Want to learn Japanese and have fun at the same time? Reading manga in Japanese is a fantastic way to improve your reading comprehension, grammar, and kanji recognition.
If you’re a beginner, reading a manga in Japanese may feel impossible. However, with the right tools and plan of action, you can start reading manga in Japanese sooner than you think.
Why Learn Japanese Through Manga?
There are so many reasons why you should be reading Japanese manga if you’re studying Japanese. First, you’ll gain access to all the manga available in Japanese. Only a fraction of Japanese manga is published in English, making some of the best manga completely inaccessible to non-Japanese speakers.
Second, it allows you to read popular manga months or even years before it becomes available in English. You can stay up to date with your favorite titles and read them almost from the moment they’re released in Japan.
Finally, learning Japanese through manga is so much more enjoyable than simply studying through a textbook or app. If you’re a beginner, you’ll likely need a textbook or other material to supplement your studies, but intermediate and advanced learners who have a solid understanding of Japanese can form a daily manga practice that should be enough to keep up with their studies.
How to Study Japanese With Manga
Using manga to learn Japanese might sound too good to be true, but it is possible if you know where to get started. Here’s our guideline for studying Japanese with manga.
1. Pick Manga With Furigana
Furigana lists the hiragana characters next to kanji, making them easier to read. Even intermediate and advanced learners tend to struggle with kanji. If you want to ensure you can read the kanji in your manga (without having to draw it out with your finger in Google Translate), choose a manga with furigana.
As a guideline, shojo and shonen manga are more likely to have furigana, but this isn’t a hard and fast rule. If the manga offers an option to “preview” it, like Amazon sometimes does, you can check to see if it has furigana. Isekai (“another world”) and fantasy manga will be the hardest to read for most learners, as they tend to use formal language not used in daily life.
Here are some manga confirmed to have furigana:
2. Do a Quick Readthrough of the Manga & Take Notes
Before diving into the manga, scan each page for any kanji you don’t know and add them to a list. you may handwrite the kanji for good writing practice, or type them directly into a Notion database, Google Doc, etc.
3. Learn the Words From Your List
Now you can look up each word from your list through the dictionary, Google Translate, or anapp for studying Japanese. If you’re having trouble finding a specific definition or helpful examples, try typing the term plus the words って英語で何 (“what is _ in English?") into Google.
4. Enter New Terms Into a Flashcard App
Aflashcard app like Anki or Quizletwill really help you learn new kanji and vocabulary. This repetition of studying words in your flashcards, then recognizing them in the manga you’re reading will help commit them to memory. Furthermore, you’ll eventually be able to move on to manga without furigana.
Now that you have your own mini dictionary of difficult words that will come up in the manga, you’re ready to read it for real. Remember that you’ll likely be much slower reading in Japanese than in English, and that’s okay. Refer to your flashcards as needed if you forget certain words.
6. Review Your Flashcards Regularly
Once you’re done with the manga, be sure to review the flashcards on a regular basis so you don’t forget any of the terms you just learned.
7. Rinse and Repeat With a New Manga
If you managed to read through the manga and (mostly) understood everything, congratulations! Now you’re ready to try a new manga. You can choose the next volume or jump to a different series or genre. Pat yourself on the back for completing such a major accomplishment.
8. Bonus - Review Your Terms in Notion
Once you start reading manga regularly, you’ll probably end up with multiple flashcard lists that contain all sorts of different vocabulary. To break up some of the monotony from studying with flashcards, why not create some new databases in Notion?
For example, take all the verbs and put them into a database. Challenge yourself to see if you can write other forms of the verbs, including passive, present progressive (te-form), etc. There are evenNotion templates specific to language learnersto help you get going.
You can also try grouping like-words together in their own databases. Depending on the type of manga you read, you can make categories for cooking, fashion, travel, etc. Manga is known for its “edutainment” qualities, so if you read a series like “Knitter’s High,” you’ll learn a lot of useful vocabulary for knitting and crafting. “Laid-Back Camp” will teach you outdoorsy terms like “fire starter,” “sleeping bag,” and more.
Help Reading Manga in Japanese
If you’re having a difficult time getting through a manga in Japanese, try one of these tips:
Make a List of All the Manga You Want to Read
There are so many Japanese manga out there waiting to be discovered. Now that you’re able to read manga in Japanese, think about creating a list to track all the manga you want to read. There are a few different ways to do it, but MyAnimeList is one of the easiest and most reliable ways to start tracking.
Q: Where Can I Read Manga to Learn Japanese?
Starting with thebest manga apps for Android and iOSwill give you a central place to find and read manga. If you want an option for your computer, there are somegreat sites to read manga onlinethat are both legal and have plenty to offer.
Q: Is It Possible to Learn Japanese With Anime?
Yes, as with any language, you can learn a lot just by watching and listening. With thebest websites for watching free anime, you can learn Japanese by watching videos alongside reading manga.
Q: Is Duolingo Actually Good for Japanese?
Whether you find Duolingo good for Japanese depends on your style of learning. Duolingo is known for its reward system and leaderboard, both of which encourage learning through a game-like system. Some people have also noted that it works best for languages that use the Latin alphabet. If you find you don’t like using the app, there are manygreat language-learning appsyou can try instead.
