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Manga with everyday situations, and normal japanese? - Yonosa - 2010-12-18
What are some sarariman manga, and maybe some high school manga. Just everyday drama type manga that you guys like. I've been reading a lot of fantasy stuff lately and its been a blast but I want to try some more everyday stuff, thanks!
Manga with everyday situations, and normal japanese? - Delina - 2010-12-18
High school manga:
I've been enjoying "Sketchbook" by Totan Kobako, which was recommended here in a different thread. It's a collection of four-panel comics about high school students in art club, often using word-play and puns, and exploring, through a foreign exchange student Kate's questions, the idiosyncrasies of the Japanese language and kanji. It also has full furigana (even over romaji, which I find amusing). There was an anime version, but it may be difficult to find.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketchbook_%28manga%29
Azumanga Daioh: I haven't really gotten into Azumanga yet, but it's a very popular four-panel high school manga. The characters seem to be a little more weird than "Sketchbook" and there is little or no furigana. There's also an anime version. Yotsubato! is by the same author.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azumanga
Hope that helps! I haven't read any salaryman manga, sorry.
Manga with everyday situations, and normal japanese? - Nuriko - 2010-12-18
...Yamada Tarou Monogatari for sure.
I recommended this before in another manga thread, so I'm copying what I wrote from there:
This story revolves around Tarou who's always trying to make as much money as possible with many part time jobs. He's a poor high school student with 6 siblings, a somewhat sickly mom who doesn't work (and always splurges on clothes and tacky, expensive "artwork") and a father who travels the world painting pictures (that usually can't sell). And everyone at his rich kid highschool (Tarou's exempt from tuition because he's the top of his class) thinks he's a true "お坊ちゃん" and there are even some rumors that he's a prince with European lineage.
The comedy in this manga is the best I've ever read. It's so subtle that it's difficult to explain here... but I'll say that the main comedy sources are: 1. how the classmates are oblivious to Tarou being poor. 2. Tarou's obsession with food, obtaining food, and "working extra hard" (read: being extra "bishounen" in the most subtle of ways) in order to obtain food. 3. The characters who develop extreme obsessions for Tarou (one female, one male), and how they try to "cope" with these obsessions. You'll see what I mean by "cope." Hint: 禁断の愛
It's amazing how the author can prove the point that "it's a misunderstanding that children who end up being successful generally come from wealthy families," BUT she doesn't get preachy about it for a second. Tarou's family is dirt poor, but because of this and all the work he's done to support his family, his grades are the highest in the country and he's the most popular at his school.
Manga with everyday situations, and normal japanese? - vonPeterhof - 2010-12-18
I second both of Delina's suggestions. "Sketchbook" is in my top three anime/manga series of all time, although I love the original manga and its anime adaptation for completely different reasons (the former for its humour and its insights into the quirks of the Japanese language, the latter for its heart-warming moments and its great music). Not sure what you mean by "normal Japanese", but the language in those series seems mostly standard, just watch out for Azumanga's Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga and Sketchbook's Natsumi Asou, who speak in Osaka-ben and Hakata-ben, respectively.
Here are a few more suggestions:
Lucky Star: A series about a bunch of schoolgirls without much of a plot and with lots of random otaku conversations.
K-on!: Four girls at an all-girl high school start a band, the problem being that they prefer drinking tea and eating cake in the clubroom to actually practising their music.
Minami-ke: The daily life of three sisters - a motherly high school girl, a hyperactive middle school girl and an overly serious elementary school girl.
Hidamari Sketch: Four schoolgirls studying at an art school and living in the same apartment complex.
Genshiken: The adventures of a college otaku club.
Those are the series that I can personally recommend, having actually read/watched them. For more titles I suggest checking out the Anime and Manga list on this page. And I am also still looking for some good salaryman manga titles, no luck so far.
Manga with everyday situations, and normal japanese? - Splatted - 2010-12-18
I've not read the manga, but I found the anime for school rumble hilarious.
Sorry for going off topic, but
Nuriko Wrote:It's amazing how the author can prove the point that "it's a misunderstanding that children who end up being successful generally come from wealthy families,"How can a work of fiction can "prove" anything? Even if it was real it would only be anecdotal evidence, and I'm sure most people could easily come up with some anacdotes that contradict it. I won't say any more here because it's not really the place for it, but I completely disagree with the idea that a wealthy background isn't an asset.
That aside the manga sounds good and I will definitely be reading it.
Manga with everyday situations, and normal japanese? - Nuriko - 2010-12-18
Splatted Wrote:I've not read the manga, but I found the anime for school rumble hilarious."Prove a point" kind of has a different meaning from actually "proving" something. ...to me, anyway. This is why I worded it the way I did.
Sorry for going off topic, but
Nuriko Wrote:It's amazing how the author can prove the point that "it's a misunderstanding that children who end up being successful generally come from wealthy families,"How can a work of fiction can "prove" anything? Even if it was real it would only be anecdotal evidence, and I'm sure most people could easily come up with some anacdotes that contradict it. I won't say any more here because it's not really the place for it, but I completely disagree with the idea that a wealthy background isn't an asset.
That aside the manga sounds good and I will definitely be reading it.
According to the Reverso online dictionary, "proving a point" has the following definition: "If you prove a point, you show other people that you know something or can do something, although your action may have no other purpose." Link: http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-definition/prove%20a%20point
And since the author is proposing that she "knows something," and conveys this in her work of fiction and people are free to decide whether it has a purpose or not, I think it's valid to say she is proving a point.
edit: Also, she's certainly not trying to say wealth isn't an asset. That would be out of the question. She's saying there are exceptions and honor students are definitely not always from wealthy families. She uses Tarou (polar opposite of the rich kid honor students) to demonstrate this. When I wrote "it's a misunderstanding that children who end up being successful generally come from wealthy families," I really should've made it more clear and added the part of "there are exceptions." So, sorry about that!
Anyway, the fact that many classmates in the comic think Tarou has royal European lineage is an example of how people associate success with wealth. They tend to think they always go hand in hand.
Manga with everyday situations, and normal japanese? - Yonosa - 2010-12-19
great, any more? How about the salary man manga? anyone know of any?
Manga with everyday situations, and normal japanese? - Splatted - 2010-12-20
@Nuriko: Ok, clearly I completely missunderstood. I took "Tarou's family is dirt poor, but because of this..." to mean being poor had a positive effect. If I had stopped to think, instead of screaming "WTF!" and jumping on my keyboard, I would probably have realised that was stupid and no one thinks that.
Manga with everyday situations, and normal japanese? - Nuriko - 2010-12-20
Splatted Wrote:@Nuriko: Ok, clearly I completely missunderstood. I took "Tarou's family is dirt poor, but because of this..." to mean being poor had a positive effect. If I had stopped to think, instead of screaming "WTF!" and jumping on my keyboard, I would probably have realised that was stupid and no one thinks that.Ah ok, don't worry about it
Manga with everyday situations, and normal japanese? - Nuriko - 2010-12-20
I have another suggestion for every-day manga: Kimagure Orange Road
I think my main reason for liking it is how old school and 80s it is, though
It does have every-day situations, but the main character is an ESPer, which made it really interesting for me. Without that, I probably would not have gotten into it as much, since when you remove that aspect, all you get is the love-triangle :B
Manga with everyday situations, and normal japanese? - pm215 - 2010-12-20
Yonosa Wrote:What are some sarariman manga, and maybe some high school manga. Just everyday drama type manga that you guys like. I've been reading a lot of fantasy stuff lately and its been a blast but I want to try some more everyday stuff, thanks!On the "everyday drama" front, I like NANA. It's a drama about a group of university-ish-age friends (and ex-friends) in two competing punk/rock bands. It's technically shoujo (but definitely at the more mature end), so it's pretty heavy on the relationship drama.
The downside is that it's currently at volume 21, and the author had to stop drawing it in the middle of last year due to an illness and has not yet restarted, so it's a bit unclear whether we'll actually get the finale it looked like it was working up to :-(
Manga with everyday situations, and normal japanese? - Splatted - 2010-12-20
For some reason I thought it had already been posted here so I didn't mention it before, but BECK is a good manga about a guy trying to make it in a rock band. It starts off in middles school, but time passes as the manga progresses. Its been a while since I read it, but I would describe it as a serious (as in not a comedy) everyday drama.
Manga with everyday situations, and normal japanese? - caivano - 2010-12-20
pm215 Wrote:On the "everyday drama" front, I like NANA. It's a drama about a group of university-ish-age friends (and ex-friends) in two competing punk/rock bands. It's technically shoujo (but definitely at the more mature end), so it's pretty heavy on the relationship drama.I second this, it's one of the few manga that's really got me hooked, plus you can get them for 100円. Another good shoujo is ライフ, which is about bullying.
Manga with everyday situations, and normal japanese? - Tzadeck - 2010-12-20
I find that shojo manga usually has the most realistic Japanese and usually covers everyday situations--but if you're a guy you might not be into them, haha.
I absolutely love ラブ☆コン, despite how silly and girly it is. I've probably enjoyed reading it more than any other manga. But, unfortunately it's written in really thick Osaka-ben. But hey, you can learn a lot of every-day Kansai-ben phrases.
Manga with everyday situations, and normal japanese? - Yonosa - 2010-12-21
Thanks a ton guys!, how about some business man manga? Noone seems to have mentioned any yet?