1. I started learning Japanese because I wanted to read all those great untranslated manga series. But after just a year of learning, my Japanese is not good enough to read most of the series I was initially interested in reading (and reading them with dictionary is taking so much time). In order to improve my Japanese I would like to read a manga that is relatively easy to understand (one where I won't have to rely on the dictionary all the time). My Japanese level is somewhere around N5, should be above it, but certainly below N4.

Can anyone recommend me a manga series that has furigana and uses easy to understand Japanese vocabulary?

2. I started to run out of manga to read (I'm sure there are still plenty good ones out there). I want to read something interesting that is also low on cliche.

Preferably: Shounen or Seinen with Romance and Action
Without: Shounen Ai/Shoujo Ai/Hentai/Smut/Rape

Things that I enjoyed reading lately and which I found to be less cliche than average:

Gan-Kon
Girls of the Wild's
Kiba no Tabishounin - The Arms Peddler
Maoyuu Maou Yuusha - Kono Watashi no Mono Tonare, Yuusha yo Kotowaru
Otoyomegatari
Shihou Sekai no Ou
Suashi no Meteorite
Trinity Seven: 7-Nin no Mahoutsukai
The Legend of Maian
Tasogare Otome x Amnesia
Hito Hitori Futari
Kaibutsu Oujo
Sekirei - I just can't hate the series
Ratman
Can't See Can't Hear But Love
Bitou Lollipop
Fujimura-kun Meitsu

I'll stop here, since the list got long enough already.

Last edited by jahu at 1:10 pm, Jun 6 2013

Unfortunately, my Japanese is very limited. Here are some suggestions for your second request, though:
Ichi
Sayonara Piano Sonata
Tower of God

Edit: took out the ones already on your lists

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Why don't you try Doraemon?, it was mostly aimed at children so i believe that it should be easy, and it's also quite long so you have much to read.


for the other one you could try Kyou kara ore wa or Cheeky angel, first one is comedy action and the second one is comedy/romance/action. i just finished both so i tough i could recommend them to you.

for Seinen you could try Togari or Cannon god Exaxxion

Nichijou is also pretty easy I think. I second Doraemon

Well, for the first request, I probably have to agree, BlackOrion. Some of my friends said the same, as we talked about my limited japanese skills and my qish to improve them. They recommended stories aimed at children, since the vocabulary is rather small and there are often repetitions included, which allow you to memorize things easier. Unfortunately I haven't had the time till now and so I can't recommend you specific ones, but I would also be glad, if someone here knows a few suitable examples. =)

As for the second task, these days I would recommend Gangsta. without hesitation. Maybe it will suit your taste, too?


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I'll recommend some series that haven't been translated that have furigana . Dear Boys if you like sports manga with romance.The first couple of volumes' drawings are old, but it gets much better.
Hammer Session! similar to Great Teacher Onizka.
Tale of the Sea King action/sci fi great overall story.



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For the first one, you could try Yotsubato!.

Bumping it for some more suggestions for easy to read in japanese manga. I tried reading Doraemon and the vocabulary was indeed simple and easy to understand (I didn't had to check dictionary all that much). Unfortunately many basic words which were written in kanji did not have furigana and searching the dictionary by redrawing kanji (which is 100% doable BTW) is somewhat annoying (as opposed to searching the dictionary by the word's reading). Not to mention the situation when you know the word, but don't know the kanji writing.

From what I hear, anything written by Rumiko Takahashi is easy to read due to the furigana.

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Is there any manga with hiragana only? It might not exist.. But.. Does it exist?

Such manga most likely does exist. It's probably something for pre-grade school or early grade school kids. I've seen a japanese book for little kids and it was completly in hiragana (and it was very easy to understand). I think the title was "Duck's New Hat" or something like that.

Edit: I found something good: It's called simply "Children's Stories" on the internet though the real title is "Sekai no Mukashibanashi" ("World Legends"). It says on the cover that it's for 2 grade students and the language is rather simple. There is a bit of kanji but there is furigana for all of them. There are various folk tales from around the world in it, but there are some Japanese there as well. I got the feeling that even the Japanese ones got the vocabulary simplified (like obscure archaic forms, which are normally present in the classic version of the tales, got removed in this book).

Edit: My bad it was actually a Chinese tale not Japanese. Nonetheless it's in Japanese.

Last edited by jahu at 7:14 am, Jul 29 2012

I'm pretty sure the vast majority of shonen/shojo series carry furigana(?). It is afterall pointed towards children/young teens, though some can have harder vocabulary. Even seinen series carry furigana in some cases when an unusual kanji is used. I would also recommend reading books. Try reading classic children's books translated in japanese, it will make your reading more fluent than just reading a few kanji/kana in a bubble.

Also... if you're on a level where you only can read hiragana/katakana it would be alot more useful to just buy a textbook and learn basic grammar/kanji/vocab etc...Learning japanese only by manga is pretty useless and won't take you anywhere. Manga is good if you want to improve your fluency when reading. Though it doesn't hurt to read st a lower level manga, it would be better if you studied a textbook until you learn a few hundred kanji(just my opinion).

Tip: Don't be too picky with genres, some types might have some sort of content that's unique to that specific style and a wider knowledge with different styles may improve your reading skills.

This thread was posted over a year ago you know. Back then I wanted to find such manga so I could practice reading and brush my vocabulary.

Now, at my current level (two years of learning the language) I can read many shounen manga (with heavy use of a dictionary), but usually I'm too lazy to do that (unless something really catches my interest).

oh sorry, thought it said 2013, guess i need glasses... good to hear about your progress though.
Try reading the same chapter several times. Like once or twice a day (or more if you have time), eventually you'll hopefully keep remembering the things you didn't understand at first and the memory will feel more natural than bashing words in. As you keep going back your brain will think "right, that's the way it was" and it'll stick with you longer since the word(s) are related to a certain experience rather than just looking at a sheet of paper trying to memorize. It helps me, maybe it'll help someone else?

You're not one of those masochists who looks up every single unknown word in a dictionary, are you? There should be plenty of stuff out there that's readable after two years of study.

Particularly good things I've read in Japanese:
Pita Ten
Karakuri Odette
7 Seeds (first two volumes only so far, but there was nothing particularly difficult there)
Someday's Dreamers - Summer Skies


Ookami Kakushi was easy, and similarly I think Higurashi no Naku Koro ni would be too.
Inuyasha surprised me by being quite enjoyable and quite easy.
Doesn't appear to be on this site, but 猫ミック　is interesting and certainly very different.
I've been reading Vampire Princess Miyu and so far (except for one chapter) it's been pretty clear. Haven't decided if it's good yet - the the OVA is great anyway.