Welcome to the Beginner Anime Club!
Now Voting
Now Watching: のんのんびより・Non Non Biyori
In this club we choose a Japanese anime together and watch it following a weekly schedule. We help each other with grammar and other questions. At the moment this is the only current ongoing anime club, and is focused on beginner level material but we don’t set a hard limit on difficulty. Users are welcome to watch both with Japanese audio only, or with Japanese subtitles.
If you’re interested, just grab a copy of the upcoming anime or find the streaming service on which it is available (we vote ~6 weeks before finishing the current pick) and join in! You are always welcome to ask new questions in the threads of any of our previous picks as well 
Previous Picks
We always watch just the first season of a series. Sometimes, if a particular pick was enjoyed by many people who want to continue watching it together, that pick will continue to run as a parallel offshoot, watching the subsequent seasons. Seasons are determined by seasons on sites such as Natively or TMDB, and may have originally been split cour seasons. If a one cour season wins the poll, then we will watch both the first two winners, to avoid polling again immediately.
Proposed Anime
Feel free to nominate something you’d like to watch using the template below! Suggestions must be appropriate though; please read the guidelines.
Guidelines for Proposing Anime
-
Nominate something you are ready to watch
We want to maintain lively discussion throughout the club, so don’t nominate something you yourself will struggle to participate in. You also can’t rely on there being more advanced learners available to help with all questions. -
Do not nominate anything clearly NSFW
We try to maintain a wide appeal, so don’t knowingly nominate anything associated with fanservice or gore. -
Do not nominate anything difficult to procure
Picks must be readily available at online stores or major legal streaming sites. If it’s not available on any major streaming site in the US or Japan (consult JustWatch if you live in a different country), please consider whether it’s still worth nominating and list this clearly as a “con”. Unlike book availability, anime availability varies much more from country to country. -
Well-known works are more desirable
Guidance only: the viewer pool will be much larger for well-known works, and background knowledge of the premise will make it easier for people to understand the content and help each other out. -
Anime that fail to score at least 15% on the last three round of voting will get automatically removed.
This approach ensures that the list remains reasonably small and dynamic.
You may nominate a removed anime again, but please think about it before hand. Do you think there’s reasonable interest for that nomination?
Proposal Template
Copy this template into a new post when making a nomination.
# Insert Title Here
Natively: [Level ??](Natively Url)
(cover pic here)
## Summary
Insert summary here, taken from wherever - Wikipedia, Amazon, etc. Improve the description if you would like / feel it necessary.## Availability
Insert purchase links for physical: preferably Amazon JP and CD Japan.
Insert Just Watch link for streaming availability. You may also list which streaming services have it in your locality or major localities like the US or Japan, but please include the JustWatch link so people can find where it is available for them.## Personal Opinion
Insert why you think this anime would be good to watch, personally and for the anime club.### Pros and Cons
**Pros**
* Insert pros here.**Cons**
* Insert cons here.## Preview
[details=“PV”]
Insert links to PV if available on Youtube or elsewhere
[/details]
[details=“Additional Clips”]
Insert a few more representative clips here, or screenshots with JP subtitles
[/details]
List of Removed Nominations
N/A
Current Proposals
See the linked nomination posts for more information, including sample clips.
The difficulty scores come from Natively, where they are ranked by other language learners.
Last updated: 2024-04-08
4/20, 16 spots available
Where to View Anime
Western Streaming Services - Raw
If you want to view an anime raw, you can just go to your favourite provider of subtitled anime (e.g. Crunchyroll) and turn your local subtitles off
Western Physical Media - Raw
As with Western streaming services, if you have media with Japanese audio (e.g. it’s sold as an English subtitled release), you can just turn your local language subtitles off.
Western Streaming Services - JP Subtitles
For licensing reasons, western streaming services rarely natively provide Japanese language subtitles. However, if you acquire the subtitle file seperately, you can use ASB Player for Chromium browsers on most major streaming services or Jimaku player on Firefox for Crunchyroll. This will allow you to load your own subtitle file. For forum rule reasons, we cannot link you to where to find the standalone subtitle files.
Western Physical Media - JP Subtitles
For licensing reasons, western physical releases rarely natively provide Japanese language subtitles. However, if you acquire the subtitle file seperately, you can play it on your PC and load a external subtitle file with your media player.
See instructions for loading external subtitle files in VLC or MPC.
Importing Japanese Media
Physical retailers:
Note that you need a separate account for each ‘instance’ of Amazon, so you won’t be able to use Amazon JP with e.g. your French Amazon account. Amazon adds an estimated customs charge to your bill which will be refunded if you don’t have to pay customs (or pay less).
CDJapan has economy shipping options which take longer to arrive but cost less.
If you can’t find an online store that will ship to you, you can use a forwarding service like Tenso or White Rabbit Express. If you live in the right place, you may also be able to find the book at a local Japanese book store such as Kinokuniya; just Google your area.
Historic Polls
“Next Anime” Polls
- Poll 3 - Winner: Non Non Biyori
- Poll 2 - Winner: Sasaki and Miyano
- Poll 1 - Winner Romantic Killer
Other Polls
- Expand the level range?
- Verdict: Remove the level cap
- Keep the gap week?
- Verdict: Yes
