Hetalia: Axis Powers / Hetalia: World Series / Hetalia: Beautiful World is a webcomic, later adapted as a manga and an anime series, by Hidekazu Himaruya (Himaruya Hidekazu). The series presents an allegorical interpretation of political and historic events, particularly of the World War II era, in which the various countries are represented by anthropomorphic characters. Hetalia is a portmanteau combining hetare (Japanese for "useless") and Italia. This is to make light of Italy's apparent cowardice during World War II.