Hi,
at which level do you recommand starting reading some japanese materials (especially mangas) ?
and which materials to start with ?
Well the higher level you are, the less time youâll be spending looking things up, but itâs also important to have some grammar knowledge, otherwise youâll probably have a hard time making sense of what youâre reading
But! If you feel confident enough to start, you can try to find something youâre interested in (and probably something with furigana), it makes the process more enjoyable that way â that being said, Yotsubato is a popular manga recommendation for beginners, thereâs even a Yotsubato book club here on the forums
Other popular beginner manga recommendations are things like Chiâs Sweet Home, Polar Bear Cafe, Doraemon, Crayon Shinchan, etc
Maybe check out this thread as well for more info on ways to jump into reading:
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I have started with ăă€ă°ăšïŒ and so far so good.
I have also bought another one I donât remember the title, which is harderâŠ
The other day I saw in Instagram a company that sends you 3 Manga every month based on your level⊠maybe you can find it 
Thereâs a company called âbox of mangaâ that does that, so maybe they are what you saw?(well, I think they send four used manga, but otherwise it sounds like what youâre describing).
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Yes! thatâs it.
I also recommend this page for suggestions:
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Iâd also recommend that rather than waiting for a certain level, you just try to read a sample. If itâs too difficult now just check back later.
For instance, you can check out the first few pages of Yotsuba on amazon.jp here., or on dengeki online here.
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To be fare, the first chapter is one of the most difficult onesâŠ
What I do, is to read it and get what I can. Then I re-read it with a dictionary. Then checking with the bookclubâŠ
Once you are done, and because probably several weeks has passed. You just re-read it⊠and because you already learned so much⊠itâs much easier. Then you check Vol 2⊠and the same, but iâs easier because you are used to the story, font, style⊠you know more, etcâŠ
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Read anything that hits that intersection between comprehensible enough and entertaining enough to be enjoyable.
Thatâs a really broad criteria, but I think itâs the only one that works. Sometimes it means doing something boring but easy because you enooy that, sometimes it means doing something way too hard but itâs entertaining enough that you enjoy it anyway. You have to try to figure out what will keep you going.
But Yotsubato is always a great suggestion because itâs not suuuuper hard and itâs hilarious and charming.
Beyond that, reading anything that youâre already familiar with is useful because even if thereâs a bunch of language you donât understand, you still already know whatâs going on. If youâve read a manga in English or seen an anime that you really liked (dubbed, subbed, whatever), take a look at the manga in Japanese. A lot of the time theyâre practically scene-for-scene. It lets you feel a lot less overwhelmed.
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Yeah, second this - I was honestly astonished at how much the first manga I read followed the anime (well, vice versa obviously, but you know what I mean 
).
Also, if you buy something and find you canât read it or itâs too boring or tedious or whatever⊠try, try again!
I think the more vocab you have the easier reading will become, so whatever vocab outisde WK you have will give you points here⊠In the end WK gives you 6000 words⊠which will account for roughly material at ć°ćŠ level⊠so donât expect for any level at WK to get you ready for much reading⊠thatâs mainly vocab and grammar (which later could be treated as vocab too⊠basically a new term to get acquainted with after you bump into it while reading) .
Mangas have the extra that they sort of âshow but donât tellâ a lot of whatâs happening, so you can cope with spending too much time searching for words⊠wich youâll do 
âŠ
exactly my experience⊠books in the bookshelf after a disapointing first try⊠revisited months later, and voilà !! they are rippen and ready to be consumed 
âŠ
Ditto to that⊠Start as high as you are able to tolerate the level of the material youâre able to read⊠I mean⊠with 500-700 words⊠you canât read no native material that will be apropiate for your age (seriously⊠donât even try to flip those pages on books aimed at toddlers)⊠so you can work on graded readers perhaps (I did that) until you reach a point where native content seem fair fight, or stoically handle the struggle to make your way too comprehension âŠ
I went the Graded Readers Way⊠until level 2⊠then picked up some basic ć°ćŠ aimed series (which you could replace with your favorite manga (I mean the ones mentioned by others here).
Reading is a skill⊠so just start ⊠material youâll find, and progressively youâll be able adjust it to your likings as you get better at it.
I took a book out the library just a couple of days ago from the kidsâ section. It has no kanji in it at all, which makes it really hard to read - is this what you mean? Otherwise though, Iâm quite enjoying the challenge.
Actually I meant toddlers⊠like before 4-5 year old kids aimed books. I remember picking these books and be really lost both in the hiragana sea of words but more than that (which I can cope if well parsed) because of the âcuteâ words (ăă㥠and such) and overpopulating onomatopoeias I found in the ones I openedâŠ
So short as they were, they werenât specially easy, as I was not related to that kind of speech.
Then books aimed at ć°ćŠ level use correct words and it has been easier to progress following a series. More hiragana in the earlier levels, but still well parsed and with gradually more kanji appearing those are fine.
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Ah, I see what you mean⊠and completely agree!
The one I picked up is ć°ćŠ level, perhaps just a bit earlier. It ought to be easy, and doesnât have the challenges you describe with a book for toddlers, but, with no kanji to cling on to and no frame by frame pictures, itâs harder than Yotsuba, and, being a story rather than facts, harder than ăȘăïŒă©ăăăŠ?. But still, something fun to read on the train!
I get what you mean. I found the format of biographies specially appealing⊠Something I can relate to and honestly be interested in 15-20 pages⊠while still having the easy wording and simple way of telling it as other kids material do.
Iâm hesitant to continue with a novel after Iâm done with the series⊠I have some äžćŠ level novels, but still look like such a huge gap from my current material.
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I personally found Aqua/Aria to be easier than Yotsubato, but maybe thatâs also because I gained a lot more experience between reading them.
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As reference, Iâm following along (albeit a good bit slower than the crowd) æăăăăć°ć„ł and it is definitely doable at my level. Itâs a struggle, yes, and there are a lot of grammar points I just donât get, but I enjoy it very much, even though Iâm exhausted after a couple of pages. Reading somewhere you can look up words without manually entering is a big requirement, I wouldnât do it if there was no built in dictionary. I see myself coming back to the story and dissecting things at a later point in time.
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