Afghanis-tan
“There are no true friends among nations.”
Despite that sad truth of the world, we sincerely hope that they can continue building their friendship
Picture Central Asia. Now picture a bunch of little girls. Now picture Central Asia as a bunch of little girls. That, in a nutshell, is Afganisu-tan.
Written by Timaking. Our heroine of this webcomic is the nation of Afghanistan, or Afganisu-tan as she is referred to by others, a put-upon young nation who just can’t catch a break. Whether she’s being bullied by her enemies, bullied by her friends, or bullied by cats, life is just one long uphill struggle. Much like the history of the real Afghanistan. Other characters include most of Afghanistan’s neighbors, such as the pranking Pakisu-tan, and others like as the cocky Merikan.
The story is told in 4-koma fashion with each strip devoted to a period in Afganisu-tan’s history beginning with her independence from the UK in 1919 all the way to the U.S. led invasion, Operation Enduring Freedom, which overthrew the Taliban in 2001 and the subsequent elections in ‘04. The strips depict each period with Afganisu-tan and other nations interacting in various situations that reflect the real world. Only cuter and probably funnier than such events should be. Each comic is paired with an “Afghan Memo” which gives a brief summary of the real world events the comic displays.
Had a short-lived sequel, ‘’Pakis-tan’’, that unfortunately got cancelled after the creator’s computer got virus ridden.
Can be found here. See Axis Powers Hetalia or Scandinavia and The World for other works with a similar premise.
- A Friend in Need: Pakisu-tan helps supply and arms the Mujahedeen fighters against the Communist Afghan government. And in doing so finally gains Afganisu-tans trust.
- All There in the Manual: Aside from the writings next to the manga, Pakis-tan was released with a booklet that showcased some stuff not in the manga itself.
- Alone in a Crowd: A lost Afganisu-tan finds herself completely abandoned by the world after the Cold War and is completely ignored in the market despite her pleas for help. Uzebekis-tan even shoves her out of the way to go about her business.
- Amusing Injuries: Throughout the comic. Usually suffered by the titualar character.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: The characters are all countires made moe. Reversed in the case of Al-Qaeda, the group is now a gang of violent street cats.
- The British Empire: From whom Afganisu-tan gained independence from after being picked on. Is depicted by a girl dressed as a queen.
- Calling Your Attacks: Both Uzbekis-tan and Pakisu-tan do this in their fight with each other.
- Call to Agriculture: Regardless of what she has to put up with (and for a variety of real life reasons) Afganisu-tan always attempts to go back to her little carrot farm and raise her crops peacefully.
- Cats Are Mean: The Taliban and Al-Qaeda are depicted as violent street cats.
- Cold War: Being the cause of the instability in Afghanistan, is shown as Pakisu-tan (US-allied) and Uzbekis-tan (then part of the USSR) fighting over who got to play with Afganisu-tan. With the poor girl ending up as a living tug-of-war rope as a result.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Turkmenis-tan. As her bio says: “No one knows what goes on inside her head.”
- Conspicuous Consumption: Pakisu-tan’s tricycle is extravagantly decorated mostly so she can show off.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Afganisu-tan accidently hits Tajikis-tan with a sword. Tajikis-tan beats her into the ground with it.
- Meriken's nail gets chipped, and she goes on a rampage. She just gives Afghanis-tan a lecture, but after scaring the daylights out of her and shooting lasers at her.
- Don't Try This At Home: In the thirteenth strip Uzbekistan throws fireworks at Afganisu-tan. An authors note next to the panels reads: This is dangerous, be good kids and don’t imitate this.
- Eagle Land: Merikan, being the personification of America is arrogant, prideful, and doesn't seem to care who's house she totals in her pursuit of Osama bin Kitty. On the flip side, she does get rid of all the cats plagueing Afganisu-tan and promises to speak to her neighbors about the problem.
- Enforced Cold War: Afganisu-tans’s relecutance to become friends with Pakisu-tan stems from the fact that Pakistan and India have used the opposing factions of Afghanistan’s civil wars for their own purposes.
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: Pakisu-tan’s decked out tricycle.
- Extreme Doormat: The surrounding nation-tans befriend Afganisu-tan… only to get her to run errands.
- The Ghost: Uzbekis-tan's character bio mentions her younger sister Karakalpaks-tan and Pakisu-tan's references Bangladesh as her younger sister who lives far away.
- Girlish Pigtails: Uzbekis-tan.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Pakisu-tan is the Type B version of this trope.
- Jerkass: Uzbekis-tan.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Pakisu-tan really does want to be Afganisu-tans friend, she just has a hard time being friendly.
- Metal Heroes: The Taliban are depicted this way as “Space Detective Tayariban”, a show that Pakisu-tan watches and gets Afganisu-tan into.
- Moe Anthropomorphism: Just look at them!
- Mood Whiplash: Reading the childish antics of the characters in the comic proper and then reading what actually happened in the memos can be rather jarring.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Pakisu-tan drives off the bullies and burns down Afganisu-tans house in the process.
- Obligatory Swearing: Several other characters get wounded in the comic but Merikan loads up on the swears to show that its Serious Business when the Taliban cats bit her.
- Phenotype Stereotype: Both Meriken and Britain have blond hair and blueish eyes. France however has red hair, and blue eyes [dead link]
- Pointless Band-Aid: Tajikis-tan sports one on her right cheek.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Merikan is scary when after the cat who wronged her. She shoots lasers!
- Spell My Name with an "S": Literally. When Tajikis-tan is handing out nickname she calls Pakisu-tan “Paku”. Pakisu-tan flips out and insist on the “s” being in her name since it represents one of the five major ethnic groups of Pakistan.
- Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: Well of course this would be here. Uzbekis-tan starts throwing firecrackers at Afganisu-tan for no good reason to symbolize the invasion.
- The Wiki Rule: Yup.
- Tsarist Russia: Is a girl dressed in mink. Also bullied Afganisu-tan while fighting Great Britain for control of the area.
- Verbal Tic: “Afu!”, though Afganisu-tan isn't seen saying anything other than this.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: While most characters have natural hair colors, Pakisu-tan has green hair and Turkmenis-tan’s is white.
