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Kanji De Manga Volume 2: The Comic Book That Teaches You How To Read And Write Japanese!
Winner of the Saitama (Japan) Innovation Award!
The second volume in the flagship language-learning series from Manga University that uses original comic artwork to teach readers how to identify and write the most common Japanese kanji ideographs ― introduces 80 kanji that all Japanese school children are required to learn by the time they graduate from sixth grade.
Each page features its own comic strip, kanji pronunciation guide, stroke order, and English explanations.
The second volume in the flagship language-learning series from Manga University that uses original comic artwork to teach readers how to identify and write the most common Japanese kanji ideographs ― introduces 80 kanji that all Japanese school children are required to learn by the time they graduate from sixth grade.
Each page features its own comic strip, kanji pronunciation guide, stroke order, and English explanations.
144 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 12, 2022
Second volume same as the first:
* doesn't reinforce what you've already learned
* the kana that indicate the readings are much too small
* text of comic is entirely in kana except for the one (1) kanji you're learning on that page
* gives you the kanji you're learning nice and big and breaks down the strokes individually
* provides examples of the kanji in brush and print
* doesn't reinforce what you've already learned
* the kana that indicate the readings are much too small
* text of comic is entirely in kana except for the one (1) kanji you're learning on that page
* gives you the kanji you're learning nice and big and breaks down the strokes individually
* provides examples of the kanji in brush and print
June 23, 2021
Read the Spanish edition. It was okay, at least good reading practice even if I think it would've been more useful to have more kanji in the text, especially since they claim the book is good for preparing for the JLPT - there were not enough kanji to prepare you for an exam. It would be better if they advertised it as "your first read in Japanese" because of the amount of hiragana.
There were a few mistakes in the translations and even one kanji had the readings for a different one, so the edition's quality is a bit... questionable. It wasn't a matter of having adapted the meaning (instead of producing a literal translation), but rather sometimes they traduced the meaning for the opposite meaning into Spanish, or for something that didn't even make sense taking into account the pictures (but would've perhaps been a more natural outcome). Because of this, I think this is actually a dangerous book to learn Japanese with, especially if you're an absolute beginner and you're going to rely on the translations provided.
I honestly wouldn't recommend it, unless what you want is a text to practice reading aloud once you learn hiragana - but even then, you need way more knowledge than that because you need to know when one word ends and another starts so you can read accordingly. All in all, the concept of the book is great, the execution is poor.
Personal Note: this is actually the first book I ever bought that had Japanese in it, my pre-teen self would be proud of me for having finally been able to read it ^.^
There were a few mistakes in the translations and even one kanji had the readings for a different one, so the edition's quality is a bit... questionable. It wasn't a matter of having adapted the meaning (instead of producing a literal translation), but rather sometimes they traduced the meaning for the opposite meaning into Spanish, or for something that didn't even make sense taking into account the pictures (but would've perhaps been a more natural outcome). Because of this, I think this is actually a dangerous book to learn Japanese with, especially if you're an absolute beginner and you're going to rely on the translations provided.
I honestly wouldn't recommend it, unless what you want is a text to practice reading aloud once you learn hiragana - but even then, you need way more knowledge than that because you need to know when one word ends and another starts so you can read accordingly. All in all, the concept of the book is great, the execution is poor.
Personal Note: this is actually the first book I ever bought that had Japanese in it, my pre-teen self would be proud of me for having finally been able to read it ^.^
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September 4, 2023Nice step up!
The dialogues and characters were super cute :3
This was a fun book to read.
The dialogues and characters were super cute :3
This was a fun book to read.
August 12, 2013
Similar to my review for the box set.
This would seem like a really good idea for people learning Japanese. It's not. There are a few fatal flaws that make these books kinda worthless.
1. You kinda need to know Japanese for any of this to really sink in. Yeah, they have a translation of the text the kanji's used in, but that's not going to help you very much if you can't actually read or understand for yourself what's being said.
2. Even if you could understand Japanese, you run into the problem that the text is difficult to read. In Japanese, a mix of kanji and kana is used in sentences. The mix makes it easier to tell where one word ends and another begins (and furigana could be used), or if the mix is not used, spacing is included (often used in beginner and children's books) to tell apart the different words. Not so here. Even if they've already given you the kanji, they don't use it again outside of its page.
3. The index only contains the kanji in that book, so if you're trying to find a specific one, you'll have to sift through the different kanji de manga to find it. And rather than sort them by stroke order or like a kanji dictionary or making it easy to search by kanji, they sort it by readings. So if you find a kanji you don't know, good luck finding it in here without knowing how to read it. This index is set up assuming you can read the kanji and are just trying to find the meaning, but (at least in my experience) it's easier to remember what a kanji means than how to read it).
I'll be honest, as a person who got a minor in Japanese language, I find this book pretty useless, but it does have its merits.
1. The kanji's picture is really, really big, which is very helpful (wish my textbooks had them that big), and the stroke order section is a decent size as well.
2. The idea of using the kanji in a comic to help you remember is novel and would be really helpful if it weren't so darn hard to read the comic (assuming you actually knew enough Japanese to be able to understand it).
3. The art is actually really nice for edu-manga.
This would seem like a really good idea for people learning Japanese. It's not. There are a few fatal flaws that make these books kinda worthless.
1. You kinda need to know Japanese for any of this to really sink in. Yeah, they have a translation of the text the kanji's used in, but that's not going to help you very much if you can't actually read or understand for yourself what's being said.
2. Even if you could understand Japanese, you run into the problem that the text is difficult to read. In Japanese, a mix of kanji and kana is used in sentences. The mix makes it easier to tell where one word ends and another begins (and furigana could be used), or if the mix is not used, spacing is included (often used in beginner and children's books) to tell apart the different words. Not so here. Even if they've already given you the kanji, they don't use it again outside of its page.
3. The index only contains the kanji in that book, so if you're trying to find a specific one, you'll have to sift through the different kanji de manga to find it. And rather than sort them by stroke order or like a kanji dictionary or making it easy to search by kanji, they sort it by readings. So if you find a kanji you don't know, good luck finding it in here without knowing how to read it. This index is set up assuming you can read the kanji and are just trying to find the meaning, but (at least in my experience) it's easier to remember what a kanji means than how to read it).
I'll be honest, as a person who got a minor in Japanese language, I find this book pretty useless, but it does have its merits.
1. The kanji's picture is really, really big, which is very helpful (wish my textbooks had them that big), and the stroke order section is a decent size as well.
2. The idea of using the kanji in a comic to help you remember is novel and would be really helpful if it weren't so darn hard to read the comic (assuming you actually knew enough Japanese to be able to understand it).
3. The art is actually really nice for edu-manga.
September 11, 2012
While I am sure that I am well beyond the intended target level for this book I still found the kanji breakdown in this book helpful. Covering a selection of kanji from the old N3 level of the JLPT (now around N4), this book provides entertaining little manga excerpts to teach each new kanji along the way. The detailed writing guide provided with each entry was invaluable in helping me refresh my understanding of how each of the kanji are structured.
I think this book will be of great help to those students learning kanji for the first time.
I think this book will be of great help to those students learning kanji for the first time.
November 13, 2010
See my review for Volume 1.
January 27, 2016
Great book when you are learning Hiragama and Katakana.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews