Manga for adult learner?

[msfi]

Hi, I'm an absolute beginner attempting to learn Japanese on my own. I have plenty of textbooks, kanji books etc to hand, but would love some recommendations for manga that would be good for a beginner. I think it is probably too early for me to try reading anything, but I'd like to have something to hand within the next couple of months. As a guide I've completed a few chapters of Japanese for Everyone (in kana/kanji) and have recently started on the Basic Kanji Book.

Caveat: I'm a late-20s female and I am not really into teen drama manga, sci-fi or fantasy. Can anyone recommend something that would suit me?

[Nibble]

The easiest manga to read for a beginner, which is also very entertaining for just about anyone, is Yotsuba&!. It has very simple sentences, all the kanji has furigana, and the dialogue can often be figured out just by looking at the pictures.

That said, it will probably still be a little difficult for someone who's only studied for a couple months to break into, if only because, like most manga, it is filled with colloquial pronunciations.

[msfi]

Thank you!

Thanks also for the note about colloquialisms, I will bear that in mind. Colloquialisms didn't seem to be a problem when I studied Italian because all we read were old stories about fishermen.

[Mike Cash]

Sazae-san

[Infidel]

You might be able to get a hold of First President of Japan. I read the translation of it and it was pretty good.

[jennifer1987]

im a beginner and i dont know where to gett books on kanji or hiragana i'm pretty good with knowing what words are what but i'm bad at making my own sentences any recommendations

[Harisenbon]

I just got one of the new English Teachers here some Doraemon books for learning Japanese. The language is really simple, and there aren't many colloquisms.

You have to be careful though, as the older books do not have furigana, although all the modern ones do.

[Mukade]

I am not a manga or anime fan, and never have been. That said, I have used manga as a way to break into reading Japanese texts. Let's face it: reading can really increase your vocabulary recognition, but having to look up every kanji in a novel can be a pain.

I read many issues from the "Ranma 1/2" series while I did my study abroad here. It is light-hearted humor, and like many of the other recommendations here, includes common, everday expressions and furigana. It managed to keep my interest where most (about 99% of all other) manga couldn't.

I found Doraemon to be interesting, but a little on the childish side to keep my interest long-term.

"Crayon-shin-chan" tends to be more of a comic strip than a full-blown, story driven manga. I also can't remember if it has furigana or not. But man, that stuff is funny as hell. I still try and catch Shin-chan on TV when I can. He's like a perverted version of Calvin from "Calvin and Hobbes."

[parallelself]

I love Shin-chan! The manga taught me my newest vocabulary word: ケツだけ星人。