Yes it’s the one on the left. It’s definitely for N2+ I’d say, and even then I don’t understand most of it.
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Mate, I’m so glad to find someone else who loves this series! Incidentally Claymore was inspired by Berserk, so the vibes you’re getting are entirely correct.
The anime is very good on its own but is only 1/3rd of the story and has an anime-only ending. Highly, highly encourage you to check out the manga when you’re done. The anime doesn’t look bad either, but the manga art blows it away. This is from Vol. 1:
I adore the way he draws hands and just female form in general. I used to do life drawing myself and can tell the mangaka has a lot of love for it. There are better pages than this, but they are probably too gory for Bunpro (lol).
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I truly don’t know, it is probably has to do with growth of my level. In French, it started giving me a lot of intresting videos after just a few days there, it’s probably because I can understand most of it as long as it is slow enough. Also, Italian, French, Spanish youtubes are just like Enlgish youtube with their quirkes, I mean they have their history, their memes, their culture, but they still all feel the same, like English Youtube a few years ago.
On the other hand, Japanese is completly different.
The only thing I can say, is that finding content I like watching in English did not help me in making algorithm work well, what helped me was finding something new, exclusive to Japanese youtube, that I like even more then what I was previously watching on my English youtube.
Also, for me, I feel like the door of the youtube has opened when I was able to watch romance/nichijyou anime, the easiest ganres of all. But at that point there were not many channels I could watch, at least from what I found. It was somewhere around N4 I would say? The channels I watch now, are probably available to me because of my current level, which is bunpro mock N2 test.
Again, I don’t want to discurage you from looking for a simple content you would like, I feel like if you put some effort into it, you could find the content you like much sooner then I did, because even if I was using youtube since the day one, I didnot really put much though into building it (even without that the jurney was cool). So hopefully with the help of this thread you’ll be able to enchance your Japanese acquisition greatly! Good luck
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I can’t believe I can read this whole page in Japanese! Everything’s paying off!
To the topic at hand, particularly the “doing more” part…
Immersion activities are part “fun” part “work”. The ratio of fun to work depends on how good you are at Japanese. If you’re starting out, the grammar, vocab, kanji (flashcards) and speaking (with people) are more valuable than solo-immersion, possibly all the way “through N4”.
To put it a different way…
- If you need to translate the whole thing, it’s 100% work, 0% fun
- If you don’t need to translate anything, it’s 0% work, 100% fun
If you are doing “work” thinking it’s supposed to be “fun” you burn out! Sometimes “doing more” is the worst thing you can do.
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When would you say this is applicable, actually?
Immersion in native content kind of isn’t fun at all when you are not jouzu yet.
Maybe around N3 or something?
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Different for everyone but this is when I felt comfortable to start immersing, yeah
Be warned tho it’s a steep learning curve at the start for everyone, regardless of level. It just takes some getting used to.
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Recently I have been watching lots of “けんさんおかえり”, maybe he’s a bit on the easier side, but the most important thing in immersion is that you can (nearly) understand everything and just have a good time doing it, otherwise you will get frustrated and not stick with it. Why suffer when it can be enjoyable? Sure, that’s far from being able to understand native material and might feel bad. However, with constant practice, we’ll get there, trust.
real
They are actually called “Graded Readers” and you can find them here: Our Graded Readers - にほんごたどく
One isn’t expensive, but you’ll read them fairly quick. I took like 20-25 minutes for the one that was at the max of my level, the red one (is that level 2?). Yellow was mada mada for me, tried it once. I could understand maybe 70%, but thats not fun at all. For those booklets, I feel like comprehension of at least 95% is good enough.
Also, they are quite right on the website, it feels like an addiction which is perfect I guess. I will definitly buy them again once I got to the next level (the yellow one), even though the price is…well.
Any other recommendations by other people here for these type of graded readers for the meantime?
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I dare to differ from you here. That’s where comprehensive input/conprehensive immersion comes in, which in my idea is also immersion.
People will quit through the N5/N4 stages if there are no rewards or fun times at all. Graded readers and especially virtuosly improving conversations over the months while I lived in Japan have been that reward for me. However, living in Japan isn’t something all learners can or want to do, actually.
This is why I would advocate heavily for comprehensive reading/watching/etc.; making it enjoyable. Of course, learning Japanese is also work, like doing Anki, BunPro (ごめんね) and what other means one might use. However, comprehensive input for me isnt work at all but something I actually enjoy heavily. So instead of splitting immersion into fun and not fun from the beginner stages, why not split Japanese itself into fun and not fun?
Of course that wont actually last one forever, but it is good for the initial stages in my opinion. Once people get past N4 they will be so invested in the language that they cant really bring themselves to quit anymore, haha.
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@Noxsora Oh! I try it with Steam 
@Hairymini THANKS FOR SHARING IT! I will def listen to it when I get my japanese to N2!
I started reading manga from my first Japanese class. It took ages and a dictionary that’s now literally held together with duct tape to finish that first one, but if I had picked a hard one. I usually recommend Yotsuba To as a good option for a first manga, but sometimes the jokes can be difficult to get.
N3 is a good guess for being able to read real narratives. I didn’t take N3 and started at N2, but I had been studying for awhile when I switched to short stories, realized I understood most of it, and then moved to books with shorter chapters (detective stories) and then full-length novels. When I started, I used a dictionary to look up all the words I didn’t know, but I forgot it at home one day and realized I still knew about 80% of the words I saw and that was enough to get the gist of what was going on. Nowadays I only use a dictionary if I get to a section that I’m really not understanding.
I think the hardest part is getting over the mental hurdle of, “I don’t understand all of this, but I understand enough.” Light novels or children’s stories that have pictures might be useful as a starting point, but it’s amazing how much you can learn and figure out just from reading. I remember one book I read used a different kanji for わかる than I’d seen before and after seeing it several times, I was able to figure out what the word was just from context. I picked up some Kansaiben in a similar way.
Tadoku would probably be a really good place to start for the short story side of things, but that only goes so far. I really love Murakami’s short stories as a recommendation because he’s such a good writer and his stories are fun to read, and his writing is pretty accessible.
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Unfortunately 
I think there are some games and shows that are targeted towards kids (interesting for even adults too, IDK 
) that may help, like Pokemon and Crayon Shin-chan.
So basically like the 1997 adaptation of Berserk, although the difference is that one ended at the end of the Golden Age arc. Claymore’s anime ends in a different way than the source material. I will finish it and jump to the manga afterwards. And yeah, lowkey not a very good move, but I’m more of an anime guy than a manga reader because getting good prints where I live is difficult and reading digitally isn’t very fun.
YEAH FOR REAL
The anatomy knowledge and mastery is SUPREME!
Also, I recommend reading and watching Pluto. It’s a masterpiece!
Thanks for the recommendation! I just searched けんさんおかえり and did I get it correctly?
@h4nn4
You’re also right about no point in suffering through stuff that’s too hard. I’ll try it out. Also, are there any games and shows you can recommend for N5/N4?
Oh, I actually know this site! There are some free materials in there as well.
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@hx9
I agree about the burnout. Hell, today my bloodwork came back and my cortisol level was skyrocketing above normal level, and this whole thing is one big pain because it’s been 2 weeks and I can’t go to work. The only productive thing I have done is my Bunpro reviews. But let’s go back to “doing more.” I guess all that is, is the fear of not doing enough and not progressing fast enough until some imaginary deadline. But jokes on me, I really need to get my Japanese to N2 in one year (I think I can manage that 
).
That song from Hamilton describes it perfectly:
Why do you write like you’re running out of time?
Write day and night like you’re running out of time
Every day you fight like you’re running out of time
Keep on fighting, in the meantime
Non-stop!
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Thanks for the detailed answer. It’s reassuring to know that N4 is where things started clicking for you. I’m still at N5 but this has given me a lot of ideas. Also, I’m curious, what kind of exclusive Japanese content did you find that you liked more than your English YouTube? Maybe I can look for something similar.
It depends on what you like to do and what you have time for.
From my side, as a working adult, I need to fit things in my schedule creatively. If I do not have the time for everything, I have a priority list what to do, prioritizing the immersion activities which give the most value per minute. Mind that I only do things I like to do.
First, I can always fit in listening to podcasts, when commuting, shopping, running, etc. I do not count listening to Japanese music as immersion, becuase understanding lyrics is a whole different level of listening skill, even with my best second language, English, I struggle, thus for me this would be wasted time.
In the evening, I usually fit in at least 10 minutes of reading. I read light novels, because I love reading in general and they are easy. I do not read manga, because there are simply not enough characters in there - novels or practically any long written text offer much better RoI. Plus reading long texts is an actual skill you need for jlpt or simply real life. I tried visual novels, which many learners swear by, but I died of boredom and there were simply not enough characters for me.
When I have the time, I watch Japanese videos on YT or dramas on Netflix with Japanese subtitles. Anime is good, but the language there is usually fantasy language, nobody uses it in real life, so for this reason, I stick to regular dramas.
I do not count bunpro and anki as immersion, it is learning. For these, I sit down to do it so I can concentrate. I do these during short breaks in work and in the evening.
My best advice would be to explore different immersion methods, find the one which are most effective for you and concentrate on those. In general, aim for comprehensible input at n+1 level, that is the scientifically proven holy grail of language aquisition.
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Lao Tsu said “The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long”
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Thank you very much for those recommendations, I think I will check it out in like 1,5-2 years when I want to have my N3 level; otherwise frustration will be intense and I will get a bad mood and not use my time effectively which is bad.
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Thanks for the great advice, especially mentioning n+1. I didn’t know much about it, but I just did a quick research and learned a lot. I always felt that you should always go a bit outside your comfort zone in learning so that learning accelerates. Although I must say, finding good n+1 content for my level is a bit hard right now, so I will study more Japanese for now so I can reach N4. And as some other friend in this forum said, it was N4 that everything started to click (Japanese content consuming).