Tip: Use Ctrl + F to find a specific manga quickly
Glad to see someone else had taken the initiative to start this thread! I have been keeping notes about various manga I’ve read in hopes of making a similar thread one day but I never got around to it.
I welcome any changes/additions to what I have. Text light/medium/heavy refers to how much writing a page tends to have. It has nothing to do with the difficulty [though naturally, the more text there is, the longer it will take to finish reading it]
I know this is supposed to also be a recommendation thread but I figure since I already have this information, I might as well put it all up; especially since each of these series is bound to have at least one person interested in it. Hope this is okay.
Note to new readers: If this will be your first time immersing in native media even the “easy” manga will have difficult parts so don’t stress about it. The difference between the ‘easy’ manga and the ‘harder’ manga is that you will be working your way over a hill rather than trying to climb Mount Everest right away.
For new readers, I’d recommend: Yotsuba, Inuyasha, Detective Conan (<--written mostly in standard Japanese so it’s easier to read than most manga but it is very text heavy so it will take a while to get through) and Millennium Snow (I personally didn’t care for it but its easy to read and only has two volumes). I’ve heard Doraemon is good for beginners as well.
Berserk Difficulty Rating: ** though it lacks furigana so I wouldn't recommend this to beginners.
(This one was quite hard to rate, I almost rated it at *** but with how text light it is, I felt it deserved **)
Description: “Set in a medieval Europe-inspired fantasy world, the story centers around the characters of Guts, an orphaned mercenary, and Griffith, the leader of a mercenary band called the Band of the Hawk. Themes of isolation, camaraderie, and the question of whether humanity is fundamentally good or evil pervade the story, as it explores both the best and worst of human nature. Both the manga and anime are noted for their heavy violence.” (From wikipedia)
WARNING: Gore
Text light/medium/heavy: Very Light
Furigana: no
Difficulties: abbreviated speech/casual speech 通さぬぞ --> 通さないぞ
と思ってんの ----> と思っているの
Example Page:
http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p642...5973be.jpg
Detective Conan/Case Closed Difficulty Rating: **
Description: “The story follows the adventures of Shinichi Kudo (also known as Jimmy Kudo in Case Closed), a young detective prodigy who was inadvertently shrunk into a child's body due to a poison he was force-fed by members of a criminal syndicate..... He goes to live with his childhood friend Ran Mouri and her father, Kogoro, and tries to use Kogoro's detective agency as a way to find the people who shrank him — without letting Ran figure out who he really is.” (from detectiveconanworld)
Text light/medium/heavy: Heavy
Furigana: Yes
Difficulties: Sentences tend to be simple/ use standard Japanese.
Comment from another thread: “The language seems fairly polite for manga. I'm surprised by how many grammar points from my JLPT2 books that I bump into in Conan.”
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=141
Crayon Shin-Chan: Rating: ***
Description: “Shinnosuke Nohara, aka Shin-chan, a combination of Dennis The Menace and Howard Stern, is a 6-year-old growing up in Tokyo in this animated series. His foul mouth and rude behavior constantly scandalize his parents (although his father seems to be a big influence), his teacher, and everyone else with the bad luck to cross his path. “
(from imbd)
Took me about half a volume to begin to like it so I’d recommend reading a whole volume before you decide if you don’t care for it.
Text light/medium/heavy: Medium
Furigana: yes
Difficulties: Characters speaking in a different dialect is not uncommon. Casual abbreviations.
Slang such as ショバ
ええわい instead of いいわ
おこりんぼ rather than おこりんぼう
Cultural references such as: childhood songs (such as 象さん), random bit’s like ティモテ from an old (1985) shampoo commercial and references to historical/popular people.
Ect: He says/does things wrong rather often but another character usually corrects him or there’s a dot next to misspoken words.
Example Page:
http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p642...1193d8.jpg
Chibi Maruko Difficulty: ** or ***
(Only considered for three because it's extremely text heavy, otherwise its rather straightforward)
Description: “Maruko Sakura is a young elementary school student growing up with her parents, grandparents and elder sister in this animated series based on the producer's childhood in the 60's. As Maruko grows up and learns the ways of the world, she and her friends get themselves into an assortment of predicaments, but with Maruko's ingenuity (and the help of her grandfather) they usually finds her way through.”(from imdb)
Text light/medium/heavy: Very heavy
Furigana: Yes except for author’s notes (though she only uses simple kanji)
Has author notes but the writing is very easy to read
Authors Notes: Yes and these tend to be a full page.
Example Page:
http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p642...52344a.jpg
Dragon Ball Difficulty Rating: ***
Description: “As a big summary, Dragon Ball is about fighters with super powers saving the world against very mean monsters with super powers too. All of them can fly, throw ki blasts (kinda like fireballs), and find their enemies by sensing their spirit. But some have their own techniques.” (from dragonball-multiverse)
Text light/medium/heavy: tends to be light though sometimes it’s medium
Furigana: Yes
Difficulties: The old man’s (Master Roshi) speaking patterns will be very difficult for a beginner to understand.
Mostly use simple kanji
Some slang/casual speech and lots of dialects:
Big guy slurring:ちいせえwhich isちいさい
Weird speaking pattern of some characters (よぐ instead of よく) あんれま which is あらまあ
ほんど instead of 本当
のうなった --->なくなった
a lot of colloquial/casual phrases ～なきゃなんねえ which is the colloquial for ～なければならない
Example Page:
http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p642...29b1f0.jpg
Fullmetal Alchemist: Difficulty Rating: (Including Omake pages) ****
Description: “The Elric brothers' mother is dead and their father has long since abandoned them. Deciding to perform a forbidden human transmutation to bring their mother back, they end up losing their bodies. Now Edward must join the military in order to gain certain alchemical privileges, with his one goal being to restore his brother to his original state. But with war on the horizon it's only a matter of time before they are both forced to question their morals and ultimately decide the value of human life.”(imdb)
Text light/medium/heavy: Tends to stay in the Medium or light area.
Furigana: It has furigana for most of it except for tiny side comments (such as other random citizens talking in the background) and the authors extra/omake pages don’t have furigana so that could easily become frustrating. Also the sections that don’t have furigana are also handwritten, so it can be hard to read some characters.
Difficulties: There are casual versions/abbreviations of words that if you have enough
background in Japanese you’ll know what they mean but for a beginner it would be nightmare to look it up. (Not as common as in some other mangas but definitely still there)
Like the manga Mushishi, it starts out with a page of archaic Japanese
Didn’t have many made up words.
Great Teacher Onizuka Difficulty Rating: *****
Description: “Onizuka is a reformed biker gang leader who has his sights set on an honorable new ambition: to become the world's greatest teacher... for the purpose of meeting sexy high school girls. However, strict administrators and a class of ruthless delinquents stand between Onizuka and his goal and they will use any means, however illegal or low, to drive the new teacher away. Perfect, because Onizuka's methods won't be found in any teaching manual.” (from myanimelist)
Possible Trigger Warning: mentions of rape/ at least one near rape scene
Text light/medium/heavy: medium to heavy
Furigana: yes
Difficulties: “heavy use of slang (gyaru & bosozoku galore) and numerous (obscure to a foreigner?) cultural references”
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=2112
Some text is very small.
Inuyasha Difficulty Rating: **
A good introduction to slang, imo. Some volumes/chapters are closer to ***
At times, Shippo and Inuyasha will use quite a bit of slang/colloquialisms to the point that I considered rating it a ***, however they (Inuyasha especially) tend to use the same colloquialisms/slang over and over again. You’ll also become very familiar with やがる especially in ざまあみやがれ（ざまあみろ＋やがる）
Description: “Higurashi Kagome, after being pulled down a well by a demon, finds herself in Feudal Japan, where she learns that a powerful jewel has been reborn inside her body. After the jewel shatters in an attempt to retrieve it from one of the many demons who was after its power, Kagome must join forces with the half-demon InuYasha to track down the shards of the jewel before its power falls into the wrong hands.” (from myanimelist)
Text light/medium/heavy: Light though sometimes medium
Furigana: Yes
Authors Notes: None
Difficulties: colloquialisms/slang and the occasional dialect. However, the majority of the colloquialisms/slang are used constantly throughout the series; so although the first few volumes will be a bit hard for a beginner, it will get easier after a few volumes. Also, the majority of the slang/colloquialisms that you’ll find in Inuyasha will pop up in most manga. I’ve given examples and explanations of some of the most common one's you’ll find in here:
One of the most common:
四魂のかけらもっ
てたの！？ ―――＞四魂のかけらもっ
ていた[past tense of -ている] の
かけら持っ
てる妖怪を倒してまわっ
てる んじゃ。 ―――＞
かけら持っ
ている妖怪を倒してまわっ
ている の [sentence ending particle: じゃ=だsentence ending particle typically used by older individuals which shippo likes to use]
きつね
じゃ----> きつね
だ sentence ending particle typically used by older individuals which shippo likes to use
知ら
ねえか ―――＞ 知ら
ないか
。。。じゃ
ねえ ――＞。。じゃ
ない
知ら
んでよろしい ―――＞ 知ら
ないでよろしい
お
めーら ――――＞ お
まえら
正体見せやが
れ ―――＞ 正体見せやが
る
。。井戸がなくな
りゃ。。。ーーーー＞ 井戸がなくな
れば
なに
すんのよーーー＞ なに
するのよ
う
めーなーーー＞ う
まいな
しょ
ーがねえ ―――＞しょう
がない
どーゆータイプがいいの？―――＞
どうゆうタイプがいいの？ (どういう)
こおら ―――＞こら
Though there are occasionally less common things such as:
それで四魂の玉がどないした
んや ―――＞んだ―――＞のだ
Example Pages:
http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p642...10606e.jpg
http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p642...90d848.jpg
Millennium Snow: Difficulty Rating: *
(Disclamer: Although I had the notes below to use as a reference, Millennium Snow’s difficulty rating was partly based off my memory, so this might be a ** though I’m rather certain it was a *. I remember being surprised that it didn’t use much slang/colliqualisms and was relatively simple overall, thus why it got a *).
Description: “Millennium Snow focuses on Chiyuki Matsuoka, a high school girl hospitalized with a heart problem. Since birth her heart has been very weak and she was told that she would probably live to be only fifteen. However, one day she meets Tōya Kanō, a vampire, with the opposite problem: Tōya lives for about one thousand years.” (from wikipedia)
[I personally didn’t care much for this manga but it’s rather easy so it can be encouraging for a beginner to read]
Text light/medium/heavy: Light
Furigana: Yes
Handwritten: Author notes (only a column to the side)
Authors Notes: Yes but these are only columns that are occasionally on the side of a page
Difficulties: Rather straightforward (uses standard Japanese) though it does occasionally have casual abbreviations/slang.
Ect: bat talks in made up language though it should be easy to catch
です ―――＞でやんす sort of minor, easy to understand change.
Monster Difficulty Rating: ****
Description: “Kenzou Tenma, a Japanese brain surgeon in Germany, had it all.....until he chose to save the life of a young boy who got shot in the head. A short time later, the hospital director and the doctors that replaced him were murdered, and once again he was catapulted back onto the top. But as the chief suspect of the murders, Tenma did not get a easy life. As a matter of fact, it seems that the boy he saved was much more than he had appeared to be... Now to clear his name and to correct his past mistake, Tenma must get to the bottom of these and other murders, and investigate the truth of the Monster who is behind all of this.” (from animenewsnetwork)
Text light/medium/heavy: Medium to Heavy
Furigana: no
Authors Notes: no
Difficulties: Medical terms/technical jargon, expected casual abbreviations/slang
Example Page:
http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p642...9fb843.jpg
Mushishi Difficulty Rating: ***
Description: “They differ from other forms of life such as the micro-organisms and the fungi. Instead they resemble the primeval body of life and are generally known as "Mushi". Their existence and appearance are unknown to many and only a limited number of humans are aware of them. Ginko is a "Mushi-shi" who travels around to investigate and find out more about the "Mushi". In the process, he also lends a helping hand to people who face problems with supernatural occurrences which may be related to the "Mushi" (from imdb)
Text light/medium/heavy: Medium
Furigana: no
Authors Note: At the very end and handwritten
Difficulties: Like Fullmetal Alchemist, it starts out with a page of archaic Japanese.
Casual/abbreviated Speech
すげえ versus すごい
くたばらねえ versus くたばらない
ふつうにいきりゃいいんだよ versus ふつうにいきればいいんだよ
Example Page:
http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p642...6ab550.jpg
One Piece Difficulty Rating: ***
Description: “Enter Monkey D. Luffy, a 17-year-old boy that defies your standard definition of a pirate. Rather than the popular persona of a wicked, hardened, toothless pirate who ransacks villages for fun, Luffy’s reason for being a pirate is one of pure wonder; the thought of an exciting adventure and meeting new and intriguing people, along with finding One Piece, are his reasons for becoming a pirate.” (From myanimelist)
Text light/medium/heavy: Medium to Heavy
Furigana: Yes
Authors Note: Yes
Difficulties:
just the usual abbreviations/casual speech you’d expect in a shounen:
要らん -----> 要らない
こいつの命が惜しけりゃ動くんじゃねエ
仕方ねエ
ect
Example Page:
http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p642...3abf19.jpg
Ouran High School Difficulty rating: *** or ****
Description: “Haruhi is a poor tomboyish student at a school for the ultra-wealthy, able to attend because of a scholarship, and unable to even afford a uniform. One day, she stumbles across the decidedly peculiar but very popular Ouran Host Club. She tries to leave, but accidentally breaks a vase, and unable to pay for it, she's told that she'll have to stay and do odd jobs. That is, until they decide she would be more valuable as a club member.” (from animenewsnetwork)
Text light/medium/heavy: Medium to Heavy
Furigana: Has furigana except for the extra characters comments or extra dialogue from the character. Also the author’s notes don’t have furigana so it can be difficult to read. Everything that doesn’t have furigana is in handwriting.
Authors Notes: Yes but these are only columns that are occasionally on the side of a page
Difficulties: Expect to see things such as:
そーゆー
いいじゃん
違えねえな
Quite a bit of slang/casual abbreviations
Example Page:
http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p642...d25fe2.jpg
Parasyte: Rating: ** (Not recommended for beginners since it lacks furigana) Almost gave it a rating of *** because of the political conversations/newspaper clippings that show up occasionally. However it doesn’t have much slang/abbreviated speech and is pretty straightforward so I ended up giving it a **.
Description: An alien attempts to take over Shinichi Izumi’s body but due to a chain of events, ends up only taking over one of his arms instead. This results in the two having little choice but to adjust to each others existence and differing perspectives. Over time the two develop an odd friendship and Shinichi slowly begins to question his own morality and sense of self.
WARNING: gore
Text light/medium/heavy: Usually light
Furigana: No
Difficulties: Occasional, brief news clippings can be a bit hard to anyone not accustomed to reading news articles in Japanese but this was one of the easier mangas to read.
Example Page:
http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p642...1eec7c.jpg
Rurouni Kenshin Difficulty Rating: *** possibly **** but leaning more towards ***
Description: “Himura Kenshin is a vagabond with a dark past and sunny disposition. Not a ronin but a rurouni, he was never a samurai, but an assassin of utmost skill in the Meiji restoration, who in the turning point of the war simply walked away. His travels lead him to Tokyo in the 11th year of the Meiji era, where he befriends a female Kendo master, a former thief, a brawler and a doctor all with their own secrets. Together they fight off the enemies surfacing from the dark past that Kenshin cannot escape.” (From animenewsnetwork)
Text light/medium/heavy: Medium to heavy
Furigana: Yes
Authors Notes: Yes
Difficulties: abbreviated/casual speech
にゃ＝なければ
いやがんでえ
たしゅけ= たすけて
Stuff like バーロー スカタン
regular abbrevation, 撃つわけないだろう turns into うつわけねーだろ
Uncommon words like 狐狼 and words used mainly in the edo period.
Example Page:
http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p642...06d171.png
Sailor moon Difficulty Rating: w/o authors notes: *** or **** w/ authors notes:****
Description: “The protagonist of Sailor Moon, Usagi Tsukino, an ordinary, ditzy, 14-year-old girl — or so she thinks — discovers a talking cat named Luna, who reveals Usagi's identity as "Sailor Moon", a magical warrior who is destined to save Earth from the forces of evil. Usagi must now find the Moon Princess and protect Earth from a series of antagonists, beginning with the Dark Kingdom that appeared once before a long time ago and destroyed the Moon Kingdom.” (from wikipedia)
Text light/medium/heavy: Mostly stays light/medium (not counting the long authors notes)
Furigana: Mostly furigana except for the authors notes (which are handwritten). Side
comments/background noise tend to be handwritten as well.
Authors Notes: Yes. These are typically page(s) long. Her handwriting is sloppy at times so it can be hard to read. Also her habit of writing in a ‘cutesy’ way can also make some sections a bit harder to read.
Difficulties: Expect to see things like:
かあっこいーい instead of かっこい
まっさお instead of まさか
そーぞー instead of そうぞう(想像)
ママも あんなにおこんなくたっていいのに which is ママも あんなにおこらなくていいのに
This was a surprisingly difficult at times (ESPECIALLY if you’re planning on reading the author notes as well).
Example Page:
http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p642...2f7e01.jpg
Silver Spoon Difficulty Rating: ****
Description: “It depicts the daily life of Yugo Hachiken, a student from Sapporo who, unlike his new classmates, has no intention of following an agricultural career after graduating. Instead, he decided to study there under the misguided notion that he could easily be the top student in the class.” (from wikipedia) Has been surprisingly deep/interesting despite how boring it sounds. From the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist.
Text light/medium/heavy: switches between medium and heavy
Furigana: yes
Authors Notes: Yes and it has omake pages too (these are handwritten and lack furigana)
Difficulties: Every rare once in a while it will have a technical passage (which is supposed to sound difficult/ technical to the average Japanese reader).
Casual abbreviations/slang I believe was decently common, I believe there were some dialects as well but I can’t remember for certain.
Example Page:
http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p642...83a998.jpg (most pages aren't this text heavy though)
[I got the same ratings for Yotsuba as TwoMoreCharacters, though hopefully some of the extra information in here will be useful to potential readers]
Yotsubato: Rating: ignoring adults * Not ignoring adults: **
Text light/medium/heavy: Very Light
Furigana: Usually has furigana but sometimes doesn’t (such as side comments that are outside of the speech bubbles)
Authors Notes: None
Difficulties: Yotsuba is one of the easier manga’s to read though the adults conversations tend to be more advanced ..... like ておく changing to とく
Some casual speech might confuse a new learner likeとっといた (which is 取っておいた)
If the reader is mostly ignoring the adults conversations the main thing that I believe would trip up a beginner is when yotsuba sings. For example: なっつ やっす みー which is なつやすみ and when something occasionally like こえー pops up (this ended up meaning こわい which was clear from the context).
Example Page:
http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p642...d8fc71.jpg
Yu Yu hakushou: Rating: *** or ****
Description: "The series tells the story of Yusuke Urameshi, a teenage delinquent who is killed by a car while attempting to save a child's life. After a number of tests presented to him by Koenma, the son of the ruler of the afterlife Underworld, Yusuke is revived and appointed the title of "Underworld Detective", with which he must investigate various cases involving demons and apparitions in the human world. The manga becomes more focused on martial arts battles and tournaments as it progresses." (from wikipedia)
Text light/medium/heavy: Varies from light to medium.
Furigana: yes
Authors Notes: I remember there were occasionally pages where the author would talk about a funny thing that happened in his life or he had given instructions to make a game. Handwritten (but not sloppy).
Difficulty: An easier version of many of the difficulties faced in Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO).
Slang, culture references, casual abbreviations
I'm rating it out of 5. 
).
