Learn Japanese with Manga Volume One: A Self-Study Language Book for Beginners - Learn to read, write and speak Japanese with manga comic strips! (free online audio)

I picked up Learn Japanese with Manga, Volume One because I wanted something more engaging than a traditional textbook, and this ended up being a really pleasant surprise. If you’re someone who feels intimidated by language learning or gets bored easily with drills, this book is a great alternative. What I liked most is how approachable it feels. The manga format makes learning feel less like studying and more like following a story. Vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure are introduced gradually and explained in a way that’s easy to understand, even if you’re a complete beginner. It doesn’t assume you already know Japanese, which I really appreciated. The explanations are clear without being overwhelming. I liked that it pauses to explain why things work the way they do instead of just telling you to memorize rules. The visual context from the manga really helps with understanding how words and phrases are actually used in conversation, not just in isolation. This isn’t the kind of book that’s going to make you fluent on its own, but that’s not what it’s trying to do. It’s perfect as a starting point or a supplement to other learning tools. It made me feel more confident and excited to keep learning, which is honestly half the battle with a new language. If you’re interested in Japanese culture, enjoy manga, or just want a more relaxed and enjoyable way to begin learning Japanese, this book is definitely worth picking up. It makes learning feel fun instead of stressful, and that alone makes it a win for me.

This book essentially covers the same material as Genki, but with more casual language that is beneficial for easily learning the Japanese used in manga, anime, and other casual situations. Each panel is typically in a different art style and theme, emulating the richness and variety seen in manga. There are plenty of one-off one-or two-panel examples as you go, but every 5 lessons (there are 35 in volume 1), the book will give you a few pages of a continuing story of a sci-fi epic that is actually really well drawn in my opinion. The beautiful thing is that they use concepts you have just learned AND give you just a little bit of "We never covered this?" that can be figured out by context. Then, after it gives you a written quiz on those concepts and even on the manga itself, such as "What is the name of the man who introduces himself to Hide at the end of page 3?" and "How many men are in each of Yasu's armies?". Really great if that is your learning style, or if you need a break from Genki.

I was expecting this book to be an immersion course into reading manga, and it is not. Over the past year I have made good progress on reading Japanese and I was expecting this to be a bunch of exercises for practicing reading. Instead, this is just another book teaching the Japanese language. I have read Genki 1 and 2 and this book covers essentially the same material. Unfortunately, there is very little manga reading in this book. It's mostly only single-panel comics or comic strips with 3 or 4 panels. I think this is a good book for a beginner who is willing to memorize Hiragana and Katakana from the first few chapters. I avoided learning Japanese characters for years and I regret not forcing myself to learn them from the start. So, this book is perfect to get you on track to using the Japanese characters. For me, this book is too easy. I ordered a Doraemon manga (a children's manga) and I will just push myself to read it with Google Translator in hand. I am giving this book 4 stars because it is a well-written and very thorough book... however, it's not really about Manga

This is a great book with lots of real manga examples! It's fun and engaging to follow. However, I would recommend it for those who know a little bit of Japanese already (especially are comfortable with hiragana and katakana). Technically it's set up for absolutely from zero beginners (so you could technically start with this book), but I think it goes a bit too fast for that level and may be very frustrating for total beginners. It you are a little more advanced, I would say definitely go for this book and reinforce your skills!

This book is the cheat sheet for all the questions you didn’t know you had until you started trying to speak Japanese. And it’s a ton of fun because of all the manga examples.

love it

My biggest issue with most japanese learning books (this one is no acception) is that they shove kanji down your throat right off the bat. My issue with this is even in Japan they don't start learning SIMPLE kanji until 6-12 years of age. While you might think so? They learn hiragana and katakana first. Trying to learn 3 letter sets at one time is hard for beginners. Finding out how many kanji their are AND they can be pronounced more than one way depending on how its used its a bit much. I 100% kanji needs to be learned but maybe not RIGHT away. You need to learn to walk before you can run. Other than that this book is fun to use. The manga parts are a little out there but it's still fun to read.

This absolutely helped my son learn Japanese as he is a huge manga fan and it made learning much more entertaining

Ein großartiges Buch für alle, die Japanisch lernen wollen! Die Kombination aus Manga und Lektionen macht das Lernen spaßig und leicht verständlich. Sehr gut strukturiert, und die Übungen sind sehr nützlich. Absolut empfehlenswert für Anfänger!

My son is a HUGE fan of Asia and Japanese culture and food. I bought this to help him learn a little more of the language. It does maybe need more imagery though as he hasn’t been inspired to start using it or learning yet.

It's bigger than I expected and looks amazing! I'm so excited to start. It arrived in a timely manner and in perfect codition

Really enjoyable book and easy to learn from! It's structured in a good way, I could actually start recognizing words and build up my recognition fairly quickly. Definitely recommend it for the absolute beginners, which is what I was when I got this.

I had been learning Japanese for about 6 months before I bought this book, and I'm glad I had that foundation otherwise this book would probably have made little sense and maybe even have been discouraging. It skips a lot, assumes you've learnt hiragana and katakana, and uses a few manga snippets to teach you basic words and phrases without explaining much grammar in detail. For me, it was fun for awhile because I just needed a break from Genki, Duolingo and Anki cards, and it served that purpose, but this won't function as your only (or even main) resource for learning Japanese.