Hi, I’ve been learning Japanese for quite some time and I basically learned all grammar that could be taught, but the vocabulary is the problem now. The thing is, I don’t read anything in Japanese because having to look up 70% of the Kanji turns me off every time. I got many recommendations to read kids manga and books, but I just cannot hook up to those no matter what. I’ve read a couple volumes of Yotsubato, Chi’s sweet home and other stuff of that kind, it was so boring I couldn’t continue. I like shounen manga but there are way too many Kanji I don’t know, and since there is no furigana it’s super time consuming to look each one up.
Maybe you know something with lots of furigana to make it easy to look up the word, or maybe there’s an app which let’s you translate Japanese words by tapping on them, like Jreader?
17 comments
I was thinking of this myself!
The manga for Mairimashita Iruma-kun looks like it has furigana throughout. I was planning on finding raws to start reading.
The best thing I can recommend is 角川つばさ文庫(kadokawa tsuabasa bunko) if you have the grammar down. Mainly written for grades 3-8 and every word has furigana.
They have lots of originals as well as movie books. For example the 君の名は book is written by Makoto Shinkai with younger readers in mind.
I’d recommend getting physical copies of whatever you read (Manga/light novels) so you can write notes. I’ve wasted so much time over the years having to relookup words because I forgot to take notes.
金田一少年の事件簿 – Kindaichi is the best, Japan’s answer to Agatha Christie. Absolutely riveting and all with furigana. I read this manga series (there are several) to this day, even having passed JLPT N1.
There are many other shounen manga that all have furigana. There will be definitely be something in the universe that appeals to your tastes.
I know [this](https://www.languagereactor.com) isn’t what you’re looking for OP but it could be interesting nonetheless?
Claymore has furigana, and that’s very much not for kids. Has some similarities with Berserk and Attack on Titan. I’m a fan.
Almost every manga published in a shounen magazine has furigana for everything
If you like scary stories, there is a HUGE manga series called “本当に怖いストーリー” they are a lot of fun to read and each chapter is a different short spooky story. Also, they have a couple of pages of alleged real ghost photos.
If you like Disney, there are furigana novel versions of almost every movie. This is great because if you already know the story it’s way easy to study the new vocabulary because of context.
I am reading “Your lie in April” which some find slow but is one of my favorite manga (even better as an anime!) and every kanji has furigana. I also read books on my kindle and a full translation and pronunciation is only a tap away.
I’m working on [a full study suite for Harvest Moon 64’s unlocalized TV shows](https://lostinlocalization.com/hm64-variety/). It’s got an Anki deck and a Google spreadsheet with every grammar point, vocab, and particle as well as detailed notes on culture/tricky language stuff that might be difficult for learners to understand. The episodes are a couple sentences each, and there’s 7 different shows, so you might enjoy the variety.
There are a number of spreadsheets for vocab for various beginner books/manga/etc. like 魔女の宅急便 (Kiki’s Delivery Service), which you can find on [the WaniKani forums](https://community.wanikani.com/t/%E9%AD%94%E5%A5%B3%E3%81%AE%E5%AE%85%E6%80%A5%E4%BE%BF-kikis-delivery-service-home-thread-beginners-book-club/22539/1). Try poking around there for something that interests you.
Yotsuba
地縛少年花子くん(じばくしょうねんはなこくん) Toilet Bound Hanako
One piece has furigana almost for every single word
I’m pretty sure Shounen Jump has furigana for every kanji. At the very least, One Piece does.
Also not manga/LN related, but nintendo games are pretty good with furigana, and some games (e.g. pokemon) let you choose between Japanese (no kanji) or Japanese (w/ kanji)
Try satori reader
If you like ラブコメ (romantic comedies) you have, for instance, からかい上手の高木さん (Teasing master Takagi-san) or 五等分の花嫁 (The Quintessential Quintuplets). They both have furigana and I absolutely loved reading them!
Have you tried spending a few months with WaniKani? it’s really helped me with my Kanji, and i’ve found even simple stories are more interesting just because i can recognize the kanji 😅
イジらないで長瀞さん is a fun romcom manga that nearly has every kanji with furigana