Japanese viewing log

27/12/14 Hal on KissAnime 9/10, 1 hour

I really like the Futatsu no Spica manga and anime

Baby Steps

As well as Manga, I feel that Anime may be an even better tool that I could use to learn Japanese. I stumbled on Baby Steps today. It seems ideal for a number of reasons. 

Baby Steps has good reviews. It is freely available. (e.g. Mangapanda).The spoken language is clear and 'everyday', the characters are interesting and not over-the-top. I can relate to the slightly nerdy academic main character and his eventual infatuation with tennis. I can read the original manga (in English) alongside. Plus, I'm sure that I can buy it (in Japanese) from the local Book.Off. 

What more could I want?

Below: the first episode that someone uploaded onto Youtube

Jin is my new favorite

Jin is a word that means 'person'. 

It is also the name of a manga that you can read in English. I have the first 20 volumes of the series that I bought for just $10. 

Watanabe is weird

I'm not sure about Watanabe. An alien from 20,000 light years away comes to Earth to do a study. He needs a home stay. Speaks perfect Japanese too. 

At least, it's possible to access this story in English which could help. What to do--give it a 6/10 pending further 'study'?

Death note

Death Note is a little dark. The script is fairly simple, but very small. I bought a magnifying glass yesterday just to help me! Aimed at teenagers. The premise is that there is this notebook controlled by some Death master or other. You write a person's name in it, and they die in 40 seconds. I'd rate this one a 7/10 for me in terms of usefulness and/or interest.

The Climber

By far the best so far is the manga The Climber. It is also available online in English.That alone would make it worth reading, but the storyline is addictive too. A winner at 9/10.

Third manga

The third manga that I've browsed through is aimed more for adults. I has a surreal atmosphere to it. Almost weird, really. Dosegen is its title. Seems to be about someone who uses the bow-to-the floor technique to get what he wants. The language seems quite telegraphic and shorthand, although the size of the script is easy on my eyes.

At first glance the protagonist on the book's cover reminded me of James Dean. I can;t imagine how they are going to get a series out of this. I'll rate this 6/10 same as the previous book.

Just a word or two about the 3-year gap recently. It doesn't mean I've none nothing with the language (yet not as much as I wanted). I've been working on Heisig's way of learning Kanji. It's excellent. I,m up to over 1370 of them. A good site I've used for almost exactly a year to review them is Reviewing the Kanji. I've worked a lot on developing my ideas for an English-learning method for Japanese people. Those techniques are proving useful for me to learn Japanese too.

Second manga

Next up is manga number two. I'm only going to rate this 5/10. The artwork itself is good, but the storyline doesn't seem very clear to me. A little too fantastic. It seems that the series is based on a video game.

I was going to buy volumes 1 and 2, but am glad now that I didn't.

I will link to an article on Benny's 3-month language-learning site about learning Japanese in 1 year through manga.

Another cool thing is this research project on the most common onomatopoeic words in Japanese manga. 

Manga as a resource

I've been eying manga (comics) as a possible resource for years now.  I've finally decided to take the plunge after noticing that a second hand store 10km up the road has a sale on: ten books for 200 yen. Well gosh, that's not so much of a gamble.

I pass regularly, and decided this morning to drop in for an hour and find 10 likely candidates. I must say that the content of 99% of those on offer does not appeal. I don't go for fantasy, sports-oriented, futuristic battles, sexually-oriented, juvenile . . .

Now, comics in Japan resemble books. They are thick. And they come, often, in dozens of volumes. I figure that if I can find just a single series that I like, then I'll come out a winner. I'll find a way to make use of that set to learn the language. There are sites that claim that you can learn Japanese via manga. I'll give it a try.

First, I'll get a feel for each book. I'll spend about 10 seconds per page flipping through. Based on that, I'll rate them out of 10, and maybe rank them.

First up is a manga called Darren Shan. It's been translated from the books in English by, yep, Darren Shan. I picked this because I recognize the name. The local bookshop has a mountain of his books (novels, not comics) in Japanese by him. Used copies cost only 100 yen. I happen to have these books in English on my computer. I've checked out the first book, and its English is simple. Maybe the Japanese will be too. Looks better than Harry Potter to me, anyway.

Flipped through the book. Looks interesting. Storyline is easy to grasp. It has vampires in it, but you can't have everything just so.

I'll give this one 7/10.