Welcome to the Hamburger Street

the united states of america

The author of Hetalia, Himaruya Hidekaz has become infamous for inconsistencies within his own series. America's design seems to go through some of the most changes from the early stages of the series to current and even between the manga and anime.

Glasses

America's glasses are simple, under wire frame, either black or sliverish gray in color. Like many things in the series, his glasses are meant to represent a part of the USA: Texas. Of course, because it represents a western state, America isn't seen with glasses until after 1845 when the state was admitted into the Union. Himaruya uses glasses as a good representation of America's growing maturity, because frame wear is worn more by older people than younger, at times. Yet his glasses never take away from America's boyish charm and looks and still fit him perfectly.

Ahoge

A part of America's aesthetic look is his ahoge (literally means foolish hair in Japanese) a feature that many other nations share. Though America's isn't officially confirmed to be any sort of erogenous zone as with the Italy brothers. America's ahoge is also a victim to Himaruya's inconsistencies because in the very early chapters, the ahoge is missing completely but shows up as time goes on. Like his glasses, his ahoge represents the island of Nantucket in Massachusetts, and even mimics the shape of the island in real life. Himaruya seems to have a liking towards Nantucket island in general, it being the backdrop to another one of his series: Chibisan Date.

Hair

Another inconsistence is the color and design of America's hair. Early designs, with the lack of ahoge, his bangs were more swept off to the right exposing his forehead. As time went on, his hair became slightly more fuller, his bangs a little more messy, seeing much less of his of his forehead. His hair color has also fluctuated over time, having a more light blond such as England's color to the darker dirty blond which Himaruya is more consistant with using and seen in the anime.

WW2 Uniform

America's uniform has as many changes from version to version than any other part of his apperance. He for the most part, always is wearing his brown bomber jacket over his tan (at times its been a greenish color) uniform. The jacket has a type of fur around the collar, a star on the front left breast, a simple airplane siloette on one of the selves and a '50' for each of the American states on the back, though the 50 has no been consistantly drawn on America's uniform in the comics and has been omitted completely in the anime.

Another note on his uniform is the belt that comes across his chest. The belt can be seen in the comic at various times and in a few color spreads from the manga, similar to England's (which appears and disappears just as often in the comics). The belt is not translated into the anime. His uniform also consists of a pair of black leather gloves he's constantly seen wearing.


America's shoes have most consistanly been shown in the manga and anime as his pants coming down over what is probably brown/black combat boots. In early designs he had calf/knee high boots with fuzz or white trim at the top, which many fanartists still draw with his uniform, but these shoes are only shown on the earliest chibi designs for America.

Hetalia Gakuen

Even America's school uniform in the canon AU of Hetalia Gakuen (or Academy Hetalia) has it own differences. In the original line art for the uniforms, America's jacket isn't much different from his bomber jacket beside from making more of a letterman jacket, with the change of the collar. This same style is seem in the Noto-sama 6 game that was released in 2009 which features some Hetalia characters. Yet, in both the Academy Hetalia Christmas chapter in volume 2 of the manga and episode 31 of the anime, America's jacket goes back to its old bomber jacket style with the fur around the collar.

As for the rest of his uniform, its similar to the rest of the cast's school uniform. Blue checker patterned slacks, white dress shirt both seen with or without a tie depending on the source, and yellow matching sweater vest worn underneath.