Others say...

"Love anime? Want to learn Japanese? Look no further."
Hi,

I don't usually write reviews too often unless I feel the need to let someone know whether or not they're about to make a purchasing mistake.

This review is mostly going to be tailored to people (like myself) who are obsessed with anime and dream that, one day, they too will be able to watch an anime without subtitles and understand everything, among other things.

With that in mind, this book is by far THE best beginners' Japanese course I have ever found. I have purchased many of the popular titles you may have already heard of... (ex: Japanese for Busy People) and I was so frustrated at myself for never sticking past the first chapter... blaming myself for my lack of discipline. Now it is no longer a mystery to me--it wasn't my fault! These books are extremely dull and boring to anime fans. "Where is the train station? Thank you, Tanaka-san, for the rice. Would you like to sit down? Okay. Nice to meet you. Thank you very much! What time does your train leave? etc etc..." Not only that, but you never learn anything interesting / in style, and you are pretty much reduced to learning "Watashi and Anata" as the only way to address I and you, respectively. Jeez, what were they thinking? Doing that completely takes the fun out of Japanese learning and gives me the mistaken impression my hopes of Japanese as a cool language were simply pipe-dreams.

This book takes care of all that. You will learn how to say "You bastard!!!" like you hear so often in Anime. You will see examples of beautiful anime girls asking if they can bathe with guys they like. You will so cute cartoons express themselves in silly ways. But that's not all! It is a beginner's book too, so you will learn how to say days of the week, calendar days, seasons, how to count and the different systems, etc... all the critical stuff. Even a few swear words! You will learn how to read and write Hiragana and Katakana right off the bat (you do not need to purchase anything else for this either, as it is all succinctly explained in 2 chapters, even stroke order.. etc).

You also may be wondering how they teach this information. 1. Charts. 2. Explanations... and 3... Real manga examples! What better way to learn casual day to day conversation-style that's so apparent in Anime and everyday life? I can't think of a better way. I really don't want to learn Japanese from a hoity-toity course and speak like those geeks wearing lawyer outfits you see around town with their "the Queen's" Japanese. No, none of that, though you will be able to speak like that if you choose to. To illustrate, I was even saying some of the things in this book to Japanese waitresses with excited and happy results, such as: "You speak exactly like a Japanese man!!! Oh my God! Where did you learn?". Nowhere, no formal education, just many hours of anime, this course, and a sincere desire to be able to speak it fluently.

There is one complaint about the book... (another reviewer was correct in pointing this out). There is no stroke order to draw / write the kanji. I do find this quite irritating, as I'd like to go along with the book and learn these simple kanji without developing bad habits. (hence the 4-star rating). Thankfully though, all hope is not lost, and it's not that big of a deal. Get Heisig's Remembering the Kanji set which will teach you 2042 Kanji and their readings, stroke order, etc etc. Book 3 of 3 has another thousand or so).

In conclusion, if you love Anime / manga, and haven't purchased any other books looking for a beginner's Japanese course to do on your own, then this it. Look no further. I am extremely grateful to the author for deciding to use this radical yet effective method of teaching me Japanese.

Thank you.



"Enjoyable find"
My daughter bought this and is learning Japanese faster than when she was getting books from the library. I am impressed. I may spring to pay for the next one.

"Good for the interested"
This book made me realize how hard Japanese really is. Its a great book for the interested but don't think that your going know Japanese after just reading this. Combine with the Japanese in MangaLand: Workbook 1 for effective learning. I only got this to familiarize myself of what I'm getting into when I take Japanese in the coming semester at school.

"Worth the purchase but..."
I've been studying Japanese for 5 months. I've worked through, "Japanese for Busy People" the Romanji version. It will take about 10-12 years of daily study to be able to read Japanese if not write it..even if you go through this entire series you won't be able to pick up seinen manga and read it with out more vocabulary and kanji memorization. Even shounen with furigana will be difficult.
However this series is a great way to introduce ones self to the Manga style of writing.

One thing I have noticed is that my other dictionaries and source books on verbs list type 1 verbs as the "u" dropping variable verbs, while this book lists type one verbs (it refers to them as group 1) as the "ru" dropping invariable verbs.

I'm far from being an expert on written Japanese grammar, however I was confused at first with this (I'm working my way through several books and dictionaries from cover to cover simultaneously).


Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Thank you,
Michael



"Finally a course that focuses on the written word"
This series is the best I've found after floundering off and on for years. I am a visual learner and the best way to learn for me is to read, but reading Japanese has always been presented as something difficult and fearful. Traditional courses put it off as long as possible and you are always taught "polite" language first. However, most of us who want to learn the language are used to hearing the extremely colloquial language found in our favorite anime and/or reading manga. This course, focused as it is on manga reading, does just the opposite. Polite language is not ignored, but colloquialisms that would only be taught to advanced students elsewhere are brought up right from the first.

More importantly, this course hits reading head on from the first page. While it's true that they hang on to romaji throughout the first book, it is eliminated in the two that follow. As the author warns in the preface to Vol. 2, it's time to strap on a headband and get to work after you've made it through the introductory first volume.

I've now finished the second volume and have begun tackling the third in preparation for the JLPT in December. The author claims that you should be ready for the level 3 after Vol. 3, and I intend to put that to the test...literally.

Frankly, I would like to see this series repackaged for college use with more workbooks like that accompanying the first volume (and the answers only found in the teacher's edition!). This series is that good (even with the occasional typos and the one "hacer" they forgot to take out...remember that it was translated from Spanish) and most college course books that I've seen are that BAD. (Don't even get me started on the dense, dry style and confusing romaji in "Japanese: The Spoken Language". It's horrible, and is yet one of the more commonly used series. *sigh*)

The format changes slightly after the first volume, with in depth work with those evil particles and verb conjugations. But to get to the heavy hitting work, you first must make it through the first volume.

My suggestion is to buy all 3 and the workbook for volume one and give yourself the goal of passing the level 3 JLPT (there are 4 levels with 4 being the easiest and 1 the hardest). With a definite goal and a once a year testing schedule with a definite date that YOU have no control over, it's much easier to buckle down and study.

It's working well for me, anyway. I've already noticed myself automatically reading the signs in pictures I took on vacation in Japan a few years ago..and not just the ones in English or kana!


  

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  Japanese in Mangaland: Basic Japanese Course Using Manga

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What our customer's say!

"fun as complement: on its own you need to buy the extra workbook", My complaints about this book:

- there are very few exercises in each chapter and they are far from
being sufficient, so you WILL need the extra workbook that is sold
separately...by 'very few exercises' I mean 1 page !

- The user has to do alot of memorization from lists, which becomes
boring very quickly because, as mentioned, there are very few exercises
in the chapters...the extra workbook assumes that you have learned the
corresponding chapter beforehand, so there is no way around this
tedious list-reading

- many of the manga examples do not follow the same level as the reader,
they usually cover characters that the reader hasn't
learned yet in previous chapters so you are stuck reading the romanized
script anyway...which sort of defeats the purpose of the book to some
degree


Now, to the positive aspects:

+ if you look past my complaints, the book is actually fun to work with,
using Manga makes your studies seem less "school"-like,
this counterbalances the tediousness of vocabulary memorization

+ the author explains everything very clearly, usually with examples

+ the book brings up aspects of Japanese that are more "street"-like,
like phrases and words that you would only hear in movies and manga,
and that most Japanese textbooks would dismiss as being too informal
,such as the more "vulgar" forms of saying I/me

+ the chapters are very short, around 5-6 pages, which is perfect for those days when you don't have much time to put into your studies


To summarize:
~ if you plan to make this book the only source of learning you really
need the extra workbook to give you some exercises to do

~ if this is a complement to you regular textbook then this will make
your learning abit more fun and you will learn some "unofficial" stuff


"Good idea, but not a great execution", Right now, I'm learning Japanese through manga. The problem for this review is that I'm doing it with another product- Japanese the Manga Way: An Illustrated Guide to Grammar and Structure. Japanese in Mangaland is a decent book, but it's by no means the best, and it's easily lost in a sea of better material.

The first and biggest strike against Japanese in Mangaland, is that it doesn't include real manga- all the "manga" included was drawn for the book. This pretty much violates the entire concept. Compare Japanese in Mangaland side-by-side with Japanese the Manga Way, which uses authentic material, and you'll see that the art used in Mangaland isn't really even close to authentic manga a majority of the time. Japanese in Mangaland mostly looks like western stereotypes of what manga is supposed to look like, and this is largely drawn from the artistic style of popular anime. You'll see lots of big eyes, Sailor Moon style. You won't see any of the extremely simple and often very cheaply printed styles of, for example, Shin-Chan.

Aside from violating the whole concept of learning through manga, Japanese in Mangaland isn't a bad book at its core. The best part of the book is that it has plenty of real exercises and practice lessons, which is the one thing that Japanese the Manga Way sorely lacks. Japanese in Mangaland also has multiple volumes and plenty of workbooks, meaning it's overall a more intensive program than Japanese the Manga Way, which is one standalone book with no exercises.

However, I really can't suggest Japanese in Mangaland even for its workbooks and exercises. If you've got the motivation to get that far into learning a language, it's time to join in on a real Japanese learning course, or to just pick up some real manga and look up the parts you don't recognize in reference books. A book like Japanese the Manga Way is really meant to be a stepping stone, encouraging you to go buy some real Japanese reading material and immerse yourself. That's a much better way to learn the language. Japanese in Mangaland is just your average workbook disguised by false manga-styled drawings.

So I can't recommend purchasing Japanese in Mangaland. If you really want to read manga, pick up Japanese the Manga Way and start reading real manga now. If you're more interested in just reading the language for its own sake, lessons on topics like swearing and onomatopoeia (words that describe sounds, like "zzz.." for sleeping or "vrooom" for driving) are best left to later courses while you work on your basics. I'd only recommend Japanese in Mangaland to someone who really can't help falling asleep reading a coursebook unless it has cute pictures in it, or maybe if you're really desperate for a few pages on topics like swearing and onomatopoeia- in which case you might want to pick it up from the library instead.

"Great for reviewing Japanese", I am returning to Japan for a visit and needed a review of conversational Japanese. This book worked well for that purpose.

"Above the rest", I am absolutely astonished by the quality of this book. When I looked at the cover, I expected this to be a gimmicky book with only a cursory glance at grammar and even worse, entirely in romaji (Roman letters). Fortunately this book does not treat the reader like a moron and expects you to work, and giving you everything you need to achieve your early Japanese language goal. I believe that so far there are only 3 books in the series and they go up to an intermediate level where you will have a solid background in the language, almost enough for the second level on the JLPT.

I expected this book to have more manga in it, but only small panels are taken from manga and used as an introduction for the chapter. Some useful material for manga-specific subjects (onomatopoeias, etc) are mentioned, but the focus is on the language as a whole.

I think the most impressive part of this series is its focus on _common_ vocabulary and colloquialisms. I studied years ago with the Genki textbook series and its vocabulary was poor, giving you words that you just would not use in everyday life.

I recommend this series but I also suggest any Japanese student to purchase another book or use another study system in order to learn the writing system.

"A bit too advanced for child.", I was hoping for more manga. A bit heavy on the text. The book is very well done, perfect for an adult. But too heavy for early teen.



 
You might need this...

Japanese in MangaLand: Workbook 1
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Japanese in MangaLand 2: Basic to Intermediate Level (Japanese in Mangaland)
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Kanji in MangaLand: Volume 1 (Kanji in Mangaland)
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Japanese in MangaLand 3: Intermediate Level (Japanese in Mangaland (Numbered))
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Japanese the Manga Way: An Illustrated Guide to Grammar and Structure
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Read this reviews before You buy...

"Good idea, poor execution", The idea of learning japanese by reading manga is really great. Manga is, after all, one of the reasons that make many people want to learn the language in the first place. So this book looks promising, but it's actually just somewhat less boring than traditional textbooks.

The book's content originated from a column about the japanese language that was featured in a spanish magazine about manga. It's reasonable to suppose that its aims were quite unambitious at first: help manga fans learn a few words and set expressions that were used very often in the comics. The format of the lessons were: "here are some words and expressions, memorize them" along with very superficial explanations and examples from a few manga panels. This format is adequate for a magazine, with its space restrictions, but really not optimal for a book.

Unfortunately, the lessons were not improved when collected to make a book. One can say they were actually worsened, by replacing real manga panels with some generic manga drawn especially for the book. It is quite boring to try to memorize a lot of vocabulary in each lesson, the explanations rarely do more than scratch the surface, and the examples and exercises are very few and unenlightening. In most examples, there are a lot of words and parts of the sentence you don't understand, and the book doesn't explain anything beyond what's the topic of the current lesson. I'd be very surprised if I'd manage to really learn some japanese from this book, aside from some words and set expressions, after a lot of boring memorization work.

Now, it's not all bad. I've been learning japanese for more than a year now, and in this time I've used this book mostly as a reference. The short lessons make it easy to locate some specific word or expression, and the examples help to put them in context. I'd recommend it mostly as a supplement, not as a main book in any way. You'll finish the first volume, with 30 lessons in all, knowing very little japanese, and will have to resort to other books, like the other volumes of the same collection, with the same problems. If you want a "learn japanese with manga" book really well-done, try Japanese The Manga Way: An Illustrated Guide To Grammar And Structure, it's a complete, organized japanese course illustrated with real manga, well explained and with all examples completely analyzed. I can't praise it enough.

If you have some money to spare, buy this book for additional content, like the lesson on curses and swearing, but don't expect too much from it. It may be good for getting some words memorized, but to get a real sense of the japanese language you'll have to go somewhere else. Again, Japanese The Manga Way: An Illustrated Guide To Grammar And Structure is a good suggestion.

"The best Japanese book I have bought!!!", The "Japanese in Mangaland: Basic Japanese Course Using Manga" was really good and reliable. I have bought programs and a lot of Japanese self-study books and work books, and this one was the best one I have bought. It explains everything in a well-toned manner and everything is understandable.

There are explanations to everything and the author helps the reader/student learn how to write and read Kanji and the other forms of writing, Katakana and Hiragana.

The manga examples proved to be a really good method to help learn because instead of just reading countless paragraphs of explanations, you get to look and see how the Japanese authors of manga use the writing and their language in graphic novels in Japan.

I think after this book, the next ones should also be bought. This book is money well spent and I am sure you'll enjoy studying the Japanese language and writing just as I have. So buy this book and learn Japanese today!


"I Bought this for my Teeneged Student of Japanese", While I can't improve on what Courtland said, I would like to say that I bought this for one of my daughters, a straight-A student of Japanese. At first she didn't like it but she was bored and started to read it and decided that she liked it. This is useful Japanese. It's repetitive. It's how it is spoken. She saw her Japanese teacher the other day while grocery shopping and he immediately started speaking to her and she spoke back, speaking better than she had in his class and he was extremely pleased as she'd not lost anything over the summer.

Magna reminds me of comic books in elementary school-- the teachers didn't think they were useful reading material but for kids who weren't into reading and liked the short stories with lots of action, they were good because at least they were reading and getting something out of them. This is really the way to go for learning ebcause you put the language into use immediately.


"Great Way To Learn More Japanese", If you have already mastered Hiragana and have some basic grasp of Japanese, then this book can serve as a very enlightening complement to a more traditional course in Japanese. A more traditional course in Japanese will introduce you to the essential aspects of formal and polite language; this book will introduce you to what are arguably the equally essential aspects of more informal and popular language and culture. The selected Manga illustrations in the book are fun and often humorous, thus encouraging the assiduous language learner!

"Japanese in MangaLand", I have read several (well started) several books trying to learn japanese but it is a very forien concept to me as a native english speaker, This book takes a good aproach or explaining and giving examples that helps me understand how the language is sturctured and works. I have not completed the book but from the lessons i have taken in conjunction with the workbook i have been very happy

  
 
 

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