‘Learning Arabic Sweet’s with Layla-san Halwa Introduction’, a self-published Japanese manga by writer Shirakawa Seibei, has become an unlikely vehicle for cultural education, and a quiet test of how accurately foreign publishers convey Gulf traditions to overseas audiences. Shirakawa, a Japanese author who has traveled to the Middle East several times, walks readers through the origins, varieties and ingredients of halva across the Arabian Peninsula, the GCC and North Africa. In doing so, the work highlights a recurring problem: the mixing up of Lahash with Halwa in publications outside the region, including some Japanese print outlets.
The doujinshi follows a previous self-published title, ‘Learning Arabic coffee culture with Layla-san’, which Shirakawa created with manga artist Nishimaya Yuichi, who handled the art style and content planning. That earlier collaboration is where the accountability question takes on a human shape, because Yuichi’s commitment to accuracy came at the cost of years of patience. His first encounter with halva came through Mari Yonehara’s essay ‘Collection Breakfast of Travelers’, a series of food-related stories by an interpreter who traveled the world. In a section titled ‘The Territory of Turkish Honey Candy’, Yonehara described sharing halva with a friend for the first time and finding it incredibly delicious, yet being unable to find the same confection again for a very long time. She went on to taste sweets called halva in many places and wrote about the pursuit with evident passion.
Yuichi was ambitious about trying Middle Eastern sweets after reading the essay. The turning point arrived when, through a connection with Laila, he worked on a manga about Arabic coffee and found himself impressed by Shirakawa for finally obtaining the halva he had long admired. On tasting it, he felt a wish to share that moment of wonder with Yonehara across time, and he folded his detailed impressions into the main story through the character Layla-san so that readers could experience them too.
The manga is a doujinshi, meaning a self-published work aimed at a specific audience, and it is built around a character from the Japanese video game ‘Idolmaster Cinderella Girls’. In the series, Layla-san is the daughter of a wealthy man from Dubai who moved to Japan to work as an idol. She recently secured a job as a singer and released a CD, has begun performing live, and her life has grown busier. She loves ice cream as well as Dubai sweets, a detail that makes her a natural guide to the confectionery traditions the manga explains.
Within the story, Layla-san sets out the differences between Halwa, Halva and Lahash, also called Rahash, in terms of texture, ingredients and taste. The distinction is not pedantic. In the UAE and neighboring Gulf countries, many people would immediately point out the difference if someone referred to Lahash as Halwa. At the opening of the manga, Layla-san reacts strongly when the P-head producer mistakenly buys Lahash believing it to be Halwa. The scene is exaggerated for comedic effect, yet it reflects a genuine cultural boundary that some Japanese publications have failed to respect, introducing Lahash as Halwa and thereby contributing to misunderstandings of Arabian confectionery traditions.
The factual rigor of the manga holds up under scrutiny. Rahash is a specific tahini-based halwa popular in the Gulf, notably in the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait, characterized by a dense, crumbly and nutty texture, essentially a sesame-forward subset of the broader halwa family, sometimes described as a Middle Eastern nutty fudge. Halwa is the broader term for sweet, often pudding-like confections across the Middle East and South Asia. In Gulf culture, the word halwa is most commonly associated with Omani halwa, which the source material confirms is the most popular variety across much of the Arabian Peninsula, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Other versions differ in color, such as the red, yellow and green Bahraini halwa depicted in the manga.
Layla-san’s account of how halwa is made, with ghee, sugar, and a mixture of spices and nuts, is broadly correct, though cornstarch deserves mention as a key ingredient, since it produces the distinctive soft texture that makes halwa unique. The manga also notes that homemade halwa is extremely rare and valuable; even many Emiratis have few opportunities to enjoy it, which is why many people buy it from shops, and serving homemade halwa in an Emirati household is regarded as a rare and memorable experience. On serving conventions, the manga again proves accurate: halwa is deeply rooted in UAE culture and commonly served at weddings and social events, traditionally presented in large deep bowls, though individually packaged cups have become increasingly common in recent years for hygiene reasons.
Meanwhile, the cultural exchange runs in both directions. At Expo 2025 Osaka last year, the Oman Pavilion served Omani halwa through an innovative fusion with Japan’s beloved mochi, combining the two into a cross-cultural taste experience for visitors.
For readers who want to follow the manga’s guidance in person, Layla-san recommends several UAE shops. In Dubai: Al Harrasi Omani Sweets at Festival City Mall and Deira, and Al hallaniyah Omani halwa in Nad Al Hamar. In Abu Dhabi: Alramz For Omani Halwa in Musaffah, Golden Falcon Omanian Halwa in Al Sa’Adah, and Al Sultania in Al Shahamah. Taken together, the manga offers Japanese and international readers an educational presentation of Arabian sweets and, more broadly, a model of how cultural traditions can be transmitted with care rather than left to confusion. Whether other foreign publishers will follow that example remains an open question.