Hello everyone! I’ve been learning Japanese for a few months now and I was wondering if I can start to immerse myself in easy Japanese anime and manga yet. I have Satori Reader but it’s still a little difficult for me to understand. If anyone has any advice, it’d be greatly appreciated! Thank
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Unfortunately at that level it’s gonna be really hard to find anything interesting to read. If you’re ok with super basic reading materials, then this site offers a good amount of graded reading for free:
Like I said, it’s super basic. Without sufficient Kanji knowledge that’s about the only thing you’ll be able to read without being overwhelmed looking up words.
There is a very simple manga that will suit your level, but I can’t find it right now. I’ll post it later, once I do.
The thing is that in order to get to a decent reading level, WaniKani Level 30 is ideal IMO. At that point you’ll learn around 1,000 of the most common Kanji. However, don’t neglect Vocabulary. You’ll need a good amount of it too (maybe around 5,000). Also N3 level grammar would be a plus, though I think you can get by with N4 grammar (maybe).
Anyway, I’m sure you’ll get more recommendations. Personally I would wait a little bit longer until you’ve amassed more Kanji/Vocabulary knowledge before embarking on reading manga/light novels. I remember trying the Tadoku books from the link above and being bored out of my mind. It’s baby stuff, but maybe you won’t mind it?
Take care!
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Wow, what a thoughtful reply! Thanks so much!
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I definitely agree with what Jose said, but just to offer a quicker goalpost to get to: I’m lvl. 20 on WK and finished up N4 grammar around the end of last year, and I’m making my way through the manga we’re reading in the beginner bookclub without much trouble.
I’d say that lvl. 20 WK and N4 grammar (+ whatever vocab study you do) is a point where you can jump into native material carefully. I’m finding it quite beneficial to solidify my understanding of certain N4 grammar and act as a guiding light towards what N3 grammar to study 
Edit: No matter what, though, do take time to read things in Japanese before you get there. Read example sentences and if you’re using something like Genki the reading passages they have at the back of the book are really nice gauging points. Get yourself in the habit of piecing together independent thoughts before jumping into larger connected narratives
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I found the manga I was thinking about. It’s simple yet entertaining enough to not be boring, nor baby like lol:
Also, you’ll benefit from a lot of these grammar points Asher posted recently. They are EXTREMELY common in anime/manga, etc:
Currently most of them have to be manually added from the links provided in that thread. The BunPro team is still working on creating a deck for them. However, you can start learning them now!
HTH!
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I will second the Crystal Hunters suggestion, since it is a manga made for Japanese learners (and there are even two versions, one with natural Japanese, and one with sentences written in an unnatural, but easier-to-translate way).
I would check these two websites: Readability List Japanese - Google Sheets and Natively | Find native books, movies and tv shows at your level. Both have lists of media (mostly manga, but also light novels and books) separated by level and difficulty.
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You could try your hand at a relatively simple manga with full furigana such as Ruri Dragon, The Maid I Hired Recently is Mysterious or Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie.
With nearing the end of N4 and level 8 on WK you’re not nearly guaranteed to understand everything at all, it’d probably be more comfortable with N3 under your belt and a good few extra WK levels. So it’ll definitely be a workout and it could be frustrating - but if your goal is studying, then with enough patience and vocab lookups on jisho (or your dictionary of choice) you should be able to get through it with a decent understanding.
For reference, I got through Ruri Dragon’s first volume before finishing Bunpro N4 and I was at level ~10 on WK and I found it mostly okay, even if I did have to look up various words and double check the grammar I wasn’t 100% on. Two of those also have WK Book Clubs to help you through.
I bought Lingo Mastery’s Japanese Short Stories for beginners and they are quite easy to read and interesting.
Just after I passed N3 I discovered Chibi Maruko Chan on Japanese Netflix. I was surprised at how well I understood it. I have no proof but I strongly suspect between N4 and N3 it would possibly be a good anime to watch. It’s geared for children, so I wasn’t really hyped to watch it or anything, but I did find it pretty enjoyable.
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If you’re a big fan of Anime, there’s a website I frequent called AniMelon that hosts a large number of anime’s with a number of subtitling options (English, Romanji, Hiragana, Kanji) for a lot of older and some newer shows. I would suggest either using the Hiragana and Kanji subtitling options, or just the Kanji subtitles, and going through shows you’ve already watched before in English subs/dubs so you have a general idea of what’s going on, but can pay more attention to the Japanese behind it.
There’s not much you can really do at your current level, but I am of the opinion that you should always be punching up in terms of learning, not punching down/reading at level. The more you challenge yourself, the more you will find yourself actually learning. One of the drawbacks of this though is that it can be incredibly frustrating, and you need to manage your expectations so you don’t burn out.
Hopefully you find this information useful!
Yeah, for reading stuff outside of manga, I would say n3 or higher grammar level is definitely needed. Anime and the like n4 should be fine. (due to a lot of grammar being literary rather than spoken.)
I also second baby stuff is so boring. I just read elementary school level isekai, because for some reason they still have beer and mature topics a lot of the time.
As for the topic of the post, N4 is the level where you’re almost but not quite able to read a manga normally. I do recommend pokemon adventures for manga, as it uses pretty simple language for most characters.
You could also try 恐怖コレクター as it’s a light novel I found and it was quite easy to understand. It’s a light novel series for kids, but more like magic tree house and less like peppa pig.
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Thanks to everyone for the advice!
Just checked out the website! Looks like it could be super helpful!
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You can set your homepage to https://www.yahoo.co.jp/ and potentially get suckerd into some Japanese click bait.
I’m 14 grammar points into N3, and about level 18 in wanikani (I anki instead of wanikani) so the vocab will probably be too difficult for you. You can set your homepage now, so when you are ready- it will be there waiting for you.
I would recommend trying NHK web easy at NEWS WEB EASY - articles are very short and have quite simple grammar, there’s also optional furigana and TTS audio for each article. Of course you won’t be able to read every kanji and understand every word at this point, but I think you’ll be surprised at how much you can read already, and if you’re using yomitan or rikaichamp, unknown vocab won’t be a huge issue.
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I’d say you want something that hand holds you through it. I think there is a series of books (which are fairly cheap) that are titled something like “learn japanese with short stories”. What they are is stories in japanese that are about 3 pages long, a vocab glossary for the story, an english version of the story, and a few questions about the story. Nice easy way to naturally expand your knowledge. Can’t say for certain but I’m pretty sure they come with audio tracks for the stories too but I could be mistaken.
Or for digital books there is a website I’ve used before that I think is alright. It’s just a couple of people and they do a pretty good job. I think you have to buy the books by the bundle though, although the bundles are only about 20$. And they will just give you an actual pdf and sound files. So they’re super easy to work with but please don’t abuse their trust if you use them. https://www.thejapanshop.com/
They also update their books pretty often so if you get one every few months youll get an email saying their is a new version, which you get for free.
The question isn’t what to read or watch so much as it is a question of how much unknown vocab or grammar will you have to look up while reading or watching.
At N4 level you will have to look up basically everything regardless of what it is that you read or watch. I would recommend picking something set in daily life as it will be more beneficial right now that something with specialized or technical vocab.
It’s never too early to start immersing! Don’t stress if you don’t understand most of it right away. Try to focus on picking up the words and grammar points you’ve already learned. Animelon and Japanese Netflix are great options since they offer Japanese subtitles, but watching anime without subtitles can also be good for your listening practice. Reading manga will be tough at first, but nearly all shonen and shojo manga include furigana. Just skip the kanji you’re not familiar with for now. Enjoy the artwork and practice pronouncing the hiragana in your head.