You should definitely try to cover some grammar before reading. How much grammar is up to you, but something like half or all of Genki 1 would be ideal. This book club might be a bit of a stretch since it starts next week, but you could always, say, study grammar for the month of December and then start reading the book at your own pace in January! More advanced users will still be watching the book club threads in case you have questions, so you don’t have to follow the schedule.
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Thank you for the swift reply. I’ll start going through Genki and make my decision based on how long it takes for me to finish it.
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I agree with what soggy said, very good to keep in mind!! If you end up deciding it’s too soon, you can definitely always join after it has finished!
One more thought to add. If you do decide to join, maybe remember that your goal with the manga and your comprehension level will be different than some others in the club. And that’s okay!!!
Instead of aiming for high comprehension like 100% or 80%, or dissecting every single nuance, it’s okay (and normal) if your main goal when reading is simpler to start! For example, even something like just using it as a way to get more practice reading hiragana! Maybe at your current level that would be easier/better than setting a goal too high and getting discouraged.
Thats just a suggestion tho 
For sure feel free to do what you want to do!!
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As others have suggested, you’ll want to get some grammar study in before jumping into reading. Right on the first page of the first chapter, I’m seeing grammar that’s covered in Genki II. And that grammar is built on top of other grammar. It would be difficult to learn without getting a breakdown of the grammar and learning it from the ground up. For each sentence.
For most people in your position, I would say not to bother joining the ABBC this early on.
However, if you have the time and energy and will to spend hours per week (if not per day) reading up on grammar and vocabulary, there’s no harm in following along with the weekly threads and reading a free preview of the manga (first two chapters, spread across four weeks). You can access the preview by selecting the cover image on BookWalker.
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I feel like the ABBC opening post says it pretty well:
And I think I’d actually recommend halfway through Genki 2 at least.
(Which is when I tried and failed my first ABBC - but I could’ve definitely powered through if I had a higher frustration tolerance level and was more comfortable with the fact that “reading” meant “having to look up every second word”.)
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I’m probably going to hold off on trying a book club until I’m at a slightly higher level and have finished up N5 grammar on bunpro, but I love dinos and this looks absolutely adorable so I’ll definitely have to come back and read this on my own later 
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I think this is a personal taste/frustration tolerance thing for sure. I started ABBC manga when I was on Genki chapter 6 and I would never have been able to finish Genki by myself without the motivation of trying to learn how to read native material. But some people might be better than me at motivating themselves to work through a textbook/read graded readers before starting native material!
For all the beginners out there, it doesn’t hurt to try native material at any point in the learning journey, just don’t be too hard on yourself, don’t expect too much, and feel free to put it down and go back to it later. You’ll get there eventually if you keep working at it!
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My Grammar is…not great. But it’s always been the hardest part for me. (Never did well in English either, SHOCKING). I did Genki 1 and part of 2 with a tutor like 5 years ago, so I’m sure most of it’s sloshed out my brain cause i barely used it, and i didn’t study right.
I’m kind of hoping that working through native material really helps put context behind grammar I’ve been messing up.
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Thanks for all the responses. I’m going to go ahead and finish Genki 1 and 2 (or at least go as far as I can before losing motivation) and then try some reading. I might still follow along with the reading group here, even if I’m not actually doing any myself just yet.
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This is me right now. I’ve listened through Genki I, but I dont do well studying and I’m much more of a hands on learner than anything.. I fully expect to be sitting in front of my computer looking from the page of the manga back up to my computer and looking everything up..
But with that said my brain will absolutely love getting to see all the grammar points I HAVE learned out in the ‘wild’. And as we learn our new grammar points and see them more often, the less we have to look up!
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Dunno if this helps, but I can talk about my experience as a new learner. I started learning japanese in August, and jumped into my first native manga in October (事情を知らない転校生がグイグイくる for those who are curious), so I didn’t really have much experience with the language. In terms of grammar, I basically did a speedrun of Bunpro’s N5 grammar.
My first reading sessions were obviously a struggle (ok, tbh, it’s still a struggle 
) but I think it helped me a lot to read actual native content and see how the vocab and grammar go together.
It helps a lot to go with a predisposed attitude about how you’re gonna tackle a reading session: either with a high tolerance for ambiguity, or in detective mode. My first sessions were way more weighted towards analysing every sentence and understanding what goes were (nouns, verbs, etc.) But over time I’ve come to understand and manage the ambiguity, and now I see myself skimming through some of the dialogue, because I already know what’s being said (mostly repeats of previous chapters, but still). I remember looking at the first sentence of the manga and being completely lost and confused, but now I look back at it and I’m like “yeah, I understand it, it’s actually a pretty standard sentence”.
Overall, I feel that jumping early (even before learning every beginner grammar point) helped me getting accustomed to written japanase (or at least, manga style japanese 
). More than understanding the grammar or vocab, I think the main point of reading your first piece of native media is losing the fear of reading and analysing chunks of japanese text, because they look very scary the dirst time. It also helps that you can ask about anything in the ABBC.
As for me, I’m gonna join the club to pay more attention to the grammar, and ask a lot about thems “sentence ending particles” 
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From week 5 onwards it says in the opening post that there are 10 pages with text, shouldn’t this be 8 pages for week 5 - 8?
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I keep looking at my calendar and marking off the days!!! IM SO DANG EXCITED!!!
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I am so hyped up for this book club 
it’s one of my favorite manga and I’m so glad a lot of people will get to enjoy it now, and for some even as a first book! I hope we’ll have a lot of fun
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Hmm.. i could swear there was a vocab list before somewhere, but I can’t find it. Not talking about the google sheet, since that one is empty.
Does anyone have the list by chance?
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There is this auto-generated frequency list:
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can’t be many manga where the most frequent word is 恐竜. Looking forward to it.
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Let’s go !
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Oh thanks, I’ll link that up top when I get back to my computer.
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