Looking for some recommendations

[Zalirae]

hello everyone. I have just started to use WaniKani and am enjoying it so far.

I found this website when I decided to teach myself Japanese firstly because I am going back to Japan for another holiday in the next couple years and would like to communicate better with the locals and also be able to read the signs and advertisements i see everywhere. Secondly I enjoy watching anime and reading manga, anime I watch subtitled which I would like to move away from as it draws your eyes away from the animation. And as far as manga goes I just want to be able to read it in it original state.

That being said I was hoping to find recommendation for simple easy to read manga that a beginner would be able to understand to start things off with.

[Belthazar]

Join the Beginner’s Japanese Book Club? We’re about to start reading のんのんびより.

Or you can join the in-progress splinter groups reading よつばと! or Aria.

[Sharpevil]

It’s really hard to tell what you mean by “A beginner”. How far have you progressed in other study sources? Do you know much Kanji already?

[Belthazar]

Do you know much Kanji already?

Perhaps more to the point, do you know much grammar?

[Zalirae]

do not know much at all as of yet. Just looking for advice on what might be good to start with once i progress far enough

[seanblue]

There’s probably not any manga a true beginner would be able to read. But if you finish Genki I (or equivalent) for grammar study, you can probably start to go through a simple manga. It would be very slow and you’d have to look up a ton, but you could do it at that point.

Once you are ready, I second joining the beginner book club. And if you want you can always read one of the books the club has already read since you’d benefit from existing discussions and vocab sheets, and you could ask for help from those who have already read them.

[Sharpevil]

Yep, I agree with Seanblue. You’re definitely gonna want to beef up your grammar, and Genki is the way I’d recommend you do it. I’d say that depending on your tolerance for frustration, you might be ready to struggle your way through some manga with google translate open as early as chapter 8. As for WaniKani benchmarks, maybe try to hit Level 20 first?

Hitting level 20 takes around 20 weeks, even for a speed demon, so if you feel ready to start working your way through some manga before then, don’t let anyone’s suggestions stop you. Your main impediment will be how much looking things up you’re willing to do.

As for what manga- I’ve found that a lot of Shounen Jump manga have furigana for absolutely every kanji, down to 一 and 人. Maybe start working through One Piece?

[Zalirae]

sounds good to me. thank you for the advice

[smarcks]

If you want to attempt to read something early on, I’d aim for something meant for young children and mostly written in hiragana. I read Doraemon when I was first starting out, but even that was difficult.