Looking for (very) easy Manga recommendations

I’m looking for some easy Manga to read to reinforce known vocabulary and pass time in-between reviews.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, thanks! :smiley:

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Can you point me in the right direction?

How much grammar do you know?

If you don’t know any grammar, trying to read a manga can be a very discouraging pastime. If you’re around N5 grammar level, it can still be a trying experience. If you’re at N4 grammar level, that’s where it begins to become comfortable to ready the easiest manga.

It’s best to have at least a little grammar knowledge before jumping into reading, but regardless of your grammar level, if you’re ready and willing to take a crash course in learning grammar as you go, you can pick up a lot by joining the Absolute Beginner Book Club.

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My grammar is not so great, but I will be improving it little-by-little (I have a lifetime Bunpro account).

Should hold-off on reading until I get to N4? Or is reading possible with N5?

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Whether you should start reading now or hold off depends on your tolerance for encountering unknown grammar when reading, and how you plan to handle it. You will want to get good at looking up unknown grammar.

The book clubs here are great for that, because you can ask questions in the relevant discussion thread for all current and past book clubs.

If you haven’t read any manga yet, the first one you read will be the hardest thing ever, no matter how easy people say it is. If you can make yourself learn the grammar as you go along, there’s no reason to wait.

But if you start reading and it’s just too hard, there’s no harm in pausing reading, and learning a bit more grammar first. Be encouraged to know that you’re just a little grammar away from being able to understand the content.

Once you get past that hardest first volume, if you continue reading the same series, you’ll find the next volume is the second hardest thing you’ve ever worked your way through. And the next after that will be the third hardest. As you work through a series, each volume will be a little less difficult that the one before it.

Eventually you run out of volumes for the series, and you’ll pick up a different series, maybe one a little more difficult, and you’ll feel like you’re back at square one. But by then, you’ll have reading experience, so you’ll be encouraged that no matter how difficult the next series you start is, you’ll be able to read it by learning grammar, learning vocabulary, and building up reading stamina.

As you make your way through Bunpro, be sure to read the accompanying links provided for each lesson, including the sample sentences lessons provide. That will help you get the basics for each bit of grammar until you start to encounter it in reading.

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I read よつばと! (Yotsubato) when I was around halfway between N5 and N4 and although I struggled at first, I quickly became accustomed to it and it became much easier to read. As @ChristopherFritz has said, you’ll struggle regardless of your level if it’s your first time reading native material, but you can’t learn if you aren’t struggling a bit.

well they didn’t exactly say that, I extrapolated a bit…

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These are the previous absolute beginner books. Books 3,4,5 and 8 are manga. Book 3 was my first manga, which I started shortly after doing my N5 exam. It’s very funny but probably the hardest of the four.

Book 4 is a popular book about a cat. The cat speaks in babyish language which took a bit of getting used to.

Book 5 was a fun slice of life, probably my favourite of these manga. It’s quite a nice level, funny, and gives you some nice insights into Japanese culture and the day to day life of a family.

Book 8 we just finished. This is probably the simplest of the four overall. There are a few tricky passages but the reading threads are full of lots of explanations of the grammar, especially from @ChristopherFritz who replied to you above.

Any of these would be a good first manga. The links above will take you to the each book’s reading homepage which will have links to sample pages for the book.

For each book the reading club has already put together a vocab spreadsheet that you can use, and most of the trickier parts to translate will have had questions asked and answered in the threads. Good luck with your reading!

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I just purchased volumes 1-14 of Yotsuba from Japan, hoping they arrive for an early christmas present.

But in the meantime I will have a look at the Absolute Beginners Bookclub too!

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