Most things shounen or shoujo have furigana. Once you get up into seinen and the like it starts getting rarer. Also 4-koma often don't, because there's not enough space.

It mostly depends upon the reading age. Manga for children will of course include furigana, but the amount decreases as the reading level increases. Manga meant for older teenagers/young adults will not often include furigana, both because at that age they can read literature obviously, and due to size constraints.

AmberUK wrote:

And how would you know its these different types of manga? I thought they just referred to the subject type, but are the also reading ages?

The demographic type is usually listed... somewhere, I think. Usually they're serialized in a magazine aimed at a specific demographic, anyway (such as the dead-giveaway that is Shounen Jump Weekly). Anyway, for instance, Full Metal Alchemist is Shounen, and it has full furigana. Ghost in the Shell is Seinen, and it doesn't have full furigana.

If you're unsure, the wikipedia articles on any series lists their demographic. Of course, that's not a surefire way to know if they do or do not have furigana. Have to see a sample for that.

AmberUK wrote:

Thanks for the info.

Where do people in the UK (or mail order) get Japanese language manga from?

Japan. 

Seriously, though...  Raw Japanese manga in any country other than Japan is pretty rare.  If you want anything specific, you'll most likely end up at bk1.jp or amazon.com or sasuga books.  If you're really lucky, and don't really care what you get, you -might- have some kind of used bookstore in your city that has some.  Might.

It's odd, but even though Furigana is very helpful, I find it more of a distraction when I'm reading manga or other items. Anyone else feel this way?

Probably for me, it's my brain trying to switch into "learning" mode which is more tiring than "reading one more chapter of Iryu cause its ******* cool" mode.

I like it. It's small enough I don't pay a huge amount of attention to it unless I don't know the reading already. In which case, it's useful because then I don't have to look it up (or if I do have to look it up, now it's easy!). I wouldn't want to read with furigana all the time, but I already read more things without furigana than with, so I find furigana to be nothing but 'a very nice break,' and it's also where I'll focus most of my intentional vocabulary learning efforts, just because it's so much easier.

kfmfe04 wrote:

IMHO it's a crutch that should be avoided as much as possible - when learning Kanji, it's too easy to just read the furigana and not do your best to absorb the Kanji and its reading.

I don't think I could see it as a crutch. I think at one time I may have been concerned that it would be, but I've consistently seen that all the words I learn from furigana contexts, I become just as comfortable reading without furigana. I guess my opinion here runs along the lines of most of the other 'crutch' thought processes that pop up, which seem to have to do with an idea that you're 'cheating' your drill somehow. That every time you see a word, you're drilling it, and if the 'answer' is right next to it, then you've cheated the process. I don't get this, possibly because I don't see my Japanese time as a test. To me, seeing a word and seeing it's reading right next to it is only positive reinforcement. And in my personal experience, this has always been the case. I've never run into a word and thought "Oh shit, I was only able to read this with furigana! Now I have no idea!". In every instance, my recollection has only been better for previous furigana experience. Particularly with names, I'm able to remember them *much* better after I've gone through a series that puts furigana on them every time, versus a series that only displays furigana for a name once, or not at all.

Of course, this may be a result of my personal reading process. If some people do actually read through only the furigana and don't even give a glance to the kanji alongside, I suppose it would have to cause problems. I don't see how this has to disqualify the entire thing, though. The Japanese themselves use furigana, you know

Last edited by QuackingShoe (2009 June 15, 10:21 am)

wccrawford wrote:

I find that the online scans are a lot easier to not-read the furigana than actual books.  That's because they are usually so tiny and smudged that you can't read them without really concentrating. 

And sometimes literally impossible! White furigana on a black background? I call shenanigans!

Thanks I will try them out.

I think in the longer term the furigana will be annoying but I think that for someone just starting they are a great help. When you are starting out any help is good.