I started going through the first pages with someone guiding me and i’ve been told that the way of speaking found in anime and manga is very different from the way people speak irl.
I wanted to read manga as a way to learn while doing something fun and see the grammar/vocabulary in action so i remember it better, but now i’m worried that i’ll catch some bad habits and i don’t know whether i should continue or abandon and find a book or something… It doesn’t help that every single sentence seems to have been written with some arcane artifice that i should’ve known in advance to understand it.
The way i see it now, i can’t “read manga to learn japanese” and i need to “learn japanese to read manga”, but you people have more experience than me with this. Any thoughts on the use of manga for learning japanese and the idea of catching bad habits from manga?
I dont think youll catch any bad habits, learning off manga is completely valid. Think of it this way, have you ever read an english book that has natural dialogue? Maybe you havent noticed it but the way they speak in books, its not exactly the same as how someone would say it in real life.
In my opinion, its not worth worrying about, if you want to learn to speak good, you have to learn with real speaking. You’ll be fine.
Disclaimer: I’m still very much in the process of learning Japanese, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
I don’t think you need to worry too much about this unless you’re planning to use manga as your exclusive resource to learn Japanese.
There’s a lot of over familiar speech in manga/anime and some characters talk weirdly. But… you’ll probably figure out yourself that the catgirl who inserts nya everywhere, the ex-mafia or your typical JoJo character are not who you’d want to emulate when talking to actual people.
It’s the same with English cartoons. Are they a good primary source for learning English? Probably not. Should you try to talk like those characters in real life? Definitely not. Can you still reinforce vocab and grammar using them, especially if you enjoy watching them? Absolutely.
I know that it’s frustrating for now, but if you keep at it, soon you’ll meet those “arcane artifices” again, and then you will know them in advance. And maybe it’ll comfort you to hear that this is something that most of us went through. It’s just part of the process of learning to read native material.
Let me quote @MrGeneric here:
And on a related note, as far as learning natural speech goes, a SoL manga like this one is loads better than some chuuni power fantasy isekai, so you could do a lot worse than things like Ruri Dragon if bad habits are the concern.
If you’re reading manga to learn how to read/listen/watch (consume) Japanese, you’ll be fine.
If you’re reading manga to learn how to write/speak (produce) Japanese, that’s where a problem arises.
Reading manga (or anything else native Japanese) will help you learn and understand the grammar, vocabulary, and patterns that come up in the language. But not all these patterns will be ones you would use when writing/talking.
Spending time learning Japanese through reading manga via a book club can make it easier to transition to more natural-sounding material that doesn’t have the support of a community of fellow readers answering your questions.
Make sure you know what you want to do with Japanese, and as you become more familiar with the language, you can pivot your learning strategies to ensure you are constantly moving in the right direction.
Gonna try and start this book. Not sure I’m ready in my Japanese knowledge yet, but it’s absolute beginner right? gotta start somewhere.
Good luck! A lot of questions have already been answered in the weekly threads, but if there’s anything else you want to know, don’t hesitate to ask.
The number one thing to remember is that just about anything written for native speakers will be difficult for learners when first attempting to read.
If you feel the material is too difficult to read, that’s normal at the absolute beginner level.
Allowing this to be a learning experience (via the weekly threads) puts you on the path toward a reading experience.
Now I just need to figure out how to get the dang book, AmazonJP isn’t cooperating with me 
This post has a walkthrough for Amazon JP. The thread also lists the other options for you if you still can’t get it to work.
https://community.wanikani.com/t/buying-digital-japanese-books/10603/151
I recommend manga-republic.com! They’re great, and you can order one book at a time without paying extra for shipping!
And in the meantime, we still have 3 weeks left in which you can use the bookwalker preview, @h3lladvocate.
Time for week 3!
yeah, finished week 1 XD only one week untill I reach the current section. It worked a lot better tnen I expected. Had to do a lot of guessing with the vocab list and grammar list, but in the end I was most of the time able to get what Ruri and her mom were talking about.
My grammar still sucks XD but I will get there. It’s interessting to see that stuff in action. Deepl also helped a few times with stuff that was completly unclear at first. I could even translate a few longer sentences without looking up anything XD
I hope to find some time next week to tackle the week 2
Is it possible to watch a thread and get notifications on the website but not by email? I want to see new posts but I don’t want to be bombarded by emails with every new message.
Yes! You can disable e-mail, allow notifications with the site open and set a thread to watching. (And if you don’t want notifications you can also just set a thread to watching, and you’ll see if there are new posts when you open the forums by clicking your avatar in the top-right) 
Ok, I might be blind. I found the setting, thank you 
and here i am still deciphering the stuff of week 2 and the page numbers are rising