Alien Waifu
Creative Staff
Story: Kouji Miyata
Art: Kouji Miyata
Translation: Sheldon Drzka
What they say
Nobuo is an ordinary salaryman with a dark secret—his wife is an alien! Despite her tentacles hair and tendency to shoot beams from her eyes, he wouldn’t trade her for anything. Love knows no bounds in this extraterrestrial romantic comedy!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Oh, My Sweet Alien! might be one of the cutest and most heartfelt manga I have ever read.
There are quite a few stories about people who are abducted by aliens. Sometimes those people are anal probed, which seems to be a common theme in fiction for reasons I can’t understand. However, I doubt any series aside from this one begins with the captured asking for the captor’s hand in marriage. To be fair, Nobuo was pretty out of it, but I like to think he was sane when asking that question. Also to be fair, his wife’s alien form is super cute.
What stands out to me the most about this series is that there isn’t any real drama like you find in most romance stories. I never realized how sick I was of seeing couples doing nothing but arguing and yelling at each other for no reason before randomly making up and having sex for no reason until I read this. Nobuo and his wife work. They get along well, have a healthy sex life, don’t argue or fight too much, and when they do argue or fight, they resolve the situation like adults. It’s so uncommon, especially for a manga, that I feel like I’ve been thrown for a loop.
Part of what I think makes this work is how Nobuo’s wife, family, and friends are portrayed. Nobuo’s wife has a humanoid appearance, but the rest of her looks very alien. She’s got tentacles for hair, different color skin, eyes with no whites, and strangely chitinous body parts. She doesn’t wear clothes, but apparently, clothing isn’t a thing in space since there are so many different species that fashion hasn’t caught on. There are a lot of aspects about the characters from the wife’s side that are completely foreign to humanity. The fact that she and Nobuo manage to have a perfectly functional and working relationship not only has a huge impact from an emotional standpoint, but it also showcases how much these two love each other. Even though they are completely different species, they are willing to work around those differences and compromise like any normal, healthy, and loving couple would.
In some ways, this feel almost like a slice of life series. I mean, it IS a slice-of-life series, but because of the alien wife factor, it also feels like an odd blend between sci-fi, slice-of-life, and romantic comedy. A part of me actually wonders if maybe Kouji Miyata wasn’t trying to make a statement with this manga. Is this just a cute series about a salaryman and his loving alien wife, or was there a political statement regarding Japan’s isolationist policies? I’m not sure. I honestly know very little about Japan except their mythology and that it is a very homogeneous society. That said, I do have to wonder if this manga might have more hidden messages than it’s cute tone suggests.
While the story is short, and I am kind of sad that we only get a single manga, I also understand that a story like this can only be stretched so far. There’s only so much you can do with it before the charm is lost. There seems to be about 3 or 4 arcs in the manga, and each arc is divided by 3 chapters that deal with different issues such as parenthood, in-laws, and trying to keep the fact that your wife is an alien hidden from the neighbors. Things get only more complicated when they have a baby. I swear that tyke caused more trouble than anyone else combined, especially when it came to blending in.
The baby is another thing that this manga does differently. Most manga do not deal with a couple having children. Even the adult manga I’ve read (manga of the Seinen genre, which feature more mature and adult themes) do not deal with this subject very often. In fact, most of them only deal with the more terrible aspects of adult life. It’s like adult manga artists feel a manga that contains only controversial topics are worth making. I like how adding a child into the mix adds a whole new dynamic to the story.
In Summary
This is probably one of my favorite short manga of all time, and something I would highly recommend to anyone who is a fan of slice-of-life, romantic comedies, or just want something that is different.
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: M
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: January 30, 2018
MSRP: $19.99
