ルリドラゴン is a super simple manga, even easier than yotsubato in my opinion, and you wouldn’t think that considering it has an actual story rather than just slice of life stuff (unfortunately it’s only one volume).
I heard that manga like ハピネス or 惡の華 use very easy Japanese, despite being very thematically heavy. I never read them in Japanese so I’m not sure but I know a lot of beginners who start reading them and have a very good time doing so.
I was surprised a bit that there isn’t such a big difference between manga for kids and manga for teens. Vocabulary definitely expends (in 2-3 times), but I wasn’t able to read yotsubato without a dictionary anyway. Sometimes it’s even easier to read harder content, because there is less slang/casual speech shortenings and typically dictionaries hate it. Like when ない becomes a single ん. It’s good to know it, but in terms of difficulty a simple tap or mouse hover translation, that is done in 1 second, turns into 1-15-60 minutes googling.
Chainsaw man
Ojisama to neko.
Chainsaw Man is really easy compared to how advanced (in my opinion) the story is. It’s one of the only “dark” / psychological shonen with pretty strong adult themes that has furigana on every page. Also, Denji is kind of an idiot who speaks very directly, and he needs things explained to him repeatedly, which is good for language learners.
Jujutsu Kaisen also has furigana so that probably counts too, although I haven’t personally tried reading. Update: apparently, this isn’t true, see comments.
I am not reading the manga, but I’m watching Demon Slayer right now, and I’m honestly shocked at how simple most of the vocabulary they use is. I’m probably upper intermediate, but still went into it expecting to have to search up a handful of words each episode, but haven’t had to look up many words at all (at least with subtitles). There are a few words that the series created e.g. 血鬼術、全集中の呼吸、but overall the vocabulary is very easy compared to most other shounen series.
All manga are fair game tbh. I started with kingdom and by most standards it should be quite difficult but I found it pretty great and comprehensible. As long as you use Mokuro you can’t really go wrong
mousou telepathy is pretty easy. It’s 4-koma romcom about a girl who can read minds and she’s stuck in the same class with a boy who has a crush on her. It’s fairly etchi though so much so the cover jokes about it.
I bought all volumes of 五等分の花嫁 when I was still at N3 level. That manga is nice because all the kanjis have furigana and the vocabs are (mostly) stuffs you can actually encounter irl
Not as a manga, but I was surprised how easy SpyxFamily was to watch. I think I expected more higher level vocabulary given the concept. I think they tone down the terminology for kids.
I also agree with chainsaw man.
On the flip side I was pretty shocked at how difficult My Hero academia is. I was not expecting a high school super hero show to get into such deep lore and terminology about their abilities.
「夫婦以上、恋人未満」has furigana for almost every word.
*なめて、かじって、ときどき愛でて*. I didn’t start to read it because I expected it to be easy but there’s something about the language that made it so easy and quick to read for whatever reason and it’s also a really exciting story where one’s dying to know what will happen next at about every turn.
JJK
Pretty much nothing you have heard of is easy. Many comics in コロコロコミクス monthly are going to be good for people coming up on intermediate level.
Where are y’all reading manga online? Preferable one you can get both English and Japanese? Or maybe that’s a little unrealistic.
Demon Slayer volume 1 At least for me 😂
Otomen was my first if you’re into that kinda stuff
Edit: It was easy when I was a beginner. But that’s debatable, I guess
Not sure if it’s easier “than it seems” because I think it’s aimed for kids, but 王様ランキング was a relatively easy read and has furigana (I’m hopefully N4 by now).
For something darker, タコピーの原罪 was a really nice and easy to read manga, though no furigana. Also has the benefit of only being two chapters long.
Going through the first volume MASHLE right now and it seems alright as well.
ARIA doesn’t seem to use too much difficult vocab and usually sticks to short, casual conversation rather than long paragraphs of anything technical or political which is helpful.
Yofukashi no Uta was really easy to read as a beginner.
You’d think Death Note would be hard and then, surprise! It’s all people speaking somewhat formally at work about the same topics over and over.
少女終末旅行, not a lot of dialogue, there are some harder (less common) words though
22 comments
ルリドラゴン is a super simple manga, even easier than yotsubato in my opinion, and you wouldn’t think that considering it has an actual story rather than just slice of life stuff (unfortunately it’s only one volume).
I heard that manga like ハピネス or 惡の華 use very easy Japanese, despite being very thematically heavy. I never read them in Japanese so I’m not sure but I know a lot of beginners who start reading them and have a very good time doing so.
I was surprised a bit that there isn’t such a big difference between manga for kids and manga for teens. Vocabulary definitely expends (in 2-3 times), but I wasn’t able to read yotsubato without a dictionary anyway. Sometimes it’s even easier to read harder content, because there is less slang/casual speech shortenings and typically dictionaries hate it. Like when ない becomes a single ん. It’s good to know it, but in terms of difficulty a simple tap or mouse hover translation, that is done in 1 second, turns into 1-15-60 minutes googling.
Chainsaw man
Ojisama to neko.
Chainsaw Man is really easy compared to how advanced (in my opinion) the story is. It’s one of the only “dark” / psychological shonen with pretty strong adult themes that has furigana on every page. Also, Denji is kind of an idiot who speaks very directly, and he needs things explained to him repeatedly, which is good for language learners.
Jujutsu Kaisen also has furigana so that probably counts too, although I haven’t personally tried reading. Update: apparently, this isn’t true, see comments.
I am not reading the manga, but I’m watching Demon Slayer right now, and I’m honestly shocked at how simple most of the vocabulary they use is. I’m probably upper intermediate, but still went into it expecting to have to search up a handful of words each episode, but haven’t had to look up many words at all (at least with subtitles). There are a few words that the series created e.g. 血鬼術、全集中の呼吸、but overall the vocabulary is very easy compared to most other shounen series.
All manga are fair game tbh. I started with kingdom and by most standards it should be quite difficult but I found it pretty great and comprehensible. As long as you use Mokuro you can’t really go wrong
mousou telepathy is pretty easy. It’s 4-koma romcom about a girl who can read minds and she’s stuck in the same class with a boy who has a crush on her. It’s fairly etchi though so much so the cover jokes about it.
I bought all volumes of 五等分の花嫁 when I was still at N3 level. That manga is nice because all the kanjis have furigana and the vocabs are (mostly) stuffs you can actually encounter irl
Not as a manga, but I was surprised how easy SpyxFamily was to watch. I think I expected more higher level vocabulary given the concept. I think they tone down the terminology for kids.
I also agree with chainsaw man.
On the flip side I was pretty shocked at how difficult My Hero academia is. I was not expecting a high school super hero show to get into such deep lore and terminology about their abilities.
「夫婦以上、恋人未満」has furigana for almost every word.
*なめて、かじって、ときどき愛でて*. I didn’t start to read it because I expected it to be easy but there’s something about the language that made it so easy and quick to read for whatever reason and it’s also a really exciting story where one’s dying to know what will happen next at about every turn.
JJK
Pretty much nothing you have heard of is easy. Many comics in コロコロコミクス monthly are going to be good for people coming up on intermediate level.
Where are y’all reading manga online? Preferable one you can get both English and Japanese? Or maybe that’s a little unrealistic.
Demon Slayer volume 1
At least for me 😂
Otomen was my first if you’re into that kinda stuff
Edit: It was easy when I was a beginner. But that’s debatable, I guess
Not sure if it’s easier “than it seems” because I think it’s aimed for kids, but 王様ランキング was a relatively easy read and has furigana (I’m hopefully N4 by now).
For something darker, タコピーの原罪 was a really nice and easy to read manga, though no furigana. Also has the benefit of only being two chapters long.
Going through the first volume MASHLE right now and it seems alright as well.
ARIA doesn’t seem to use too much difficult vocab and usually sticks to short, casual conversation rather than long paragraphs of anything technical or political which is helpful.
Yofukashi no Uta was really easy to read as a beginner.
You’d think Death Note would be hard and then, surprise! It’s all people speaking somewhat formally at work about the same topics over and over.
少女終末旅行, not a lot of dialogue, there are some harder (less common) words though