Beginner Anime Recommendations

Hi all,

I am seeking anime recommendations that use elementary-school level vocab and grammatical complexity. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!!

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Non non biyori might work? Since the characters are young girls and it is slice of life. But sometimes anime uses weird grammar in an attempt to br cutesy so might want to ask others

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Heyo just passing through. First of all, welcome to the Holy Church of the Crabigator. Serve him well, recruit.

Not sure if this would be a good recommendation, but Joshiraku might just be the anime you’re looking for. It doesn’t really per se use “elementary school level vocab and grammatical complexity” but it also doesn’t have a lot of distractions as the whole series is just five girls talking to each other (there are also a lot of clever little word plays often explained by the subtitles).
Post scriptum: if you want to “level up” (ha, see what I did there) your grammatical skills I would recommend Bunpro, it explains all the little rules quite efficiently and even gives you links to other websites for additional information. Excellent work on their part.

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How about actual kid oriented anime, such as Doraemon or Anpanman. Pretty cure maybe?

“Polar Bear cafe” was recommended earlier for that purpose, but it still waits in my queue, so I don’t know how easy it is for real.

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Polar Bear Cafe is actually a really solid anime if you’re just starting out. I was able to understand full sentences every few episodes (which is a really good feeling when you come across them). It also helped me learn a few words since they speak slowly and clearly, and I feel like it has a lot more common phrases. If you can get ahold of a Japanese subbed version I definitely recommend watching that. But I really recommend Polar Bear Cafe because it was funny and I actually really enjoyed watching it.

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Shirokuma puns seems difficult

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As a beginner you aren’t going to get everything, so I feel like as long as you like the show then it’s sufficient enough. I was able to hone my listening skills a bit, I was able to pay a lot more attention to what they were saying than other anime, and I enjoyed watching it. A lot of stuff flew over my head, but I also was able to solidify words that I had trouble learning by watching it. I also figured out the connection between crabigator and wanikani - both wani and kani showed up in the show, showing a crocodile and a crab lol

If you want a movie “My neighbor Totoro” is a classic! Most of the dialog is between two young sisters and their father so its mostly casual family talk.

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友達たちはありがと

Will report back with updates and comments :slight_smile:

Dragon ball is pretty simple but is actually really fun to read. I started reluctantly, just for studying, and now I have just bought the 9th volume haha. So watching that would be good. Full of references, pretty entetaining, funny and good characters. The vocab is pretty simple and after a while you can understand a lot as a lot of the vocab is often used time and time again.

stein’s gate

Okay boys, so Polar Bear Cafe is fantastic! I probably understand ~25-30% of the vocab, which is saying a lot (given that I was WK lvl 10 before I reset).

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Just started watching Polar Bear Cafe. I love how simple it is!

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I think the first ever anime I watched was Chi’s Sweet Home and I remember that being relatively easy to understand

I’d recomend the show you have seen the most, but turn off the subs. This way you’ll be familiar with what they are talking about and can focus more on the language.

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