I picked up a variety of manga down at BookOFF. 105 yen each!! Can't believe I've only just found out how good a shop it is after 4 years living in Japan.

dingomick Wrote:Just yesterday I started reading a new manga (GTO, Great Teacher Onizuka, excellent manga, but beyond my current ability because of all the slang).

GTO was one of the books I went for but it did seem harder going than other manga I'm reading.

My current favourite is Detective Conan. It is so easy to follow even if you don't know every word. The only thing that is beginning to bother me is furigana over nearly every kanji. That said, the stories themselves are really good.

I've also started to dabble with Full Metal Alchemist. Vocab isn't all that easy. There is quite a bit of non-RTK1 kanji. But with the pictures it's easy enough to follow what's going on.

So I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations on the manga frontier?

Cat Street by Kamio Youko (神尾 葉子)

I've heard good things about this manga.
It's written by the author of "Hana Yori Dango".

Also, you can't go wrong with "Fruits Basket", which ended
last year.

105 yen is an awesome price, the BookOFF's here in southern california have a similar price on used manga. $1 each!! I love it.

If you want to read something a bit crazy, I highly recommend Gantz. Other manga I heartily recommend are Slam Dunk, Vagabond, はじめの一歩, Beck, there's probably a couple more dozen titles I can list.

I'll check out Detective Conan the next time I stop by BookOFF, I love being able to try out a new series for a couple of bucks.

Anyone who's looking to break into the world of 文庫本, the following two books are comparatively easy:

世界の中心で、愛をさけぶ by 片山恭一(かたやま　きょういち)
僕の世界の中心は、君だ by 百瀬 しのぶ　(basically the same story with Korean characters)

I also think the books of the 世にも不幸なできごと series are really good for beginning readers (lots of furigana), though in general I think it's best to avoid reading translations.

Is it possible to order books via email or phone from Book Off in California and have them delivered home(in the US)?

I rather doubt that you can do that, but don't take my word for it.

Quite a bit more expensive but you can order online from Kinokunia in the US. Still cheaper than having books shipped from Japan:
http://www.kinokuniya.com/

Most Geo's have a 105yen used manga section. That's where I got GTO. It's not as expansive as BookOff's, but Geo outlets are more common. I'm going back tonight again for some easier fare, though I plan to come back to GTO eventually.

I'm trying to stick to real world and/or school related manga for awhile. It's still entertaining for me to read, and I figure the Japanese I pick up is a lot more applicable for me than "arm photon torpedos", as entertaining as that would be to throw into a conversation. =)

dingomick Wrote:I'm trying to stick to real world and/or school related manga for awhile. It's still entertaining for me to read, and I figure the Japanese I pick up is a lot more applicable for me than "arm photon torpedos", as entertaining as that would be to throw into a conversation. =)

Know exactly what you mean! I'll just keep banging the drum for Detective Conan then! Part of what attracted me to it in the first place was the lack of aforementioned "arm photon torpedoes".

Another one I'm going to have a look at is Death Note. Not exactly a true story but it is based in our world at least.

What's Detective Conan sold as?

dingomick Wrote:What's Detective Conan sold as?

Standard manga sized book. Similar to your GTO. It actually says 'Detective Conan' on the cover. As well as 名探偵コナン have a look at this amazon page for a cover pic.

In case you don't already know, Conan is a boy detective. So it fits the bill as far as wanting something school related.

I've been reading "Katsu"....it has a lot of furigana...it's a real world story about a young boy who goes to a boxing gym...kind of fun....i started reading Detective Conan at the manga cafe here in new york due to the suggestions on the forum....i like to look words up and put them on review so the first few pages took me forty five minutes...i should have brought a 虫眼鏡　むしめがね　or magnifying glass because I couldn't see some of the furigana....I bought Katsu at my local Book-off after reading it at the manga cafe....I'd really love to hear other people's suggestions....

chamcham Wrote:Is it possible to order books via email or phone from Book Off in California and have them delivered home(in the US)?

You could try contacting them, I don't see anything about mail order, but it wouldn't hurt to try!

http://www.bookoff.co.jp/english/index.html

My wife used to work at Book Off in the US...you should be able to have books sent to you by mail if you pay the postage. The one in Manhattan is the biggest I suppose.

Some of my favorite manga are ヒカルの碁、月下の騎士 (but only if you are into board games)、ＨＡＰＰＹ！、ゴルゴ１３　(tough to read but good if you want to pick up gun-related vocabulary). In all cases the earlier books tend to be more interesting than the later ones.

Does anyone have suggestions on getting hold of Japanese-language manga in the UK? I'm interested in Fruits Basket, but would prefer to pay less than the delivery costs on Amazon.co.jp if there is another option!

Bookstores in the United Kingdom (London)

Japan Centre (212 Piccadilly, W1, 020-7439-8035, FAX 020-7287-1082).
Mainly books in Japanese but there is a small stock of books
in English on Japan. Open Mon-Sat 1000-1930, Sun 1000-1800.

[some Japanese bookstore] (70 Brewer St, W1). "As the name of the shop
was given in Japanese I am not sure of the name. It is open
from 12-9 and 12-8 but as the days were given in Japanese, I do
not know what days! New books in Japanese only."

Colindale
[Japanese book store] (located in Oriental City, at the corner of Edgeware
Rd and Grove Park). Japanese books with a a few Japan-related
English books.

fiminor Wrote:Does anyone have suggestions on getting hold of Japanese-language manga in the UK? I'm interested in Fruits Basket, but would prefer to pay less than the delivery costs on Amazon.co.jp if there is another option!

Don't know about getting hold of stuff in the UK. But as long as you aren't looking for anything too specialist, I could possibly send some stuff over for you...

I sent some stuff to colonel32 and he got his package okay.

Sorry, I meant what Japanese name was Conan sold under. I assumed it was katakana though and found it. I also picked up:

タッチ("Touch", 1981 classic about a couple of HS twins, I like the animation style and the dialogue is short and easy) and

ちびまる子ちゃん ("Chibimaruko-chan", older classic, cutesy kids line drawing style about a middle school girl and her antics, has simple writing, but is dialogue intensive and doesn't include furigana for the simplest kanji)

The Ribon Mascot publisher has a lot of beginning reading aimed for younger Japanese kids and girls. It's easy to find, just look for the entire section with white spines with red text, and a pastel rainbow and pink face at the top of the spine.

(I also found this fascinating sex-ed manga disguised as porn manga. It had all the usual big tits and sweaty sex, but was interspersed with internal anatomical line drawings, notes about things like how to put on a condom, discussions about nipple shapes, etc. Maybe some publisher figured they'd educate the boys about the realities of sex since they'd be reading dirty manga anyway. I'll probably pick it up sometime since it seems to be a comprehensive look into how Japanese view sex. Forgot the name, but it's a bright yellow spine with pink text.)

dingomick Wrote:Sorry, I meant what Japanese name was Conan sold under. I assumed it was katakana though and found it.

I'm only up to book 4 (out of 57) myself! I didn't do much reading in the holiday. Although now I'm back at school, I hope to get a period's worth of reading in every day.

Another great thing about Conan, as well as tons of other manga, is that after reading the book you can go off and watch the anime. I don't bother with subs if I already know the story. Just another way to get some comprehensible-ish input.

dingomick Wrote:The Ribon Mascot publisher has a lot of beginning reading aimed for younger Japanese kids and girls. It's easy to find, just look for the entire section with white spines with red text, and a pastel rainbow and pink face at the top of the spine.

I have had difficulty with these because of the lack of Kanji! I have a real hard time making out words in kana, I guess my vocab isn't too good.

suffah Wrote:I have had difficulty with these because of the lack of Kanji! I have a real hard time making out words in kana, I guess my vocab isn't too good.

That's what I hate about Japanese and kanji (Why not just include the kanji with furigana?! Kids can learn faster that way too). We're stuck in the middle. Manga that has all the kanji has grammar and slang beyond my ability. But 'easier' manga doesn't include a lot of kanji, which actually makes it more difficult for us. I'll stick with the beginner stuff though, even if it's 'harder'.

You might consider some options aside from manga. I've just picked up a book called "Read Real Japanese" by Janet Ashby.
She has compiled and translated eight essays by writers such as Banana Yoshimoto, Haruki Murakami and Ryuichi Sakamoto. There's more than enough kanji to keep you satisfied as well as a translation and notes on difficult grammar and idioms.
There are no pretty pictures, but I highly recommend this book to those who have completed RTK 1.

I think so, if you read to much manga you'll end up sounding like a maga character when you speak.

kyotokanji Wrote:if you read to much manga you'll end up sounding like a maga character when you speak.

「なんだこりゃ！？」

I reckon the wider your range of input the better. At the same time reading stuff that interests you, that you can understand, is the main thing (for me, anyway).

As learners of Japanese I'm sure there is something about Japan that interests all of us. If the guys are honest, top of the list is the women (come on, admit it!). Then there's 武士道、　書道　and other traditional ways. I think manga is a perfectly valid aspect of Japanese contemporary culture to be interested in.

The book naniwa recommends sounds like it might be worth checking out.

naniwa Wrote:There's more than enough kanji to keep you satisfied as well as a translation and notes on difficult grammar and idioms.

Are all the essays translated in full?

Naniwa has the right idea. It's widely known that real Japanese people don't talk like the people in comics do, and devoting all your reading to manga can give you a false impression of how people converse. Of course on the other hand written Japanese prose is even farther from real spoken Japanese, but the dialogue in novels is closer to real Japanese than manga is.

So it's important to diversify.

I used to agree with kyotokanji: if you read manga, you'll sound like a manga character. But wait! Manga characters (in reality based manga) are fully realized Japanese individuals who speak in the exact same ways actual Japanese speak. That's exactly what I want! And that's why I read manga about real students in real relationships participating in real activities. It may be fiction, but the artists are trying to recreate perfectly convincing characters with nuanced speech including keigo, slang, stutters and imperfections, etc.

This thread has turned into a manga discussion, but manga is just part of the puzzle. I haven't signed up yet, but Asahi newspaper offers editions for grade schoolers and middle schoolers that are excellent reading material to practice on. Check out the link for samples and the application.