South Italy

Lovino Vargas (ロヴィーノ・ヴァルガス, Roviino Varugasu; often referred to as Romano (ロマーノ, Romaano) ) is a character in the series Axis Powers Hetalia/Hetalia: Axis Powers. He represents the southern half of Italy (南イタリア, Minami Italia), and is the older brother of Feliciano.

Appearance
Lovino has dark brown hair and has more of an olive complexion than than his younger brother in earlier artwork, but there is no visible skin tone difference in most later artwork. His eyes were originally green, but became colored hazel or dark brown in most of the later colored art.

Like his brother, he has a wild long curl that acts as his erogenous zone, though it rests on the right side of his head, as opposed to the left. In most artwork and merchandise, he is shown to wear a khaki uniform in a different style than Feliciano's (and more similar to Antonio's), with 3/4-length sleeves. But in the published manga and anime, he instead wears a virtually identical uniform. In his very first appearance in the webcomic, Lovino's shirt and belt were colored white, but were later shaded in dark. The actual color of the uniform is unknown due to it only appearing in black-and-white art, though fanworks often depict it as being a lighter blue.

As a child, he did not usually wear a maid dress like his brother but simply the apron, as seen in early strips of Boss Spain's Control of Southern Italy. But in some strips like the ones in Comic Diary 9, he is depicted wearing a dress of an unknown color.

A chibi image by Himaruya, as well as a figurine, also show that Lovino has a casual sailor outfit like Feliciano, but with the blue accents replaced by green.

Personality And Interests
Lovino is friendly and kind to women, but is strict and less social to men. Despite appearing to be tougher than his younger brother, he is just as cowardly and ineffectual, if not more. Though he is not very skilled with his hands, it is said that he is a good pickpocket.

As a child, he often slacked off and slept when it came to chores, though he was rather clumsy when he actually tried to do them. In Comic Diary 10 and blog illustrations by Himaruya, as well as in the first part of Boss Spain's Control Of Southern Italy, it is revealed that the younger Lovino had a bed-wetting problem and often had trouble finding the toilet due to the vast size of Antonio's mansion. In Hetalia: Axis Powers volume 1, it is also revealed that he had the disease Choreia as a child, and that it played a part in his clumsiness. Antonio attempted to heal him by making him dance the Tarantella, and he appeared to recover from the disease, whether due to those efforts or not.

When using grenades, he seemingly has no clue of the correct way to throw them (throwing the pin, rather than the actual grenade, a habit shared by his brother). In the strip In Two Minutes, You Can Grasp The Exterior Of The European Economy, it is shown that he is often controlled and led around by his own mafia. It is partially due to the influence of the mafia that his view of the world is more biased and bleak than Feliciano's.

While Feliciano eats a variety of foods other than pasta, Lovino refuses to eat foreign food, especially if it happens to be cheese or potatoes. He has the verbal tic of making a "Chigi" (or "Chigigi") sound when he is agitated, or when his haircurl is pulled.

Feliciano Vargas (North Italy/Veneziano)
Main Article: Feliciano Vargas

The two brothers grew up knowing of each other, but they never actually met face to face. Feliciano eventually went off to live with their grandfather for some time, while Lovino stayed behind. After Grandpa Rome had died and Feliciano came back, Lovino and the other boys had since become bullies to him. The two were separated again at the end of the Italian War, when Feliciano was claimed by the Holy Roman Empire and Roderich, while Lovino was sent to live with Antonio because he was too difficult to deal with.

In the present day, the two brothers don't get along very well, Lovino occasionally even refusing to acknowledge his brother's existence. Feliciano is more than eager to be around his older brother. As a child, Lovino often felt jealous and inferior to Feliciano, due to the younger brother inheriting their grandfather's talent for art, while he could barely draw. He also felt that his brother took after their grandfather in appearance more. Despite this though, he's shown to have at least a subconcious care for him, becoming upset when his brother implies he doesn't admire him, and sharing a bed with him. Usually when it's hinted that he cares about Feliciano though, something happens that angers him and he instantly reverts back.

Ludwig (Germany)
Main Article: Ludwig

Unlike his brother, Lovino hates Ludwig and can't stand to see him and Feliciano together, referring to him as a "potato bastard" and "macho potato".

He had attempted to get revenge on a few occasions, but failed each time:


 * Tried to charge at Ludwig, but slipped on a banana peel and skinned his arm (Italy's Big Brother, webcomic).


 * Pulled the pin off a "Red Devil" grenade, but threw the pin instead of the actual grenade, which he held in his mouth (Italy's Big Brother, webcomic).


 * Threatened to throw tomatoes at Ludwig and "rip every muscle" off of his body, but wound up frightened by Francis (Meet My Big Brother!, Hetalia: Axis Powers volume 1).


 * Attempted to embarrass Ludwig by holding up a fake mustache (to make him look like he was sporting one), but wound up making himself look like he had the mustache instead (Good Luck! Big Brother!, Hetalia: Axis Powers volume 1')

It is suggested that he might hate Germans in general, seeing that he thought one as a danger when he was a kid. A line in Italy's Big Brother also reveals that his stereotype of Germans is that they're all "uncivilized country bumpkins with bad physiology". When Ludwig noted that Feliciano happened to have Germanic blood as well, it caused Lovino to go into a rage and attempt to charge him (only for the above banana incident to occur).

Antonio Fernandez Carriedo (Spain)
Main Article: Antonio Fernandez Carriedo

Because he was raised by him for so long, he takes after him in his culture, customs, and religion, as well as his love for tomatoes. While Antonio is often affectionate to him, Lovino tends to treat him rather coldly, thinking Antonio just wants his grandfather's inheritance. He does care about him deep down, but rarely shows it openly, though he is shown to become extremely jealous when Antonio is with someone else. When Antonio catches a cold, Lovino panics and increases imports from Antonio (despite having a cold himself) and seems to lose his weakness, shown by his ability to beat up his mafia (even though he usually bends to their will).

In his youth, Lovino would often jump on Antonio or headbutt him in the stomach to wake him up. This caused Antonio to have a nightmare where Lovino, as an adult, jumped down on him and "crushed his vital regions" in the process.

In The Anime
Lovino is first shown briefly in the Chibitalia segment of Episode 01 as a small child, and makes further non-speaking cameos in Episode 02 (where the brothers are bullied by the other nations) and Episode 04 (being stepped on by a victorious Roderich). The adult Lovino finally appears in Episode 07, which adapts Meet My Big Brother! and '''Good Luck! Big Brother!' from Axis Powers Hetalia volume 1''.

Lovino has a brief non-speaking cameo in Episode 14, as he cuts in the middle of a line at the supermarket while whistling the ending theme Marukaite Chikyuu. In Episode 21, Peter attempts to greet him, but goes by ignoring him. He later appears at the end of Episode 23, and winds up getting his haircurl entangled with his brother's after a heated argument about him sleeping in the same bed with Ludwig and Kiku. He makes a cameo in Episode 33 when Feliciano mentions he had to go home early, and later appears working at a fruit stand in Episode 34, only to be frightened by Ludwig. In Episode 37, Lovino appears in Feliciano's nightmare to tell him to forget about his allies, as only "winning" matters in war. He then makes an appearance in the premiere of the "World Series" season, challenging Germany. His childhood is then further detailed in Episode 60, the eighth episode of World Series.

He is voiced by Daisuke Namikawa, who also voices Feliciano. Namikawa also initially voiced the child version of Lovino in the first episode, but the role was later recast for World Series, with Aki Kanada providing the voice (as she did for his brother).

In the anime adaptation (much like the later colored manga artwork), Lovino is given lighter skin, rather than being olive-skinned. Though he is depicted as wearing his pants over a short pair of boots in a character sketch for the manga, his anime turnaround instead shows him to have his pants tucked into a pair of tall boots (that look much like his brother's). His first military uniform is also colored khaki, with the shirt being dark red and the tie being navy.

Trivia

 * Like his brother, Lovino's birthday falls on March 17th, which is the date that the "Kingdom Of Italy" was formed. He was also represented with the flag for the Kingdom in the original webcomic art, though the modern Italian one is now used for him. Lovino is confirmed to be the elder of the two; despite this, some fans continue to mistake them for twins.


 * His full nation name, Italy Romano, is derived from Rome, the capital of Italy. In the actual strips, he is simply Romano, though South Italy is also used to differentiate him from his younger brother. Historically however, he would represent either kingdom of Sicily and Naples (which later became "The Kingdom Of The Two Sicilies"), which were part of Southern Italy and wound up under the control of Spain. Romano also seems to be a pun on the phrase "Roma no", meaning "of Rome".


 * Though the exact inspiration behind his human name remains unknown, Lovino is not a given name in Italian, but instead used as a surname. Vargas is believed to have come from the artist Alberto Vargas. Alternatively, Rovino exists as a given name, and derives from a tense of the Italian word "rovinare", which means to "collapse" or to "wreck".


 * According to Hidekaz Himaruya, Lovino's hair is colored darker than Feliciano's due to him having Arabic blood. Himaruya described Lovino as having both "darker hair" and a "darker personality". But in a 2006 profile of Italy on Kitayume, Romano briefly appeared in an illustration with black hair, as opposed to the dark brown hair Himaruya would settle on.