It doesn't matter that much really, none of those should be hard. Read the one you like. I really liked Yotsubato! and thought it was really easy (but then, I didn't read it as a beginner, I read it because I kept hearing about it from beginners.) I can't stand Crayon Shin-Chan anime and have no interest in ever opening the manga. If you have opposite tastes... then by all means, read to your tastes, not mine.

Out of those, I’d say Crayon Shin-chan would be difficult for a beginner (dialects, casual abbreviations are decently common, ect) however Chii’s sweet home and Yotsubato! are about the same level (should be relatively easy for a beginner, though there will be a few difficulties here and there. BUT don’t be disheartened when that happens! After finishing 1-2 volumes of a series, you should already start feeling the difficulty level steadily weakening, in the presence of your climbing reading skills [at least from my personal experience with reading manga])

I’ve never personally read Doraemon however someone else rated Doraemon Plus as a *  so it should be relatively easy. Some additional manga that others recced for beginners are Beck, Bono Bono, 学校怪談, 不安の種...and a good many more. The details for these other manga are here: http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=11432 [Though keep in mind this rates ALL manga so you'll want to stick with the */**s WITH furigana]

I copied the details for Crayon Shin-chan, Chii’s Sweet Home, Yotsubato! and Doraemon Plus here, so you have a better idea of what you’re getting into: (took it from the above thread).
Hope this helps and happy reading !

Crayon Shin-Chan                                                                    Rating:  ***
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/p64 … 1193d8.jpg


Yotsubato: 
One that always gets recommended towards beginners is Yotsubato, but it's fun regardless. It's about a crazy five-year-old girl having moved with her father to a new city, how she discovers life together with friends and neighbors, and how others are influenced by how her naive and eccentric personality clashes with the surroundings. It's aimed towards a general audience.

Rather than a long continuous plot, each chapter is a very simple short-story, which means that you could keep reading on even if there are chapters of which you wouldn't understand the Japanese. Simple but non-formal slang based language, furigana on everything.

I do remember someone on here saying that they'd studied Japanese exclusively formally for two years and found this manga difficult, while most people that are already somewhat familiar with anime/manga seem to say it's very easy. I'd encourage beginners not to read this while systematically analyzing its grammar or something and instead just let it be a very good ice-breaker.

Difficulty: 1 or maybe 2 out of a total of 5


Yotsubato(same rating different details):                 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/p64 … d8fc71.jpg

Chi’s sweet home                                                    Difficulty Rating *
A beginner would probably have to post in the "whats this word/phase" thread to figure out the baby talk at times. However, If you already know a good amount of everyday/common vocab it should be rather easy.
Furigana: Yes except in the chapter titles. Also there isn't much kanji in general, it tends to use kana instead.
Text light/medium/heavy: Very Light to Light
Difficulties: baby talk

ひろいめにあったwhich is--->ひどい目にあった　(though in this case, the next panel showed the correct spelling)
ミウク　―――＞ミルク　(though in context, it was obvious that the kitten was talking about milk)
おもちろかった　―――＞　おもしろかった
おちっこ　――＞　おしっこ
びっくいちた　―――＞　びっくりしちゃった
Some colloquialisms:
もうやらからしんだふり　―――＞　もうやらないからしんだふり
Example Page: http://s1344.photobucket.com/user/hotpo … 7.jpg.html

“Doraemon Plus (Difficulty ＊)

This is a 5-volume series that I started reading with. The stories are great and a lot of adults tell me how they appreciate the storytelling. The short series length stops you getting sucked into the mammoth Doraemon library if you just want something to get you going.
I've been reading Naoki Urasawa lately, although he's technically an illustrator. These are the two I've got through so far. “

Last edited by Hotpotato (2013 November 21, 11:34 pm)