My Darling is a Foreigner: A Manga about Dating a White Guy

My Darling is a Foreigner (Darling wa Gaikokujin) is a funny manga that came out in 2002 about what it's like to be married to a foreigner in Japan. I know, it sounds like it will be drenched in prejudice, but it is actually a hilarious account of the quirks of Japanese culture and how they are perceived by others, and of co-habitation in general. It's actually an autobiographical comedy based on the lives of author Saori Oguri and her white husband Tony Laszlo, a Hungarian-American journalist. Tony is a mellow but hard-working guy who isn't afraid to complain to the waiter about bad-tasting wine and likes to sneak to the fridge to get chocolate ice cream when Saori's not looking. Saori, the manga artist, is sometimes embarrassed by him and often annoyed at little things, like how he doesn't do dishes right away or how he stacks them in the dish rack the wrong way—but mostly she finds his quirks endearing and his insights on the culture fascinating—fascinating enough that they're the subject of her best-selling manga. Anyway, I gave my aunt a copy of parts 1 and 2 of this manga (there are a total of 3, apparently, written over a span of several years) because the white guy looks like her husband. I'm in Hawaii right now visiting them!

Comments

[Dragonfang18]

Kinda reminds me of Bashcraft in Kotaku. Hehe. I love his stories about his kids and life in Japan. Makes me want to have a residency there.

[vagrant]

Coincidence is on the loose!

Wow...thanks for that. The girlfriend was reading that last month when we were in Tokyo. She was laughing and really enjoyed it. I had no idea what it was about, but she did sort of explain that the woman was Japanese and the man was a foreigner. The images confirmed it as well.

I just remember the characters as soon as I saw that image. I think she picked it up on the cheap, for like under ¥500.

I should send the author a note of thanks. It seemed to help the gf understand my gaijin ways...or at least that other women were 'suffering' as well. :)

[Gib]

I'm living in the UK, don't speak Japanese, and am marrying a Japanese girl later this year. She lives in Japan now.

Any suggestions how I can post her copies of this Manga ? Cheers.

[kungfupiggy]

Thank you so much!! I was just wondering when will the 3rd one come out. I enjoyed the first 2 very much.

Gib, you can order this book via Amazon.jp and have it sent directly to her in Japan. The site offers English, but not for the item names. Just search "ダーリンは外国人", the orange one is volume 1.

[Gib]

Thanks kungfupiggy,

I ordered all 3 for her. I assume the third was the one "with baby"...

[sandkat]

While my situation is the reverse, non-Japanese girl dating a Japanese guy, I still am going to have to check this manga out. Looks pretty interesting at the very least.

Thanks!

[Nobita]

They've been showing this on the JR Yamanote Line train's TV screens for a while. It's cute and all but at the same time, I'm kind of getting tired of the "ooooh foreign guys are sooooo muuuch better!!" thing going on in Japan... Come on. Us Japanese guys aren't that bad either!!!

(T^T)

But anyway. Yes. It's funny and as a Japanese American who has taken many many American's to Japan for the first time on business, I can certainly relate to quite a number of those little episodes.