Seeking beginner-friendly manga/anime/video game recommendations

Japanese
#1

Hello there.

I’ve been attempting to learn Japanese off-and-on for years now. I’ve burned out before, and I’m starting to feel a bit of fatigue this time around too. I started learning Japanese in order to enjoy my favorite Japanese media without having to wait for localization. So I’m hoping to apply what I’ve learned so far to help motivate me to keep going.

Does anyone know of any good beginner-friendly manga, anime, and/or video games I can use to practice? Tips for how to properly study with Japanese-language content would also be appreciated.

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#2

Did you search before posting?

https://learnnatively.com/

Other posts:

Check out the different book clubs:

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#3

Don’t know what your tastes in media are, but here are two random recs:

Dorohedoro - Only watched the anime but it was pretty easy. 12 episodes, genre: horror/comedy. I’ve heard good things about the manga too.

Axanael - Unlocalized visual novel. Quite easy, mostly dialogue. Non-romance focus (unlike many other VNs)

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#4

You should just start with your favourite anime. There’s never going to be a point where it will be perfect to watch it, yes you won’t understand everything maybe won’t even understand 80% or more, but it’ll still be enjoyable and being able to appreciate something you like in its original language will be far more meaningful then picking up something you’ve never heard of to still have low comprehension on.

Added bonus is later on your travels you can return to the same anime and compare how much better you are at that time compared to when you first watched it.

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#5

Definitely agree with the above recommendation. Just find the media you like and watch tons of it, and compliment that with what you’re learning in Bunpro.

Since you like video games, I highly recommend checking out the ゲーム言語 YouTube channel. You’ll find grammar explanation videos, as well as playthroughs of various popular video games explaining every line. This way, not only are you listening to the language being used, but also learning vocabulary and grammar in a fun way. Check it out:

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#6

What I have done in the past 3 years:
Video Games: Stardew Valley, Atelier Ayesha, Sub Nautica and No Man’s Sky
Manga: Blue Excorist[8冊], Yotsuba[5冊], Nichijo[1冊], Somali to Mori[2冊], Usagi Drop[1冊], D Gray Man[1冊]
Anime: Ghibli, Suzume Tojimari, Ice Guy and his cool female co worker, Dungeon Meishi, Kotaru hitorigurashi, Amai Amai to Inazuma, Blue Excorsit, はじめてのおつかい old enough [1 season each]

TO DO:
Video Games: a VN, Sims, another Atelier, Kingdom Hearts
Manga: noragami, combat Butler, mona the witch, inuyasha
Anime: kimetu no aiba, jijutu no kaizen, fullmetal Alchemist

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#7

I’m ngl I enjoy watching Japanese kids shows, like Anpanman, Doraemon, etc. I was raised on these (Japanese mother) so it feels nostalgic and simple enough to follow!

#8

What consoles are you looking for games for?

#9

Shujinkou for PS5 is a decent “dungeon” crawler and the main theme is to teach you Japanese as you play through. Some of the battles can be difficult, so I advise maybe setting the difficulty to easy. Also you can choose your level of immersion(and change it via settings.) There’s grammar as well as vocab and a dictionary to reference as you collect words.

Best 5 bucks I spent as a beginner for a phone app(android android) and they recently released a steam version. Wagotabi. The mini-games for Kana and words is really fun, and definitely made kana second nature. As you progress, you see less English.
The app/game is still an ongoing development (approx halfway to N5 level currently) but the grammar examples and vocab is really decent.
I can’t recommend Wagotabi enough.

1 Like
#10

Thanks for all the suggestions so far! To answer a couple questions:

@teclasgmxbunpro No, I didn’t search before posting. That’s on me. ごめんなさい

@michellespeering I do most of my gaming on Steam Deck these days, so Steam/PC games would be preferred (controller support optional). That said, I also own a Switch 1, PS4, and Xbox One, plus an android phone and a handful of retro systems. So aside from the next-gen consoles and any iPhone exclusives, I have access to most modern NA releases.

#11

shirokuma cafe is an anime that has easy Japanese, funny funs and is spoken slowly. Give it a try. I find it much “easier” to watch compared to anime for kiddy kids

3 Likes
#12

Switch
On Switch you can get Yo-kai Watch 1 and 4, as well as Yo-kai Gakuen Y. (4 and Gakuen Y are also available on PS4) All of those games have furigana and mostly easier language. There’s sometimes higher level grammar and language when certain characters are talking though. It’s mostly just antiquated language for older themed Yo-kai.

Switch and Steam
There’s also Shin Chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation, Shin Chan: Shiro and the Coal town (the sequel), and Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid. These are all part of the Boku no Natsuyasumi franchise. The Shin Chan games both have furigana and easier language. I would say Natsu-mon is a little more difficult as it doesn’t have furigana or push to continue when some characters speak, so you may be a little lost in the beginning, but you can always replay the beginning of the game in english (if you buy the Steam version) just to make sure of your understand. I literally cannot recommend Natsu-mon enough. It’s one of my favorite games of all time.

Doraemon Story of Seasons : Friends of the Great Kingdom is very long, but I think the language level is great. On the Steam version you can choose japanese or english. I only played the demo in japanese, but have played the full game in english on the Switch. Wonderful game.

All of these are also lower stakes relaxing sort of games to play that will still give you a lot of reading practice.

Steam Only (I think)
The first Nekopara game is free on Steam. It’s a visual novel, so no furigana there, but you can always text hook it and use Yomitan to look up words. I actually haven’t played through this one in english or japanese, but it’s free and I’ve tested it with a text hooker before, so I thought I’d recommend it.

If you have a japanese 3DS or a DS then I can give you more recommendations.

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#13

For anime the first I enjoyed a lot because I could understand quite a bit of the dialogue when around completing just N5 was Flying Witch (and there is also a manga with many more volumes).

As for ease of understanding I also watched a few epidose of Shirokuma Cafe, already recommended above, but I didn’t like it that much, so didn’t continued with it.

Apart from that, I’m just watching any anime that I like in crunchy roll with japanese subtitles added via Chrome asbplayer extension, even if just catching a bit is the most fun :slight_smile:

#14

Go for things that you already enjoy :man_shrugging: . Here are some ideas:

Bunpro’s JLPT Reading Practice

JLPT N5 or N4 reading exam books like the Kanzen Master books?

Anime / manga - One Week Friends - 一週間フレンズ。Bookwalker link to the manga
The manga has a lot fo furigana to make looking up words easy. Just click on the book cover to try the free sample.
The great thing about Bookwalker / Booklive is that most stuff has free samples (even for limited time, sometimes full volumes to read). I used to browse and just try to read different manga / light novels.

If you into Spy Family: Here is simplified light novel / manga hybrid volumes aimed for kids. Have furigana on everything: SPY×FAMILY まんがノベライズ１

Horimiya or most slice of life manga / anime?

(Maybe for later) Something that I really liked was reading a few kids books by 角川つばさ文庫 imprint . These have green covers, have furigana on everything and simple-ish grammar points (some N3)
Eg for Your Name - 君の名は。 君の名は。 角川つばさ文庫 Link
Here is the manga adapation - 君の名は。１ - マンガ（漫画)

Hopefully this gives you some ideas.

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#15

If you are okay with JRPG’s, I found Romancing Saga 2 Revenge of the Seven to be incredibly good, difficult game with pretty easy and almost everything is voiced dialogue. most spells and attacks are in katakana, too with anglosized names like ファイヤーボール (fireball) and passage of time, so it’s interesting how things play out. I don’t know what people really consider beginner content, though outside of the same cut-paste childrens books repeated ad-nausium. You could also try the new frieren light novel released last month, covers the tv episodes 1-4, if you like that kinda stuff. Other than that many anime movies are often made into books, like dragon ball super super hero has a light novel adaptation. You could try looking into those and they’re aimed at school children, so they have furigana.

#16

Personally I think that ‘beginner friendly manga’ is an oxymoron.

I started with tons of graded readers. I’m surprised at how infrequently they get mentioned as a learning resource :man_shrugging:

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#17

I think it’s because graded readers aren’t very interesting for most people, especially when they only tread familiar grounds like “History of Einstein” or something. They seem good, but at least in my opinion, a textbook is more interesting. They are also expensive for what you get (for example, “first japanese graded reader” on amazon, 100 pages, audio sources available for 1600 yen or so.) Assume 5-6 pages for explanation/ ending, then half the pages explaining grammar and words used you’re really only getting like 45 pages of japanese practice, compared to a manga which can be around 200 pages of content for 600-800 yen (100 if bookoff is your friend and you don’t mind really bad manga)

But I agree, beginner friendly manga isn’t a good idea to plant into people’s head. I remember trying to read that one where the nerd is bullied by the girl, and yeah it went over my head despite being “near” N4 level. They are all made for natives, and they are not thinking about foriegners when writing, so none are exactly beginner friendly.

#18

Are you talking about イジらないで、長瀞さん? If so, maybe try giving it a second chance. The intensity of the bullying severely drops after the beginning, and readers / viewer who don’t get past the start of the story get a wrong impression of what the story really turns into. They actually develope a really sweet relationship as the story progresses.
Both the manga and anime are great, I think.

#19

I think he meant that the manga was harder than expected, so it went “over his head”. That doesn’t necessarily mean that he didn’t enjoy the story.

I agree with what @Rukifellth says though. For the most part, manga are not beginner friendly. There’s many slang words and perhaps even cultural phrases that are not taught in textbooks. That said, there’s only one beginning friendly manga I know and it’s “Crystal Hunters”. Unfortunately I can’t seem to find the Japanese version. All I get is the English version. Book 1 is free, but they have a total of 9 volumes, which are available on Amazon. It’s honestly the only beginner material that wasn’t boring as hell. YMMV though.

#20

I believe that’s it, but Jose got it right. I’m not too much into the whole “Slice of life” genre so I kinda left it there after the first few chapters due to a mix of low interest in the genre and the fact I wasn’t understanding much. I’m sure the story is good, thus is why it’s often recommended. (Honestly, the only slice of life I have enjoyed was Saiki k. But that’s quite a difficult series, they speak so ungodly fast in the anime and the manga isn’t much kinder.)