2005年03月10日 木曜日
Charisma Man
by Mizuko Ito
Books, Expats in Japan, Family and Relationships, Humor
This semester, I am teaching my Japanese Popular Culture class, and my students are bringing in things that they find as "show-and-tell" reports. This is the first of several installments on chanpon-themed items that my students are cluing me in to.
Charisma Man seems to have quite a following so I can't quite understand why I hadn't heard of him before Eunice Kang reported on him in class this week.
The comic strip is a delightfully irreverent dig at some of the stereotypes and silliness associated with interracial dating in Japan. The comic centers around a Canadian expat in Japan teaching English, and the amusingly superhero-like identity he occupies in the eyes of Japanese women. We were reading Karen Ma's book, The Modern Madame Butterfly, in class this week, so this fit nicely with her critique of some of the problems and stereotypes involved in dating between Caucasian men and Japanese women.
Mark Groenewold has a review of the Charisma Man book as well as sample comics. You can order the Charisma Man book at Yakyu Shop and, according to my students, at Kinokuniya bookstores in Japan and abroad.
Charisma Man
Edited by Neil Garscadden
Created by Larry Rodney
Drawings by Wayne Wilson & Glen Schroeder
Thanks Eunice!
Posted by Mizuko Ito at 2005年03月10日 20:43
Comments
I need to find this book, Charisma Man, but I am in Japan. I live in the Nagano Prefecture and was wondering if I can order it somewhere within Japan to minimize the shipping costs.
I saw the Charisma Man collection for sale at Maruzen, a book store in Nagoya.
A must read for all Caucasian/gaijin men who need a serious wake-up call.