!!! 
THAT is amazing! This will be a GREAT thing to get me started with manga + learning some grammar with it, at the very least.
PS. Update - I was finally able to install the “AnkiDroid” android app from the Google Play store on my Chromebook!
Looks like I’ll be using Anki after all - especially since it’s free.
I am still stumped with how to get Yomichan to function though… 
I completely forgot that installing Android apps on a Chromebook was a thing. (I’ve never used Chromebook.)
As for Yomichan, unless you want to jump into reading Japanese on web pages, I wouldn’t worry about it too much just yet.
Sounds good! And yes I just figured out today that installing Android apps on a Chromebook was a thing too ha! Thanks again for all your help today!
Alright, VTuber recommendations coming up!
On the cute side, for an absolute overdose of diabetes I can recommend Nakiri Ayame. Most adorable giggle on the planet, loves puns, does tongue twisters like a champion but gets tripped up on foreign names. Have insulin ready. Content-wise she doesn’t do a lot of streams, but what she does is mostly gaming - not sure if that’s your cup of tea. Occasionally she’ll do some chatting streams though. Doubles in adorableness when combined with Ookami Mio.
If that’s not enough diabetes for you, there’s also Amatsuka Uto, sometimes affectionately nicknamed Tenshi (both because her last name is written as 天使 and because she’s canonically an angel). Does a lot of different things, from gaming (lots of APEX Legends) to studying English, and she makes some of the most adorable noises in the process.
There’s also Shirakami Fubuki, the shitposter foxfriend extraordinaire. She has a voice that makes me irrationally happy, and does a variety of different streams, ranging from gaming to chatting to ASMR. Is everybody’s friend, not wife - very important to remember 
Absolutely loves burgers. Bona-fide rap god.
One of my personal favourites for chatting streams is Nekomata Okayu. She has the single most amazingly velvety voice I have heard in my life. She’s a bit of a troll, a lot of a flirt, and she’s super chill. She’ll occasionally speak in an Aomori dialect but mostly speaks fairly “standard” Japanese - and honestly her dialect is more intelligible than something like Kansai-ben IMO, the most start difference to me is some particles (like びょん as a sentence ender, meaning something similar to かもしれない). I can listen to this cat all day.
You’ll often see Okayu with Inugami Korone. They’ve been friends since long before they started their VTuber careers, and are pretty much inseparable. Her pitch accent is apparently a bit strange, so keep that in mind when using her for listening practice. She’s known for endurance streams playing retro games, but also does plenty of chatting streams. Very easily startled. She has a large international viewership because of her earlier “English Only” streams where her (admittedly not too good) English is absolutely adorable.
Bonus clip showing Korone and Okayu’s friendship
I also particularly like Shishiro Botan. She’s super chill, has a very infectious laugh, and is an absolute beast at FPS games. She’s incredibly resistant to horror, and has a great dynamic with pretty much everyone she collabs with, generally just being very straightforward (and sometimes downright rude, giving no shits whatsoever about politeness or the senpai-kouhai dynamic) and having a very good sense of humour.
Then there’s Tokoyami Towa. Her voice is a bit nasal, and may take some getting used to, but she’s a real sweetheart despite being a self-proclaimed devil (her most devilish act seems to be showering others in kindness so they get embarrassed… so evil). Very easy and fun to tease because she gets easily flustered. Also has one of the most amazing singing voices ever.
I’m also particularly fond of Yuzuki Choco. I find her voice very pleasant to listen to, she has her moments of culturedness but is overall just a cute dork, and she’s relatively easy to understand because she enunciates very well. She tends to have periods of obsession with particular games, leading to things like streaming only Ark for a good while or killing 400k Endermen in Minecraft to grind levels. Very good in bed - she can literally sleep all day (and later confessed she has at one point slept for 60 hours… I’m sure this is fine 
). Also does cooking sometimes (but did a lot more of it in the past).
There’s many, many more honestly, but if I dump everything on you I’m bound to overload you with VTubers - I’d say just check some of them out, watch some clips (and if you find a “<name> experience” video, they can give a good overview of a VTuber’s personality and content overall - like the Shirakami Fubuki Experience), and see who you like. And the VTuber thread is often full of new clips, VTubers, insights, whatever floats your boat.
All of the VTubers above are part of an agency called Hololive, which is probably the biggest VTuber agency alongside Nijisanji. There are a whole lot of others besides those two agencies, but most VTubers I personally watch are in Hololive (mostly because that’s just kind of how things ended up as a result of YouTube’s recommendations).
iPhone isn’t going to work on a Chromebook. Looks like Anki might be a bit tricky to get running on a Chromebook, I’ve found some instructions but they do seem to be a bit more on the technical side: Reddit - Dive into anything
I’m not familiar with Chromebooks at all, I’m afraid, so I don’t know what advice to give you. You could use AnkiDroid I guess? It’s on Google Play. I don’t think it lets you add cards though.
Are you still in the 14 day trial by any chance?
That should be enough, I think 
I had a look at my settings, and this is what they look like (not the full settings, but the relevant sections):
Is that how those sections look for you as well? If so you should be able to hold shift and hover over the following sentence, getting the popup as you go:
ポップアップを見たらよみちゃんが働く
It should look like this:
Uwa, I’ve been mentioned 
I would say my “ultimate guide to Japanese” goes kind of like this:
Get your WaniKani chops to level 30-40 to know enough kanji to read comfortably.
Do Genki + Tobira and/or Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese and/or Cure Dolly’s videos and/or BunPro for grammar till N3+ to cover most of what you’ll need. Make sure you understand the nuances of grammar points.
Install Anki and Yomichan (covered by @yamitenshi already) and slap every potentially useful word (marked “common” in dictionaries) to Anki. Rinse und repeat.
Read lots and lots more. Listen and watch movies/anime/Vtubers lots and lots more.
???
Profit
Can second that. I think in general many VTubers are good listening practice, but some of them do play around with their voices a lot like Mikochi and Luna so it might be more difficult to understand them. My top contenders would be:
HAHA oh wow your setup for all of this VTube madness did not disappoint!!! 
Okay here goes -
Nakiri Ayame - Definitely approve! The cuteness factor is certainly as you described, and I found a gaming video just to see and hear the laugh and AH! So great! Even though she does gaming, if it’s just simple/casual games I can handle it. If she’s doing like FPS shouting at other gamers that would be another story!
Ookami Mio - Also approve! Same reasons! The Karaoke is super fun.
Amatsuka Uto - HAHAHA - Adorable noises, yes, you can add that to my list of approved content!
Shirakami Fubuki - FRIEND FRIEND FRIEND! HAHA Got it 
Nekomata Okayu - WOW her voice is amazing. The range she has is extraordinary!
Inugami Korone - HER laugh is ADORABLE too!
Shishiro Botan - AGREED, I heard her laugh in a gaming video and it was indeed infectious!
Tokoyami Towa - I actually like her voice a lot! And I said that before I read your words about her singing voice, which I had already assess as amazing with a fantastic range!
*Yuzuki Choco - LOVE her laugh. I found a video of her playing some version of Mario Kart.
I am definitely going to follow these NINE on YouTube!!! Is it possible for these VTubers not to be precious beyond belief? Is that their complete aim??? Also, probably a dumb question, but are there any male VTubers? I had no idea VTubers would even have their own agency!
YES INDEED. This finally worked. At first when I tried to download it from the Google Play store it just said “Pending” and never started. I left it running in the background and a couple hours later it must have started and downloaded. I’m all set with it!
Yes indeed again! Two days left, but I’m not wanting to pay $8 a month for it when I can use Anki now. Especially since I’m strongly considering the lifetime membership with WaniKani.
AH YAY! I’m getting the popups now! Perhaps it’s because I restarted my browser? It’s been a busy day testing Japanese stuff on this little Chromebook workhorse. Perhaps that’s all that was needed!
Per usual - THANK YOU for all of this detailed attention to my questions and posts! 
YES an honorable mention of you, at that! I’m very glad you chimed in!
This rundown is PERFECT based on everything that people have been suggesting to me AND all the hard / annoying work I’ve spent at the computer today making sure all my ducks are in a row (I’m a little obsessive like that!). Now to test the waters with all of these things and see how I can fit them into a “learning balance” that works well for me.
Oh goodness more VTubers for me to look up? Thank goodness I won’t have to look far for content and suggestions any time soon!
Thanks again @WeebPotato ! It’s so helpful to be able to mention helpful people like you all in a post and know that your answers will be full of experience and caring!
Oh yeah.
You bet! Plenty 
Hololive is a part of HoloPro, which has a separate male branch called Holostars. I’m not as familiar with them because… well, the girls take up most of my viewing time, and I keep wanting to check more of them out, but there are only so many hours in a day 
The ones I know most about are Yukoku Roberu, a.k.a. Winning Son, the worst liar ever, lover of oneesans and all round adorable dork, and Aragami Oga, the man who embodies gloriously deep voices (bit is an absolute cinnamon roll behind the cool image). I know of the rest of them, but can’t really tell you much about their content or personalities other than that they’re every bit as precious and funny as the girls.
That blonde girl in the Winning Son clip is Amano Pikamee by the way, and she’s one of my all-time favourites. She’s bilingual, being a native Japanese speaker and having lived in the US for quite some time. She streams mostly in English but will interject with Japanese - and of course she speaks Japanese during collabs with JP VTubers. That bilingual content makes her especially beginner-friendly, since you know what she’s talking about even when she speaks Japanese. She’s also deliciously socially awkward and will always have some interesting stories to share during her chatting streams. Oh, and occasionally her IQ drops into the single digits, with hilarious results.
If vocal range is your thing, also check out Amane Kanata, Ayunda Risu and Hoshimachi Suisei. All three of them have amazing singing voices, but Kanata and Risu stand out in terms of range particularly. Risu also has a very broad range of speaking voices, and just casually did a duet with herself during a karaoke stream. I will say: Kanata speaks fairly quickly, so she might not make for the best listening practice.
One thing to note about Hololive and Holostars: they’re technically (and I do mean only technically) idols. That expresses itself in absolutely nothing but them doing varying amounts of music stuff, and it being a running joke because there’s literally nothing idol-like about any of them (except one, the OG, Tokino Sora - who is also adorable, by the way) in terms of personality
The separation between the male and female branch is a result of that, however, and you’ll see various degrees of collaboration between them, largely according to their own preferences.
Nijisanji, however, is not an idol agency, and as such is just a mix of male and female VTubers, with personas ranging from “talking dog” to “just a regular person but anime”. They also tend to care less about at least somewhat keeping up appearances, and will just spout whatever inappropriateness comes into their heads as they please - sometimes meaning they just make a few suggestive jokes, other times meaning they get their stream banned for playing eroge on stream and respond by mocking YouTube in an “apology” video where they call YouTube all kinds of names and provoking the content filter AI.
Their content isn’t all that different in general, Nijisanji just seems to have less management interference in their content overall and “feels” more like just “streamers with an anime avatar”. They’re also more likely to discuss their off-stream lives in any kind of detail than the Hololive girls are, ranging from funny anecdotes to full-blown deeply personal discussions. If you want I can recommend some favourites from Nijisanji as well, but you may have plenty of watching to do already And if you want more recommendations and VTuber-specific discussion, maybe the VTubers thread is a better place. This is your thread though, so it’s not as if anyone’s gonna stop you There are a few others active in the VTubers thread who can help you with recommendations and such though.
(Also I messed up earlier, Amatsuka Uto isn’t with Hololive, she’s independent)
EDIT:
I finally remembered I meant to check out the Shenmue intro in both languages, and got around to it.
Quality of voice acting aside, the Japanese doesn’t sound more natural to me than the English does. If you spoke Japanese like that in day to day life you’d probably sound like you’re trying to be a bad action movie star or something Which makes sense considering the theme, but… yeah, don’t emulate that in normal conversation
Oh yes that’s what I meant! I have a sorted background in all types of music, and when I heard one of her singing videos I could tell her range was superb! One of the first few things that catches my ear with a singer 
(I just realized there’s no singing emoji… like seriously? all they need to do is add a musical note to a surprised or kissy face!!!)
This is LITERALLY a crash course in VTube fandom! I have already bookmarked this post for future reference. I will also tiptoe my way into the VTuber thread just to see what’s “trending” from time to time!
HAHAHAHAHA!!! Oh don’t get me started on voice acting. Cory Marshall (the English Ryo) is a celebrity among Shenmue fans. I also know that the Japanese voice actor (I forget his name) is widely known in Japan too. That being said, the game is FULL of the same voice actors (probably developers and production assistants) making different voices up to add to the almost infinite number of characters and dialogue conversations you can have with them. That’s one of the few things that was revolutionary about Shenmue back then, but that’s also a conversation for another time 
Either way you are most definitely correct about the voice acting - and even though I can’t tell at all, I believe you 
The intro to the original Shenmue probably wasn’t the best sample, though, but I didn’t want you to have to skim through multiple videos! Ultimately I don’t necessarily want to speak like Shenmue, but understanding it is my goal
@yamitenshi @WeebPotato @ChristopherFritz
PS. I updated my “resources” in my OP with links to reflect what you’ve all enlightened me with today! Perhaps it will help some lost soul in the future as well
As would be implied by my title change, I need help with probably the simplest of questions that I’m already terribly embarrassed to ask… What is the read order for Manga boxes? I’ve never really even read a comic book and I don’t know if Manga is different from even those, so as I just cracked open my FIRST Manga I don’t want to get off on the wrong foot and confuse myself
What kind of manga boxes are you talking about? Any specific one you’re confused about?
Ah, right! Yeah, manga are gonna be different from Western comics. Basically it’s right to left, top to bottom, and the balloons within each frame are read right to left. So for that page, the dialog order would be:
Yotsuba: おー
Dad: もうすぐだぞー
Dad: よつば
Yotsuba: おーっ
Yotsuba: すげぇ
Yotsuba: とーちゃんここ家がいっぱいあるな！
Dad: そーだろーお店もあるぞ
Yotsuba: お店も[cut off]
And last is the panel in the bottom left.
This illustrations hows the read order in various configuration:
When there are multiple boxes stacked on top of each other next to another box that’s as tall as them, you read the stacked ones top to bottom one after another. So for instance, if 5 and 6 in that configuration were to the right of number 4, you’d read them in the order of 5-6-4, you wouldn’t read panel 4 in between 5 and 6 despite it being directly to the left of number 5.
And you probably know this already considering that’s one of the first pages in the manga, but the page order is reversed from Western books as well.
Ah! I knew there was something I was missing! Yes flipping the pages backwards is definitely something to get used to for me. I’m determined to get through a few pages tonight at the very least! I’ve been so busy lately I keep putting it off. Thank you so much for your detailed reply per usual
一日 I will burn 一日 and it will be the happiest day of my WaniKani life! So far this “one sun” has been burning me to a crisp. I have little idea why! I forget にち like it’s my job, I remember じつ all the time, and ひ is completely out the window, despite it being the easiest mnemonic for 日! I think it has to do with 一つ being ひとつ, and 二日 being ふつか that I always think 一日 should be "ひとか” BUT IT’S NOT! …and I just needed to type this all out to hopefully help my memory
Hah! I feel your pain. Took me a while to get いちにち and ついたち into my skull, alright
Worst part is when ひとか is marked wrong and your brain is like oh I know, it’s an irregularity!
…And then you go for いっか or something of the sort because your brain is an enormous troll and why the hell not
If by some chance you have learned the names of the days of the week through some external source already, you might know that “sunday” is pronounced にちようび. The にち stands for “sun” and the ようび for “day of the week”. That’s how I first learned that “sun” (日) can have にち as a reading.
In fact, the び of にちようび is also 日 (for “day” this time) which might help you to remember the ひ reading.
That same principle works for a lot of things by the way. External sources and vocabulary studies are amazing at cementing kanji readings. The more you encounter a reading, the better you’ll remember it.
The kanji I learn for words I already know are nearly always the ones I never get wrong.
Haha yes! I especially hate when I’m like “I know this so well,” hit enter, and it goes red. I check for a typo and… nope. Then I look for the reading/meaning and I’m like “CURSE YOU POSTAGE STAMP!”
Well I’m learning Sunday now! And yes this is very good for remembering the two! Thank you 
