I still don't know what to do when I'll finish with Genki II. My idea is to do AIAtIJ but I don't know if I'll go straight with that third book or to put my grammar study on stand-by and begin to study vocabulary. I downloaded the japanese subtitles of "Clannad" to start studying the vocabulary, so I can read subtitles / watch the anime and practice my reading / listening skills while I study vocabulary. My doubt is about grammar. With grammar from the basic Genki I & II only, how much unknown grammar I'm going to encounter in Clannad? And if I do AIAtIJ? Obviously the question is for those who have already seen this anime. Thank you!

Well I don't know about Clannad, but I started watching Pokemon X/Y when I only did Genki 1 & 2. And all I can say is that there weren't any problems with unknown grammar.
The problem's are rather characters when they don't speaking clearly or when the voice is hard to understand. (like some speak very clearly and the others.. not)
This mixed with unknown vocabs could make some parts hard to understand. Also explanations could be hard. (As an example the Pokedex was really hard to understand because it used many words I didnt knew and the voice of it was hard to understand)
But I was able am able to watch Pokemon without any subs and if there are parts I don't get at all (which is pretty rare) I just stop and check the Japanese subs. (but when there is an unknown word I stop anyway..This habit is very annoying

So I would say you could watch Clannad but it won't be easy at the beginning.
Watch one episode without any help and see if you understand most of it. If you feel like "What are they talking about?" you should watch something easier.
And if it is hard don't loose your motivation. Keep watching something and you will improve.

But I should say that I watched so many anime's before which may improved my listening and I had already learned something like 4.000 words.

Oh I also don't think watching anime with Japanese subtitle's will help you much in listening.
You should rather watch animes without any subs. (I learned this with English. When I watched videos with english subtitles I only read the subtitles..I didn't concentrate on what they were saying at all. But in order improve your listening you have to concenrate on what they are saying and not on reading the subtitles)

Another thing to improve your listening is to watch japanese videos on YouTube. This helped me so much, I really recommend it. (check out HikakinTV, he's the most known Japanese YouTube)
I only started to watch stuff in Japanese a month ago and I improved so fast. The only problem I'm facing now is vocabulary. But you can also understand so much without knowing every word.


I hope that I could help you a bit.

You helped me very much! I was planning to watch them with subtitles the first time, then to rewatch them without subtitles. I love to rewatch many times the same show if I like it. In fact I'm already doing it so it's not going to be a problem. As I'm also interested in reading, I think that watching it with subtitles will reinforce my vocabulary knowledge, my reading ability and the relation between written words and their readings. When I started with english I was able to read it no problem, but with the spoken language I didn't understood a single word xD So I started watching Dr. House in english with english subtitles, and at the end of it I was able to listen and understand everything i want in english with subtitles. So I was thinking to do the same thing with japanese, the first pass with subtitles just to associate the written word with the spoken word, and then without subtitles at all. My plan is to study vocabulary on the go, as in this period I'm not in the mood to do things like Core. I do prefer to look, let's say, at the first 5th minutes of Clannad, take all the words I don't know and study/review them in Anki, so in this way I'm going to have at least some native media to consume that I can understand. I will also print the subtitles and take them with me when I'm outside and use them as something I can read, maybe while I listen to the mp3s ripped from the anime. I thinked about Clannad because it's about school and the like... in fact reading the subs of the first episode there are so many words I already know... while anime like pokemon maybe have too many unusual words about magic, powers, monsters etc..
I forgot to add that another advantage to use subs to study is that you can use the japanese subs in association with the english subs. For example I was looking at the english subs of Clannad and comparing them with the japanese subs I can say it is a good translation so I can use it as a reference if I don't understand some grammar.