As an experienced community volunteer and former Refold language coach, I know the one surefire way to strike fear into a new Japanese learner’s heart: Talk about Kanji.
As a new learner, you’re thinking, Kanji are complex, scary, and there are so many of them! How will I ever hope to read anything in this language?!
Approaching the hurdle of reading in Japanese looks terrifying, but it doesn’t have to be thanks to manga, Japan’s version of comic books!
In this post, I will be sharing the top 5 manga I would recommend to new learners who want to get started reading without the help of audio.
Sue & Tai-chan
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Sue is an aging housecat who’s looking forward to living out her life in peace… but her plans change when the mischievous black tomcat Tai-chan enters the picture! Hey! Sue never signed up to be a catsitter! – Anilist
Story: 3/5 Language Learning Rating: 4/5 Overall Score: 4/5
First on the list is Sue & Tai-chan (スーと鯛ちゃん). This manga would be a great first pick due to its low difficulty without resorting to treating the reader like a baby. A lot of beginner manga will tend to use language that is intended for very young readers, such as mispronunciations of words, which is very confusing for adult language learners! This manga uses very few kanji. When it does, there is always furigana to help.
Note: Furigana is kana (hiragana and katakana) written above Kanji to let the reader know how to read the word.
Teasing Master Takagi-san
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Middle schooler Nishikata has had it with his classmate Takagi – the chronic teaser who sits nearby. Day in and day out, she comes after him with every sort of trick or prank. Even when he tries to get her back, she’s always one step ahead. But rest assured, it’s only the beginning. He’s not about to give up that easily in this battle of cunning and youth! – Anilist
Story: 3/5 Language Learning Rating: 4/5 Overall Score: 4/5
The Teasing Master Takagi-san (からかい上手の高木さん) anime is very well known in the Japanese learning community. Due to its expressive visuals, simple plot, and easy yet realistic language, it has been the go-to recommendation to new learners for years. The manga is highly recommended for a lot of the same reasons. Whether you’re brand new to the world of Takagi-san, or you’re diving into the manga already familiar with the anime, you’ll enjoy a valuable, and highly-praised, language-learning resource.
Happiness
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Nothing interesting is happening in Makoto Ozaki’s first year of high school. His life is a series of quiet humiliations: low-grade bullies, unreliable friends, and the constant frustration of his adolescent lust. But one night, a pale, thin girl knocks him to the ground in an alley and offers him a choice. Now everything is different. Daylight is searingly bright. Food tastes awful. And worse than anything is the terrible, consuming thirst. The tiny shames of his old life have been replaced by two towering horrors: the truth of what will slake his awful craving and high school itself. – Anilist
Story: 3/5 Language Learning Rating: 4/5 Overall Score: 3/5
If the typical beginner recommendations of slice of life make you want to yawn, and you’re not the type to easily get squeamish, the vampire thriller Happiness (ハピネス) might be right up your alley. Despite its dark, psychological themes, the language used is surprisingly easy as long as you have a dictionary at hand. This tense and intriguing story will be difficult to put down, making it easy to forget you’re learning a whole new language!
Flying Witch
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Makoto Kowata, a novice witch, packs up her belongings (including her black cat familiar) and moves in with her distant cousins in rural Aomori Prefecture, in the far north reaches of Japan, to complete her training and become a full-fledged witch. – Anilist
Story: 3/5 Language Learning Rating: 4/5 Overall Score: 4/5
The Flying Witch (ふらいんぐうぃっち) slice of life anime is another staple recommendation in the community. The atmosphere can even be described as “healing” as the show follows the life of a witch-in-training in the countryside. Aside from the magical and supernatural elements, the story and dialogue is surprisingly simple and down to earth. Sentences are straightforward and conversational with furigana. Being in the countryside, dialectical language and accents are something to be aware of.
Yotsuba to!
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Hello! This is Koiwai Yotsuba, Yotsuba Koiwai…um, YOTSUBA! Yotsuba moved with Daddy to a new house from our old house waaaaaaay over there! And moving’s fun ‘cos people wave! (Ohhhh!!) And Yotsuba met these nice people next door and made friends to play with (one of ’em acted like one of those bad strangers Daddy told Yotsuba not to go with, but it was okay in the end). I hope we get to play a lot. And eat ice cream! And-and-and…oh yeah! You should come play with Yotsuba too!
Story: 4/5 Language Learning Rating: 4/5 Overall Score: 4/5
The only recommendation that is more famous in the community than Takagi-san is none other than Yotsuba to! (よつばと！). There are many reasons it holds the title of the go-to manga recommendation for first-time readers. Its wholesome and stress-free story, simplistic dialogue, and low vocabulary size needed for entry are just a few reasons.
On the flip side, Yotsuba to! takes advantage of a very clever use of the 3 Japanese writing systems. Younger characters have their dialogue written in hiragana-only to reflect their age. Adult characters incorporate kanji in their speech, which is the standard. This can make this deceptively easy manga a little bit of a challenge for first-time readers.