LLearn Japanese

YouTubers that break down content piece by piece

I’ve been searching for a while for someone who makes videos that take anime, manga, or some other story/content and breaks it down line by line, explaining the vocabulary and grammar in each part. Cure Dolly has a few videos like this for Alice in Wonderland and some other stuff, I also found a channel called Sarah Moon Japanese that does some of the same kind of thing, but I really haven’t found much else.

I’m still at a fairly basic level, but I just find I learn much better by consuming interesting content than just learning vocabulary and grammar rules in a vacuum. Any recommendations?

13 comments

  1. You can use chatgpt for this. Standard disclaimer that it sometimes makes mistakes, so you need to make sure its explanation fits with the material. But it’s often pretty good, or at least points you in the right direction.

    Example:

    Please breakdown: “なんか騙されたような気がしないでもないけど”

    Sure! Here’s a breakdown of the sentence:

    なんか (nanka) – This is a casual expression that adds a sense of vagueness or uncertainty. It can be translated as “kind of” or “sort of.”

    騙された (damasareta) – This is the past tense of the verb 騙す (damasu), which means “to deceive” or “to trick.”

    ような (yō na) – This is a phrase that indicates similarity or resemblance. It can be translated as “like” or “as if.”

    気がする (ki ga suru) – This phrase means “to feel” or “to have a sense.” Here, it’s used in the present tense, indicating the speaker’s current feeling.

    しないでもない (shinai demo nai) – This is a double negative construction that expresses hesitation or uncertainty. It can be translated as “not entirely” or “not without.”

    けど (kedo) – This is a conjunction that means “but” or “however.”

    Putting it all together, the sentence can be translated as:

    “I kind of feel like I might have been deceived, not entirely sure though.”

    The speaker is expressing a sense of uncertainty about whether they have been deceived or not.

  2. Japanese from Zero has a few videos like that. One describes the infamous Potato Chip sceen in Death Note.

  5. I found this channel earlier today. https://youtube.com/@anime_de_benkyo Not too many videos. But, she breaks down a scene from an anime, explains the vocab, phrases, and word choice. She even gives alternative ways people may say certain things in real life.

  7. There is Easy Peasy Japanesey but its not that famous and doesn’t post regularly but its a still good channel

  8. I was looking for the same thing as you a few weeks ago. It’s not youtube, but someone suggested the app Satori Reader.

    It does exactly what you describe, it explains the vocabulary and grammar sentence by sentence. I don’t know about Android, but on iOS there’s a 1 month free trial.

  11. Cure cure dolly does that with some books and tales like the Alice in Wonderland videos

  12. Sarah Moon Japanese and Game Gengo are the only two people that I’ve found who do that.

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