Hi everyone. I know Manga is a really big resource in learning Japanese.

However my request today is slightly different.
As a kid I read the C&H books religiously. I'm not one to read things twice (I don't even watch the same movie twice), but I would read these over and over.

I honestly believe that a lot of my English writing/reading ability (I read and write very, very rapidly - the content, well, that's another story)

They were the perfect mix of basic reading combined with overlying tones and sprinkled with complex words. Not to mention since it's a comic, the words are all spoken and it's all dialogue, great to reproduce and mimic.

However I do know that most manga is not as light hearted, witty, and unique as C&H. Most of the stuff worth reading is really high level, deep, and complicated as well as story oriented. I've read some like Ghost in the Shell translated, but that's way above my head. I want something simple, cute, yet somehow daringly complicated like C&H to read and enjoy. I don't know if Japanese even use the panelbypanel storytelling style of American comics versus the Manga graphic novel style.

Does anyone know of anything similar? Other examples of comics I used to like were Foxtrot, Pearls Before Swine, and occasionally Garfield.

I know this is a really hard request, so thanks for reading.

worlds apart, but since C&H was always great "pick up and read any time," I think of Azumanga Daioh.

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll look it up.

I'm also thinking of getting a translated version of C&H but I'm worried the sentences will be 'direct english translations' and we all know how that goes.

zachandhobbes Wrote:Thanks for the suggestion! I'll look it up.

I'm also thinking of getting a translated version of C&H but I'm worried the sentences will be 'direct english translations' and we all know how that goes.

I've bought compilation volumes of Peanuts in Japanese at a bookstore in my home town in Shizuoka, and they have good idiomatic Japanese. Snoopy is a very popular character in Japan though, so perhaps they wanted such a mainstream book to sound natural. But I wouldn't be surprised if this was the norm.

How about ドラえもん、クレヨンしんちゃん、サザエさん。。。Sorry, I'm not a manga reader but those are the children's manga that I can think of off the top of my head.

There's no substitute to Calvin and Hobbes.
Bill Watterson's poetry is awesome.
I feel sad every time I remember I won't read a new Calvin & Hobbes strip again.

zachandhobbes Wrote:I don't know if Japanese even use the panelbypanel storytelling style of American comics versus the Manga graphic novel style.

There are many manga drawn in that style; they're called ４コマ yonkoma.
I've never seen any like C&H, though. If there is one, I would also like to know.

One yonkoma I quite like is Sketchbook; it even has a gaijin girl who loves kanji: sample sample sample.

I, too, absolutely adore Calvin and Hobbes. I've read them all multiple times, and they (by which I mean every collection ever released) now hold a spot in my bathroom, where they will most likely continue to be re-read until I die.

I'm going to have to echo a suggestion in this thread and recommend Azumanga Daioh. I bought all 4 volumes at a book-off one day, and now they too sit with my Calvin and Hobbes collection to be re-read over and over again.

Other than that I keep thinking of undertaking a "translate Calvin and Hobbes into Japanese" project, but whenever I try while I'm reading, I always realize the same thing: one would have to be very selective with the strips that are translated. A lot of the humor would be American specific, or nearly impossible to translate without totally reworking the joke. Might still be fun though

Yeah, that was the problem. I mean, languages are so different, you can't bring the same 'overtones' that Watterson so skillfully uses to paint a bigger picture than is just on the page if you just translate it. It seems way too hard.

I mean, sure some C&H aren't totally deep, but I'm sure you know (since you have the editions like the Sunday Edition with all the explanations) that a lot have more than the words tell.

thistime Wrote:クレヨンしんちゃん

I've voted for this manga in other threads too. So, uh here's another vote for shin.

Also the magazine Mangajin has Calvin & Hobbes strips translated.

I tried reading ドラえもん and didn't enjoy it very much. A lot of words were written with kana instead of kanji. It was really hard to understand, and the subject matter wasn't interesting enough to keep me plowing through it.

I also immediately thought of Azumanga Daioh.

Though, I don't think it's sprinkled with complex words, unlike Calvin and Hobbes. It is, however, a four-panel comic which is always funny and sometimes quite witty.

Azumanga Daioh is a seinen comic, so it's written for adults. Therefore, furigana is not included.

elmaestrokgb Wrote:I tried reading ドラえもん and didn't enjoy it very much. A lot of words were written with kana instead of kanji. It was really hard to understand, and the subject matter wasn't interesting enough to keep me plowing through it.

I *loved* reading Doraemon when I was little! But unless you're already a fan, I don't see it having much appeal to adults. It's too shallow to be a long series, too involved to be a panel, and too simple to be good learning.

But it was difficult to understand, wouldn't most other native materials be too great a hurdle at this point? I think Doraemon was pretty darn close to being the very first thing I read. I remember running to my mom for help with this comic when I was around 3 years old, because I didn't know how to sound out kana combined with small ゃゅょ characters yet.

Mushi Wrote:I *loved* reading Doraemon when I was little! But unless you're already a fan, I don't see it having much appeal to adults. It's too shallow to be a long series, too involved to be a panel, and too simple to be good learning.

But it was difficult to understand, wouldn't most other native materials be too great a hurdle at this point? I think Doraemon was pretty darn close to being the very first thing I read. I remember running to my mom for help with this comic when I was around 3 years old, because I didn't know how to sound out kana combined with small ゃゅょ characters yet.

Being able to sound out words and being able to understand are two different things. By three years old you were already quite fluent in Japanese (granted your vocab was still quite basic and your grammar wasn't perfect) so, for you, it was just a matter of sounding out the characters. But, for a learner, it could be a gold mine. There could be a wealth of new vocab and grammar and provide a 'real' glimpse into natural spoken Japanese. All of which would mean nothing to a 3 year old Japanese child but are just what a learner of the language would be looking for.

thistime Wrote:But, for a learner, it could be a gold mine. There could be a wealth of new vocab and grammar and provide a 'real' glimpse into natural spoken Japanese. All of which would mean nothing to a 3 year old Japanese child but are just what a learner of the language would be looking for.

I don't doubt that you can learn a lot from Doraemon, although I do wonder if it would hold an adult learner's interest. In terms of content, a Doraemon manga is approximately the level and genre of a Richie Rich comic.

Although after seeing that Yattaman clip that someone here asked about...

i agree with azumanga daioh.

for that matter, yotsuba is also great.

there's something about them that i feel has the same spirit as calvin and hobbes, the same sense of childish wonder towards modern society.

I'll look up both of those, they seem similar to what I'm looking for.