A cheerful, energetic boy that went from being the kin of Ancient Rome to an irresponsible crybaby. He loves pasta, pizza, gelato, and cheese. Though he relies on Ludwig a lot, Feliciano doesn't really listen to what he says. His hobbies include cooking, siestas, painting, and singing.

In the webcomic and the first drama CD, it is noted that he frequently gets stomach pains due to overindulging on gelato. Feliciano is shown to have a compulsion of stripping off all of his clothes for his daily 3PM "siestas," and usually forgets to put his pants back on after he wakes back up (causing Ludwig to have to lend him a pair of his own). His public nudity has become notorious enough to where Vash will fire upon him if he catches him streaking throughout his homeland.

He also has the verbal tic of making a "Ve" sound, though in the anime adaptation, he makes other onomatopoeic sounds as well, a more notable one being a chant of "Herahera" (a Japanese onomatopoeia which means "acting foolishly" or "frivolous").

Though he was relatively weak and timid as a child, he was able to take on Sadiq single-handedly at one point.

Ludwig (Germany)
Main article: Ludwig

After being found in an orange crate (a crate of tomatoes in the published manga and anime adaptations), Feliciano became his prisoner, then ally. With Kiku, they formed the Axis Powers. Despite their differences, Ludwig and Feliciano are rather close.

It is hinted, though not outright confirmed, that Ludwig may be Feliciano's long-lost childhood love, Holy Roman Empire.

Honda Kiku (Japan)
Main article: Honda Kiku

Though the two seemed to meet for the first time when forming the Axis, Feliciano had actually "met" a younger Kiku once before, in a prophetic dream he had as a child.

Kiku is shown to become visibly disturbed at Feliciano's nudity and "shamelessness," and asks that he put clothes on. Due to having had to experience Feliciano's reckless driving, Kiku became inspired to invent safer Japanese cars.

Lovino Vargas (South Italy/Romano)
Main article: Lovino Vargas

Having been separated for a long time, the two brothers don't get along very well. Although Lovino seems tougher than Feliciano, both are actually cowardly and ineffectual.

Francis Bonnefoy (France)
Main Article: Francis Bonnefoy

A young Feliciano (Chibitalia) grew up with a teenage Francis. The two got along well until Chibitalia was taken to spend time with Ancient Rome. When he returned, Francis only wanted to gain control of him. They are still on rather good terms, as Feliciano still refers to Francis as "France nii-chan" and has visited him a number of times. France is also unwilling to harm Feliciano despite being enemies.

Feliks Łukasiewicz (Poland)
Main Article: Feliks Łukasiewicz

Feliciano and Feliks are shown to be good friends in a few of the "Extra Stories" and Comic Diary strips, and have known each other since they were small children. It was Feliks who gave Feliciano the idea to make an ejectable seat in Ludwig's Kubelwagon, as he had previously designed an airplane with one (which backfired on him).

Roderich Edelstein (Austria)
Main Article: Roderich Edelstein

Roderich took control over a young Feliciano. He helped raise Feliciano, with the assistance of Elizabeta, in Holy Roman Empire's house.

Gilbert Beilschmidt (Prussia)
Main Article: Gilbert Beilschmidt

Gilbert is shown to like Feliciano very much, considering him "cute" and going as far as to ask him on a date, only for Feliciano to be oblivious to his question (as he was fixated on Gilbert's bird).

Elizabeta Héderváry (Hungary)
Main Article: Elizabeta Héderváry

Elizabeta helped raise him when they were both under Austria's rule. She is considered to be an older sister figure to him.

Ancient Rome
Main Article: Ancient Rome

The heir apparent to Rome's fortune, the young Feliciano spent an indeterminate amount of time living and traveling with his grandfather until Rome eventually grew weak and vulnerable due to his empire crumbling.

Due to what happened to his grandfather, Feliciano refused to become a new Roman Empire when Holy Roman Empire offered him the chance to do so. Though he didn't inherit Rome's success, he did get his natural talents for art.

In The Anime


Feliciano appears in Episode 01, towards the end of the meeting. He offers to speak, but when he is called upon, he lets out a cry of "PASTA!" instead of presenting data.

He is formally introduced in Episode 02, after Ludwig finds him hiding in the tomato crate, and is taken captive, but eventually kicked out and sent back home after he annoys the other man with a stereotype-filled song about Germans. Feliciano later returns to work for Ludwig after becoming poor, and eventually becomes his ally in the lead-up to WWII.

In Episode 08, he winds up kidnapped by the Allied Forces, but is sent back twice after annoying them each time. On the third attempt, he is used as bait for Ludwig and both wind up captured, Feliciano proceeding to confess to the Allies that Ludwig is a fan of BDSM and has a collection of erotica. In Episode 15, he discovers that Kiku also happens to have some degree of perversion, after seeing his erotic woodblock art.

In the anime adaptation, Feliciano's hair is changed to auburn, while his tie is colored blue. His eyes were also changed to amber, a more "golden" shade than what they appear as in manga illustrations.

The first DVD of the anime contained a remixed version of his Marukaite Chikyuu, while the fifth DVD contained a version sung by him as "Chibitalia."

Trivia

 * The birthdate given in his profile, March 17th, corresponds with the date of the formation of the "Kingdom Of Italy" (Regno d'Italia) in 1861. As Feliciano is shown in the strips to have existed for centuries before, it is likely that the Vargas brothers use the date of the Italian Unification to celebrate their birthdays with, as a unified Italy. The formation date of the Italian Republic (Repubblica Italiana) is actually June 2nd. South Italy is confirmed to be the elder of the two; despite this, some fans continue to mistake them for twins.


 * Though Feliciano was represented with the flag for the Kingdom Of Italy in the original webcomic, the published manga and later media use the modern Italian flag.


 * His full nation name, Italy Veneziano (or just "Veneziano") is derived from Venezia, the Italian name for Venice, a city in Northern Italy. In the strips, he is simply referred to by the others as Italy, with his brother only referring to him as Veneziano. The name North Italy is also used to differentiate him from his brother.Veneziano can also be seen as a sort of pun for the similar-sounding Japanese phrase "Venezia no", which would mean "of Venice".
 * Though his name is derived after Venice, he only seems to represent the Republic itself in the strip where he fights the Ottoman troops. In footnotes to strips such as The War of Austrian Succession, it is shown that he has also been used to represent other northern areas of Italy such as Milan and Piedmont-Sardinia, before the unification of Italy.
 * The exact inspiration behind his human name was not stated by Hidekaz Himaruya, though it is to be noted that Vargas is a Spanish surname and not Italian (though it has Latin roots, like both languages) but it is believed that Vargas may have been derived from the artist Alberto Vargas, who was famous for his WWII "Vargas Girls" pin-up art. Likewise, Feliciano ('which comes from "felice," happy one) is an uncommon given name in Italy, and is more common as a surname. It is possible that it might have been inspired by the Italian calligrapher Felice Feliciano.


 * In the strip Let's Assist The French Economy!, his right nipple is revealed to represent Corsica and winds up claimed by Francis. His right pectoral area is also said to represent both Savoy and Nice.


 * In Contrary To The Italian Image, it is revealed in a footnote that Feliciano suffers from the medical condition phimosis (which makes it difficult for the foreskin of the penis to be retracted), due to Italy ranking #2 in frequent cases of it.


 * In the webcomic strip Italy's Big Brother, Ludwig reveals that Feliciano happens to share Germanic blood with him (presumably due to the German conquests of Italy after the fall of the Roman Empire). This noticeably angers Lovino, who was later said to be of Arabic blood by Himaruya.


 * In a note, Himaruya stated that Feliciano was not entirely weak, but due to him being cowardly and scared, he does not use his strength. However, as Chibitalia, he was shown at one point to be strong enough to defeat Ottoman forces that were invading the Adriatic Sea (referencing how Italian naval troops were thought to be stronger than the ones on land). In another illustration, the female version of Feliciano is shown to display an incredible bout of strength when angered, much to the surprise of her male counterpart.
 * In the special booklet included with the third volume of the published manga, it was revealed that Feliciano's personality was originally intended to be modeled after that of Noto Kanazawa (an unlucky, often-bullied character from a previous Kitayume comic), and that his curl was a last-minute addition to the design to make him look cuter. As the manga progressed though, the character of Italy became more carefree and absent-minded.