Latvia

Raivis Galante (ライヴィス・ガランテ Raivisu Garante) is a character in the series Axis Powers Hetalia. He represents the country Latvia (ラトビア Ratobia).

Appearance


Raivis has short, curly blond hair and violet eyes (sometimes colored dark blue). In his WWII appearances, he usually wears a maroon military uniform with brown epaulets.

He is the shortest of the Baltic trio, though he was drawn somewhat taller in his earlier appearances in the webcomic and originally had thicker eyebrows. His uniform also originally had frog clasps in the front (rather than simple buttons) and he wore tall boots.

Personality And Interests
The youngest of the three Baltics, Raivis is withdrawn and a crybaby due to the series of unfortunate events he's experienced in life. He is often pushed around by Ivan, who he tried and failed to cut ties with. He loves poetry and romance novels.

Despite being rather young in physical age, his profile also states that he drinks a lot of alcohol. This is further elaborated on in the Hetalia Desktop Buddies, where Raivis states that he is able to drink up to forty cups of alcohol at his best.

Peter Kirkland (Sealand)
Main article: Peter Kirkland

Though Raivis stabbed Peter with a flower when they first met at a world meeting, the two quickly managed to become close friends, due to their similarity of being small nations that weren't taken very seriously. Raivis attempts to act as an older brother and mentor figure to Peter, but his own insecurities and worries tend to get in the way.

In The Anime


Raivis first appeared in Episode 01 at the Meeting Of The World, where he was being bullied by Ivan and Natalia, the latter holding a knife to his back. He later appeared in Episode 29 with the other two Baltics, speaking for the first time. In Episode 37, he and the other two Baltics are pressured by Ivan into traveling to Ludwig's (under the threat of being sent to Siberia if they don't cooperate).

His design in the anime adaptation was altered slightly, with his light blond hair having been changed to a darker shade, while his violet eyes were changed to an aqua blue. Though Raivis was originally voiced by Rie Kugimiya in his appearance in Hetalia Drama CD: Volume 2, he is instead voiced by Kazutada Tanaka in the anime series. In Episode 43, Raivis remarks that it would be nice to have siblings, implying he does not have any, therefore disproving the popular fandom theory that the Baltic States are "brothers". Some fans have taken his request for siblings toward the other two as a hint that Eduard and Toris act as the 'parental' Baltic states.

Trivia

 * While Raivis is an actual Latvian name, his surname Galante is actually of Italian origin.


 * His birthday corresponds with the date for Latvia's declaration of independence from Russia and Germany, November 18th, 1918. Latvia would later wind up occupied by both Soviet and Nazi forces in 1940 and 1941 respectively, before being reoccupied by the Soviet Union in 1944. While it announced its renewed independence from the union in 1990, it took a year for it to actually be restored.


 * The "desktop mascot" of Latvia reveals that he has an apparent dislike for things such as the Livonian Order, Alexander Lukashenko, the Teutonic Order, and Cossacks.


 * Raivis has commented, after Ivan asked why he was so short, that it was because of Ivan pressing down on his head every day. If he did not, Raivis would be ten centimeters taller than he is now.