Looking for interesting books or Mangas to practice :

[p_gomp]

Hello Japan-friends!

I am looking for a long time books or Mangas to read in japanese, but till now I have not found something which is at the same time funny and easy to understand. My Japanese level is about JPL4 (I do not know the results yet). Till now I made some attempts reading books for children (in kana) not interesting, or Manga Sazae san also not so interesting, or at the moment I try with Breaking Into Japanese Literature: Seven Modern Classics in Parallel Text, which is definitely too difficult, even though most of the Kanjis are explained. The language is too literally for my level.

Do you have any tips for mangas or books (bilingual) which are interesting for adults but not so difficult concerning vocabulary. I believe it will help me alot if finally find sth that I can read every day in japanese.

Thanks
Pana

[Lambrix]

Well for bilingulal manga there's Kodansha Bilingual Comics. The trick if finding them. I found this randomly at a comic book shop and I have not been able to find any more since. It might be possible to find them at import stores, but I'm not sure. The one I have is Cardcaptor Sakura from CLAMP, but I'm sure there are a few other titles in the series.

[Derek]

Well, you could try The Japan Shop's site right here: http://www.thejapanshop.com/home.php?cat=249

They have several bilingual books listed. I would recommend the クレヨンしんちゃん　(Crayon Shinchan) series, but it seems that they are all sold out. They are great for practice because they are so goofy it doesn't seem like you are studying. I guess that I should have bought more when I had the chance.

You can check out http://www.jlist.com/ (If you are under 18 or easily offended, I recommend clicking on the JBox link instead of JList. Just a warning). Do a quick search for "bilingual" and you'll get a ton of hits.

You could also try this site: http://www.his.atr.jp/~ray/stories/ if you are just looking for some reading practice. You could print out the stories to read them whenever you want, I suppose.

I hope that helps.

[GoddessCarlie]

I found this site with "Manglish". It is manga with english translations also. THe english isn't 100% but it can help you

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/entertain ... index.html

[Jason]

Check out Yotsubato by Kiyohiko Azuma. It's love in manga form. There's a LOT of colloquial Japanese in it though. The 6th and final volume was just released in Japan not long ago.

[SOstrow]

This is my site of the day.
Easy and short mangas with english translation.
I love it! I think it is part of the Asahi Shimbun Kodomo site.
Often newspapers have a children's edition.

http://www.asagaku.com/oshaberi/oshaberi_b.html

Enjoy!

Steve

[Jackleit]

Great site! Thanks for the recommendation!

Jack

[Derek]

Great find Steve! You get a big chocolate chip E-cookie from me.

[Bucko]

I've been reading Death Note lately. Really good story, you learn some great words, it's not too slangy, and it has furigana for all the kanji. You can download the English translation from a bit torrent site too. So I try and read the Japanese, then when I don't understand I just look at the English translation.

[p_gomp]

Hi Bucko !

Can you please give me info where did you find "Death Note" and where did you find the english translation ?

Thanx

[Bucko]

Well I live in Japan so I basically have to walk out my front door and there's place to buy manga. If you use the key words "death note manga torrent" in google I'm sure you'll find something.

[Hedwig]

I realize the site (http://www.asagaku.com/oshaberi/oshaberi_b.html ) was posted almost a year ago, but I'm just now reading about it! What great fun! Thanks, Steve!

[Jason]

Since this thread's been revived, I have to correct what I said earlier. Yotsubato! didn't end at volume 6. 7 was released last year, and it's still running. <3

[QuackingShoe]

Gotta give a huge 'ditto' on the Yotsubato. It really is made of pure joy. You can be studying it hardcore and never feel anything but concentrated happiness. And, personally, I love seeing such casual Japanese ( though naturally it'd suck if you weren't at a level where you could make sense of it). It seems so much more like 'real' Japanese.

[gaijin333]

Japanese Graded Readers level one are perfect for you. They are easy but introduce new words and repeat them so you can learn a word just from the context. I bought the first 2 volumes. Google it, I think they have some in stock in the Japan-store.