@Claerwen, @theghostofdenzo, @xplo, thanks for the info! I too think self-immersion via Bunpro, etc. is much more effective and entertaining. Textbooks can get quite tedious. Moreover, my goal is to be able to read manga in original, so I think neither Genki nor Minna nor other similar textbooks provide any emphasis or explanations whatsoever on colloquial and casual speech, which is what mangas and anime are full with.
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If you’re mainly interested in manga, join a bookclub as soon as you’ve got the very basic grammar down.
https://www.japanesewithanime.com/ is quite a good site for colloquialisms/anime/manga slang, and is also surprisingly good for general grammar as well.
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Awesome! Many thanks!
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I agree. I understand the motivation behind Tofugu saying to wait until about levels 10-20 to learn grammar–that it’s easier when you don’t have to stop and look up kanji every five seconds. However, there are plenty of resources that use kana/furigana to start teaching you grammar. Personally, I don’t think I would be where I am today if I hadn’t started grammar from the first day. I started WK for about two weeks early on, got frustrated, looked elsewhere, and when I came back I found that knowing about 1,500 vocabulary words, 200 kanji as they are used in some of those words, and a fair amount of JLPT N5/N4 level grammar made learning kanji a lot easier.
Here’s what you can use regardless of your kanji knowledge:
I would highly recommend LingoDeer since it gives you the flexibility to turn furigana on or off according to your need, and it has a wide variety of integrated resources for learning (and an extended app for games that I also recommend). Japanese from Zero would probably be a pain for anyone who is not in levels 1-5 on WK right now because of the progressive kana, but this was one of the main resources for me. The grammar is succinct and surprisingly well-put-together. It’s better suited for self-learners than the Genki series (Borrowed from a friend. I leaf through it from time to time). KawaiiNihongo (app) was also surprisingly well-rounded for being a free app, and the illustrations are adorable.
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I think you might be the first person I’ve seen mention KawaiiNihongo. Seconding the adorable illustrations, especially if you like fox girls. I like that it has optional writing practice as well. Pretty much the only reason I don’t use it at the moment is because (as far as I know) it only has an app and my learning just revolves around desktop use currently.
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I recommend finishing Tae Kim, and then read and talk as much as possible with natives who will correct you. Using it is the best way to get good at it. The Dictionaries of Japanese Grammar are great references for when you don’t get stuff too.
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Have you looked into Satori Reader? It’s really good and both the phone and PC interface are very clean. The kanji preferences can be linked to your WaniKani API, and you can add additional known kanji into it to make the reading experience as tailored to you as you want. It also has spaced-repetition, you pick which words to include.
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I’ve heard of Human Japanese, but not Satori Reader! It looks pretty nice. Signing up now 
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@smarts47 and @Time, many thanks for your info! Yes, I do have Satori and it´s great, highly recommendable for reading practice.
Do you know any good sites for this? I´ve heard about HelloTalk. Is it worth it?
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I use the app Tandem which is essentially the same. You can text, send photos, send voice messages, and video call. I have done a little bit of everything but mostly texting. I have mixed feelings about it.
Pros:
- Free.
- Make friends in Japan.
- User friendly.
- Practice real Japanese, so you don’t sound like a textbook.
- Pretty much everyone I met is nice and helpful.
- Pretty much everyone I met is also fine with sporadic conversation, rather than constant texting throughout the day.
- It might be just me, but I feel intimidated and nervous from time to time.
Cons:
- You have to compromise because they are also trying to learn your language, so you have to decide on how you will take turns.
- I don’t think I retain as much as I want to.
- Everyone I talked to is clearly better at English than I am at Japanese, so it can be difficult to keep up.
- If they live in Japan, the time difference could make scheduling video calls difficult (my top convo partner is working in NY).
- A native speaker doesn’t always know what’s difficult about their language to others. This goes both ways, btw. Fortunately there are also learners and people for whom Japanese is a second language there, but they are harder to find. Eventually you can probably find out where each other is in terms of learning.
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Many thanks for the info!! 
I´ll peep into it.
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