I broke into manga by basically learning most of basic Japanese grammar from Tae Kim with Anki. After that I did about 1500 sentences from Core2000.

Then dropped sentence deck, opened a manga page and made a vocab card in Anki for every unknown word(Which was about 85% in my case). Then I kept going.

I only did about a page a day before I got tired. Then stopped vocab picking till the next day. Just flipped through and looked at pictures.

Last edited by blackbrich (2012 August 25, 3:40 pm)

When I got back into studying recently, I got most of the JLPT N2 kanji down, plus a couple hundred beyond that, before I began diving into manga. I then started reading some simpler manga (謎の彼女Ｘ　and らんま) while also working through the N1 kanji on KanjiBox. I've simultaneously been stocking up on vocab using a custom Anki deck and the Rikaisama plug-in; I've added about 25 new words daily to my review pile since June.

I'd recommend at least knowing the first 1,000 most frequently used kanji cold. That will GREATLY facilitate your ability to read simple Japanese. Doing Heisig is, obviously, a great option.

I'd recommend keeping around some manga you like, and tackling one or two of them every few weeks or so. If it's too painful to get through, put it aside and come back to it later. There are still many manga I find surprisingly hard. I picked up ココロコネクト lately,  e.g., and was surprised how little of it I could grok without extensive lookups and grammar decoding.

Last edited by gaiaslastlaugh (2012 August 25, 2:06 pm)

I also think you need a basic knowledge bank before you can get into manga. In the past, I could never get past the first few pages of a manga because I couldn't understand a thing without constantly looking at a dictionary, which made reading very painful and boring. If manga is boring, you know there's a problem! Also, you might have to look at a few different series before you find the right one.

I just got through the first chapter of my first manga the day before yesterday. The series is Bakuman. At first I tried reading Vol. 1 of One Piece because I know the story, but it was too difficult because of the unfamiliar vocabulary. However, somehow Bakuman is easier than One Piece for me, even though the story is completely new to me.

I can understand the gist of what's going on without a dictionary, and can get through about 10-20 pages in one sitting and still enjoy what I'm doing. I highlight the sentences I understand 100% (grammar and vocab), and so my current book is about 30% highlighted, but I can understand the gist of about 75% of the sentences. The rest is taken care of by the pictures and context.

However, I needed Tae Kim Essential Grammar, RtK Lite, and Core2k before I even attempted this. Because I don't use a dictionary, I pick up some new vocab because I can recognize the kanji from RtK Lite and the furigana (sooo important!) provides the reading for me. The stuff I don't get? I don't sweat it!

My advice is to use manga as reading practice that is only slightly above your current level. Don't kill yourself trying to use manga as a way to pick up a ton of new vocab! Manga should still be fun or there's no point.

Last edited by ojousan (2012 August 26, 8:42 pm)

Check these out, you can "try them" before buying them if you find them useful!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1880656906/
http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Mangalan … pd_sim_b_4
http://www.amazon.com/Mangajins-Basic-J … pd_sim_b_6

Hyperborea wrote:

The only downside is that if you are a ~20 year old guy your friends will call you names if they see you reading it.

That would be hilarious! And what's not common in "laser death swords"? LOL

RawrPk wrote:

I think this site will help

http://anime-manga.jp/index_english.html

That looks like a pretty cool website! They divided the content into four categories depending on Manga type. Thanks!

Last edited by undead_saif (2012 August 27, 4:35 am)

heyer wrote:

Hey there. Not so long ago, I got interested in learning japanese. So I played a bit around with iKnow (smartFM?). I went through about 300-400 words before being frustrated about my lacking ability to differentiate aswell as write kanji. So now I'm well on my way with RTK, and I enjoy it immensively. My goal is to be able to read simple manga (think stuff for 16 year olds).

your Japanese is as good as a 16 year old's?

Well if that's the case you're fluent already.


Really just read whatever you want, whatever interests you. If you're always scared by the "difficulty" then it's gonna be tough.

I read a 500 Japanese novel when my Japanese was absolute garbage then. I plowed through it, took about 3-4 months. That novel took my Japanese to another level, learned more from that than any Japanese class.

Just read anything you want. Don't worry about it.

Last edited by Realism (2012 August 29, 2:17 pm)

Buy a few books that look interesting to you and see what your level of tolerance for pain is. Some people don't mind stopping every 2 words to look something up, others would go nuts. (I can't stop that often when I read. It drives me crazy.)

As long as you want to read it, it's worth trying it. If it doesn't work, set it aside and use it as motivation to get to the level you need to be to read it. Check to see how you're doing every now and then by trying to read it.

I started reading manga after I finished RTK and had reviewed Genki I and II after 3 years of not studying. (I had taken 6 semesters in university, but forgotten a lot of it.) That was enough to get me started with some basic manga.

I also highly recommend Yotsubato as well. Funny stuff, and no jargon to get in the way.

Being able to open a book, and actually being able to read from it is a big motivator.  Once you have down some basic grammar, try reading books in which the story is predictable. I wasn't even finished with Genki I when I became impatient and picked up Ponyo (from Studio Ghibli) in manga/picture book format, and it was relatively easy and fun to get through! There are quite a few books like these, for example, adaptations of Disney movies written into light novels for kids that are good for the beginner students of Japanese, but don't make you stuck on one page for 15 minutes, and you already have background knowledge so you use a lot of context to propel yourself along. After that and Genki II and other "Intermediate" practice, I was able to get through a few shoujo stories.

Good luck!

Last edited by visual_jei (2013 April 24, 6:39 am)