Ok I'm won over, what manga?

[Spaztick]

Hello all.

Decided that i'd try to learn some Japanese from some Manga, but I can't decide which to get or what (let's avoid the more...um, "older" variety). Also, about how much Japanese would you need to know to understand it, or does everyone just use a dictionary?

Thanks!

[Daisuke]

When you say 'older varity', do you mean hentai, huh? <.<' Hmm.. I think i remember Clay said that all the manga's in his shop were in Japanese. If that's true i would recommend Evangelion, (Noticed he got it in stock) which is a great manga! I don't really know how much japanese you'll have to know before you can read a manga, but i noticed that you know much. Anyways, i don't believe there is anything wrong having a dictionary somewhere close while reading.

Have fun reading your manga.

Oh, and another thing: XD's at your signature.

[ben]

^_^, Daisuke, its funny, your reply, i donno why.

-_- (Now serious)
Spaztic, But i was reading manga in japanese and i noticed that there is alot of kanji. So '-'... Know your kanji! and i know that you know more japanese than me. So you can do it! and....ummm... YOU CAN DO IT! have fun though...

[jinksys]

Manga, sometimes even adult manga, often have furigana. The purpose of furigana in manga is to help younger children who are still learning how to read complex kanji. They can read the simple-character furigana earlier because it is taught in school earlier than the complex characters are. There are even special furigana Japanese-English dictionaries. Furigana is also often used for character names, where unusual kanji are used or the name may have more than one possible reading.

Taking a look at online scanlations of manga is a good way to experience the genre.

src: http://www.japan-101.com/anime/manga.htm

[Mukade]

I think that you can learn a lot from reading manga. One thing to be careful of, however - if you are using manga strictly as a learning material, be careful not to get something that uses a lot of vocabulary you'll never be using. There's no point in wasting precious time learning how to say "Jeweled Tiara," "Wand of Death," "Faster Than Light Drive" or "Mega-Incinerator Bazooka Blaster."

Having said that, I am not a manga reader, so I do not know all the books that are out there, but here are a couple suggestions:

---

I read "Ranma 1/2" while I was doing my study abroad. It's aimed at younger audiences, so has the furigana readings of all the kanji. It's set in modern-day Japan, so all the Japanese you'll see will be standard, modern Japanese (rather than the faux-classical you'll see in something like Inuyasha or the highly technical/mystical terminology like you'll see most of the other manga). It's written in a very colloquial, conversational-style Japanese, so you will be able to use it right away.

And what's more - it's funny.

---

If you want to study Osaka-dialect Japanese, check out the manga "Jarinko Chie." I don't recall whether it has furigana readings or not, but it is, again, modern, colloquial Japanese. Being that it takes place in downtown Osaka, however, it features (almost exclusively) thick Osaka dialect, one of the more popular and well-known of the many dialects in Japan.

And once again - it's funny.

[Daisuke]

ben wrote:
^_^, Daisuke, its funny, your reply, i donno why.

Why is it fun?? <.< ..

[Spaztick]

Aight, I'll try out Ranma and Evangelion. I think I might have enough Kanji to read both, but I'm about 1/10 literate in Japanese, so we'll see. Thanks for all the replies!

I added you to my signature Daisuke. Enjoy!

[jinksys]

Using manga to learn japanese is fun because its something you actually WANT to read. Textbooks can get boring because they only use examples, which are ZzZZZzZZZZzzzzZZ. Manga also shows you the way different people talk to each other, other than some textbook giving you short examples in which you are always the gaijin.

[Kei]

I would go with Crayon Shinchan. For learning I'm using Kobochan. It's very easy to understand and I don't know very much japanese.

[Sakaki-chan]

I would agree with going with Ranma 1/2. It' funny even though I've never read it in Japanese.

XD at your signature!

[hide21998]

i dont know what kind your looking for like funny,drama, or fighting but here ya go
i readf alot of manga so um i would say get some weekly shonen jumps they have a few different mangas in it such as naruto, one piece, bleach


hope there helped

[hide21998]

i forgot you can go to narutofan.com and find some raw manga downloads to try that there ya go

[Daisuke]

Edit your posts instead of double posting.

[hide21998]

heh heh sorry i was tired