Rating seems like it's gonna be very arbitrary but I'll try.
One that always gets recommended towards beginners is Yotsubato, but it's fun regardless. It's about a crazy five-year-old girl having moved with her father to a new city, how she discovers life together with friends and neighbors, and how others are influenced by how her naive and eccentric personality clashes with the surroundings. It's aimed towards a general audience.
Rather than a long continuous plot, each chapter is a very simple short-story, which means that you could keep reading on even if there are chapters of which you wouldn't understand the Japanese. Simple but non-formal slang based language, furigana on everything.
I do remember someone on here saying that they'd studied Japanese exclusively formally for two years and found this manga difficult, while most people that are already somewhat familiar with anime/manga seem to say it's very easy. I'd encourage beginners not to read this while systematically analyzing its grammar or something and instead just let it be a very good ice-breaker.
Difficulty: 1 or maybe 2 out of a total of 5
Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo
Inspired by the author's experiences as a Japanese language teacher, teaching foreigners. The title refers to weird questions about obscure Japanese that only foreigners would ask. This one's also structured into short-stories, dealing with cultural perceptions (although mostly stereotypical) about Japan, and some cultural differences, along with general comedy. Not as educational as I'd hoped but fun nonetheless. Note that there's a TV-show adapted from this, but it's quite different. It's of course aimed towards Japanese people, so the way they portray foreigners with live actors as opposed to manga characters is... Well I liked the manga while I hated the show.
The vocabulary is rich for a manga, but everything has furigana. And like mentioned--short-stories.
Difficulty: 3 or 4 out of 5 maybe?
One that always gets recommended towards beginners is Yotsubato, but it's fun regardless. It's about a crazy five-year-old girl having moved with her father to a new city, how she discovers life together with friends and neighbors, and how others are influenced by how her naive and eccentric personality clashes with the surroundings. It's aimed towards a general audience.
Rather than a long continuous plot, each chapter is a very simple short-story, which means that you could keep reading on even if there are chapters of which you wouldn't understand the Japanese. Simple but non-formal slang based language, furigana on everything.
I do remember someone on here saying that they'd studied Japanese exclusively formally for two years and found this manga difficult, while most people that are already somewhat familiar with anime/manga seem to say it's very easy. I'd encourage beginners not to read this while systematically analyzing its grammar or something and instead just let it be a very good ice-breaker.
Difficulty: 1 or maybe 2 out of a total of 5
Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo
Inspired by the author's experiences as a Japanese language teacher, teaching foreigners. The title refers to weird questions about obscure Japanese that only foreigners would ask. This one's also structured into short-stories, dealing with cultural perceptions (although mostly stereotypical) about Japan, and some cultural differences, along with general comedy. Not as educational as I'd hoped but fun nonetheless. Note that there's a TV-show adapted from this, but it's quite different. It's of course aimed towards Japanese people, so the way they portray foreigners with live actors as opposed to manga characters is... Well I liked the manga while I hated the show.
The vocabulary is rich for a manga, but everything has furigana. And like mentioned--short-stories.
Difficulty: 3 or 4 out of 5 maybe?