Despite that sad truth of the world, we sincerely hope that they can continue building their friendship.
Imagine Central Asia. Imagine a group of young girls. Now imagine if Central Asia was represented by these young girls. This is a simplified representation of 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 infected with a virus.
Can be found on its Website
. The manga ran from October 2003 to January 2005.
Afganisu-tan provides examples of the following tropes:
- 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. Uzbekis-tan even shoves her out of the way to go about her business.
- Amusing Injuries: Throughout the comic. Usually suffered by the title character.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: The characters are all countries made moe. Reversed in the case of Al-Qaeda, the group is now a gang of violent street cats.
- 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.
- Cast of Personifications: The comic explains the history of the relationships between the nations of Central Asia by personifying them as cute little girls. The contrast between the playful antics of the characters and the somber explanations of what historical event it represents is striking.
- Cats Are Mean: Al-Qaeda is depicted as a violent street cat.
- 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 accidentally 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.
- Eagleland: 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 plaguing Afganisu-tan and promises to speak to her neighbors about the problem.
- Enforced Cold War: Afganisu-tan's reluctance 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.
- Eye Beams: Merikan can shoot lasers from her eyes when enraged.
- 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.
- 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.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Pakisu-tan is the Type B version of this trope.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Pakisu-tan really does want to be Afganisu-tan's friend, she just has a hard time being friendly.
- 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.
- Nations as People: The characters are all countries, but portrayed as adorable little girls.
- 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 Merikan and Britain have blond hair and blueish eyes. France however has red hair, and blue eyes◊
- 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!
- Shout-Out: The Taliban are depicted this way as "Space Detective Tayariban", a show that Pakisu-tan watches and gets Afganisu-tan into.
- 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.
- Verbal Tic: "Afu!", though Afganisu-tan isn't seen saying anything other than this.
