マスオさん[masuo-san]
Well, サザエさん[Sazae-san] is, if nothing else, a long-running TV anime series though it’s not very popular among anime fans. Yes, this anime is for non-otaku folks as well as ちびまる子ちゃん[Chibimaruko-chan]. As it happens, these two anime are broadcasted in a row, from six to seven p.m. on Sunday, when most families would have dinner. Both of them are midiocre sitcom comedies if you ask me. Forgive me, but I do not like this kind of thing because it’s too good to be true.
Anyway get to the point, Sazae doubles up with her parents at her family home. So does her husband, マスオ[Masuo]. See what I mean? He lives with her whole family members; her parents and two younger siblings of hers. In other words, he is always surrounded by them at home…he has few private hours so badly. He can’t relax all the time even though he seems to be happy in the anime. I hate to tell you, but I don’t think their house is so enough to accomodate so many people, though.
So this term, マスオさん means a husband(or an engaged man) who lives with his wife’s family at her home. Know this term aims a satire at such a person. Yes, I think this is a slang, and even non-otaku folks know this because this anime is for such general people.
By the way, I know at least two マスオさんs who happen to be foreigners. One is English and the other is French. Both of them have a Japanese girlfriend. I have never heard any complaints or whining from the two guys about being マスオさん. For non-Japanese people, being マスオさん is not stressful?
bi said,
July 31, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Ahahaha, if their wife’s family is nice to them, they’ll be glad to living together XD
I live in Italy, and I must say that italian men like to stay in the same house as their mother for as long as possible, because she’ll cook for them and do the laundry for them and just…be motherly to them XD. So it’s not unlikely to happen that a married man will accept cheerfully to live with his wife’s family. But only if he likes her mother and she’s good to him XDD There are a lot of jokes here about mothers in law hating their son in law, or hating his mother XD My two gandmothers used to hate each other, in fact… In that case, men don’t like to meet their wife’s family XD
bangin said,
August 1, 2007 at 1:55 pm
According to the two Masuo-sans I know, they feel comfortable about being Masuo-san because, as you said, each family members treat them so nicely. Even though they don’t understand Japanese, it doesn’t seem to matter.
In Japan, a long time ago it is said that children should leave home when they are over 20 years old. Or else, parents should kick them out…But now it’s changed, though.
Yeah, there are that kind of thing in Japan, but mostly about mothers in law hating daughters in law. Sometimes in a sope opera, the joke goes too far! XD