Satoko and Nada is a Japanese webcomic written and illustrated by Yupechika.
The titular pair are 20-something college students studying in America, Satoko from Japan and Nada from Saudi Arabia. Each strip chronicles their day-to-day adventures as roommates, whether meeting new friends, learning about each other's culture, cooking delicious meals, getting cozy, and preparing for big milestones like graduation or marriage.
The printed collected volumes are licensed for release in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment, with all four volumes released as of December 2020.
Satoko and Nada provides examples of:
- Big Eater: Nada always ends up gaining weight during Ramadan, despite the daily fasting, and begs Satoko to help restrain her when the nightly feasts come.
- Bland-Name Product: "S-Bucks" is used for Starbucks Coffee, "8-Up" and "Dr. Peppo" for 7-Up and Dr. Pepper.
- Bowdlerize: Discussed. Nada watched anime as a kid before moving to the States, but most of it was censored. As such she has various misconceptions like that Ran Mōri was Shinichi's sister instead of his Love Interest, that Pokémon "call a friend" instead of evolving, and that Shizuka's favorite activity was eating cake instead of bathing. She learns otherwise while rewatching shows with Satoko.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Pakeezha angrily turns and yells at the reader when demanding men to never marry multiple wives, with others asking who she's screaming at.
- Character Development: Satoko starts fairly anxious and disheveled when she and Nada first meet, but over time and with her roommate's help, she becomes more confident and fashionable.
- City with No Name: The city that Satoko and Nada live in and the neighboring one are never identified beyond being called "Blue City" and "Red City". The final arc has them take a flight to New York City, so it's known to not be that.
- Comically Missing the Point: After Pakeezah accidentally eats Satoko's cake, she bakes her a milk pudding in apology. Satoko takes it as a challenge as she angrily devours the whole thing.
- Culture Clash:
- One time when walking in on Nada's prayer, Satoko got confused if she should cover up too and ended up tangling herself in a blanket.
- Satoko's attempt to hold a surprise birthday party for Nada initially falls flat because Saudi culture doesn't typically celebrate birthdays. However, Nada decides to try it as an American thing, and later assembles a surprise party for Satoko's birthday.
- Satoko isn't familiar with waving to signal American buses to stop, thinking that when they passed her they were just being mean.
- Nada thinks her friends are being frustratingly casual when they refer to going on "pilgrimages" for small vacations.
- When Miracle starts making sushi, Satoko assumes it'll be just like Japanese-style but gets annoyed when it deviates into California-style. She grudgingly admits that it tastes good.
- When asking Miracle about American schools, Satoko asks if "brown hair" (meaning dyed hair) is banned, which confuses Miracle because Americans have so many hair colors.
- When Satoko is asked about her religious beliefs, she replies that she doesn't have a particular religion. She means it more as in that she's a polytheist, but her friends misunderstand and begin apologizing and assuring Satoko they love her for more than just what religion she is. When she explains that it's more that she believes in a bit of every religion, both Nada (Muslim) and Miracle (Christian) find this polytheism odd.
- At their first fraternity party, both Satoko and Nada are shocked to see weed there, since it's illegal in Saudi Arabia and Japan.
- Satoko doesn't get why Nada finds it remarkable that American bookstores are open before 4pm, until she learns that many stores in Saudi Arabia don't open until the evening because of the midday heat.
- Satoko finds American flags everywhere in the States unusual, remarking that someone wearing a Japanese flag back at home is often viewed as a delinquent.
- When Satoko wears a face mask during cold season, which is more common in Japan than in America, Miracle thinks Satoko is dying and panics.
- Drama Bomb: Unexpectedly after several strips of calming roommate bonding, an early arc concerns Satoko seemingly being nearly kidnapped by a man giving her a ride and Nada rushing to come to her rescue.
- Embarrassing Tattoo: When Satoko learns how to draw henna body art, Kevin insists she write his name in kanji on him. The best she can manage is "ke bin" (毛 瓶), which she notes translates literally into "fur bottle".
- Emoticon: Satoko gets confused when Nada texts her "¯\_(ツ)_/¯" so Nada has to explain later with a literal shrug.
- Eyes Never Lie: Pakeezah invokes this when she accidentally eats Satoko's cake, saying her eyes prove she didn't know... while she's wearing a burqa completely hiding her face.
- The Faceless: Downplayed with Pakeezah, who is usually seen in a burqa, but is occasionally shown without it at her home or at women-only gatherings.
- Face Fault: Kevin thinks he has won a contest when he reads "あたり" as "winner" on the label of a bottle of the popular Japanese soft drink Ramune. However, "あたり" can also mean "per" depending on the context. When Satoko reads the bottle herself, she instantly realizes that Kevin made a mistake as the sentence he was reading just states that there are 80 kcal per bottle, and collapses to the ground at the "D'oh" moment.
- Fish out of Water: Both Satoko and Nada find themselves standing out in public due to being immigrants, often to their detriment.
- Food Porn: Many of the strips center on Satoko and Nada cooking for each other and teaching various Saudi Arabian and Japanese dishes. Inversely, their first attempt at American food turns out to be disappointingly simple.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Right after Nada emphasizes how it's important to not judge others by their manner or lack of veil and how they dress, she begins harshly criticizing Satoko's outfit.
- When Satoko brings Nada news of an upcoming party, Nada claims to not be interested, as she's simultaneously getting herself made up and dressed for it.
- Innocently Insensitive:
- Satoko compliments Nada's chador and asks if she could get one of her own for comfort instead of snuggling into Nada's from time to time. Nada takes it as a claim that Satoko doesn't value her snuggling anymore.
- Satoko is initially alarmed by Americans complimenting her outfits in public, but she gets used to it and tries it nervously herself.
- After teaching Satoko "mashallah", Nada gets unhappy when Satoko doesn't say it when Nada prompts her for compliments. The next time Satoko tries, she completely butchers the pronunciation.
- When Nada practices Japanese numbers, she mispronounces "ichi" (one) as "wicchi", which Satoko thinks is so cute that she doesn't correct her. Nada then proceeds to embarrass herself at the Asian grocery store, and gets very upset when she finds out why.
- Irony:
- When shopping for clothes, Nada notes that she tends to have more freedom in what she'll wear beneath her veil since few will see it, while Satoko doesn't have to wear a veil and thus often limits herself in what she'll be seen wearing in public.
- Kevin is Japanese-American and is studying to teach English in Japan, but notes that white Americans tend to be hired for those jobs over him because they "look more fluent" in English.
- Living Lie Detector: When Nada denies thinking about her impending marriage engagement, Satoko makes a loud “BZZT!”, joking it's the sound of a lie detector from Japan.
- Never Had a Birthday Party: On Nada's birthdate, Satoko secretly surprises her with a cake and gift, but Nada doesn't realize what's happening at first since she never really celebrated birthdays.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. Nearly all of Nada's male friends are named Muhammad or Abdullah. Satoko has trouble telling them apart, then learns Nada often can't either.
- Parody Religion: Satoko briefly wonders if she should mark her religion as Buddhist on Facebook, since she's really more of a polytheist, then finds her Japanese friends have all put joke religions like "mint-chocolate".
- Sherlock Scan: After Abdullah teaches Kevin how various Middle Eastern cultures arrange their agal and shemagh, Kevin gains an uncanny ability to tell exactly what country any Middle-Eastern man he sees wearing them comes from, which alarms the men in question.
- Shout-Out:
- Satoko's friend Kevin is a fan of One-Punch Man and Transformers.
- One pose
by Nada references "Salt Bae". - Nada pitches a "new angle" for the comic in which she and Satoko are Sailor Scouts.
Nada: In the direction of holy Mecca, I'll pray for you!- When seeing Nada going through a corn maze, Satoko quotes the prophecy from Nausicaä: "clothed in blue robes, descending onto a golden field..."
- Yandere: Pakeezah is very attached to her husband, and resents the idea that he would ever consider marrying a second wife, saying if he did she would kill him.
