Japanese Recommendation Exchange: 2014 Compilation
You at the keyboard: I know you’ve found some really fun Japanese material this month. You came across a great J-drama that brought you to tears. You picked up a book that you ended up reading in a day because of the nonstop thrills it brought you. You discovered a Japanese movie that was so funny that you watched it twice in the same night.
But wait. . . You weren’t going to tell anyone about it?! We can’t have this. The readers of this site are on a constant search for new materials and recommendations to find what will motivate them to study Japanese more, and you are keeping these gems all to yourself? Shame on you.
The purpose of this series is to discuss and exchange j-dramas, movies, variety shows, books, manga, anime, music, media, video games, etc. It’s time to share what everyone is excited about and experiencing right now.
So I ask you:
1. What are you watching?
2. What are you reading?
3. What are you playing?
4. What are you listening to?
*Include the Japanese difficulty level.
2012 ● 2013 ●2014 ● 2015
March
I’ve been watching (and re-watching) キルラキル (Kill la Kill). It’s by far one of my favorite anime ever. I can’t even really do it justice through description, it just has great art and designs, an unpredictable story, loveable heroes, hateable(?) villains, an amazing musical score (although the lyrics to the songs are unfortunately in English most of the time, with a brief excursion into German), and some stellar voice-acting, which makes it fantastic for immersion listening. For those familiar with series director Hiroyuki Imaishi’s previous works, I’d say it has a story and tone reminiscent of Gurren Lagann but with a style squarely in line with the likes of Dead Leaves and Panty & Stocking. Unfortunately the show is ending soon, but there’s still plenty of content coming out in the future, such as drama CDs, an ongoing manga adaptation, and even an OVA in September.
As for what I’m listening to, I discovered Soul Scream a couple of days ago and they’re amazing. Just listen:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUpMaa4uwIA
Lately I’ve been watching 黒子のバスケ, 弱虫ペダル, and はじめの一歩 Rising. Besides those, I’ve been keeping up with my favourite ゲーム実況 group on ニコニコ動画: いい大人達. Their output is pretty prolific; you can expect them to upload a new video pretty much everyday. Although there are some games they play that aren’t all that interesting to me, it’s their personalities and antics that keep me watching! http://www.nicovideo.jp/mylist/17828031
As far as reading goes, I’m close to the end of 聖都への旅路, which is part 5 of エレニア記 by David Eddings. I’ve read the original English novels years ago, so it’s been a treat making my way through the Japanese translations. I’m always learning new words with every page I turn. Looking at my Anki sentence deck, 15% of my cards come from this series of novels alone (a little over 1300 cards so far).
Although it’s far from being new, I’m in the middle of playing ガデュリン for the SNES. With the text being in all kana, it makes reading a little more difficult that usual, but even so, I’ve been doing alright getting through it. There also happens to be a series of novels that the game is based upon, but trying to get those nowadays (20+ years after the fact) is probably next to impossible. I can dream though!
As for what I’ve been listening to, it’s been mainly songs from the 1960′s and 70′s. 美川憲一, 石橋正次, 斎条史郎, and 黒沢明とロスプリモス are some of the singers I’ve come to like. 柳ヶ瀬ブルース by 美川憲一 is one of my recent favourites.
I’m watching Kamen Rider Gaim, Ressha Sentai Tokkyuger, Happiness Charge Precure, and Future Card Buddyfight (and that’s just the currently running shows). Gaim and Tokkyuger are quite good and a lot better than last years’ toku offerings, at least so far. Tokkyuger especially is super fun. The Precure show is cute and fun (the character designs are super adorable) and Buddyfight is surprisingly fun to watch and hard to stop watching. Also I think it sets records for Anime Hair Ridiculousness.
I’m reading Paseli Densetsu volume 1 (a children’s fantasy series). I’m almost done, so it’s lucky I also have volume 2. I really like it so far, and it presents a good mystery without being prohibitively hard to read.\
I’m listening to a lot of enka since I scored a huge pile of singles on sale and I’m doing a talk on it for a speech contest so I figured I should brush up. One of my favorite enka singers currently is Minami Kanako. I also have been listening to a couple of girl pop duos: Yanawaraba and hana*hana. They’re both really cute and their music is very good. (I think it’s pop? It’s more acoustic so I’m not sure). I highly recommend both groups.
Founder of Jalup. iOS Software Engineer. Former attorney, translator, and interpreter. Still watching 月曜から夜ふかし weekly since 2013.
One awesome manga I just found is オレが悪魔で、アイツが嫁で. https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=70957 I have a really hard time finding good manga to read that is 1) interesting 2) not completely stupid and 3) at my reading level, so when I find one, I get excited. It’s a story about a little girl who meets a demon, and in this world demons can grant wishes because they’re cool like that. And the girl’s wish is to marry him. Um, yeah. It’s a lot better and a lot less creepy than it sounds. No Ecchi or anything like that. If you like うさぎドロップ or something similar you’ll like it. So that’s what’s been keeping me happy as of late.
Listening to: Right now, in fact: the completely amazing Kashiwa Daisuke. He makes glitchy modern classical and other experimental forms of music. It’s good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHjHQoxq9O0
2. What are you reading?
Currently struggling my way through A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. It’s pretty dense to be honest, but for sentence mining it’s a goldmine.
3. What are you playing?
The only game I play in Japanese is Animal Crossing.
4. What are you listening to?
NHK FM 82.5. In order to listen to NHK broadcasts you must get a VPN. Follow this webpages instructions:http://www.vpngate.net/en/
Then go to: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/netradio/player/index.html?ch=fm
Very relaxing, even if you don’t know enough words or grammar yet, there’s mostly music, so you can keep it in the background while you browse or play casual video games. :)
I personally find A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar to be one of the best Japanese resources I have ever bought. I have the Intermediate and Advanced one too.
I actually made a cloze delete deck featuring all of the key sentences. I finished reviewing it about a week ago.
Really boosted my Japanese, and its good to look at grammar from a different angle than from conventional textbooks.
I can imagine it would be quite difficult though if you are using it as your only Japanese learning material (i.e. didn’t go through a beginner textbook first.) as it can be quite steep if your new to Japanese, but defiantly achievable if you stick to it.
A lot of the grammar points covered in the dictionary are not listed in Genki 1 or 2, and are introduced later in an ‘Integrated approach to Intermediate Japanese’ so even though its a ‘basic grammar dictionary’ it really covers a lot of ground.
As for what I have been watching this month:
My Boss My Hero,
Majyo no jyouken,
Hotaru season 1 and 2, and
Hanazakari
All of which I highly enjoy, and I am surprising myself everyday of all the little things I can understand.
I started reading this online amateur manga, it’s really good! No furigana. Excited to share this one because it’s free, so everyone can jump right in.
http://mangag.com/manga/?p=2410 喫茶部へようこそ
I also watched a movie, 恋する日曜日 私。恋した. It stars Horikita Maki. I really recommend it. If you’re familiar with shojo manga language, it’s easy to understand. I didn’t get lost at all.
I am also watching the anime 放浪息子 (Wandering Son) on Crunchyroll. I really like it and watch it with my husband.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e4fSCmhDII&feature=youtube_gdata_player
What are you watching
新世紀エヴァンゲリオン
涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱
カードキャプターさくら
初代マクロス
ボンバーマンジェッターズ
What are you reading
涼宮ハルヒシリーズ
ノ・ゾ・キ・ア・ナ(読んじゃ駄目w)
What are you playing
ファイナルファンタジー
ゼルダの伝説
ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ
What are you listening to
School Food Punishment
坂本真綾
小野大輔
ゴールデンボンバー
Kick the can crew
Kreva
UL
Michael Jackson
It’s actually the end of season in TV-land here so I’ll just throw out what I watched.
僕のいた時間: Romance drama of the boy meets girl and boy gets life threatening disease type. Stars: 三浦春馬, 多部未華子
失恋ショコラティエ:Romance comedy about a chocolate shop; originally a manga. Stars: 松本潤
いなり、こんこん、恋いろは。:Highschool girl meets Goddess, gets transformative powers; anime.
最近、妹のようすがちょっとおかしいんだが。:Normally I give the “younger sister complex” anime a pass and this reminded me why I don’t watch them, good if you like “creepy Japan” stuff; anime.
Honorable Mention:
明日、ママがいない:After Woman I just can’t watch any more of these single mother dramas but someone else might enjoy this. Stars: 芦田愛菜
I read the first 狼と香辛料 (Spice & Wolf) novel earlier in the month and am making my way through the second now.
I’ve been watching マギ (Magi) and 宇宙兄弟 (Space Brothers), too–although it seems that this is what I do every month.
Not really listening to any Japanese music, but I have been listening to a podcast called Suntory Saturday Waiting Bar Avanti.
I’ve been re-watching some of the ガキの使い罰ゲーム, as well as their Absolutely Tasty episodes. I’ve also started occasionally watching an anime called Samurai Flamenco. If I have nothing else to watch I usually watch Japanese tv from a stream, but most of the time I just listen to that.
No reading yet unfortunately besides from sentences, and Lang-8 comments on my writing (which I just started using, and discovered is tons of fun).
I haven’t really found any Japanese games to play sadly. I do play a game called Osu, and although the game itself isn’t Japanese most of the songs are. There’s also a lot of Japanese people that play it that I sometimes try to talk to.
Most of the time I listen to J-rock. Sometimes I’ll listen to J-pop, but I’m very picky about what I like. I have a couple hundred J-rock songs downloaded on my computer that I listen too, as well as a couple really long playlists on youtube. The newest band I found is called “Acid Black Cherry”. They have a Jazz sound mixed in with rock that I love.
Watching: A whole lot of anime, much of which is quite good but doesn’t necessarily warrant special mention. I will say that I’ve been rewatching ラブライブ! unsubbed (from the BDs!) in eager anticipation of the second season starting next month.
This was also the first season I started watching dramas as they’ve been airing!
失恋ショコラティエ, which tokyostyle already mentioned. I’m not sure I actually like most of the characters, who often come across as rather self-centered in ways that inadvertently hurts those around them. However, I’m finding I’m really pulled into the drama, to the point where during big scenes I start really straining for comprehension. Of course my instinct is to go for the subtitles, fortunately the only ones are in Japanese (well, and Chinese for some reason).
なぞの転校生: Slider (a person from a parallel universe) infiltrates a Japanese high school for reasons that I’m not entirely clear on. The scifi premise and high school setting make it feel a bit like a live-action anime. Quite good, although there’s a very heavy air of melancholy to the whole thing.
Reading: 銀河ヒッチハイク・ガイド, the Japanese translation of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” The book is well-beyond my level, but being very familiar with the original makes up for it. So far this has been an entirely great experience!
Playing: Still nothing beyond a round or two of Project Mirai in the evenings. I’ve made a few more efforts to get some of the games that Gin’s been writing about to work on Mac or Linux, but so far still no luck.
Listening: I recently discovered that AKB48 has a weekly radio show, part of the オールナイトニッポン series, which has been running since 2010. It seems most if not all of the episodes are available on ニコニコ and I’ve been going through them from the beginning. It is, as you’d expect, fun and bubbly — though it’s not something I would recommend to someone without a high tolerance for girlish giggling and occasional forays into squealing.
1. What are you watching?
I recently got hooked on テラスハウス, which is basically the Japanese version of The Real World :P
2. What are you reading?
Finishing up 宇宙兄弟 and about to start あずまんが大王 and テルマエ・ロマエ.
I’m reading バクマン and 暗殺教室. W-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l!
1. Not really watching any current series. I often just head to d-addicts and download any random drama or variety show and see if I like it. I recently watched 羅生門 though, old but great movie. I keep hearing Kill la Kill is good so I might end up watching that.
2. 化物語 the light novel. I’ve got a few manga lying around too, like 日常 and 結界師. I also have バトル・ロワイヤル but that’s beyond what I can comprehend.
3. Playing through 龍が如く5 and ポケモンエメラルド. They’re taking up most of my Japanese time. 龍が如く5 is proving to be way harder in every way possible. I just ordered ダークソウル2 and that should be here in a few weeks.
4. 椎名林檎、東京事変、RIP SLYME. My favorites. Lot of soundtracks too.
reading/playing: フェイト/ステイナイト(Visual Novel)
watching:相棒+フェイトseries+古文lessons(youtube)
Just made it before the end of March!…
1. What are you watching? 進撃の巨人/Attack on Titan, 歌のお兄さん/Singing brother, 妖怪大戦争/Spook Warfare, HikkakinTV/HikkakinGames on Youtube
2. What are you reading? ハイスコアガール/High score girl, 名探偵コナン/Detective Conan、魔女がいっぱい/The Witches、よつばと/Yotsuba&, クレヨンしんちゃん/Crayon Shin-Chan
3. What are you playing? チェインクロニクル/Chain Chronicle
4. What are you listening to? スラムダンク/Slam Dunk、ハッリポッター/Harry Potter, クレイモア/Claymore, J-rap.
April
I’ve been so excited for this!!
1. What are you watching?
I’ve been getting into a lot of new series all at once, so far only watching one episode of each. Here they are:
-MOZU (not sure if I’m sticking with this one or not)
-Border
-蟲師 season 2
-セーラーゾンビ
-GTO Taiwan
Also, I started watching 明日、ママがいない. Already on the 5th episode! I really like this one. 芦田愛菜 has such a different role than she usually plays! *sniff* She’s growing up!
Two big returning anime series, 蟲師 (which was on Ember Seed’s list of deep anime) and Love Live (which is anything but deep, but great fun in the “friends pursuing a dream together” genre).
Of the new series, それでも世界は美しい caught me most off guard. Really nicely-done adaptation of a shojo manga in a fantasy setting, with a great female protagonist and an interestingly-conflicted male lead.
Unfortunately April was busy and I haven’t checked out the new dramas I marked yet. But for the record the ones that caught my eye are
ブラック プレジデント: Evil corporate executive sees the error of his ways.
死神くん: Rookie grim reaper who often acts as an advocate for humanity.
And of course, my list also contains
セーラーゾンビ: AKB48! Zombies! What more is there to say? (Though I will note the video game in passing).
Great idea! Fair warning, my choices aren’t very new!
1. What are you watching?
魔法少女まどか☆マギカ (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)
トライガン (Trigun)
2. What are you reading?
トライガンマキシマム (Trigun Maximum, Manga)
涼宮ハルヒの溜息 (The Sigh of Suzumiya Haruhi)
3. What are you playing?
聖剣伝説2 (Secret of Mana)
クロノ・トリガ (Chrono Trigger)
4. What are you listening to?
何でもない
What are you watching?
A new anime titled ハイキュー!! about a boy who sets out to become a great volleyball player.
What are you listening to?
If podcasts count, I’m working my way through the archives of Suntory Saturday Waiting Bar.
Watching:
仮面ライダー鎧武
烈車戦隊トッキュウジャー
天装戦隊ゴーセイジャー
恐竜戦隊ジューレンジャー
キルラキル
Reading:
Nothing at the moment, although I need to get around to ordering the latest volume of 進撃の巨人. I also might reread 鋼の練金術師 soon.
Playing:
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy X: HD Remaster
龍が如く5 夢、叶えし者
Listening:
Various but mostly lots of スーパー戦隊 themes, I’m trying to lose some weight at the moment and they make good motivational tunes for working out to (笑).
Watching:
蟲師!
And 一週間 friend
Also, Dramafever (and thus Hulu) have a ten episode drama called Tokyo dogs which I found HILARIOUS.
NHK, however, takes the cake for videos with their kid-targeted hip-hop lessons: http://www.nhk.or.jp/e-dance/
Reading and playing:
Not much and not often
Listening:
Still loving Spotify: All that Jazz and Runa Miyoshida
For podcasts, my current favorite is きくドラ, it takes well known stories and turns them into short dramatizations. The voice actors are really energetic, and sometimes it’s a story I’m familiar with (the Shakespeare ones are really amusing, for some reason).
I suppose I’ll list the ones I’m doing in Japanese, without translations (I’m watching some shows with subtitles, too. I know–I’m the worst.)
Watching:
池袋ウェストゲートパーク (Ikebukuro West Gate Park – Drama)
ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 スターダストクルセイダース (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders – Anime)
機動戦士ガンダム 第08MS小隊 (Mobile Suit Gundam: 08th MS Team)
ハチミツとクローバー (Honey & Clover – Anime)
Playing:
ガンダムブレイカー (Gundam Breaker – Action – PS Vita)
イース セルセタの樹海 (Ys Seruseta no Jukai – JRPG – PS Vita)
怒首領蜂 最大往生 (DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou – Shmup – I play at the arcades, but I’ll pick up a 360 copy very soon)
Reading:
キノの旅 (Kino no Tabi – Light novel adventure series)
デトロイト・メタル・シティ (Detroit Metal City – Comedy Manga)
赤い妹 (Akai Imōto – Horror Manga)
パノラマ島綺譚 (Panorama Island – Suehiro Maruo’s manga adaptation of the Edogawa Ranpo story)
Listening to (I write for a Japanese music site, so there’s a lot…): ゲスの極み乙女。 and indigo la end’s new EPs, COgeNdshE, Brian the Sun, The Hiatus, Downy, 尾崎豊 (Ozaki Yutaka), about tess, winnie (I’m always listening to winnie, though), Arukara, Galneryus, Lemon’s Chair, SiM, Shiba in car, The Winking Owl, 惑星アブノーマル (Wakusei Abnormal),and arai tasuku.
Watching-
二人のユミ- ダーブルトーン- very nice and gentle for a beginner like me (7 months since I finished RTK1)
ラストフレンズ-also a nice drama。
電車男-hilarious
reading-
I am not really at the level of being able to read. but I have different mangas I flip through and also “night in the museum” based book which is suitable for 少年。
listening:
いきものがかり、ゆい、asian kung fu fighters,あけぼし。
I wish I could do more. but Uni kills me.
I’m playing ドラゴンクエストVII エデンの戦士たち (Dragon Quest VII) on the 3ds right now and I’m really enjoying it! It’s a classic turn based JRPG with plenty of dialogue so you get a lot of reading practice. Actually it took me 13 hours to get to the first battle, so you’ll definitely get your money’s worth haha. It has full Furigana support as well which is great. Here’s a screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/u511yWZ.jpg as you can see our hero knows how to charm the ladies ;)
1. What are you watching?
Kamen Rider Gaim, Ressha Sentai ToQger (although I need to catch up) and Fullmetal Alchemist (first series). Also, but not in such a dedicated fashion, Kamigami no Asobi, Marvel Disk Wars, and Tonari no Seki-kun
2. What are you reading?
Mahou Shoujo Reina (book 3). I just finished the Futari wa Pretty Cure manga, and haven’t figured out which one I want to start next yet.
3. What are you playing?
I don’t do video games, but I do play every day on a really cute iOS/Android app called PokeKoro (Pocket Colony). It’s tons of fun.
4. What are you listening to?
Lots of anime character songs and some situation CDs (I like Ouritsu Ouji Gakuen).
Can’t believe so many of you are watching the same stuff as me :D (I don’t connect with Japanese learners much so this is all new to me).
1 watching (list is too long so I’ll just name a few)
Dramas
MOZU (Never been so hooked on a drama)
珈琲屋 (what’s great about this in inspite of all the serious subject matter, things are literally resolved with a cup of coffee)
Anime
ブラックブレット (Is anyone following the light novel series too? I read the first chapter and it seemed really good. Is it worth buying?)
ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 (words cannot describe the love for this series)
2 reading
ジョジョリオン
ルーズヴェルト・ゲーム
3 listening
Just the usual music. Rhymesters – Egotopia, recently bought KREVA’s latest album ‘Space’ and 剛力彩芽ーあなたの100の嫌いなところ single. It got stuck in my head after hearing it all the time from the 私の嫌いな探偵 drama.
As for playing. The only game I’m playing is Demon’s Souls. And that has barely any talking…and it’s in French…
1. What are you watching?
MOZU
アリスの棘
極悪がンぼ
なるようになるさ
ビター・ブラッド
2. What are you reading?
ホワイトアウト
3. What are you playing?
携帯:
パズドラ
Divine Gate
アヴァベルオンライン
PC:
Star Galaxy
4. What are you listening to?
anything by School Food Punishment at the moment
May
I’m watching Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders. New anime of this season, and it’s pretty damn good.
I am watching: Kuroko No Baske, it’s my first anime in years and im thoroughly enjoying it!
I am reading: Kagerou by Hiro Mizushima
I am playing: Shiritori on this awesome website I only just found! I am currently ranked 2nd for the intermediate level so someone needs to come and beat me!
http://www.shiritori.org/
I am listening to: Guts by Arashi
Yotsubato! First manga in jp (besides my vague attempt at naruto ages ago haha!)
And a bit of clannad on ps3, but the game doesn’t have furigana so it’s a little out of my league! But there are still a lot of words i recognise, and it’s fully voiced! So I’m getting by OK.
I am watching: 袋ウエストゲートパーク (so damn good!), 夏目友人帳 (i love japanese mythology!) and うさぎドロップ!
I am reading: “キッチン” by Banana Yoshimoto and “I”s” by Masakazu Katsura.
I am listening to: last week i found this j-pop/j-rock band, Judy and Mary!
I am watching NouKome, it is quite humorous.
I plan on reading Yotsuba&!.
I am playing Phantasy Star Online 2, a japanese MMORPG.
Finally, I am listening to the artists bo en and Hifana.
For new materials…
Reading:
ばらかもん (similar to よつばと!, but on an island and with a dialect!)
シュガーズ (on Vomic)
Watching:
Divorce Chaser (my husband and I loved this one)
I’m also still watching Sailor Zombie and Mushishi, and started watching Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon where I left off last.
Next month is tadoku, so I look forward to a lot of reading! This month I focused on intensive reading and listening.
I also started watching 自主制作アニメ (independently made anime) on YouTube.
I’ve been watching キルラキル every chance I get lately.
And listening to a lot of 天野 月。
I’m currently watching the Gundam Unicorn OVA series all at once. I have a large backlog of anime to catch up on at the moment.
I just started Yotsubato as my first raw manga and am loving it! Next up on my list is The World God Only Knows & Sora no Otoshimono.
I just re-subscribed to FFXIV and am playing the client in Japanese this time. I played the Japanese beta for Blade & Soul and if it goes F2P, or becomes cheaper, I will jump on it in a heartbeat.
I listen to Gintama on my phone while driving.
Just finished watching season 1 and 2 of 花より男子.
Really really good.
Along with the usual assortment of subbed anime, recently I’ve been rewatching the classic あずまんが大王, unsubbed. For anyone unfamiliar with it, it’s based on a manga by Kiyohiko Azuma… who is better known these days as the author of Yotsubato! Like Yotsuba, it deftly mixes laugh-out-loud funny moments with a genuine sweetness.
I’ve been reading GJ部, which is my first serious foray into Japanese novels. I enjoyed the anime, it’s slice-of-life set in a high school so there isn’t a lot of exotic vocabulary, and it’s constructed as the novel equivalent of a 4-panel comic strip, with very short self-contained chapters and simple, lighthearted stories.
Reading: ベルセルク
Watching: Japanese Youtube mostly… a lot of Megwin.
Playing: ぷよぷよテトリス – A combination of Puyo Puyo and Tetris on my PS3. It’s a blast.
Listening: EGO-WRAPPIN’ – Great jazzy band, I love the singer’s voice.
Recently read:
美しい村、麦藁帽子、風立ちぬ (WARNING was very hard for me to read, est. LVL 80 maybe)
ホテルローヤル
オレたちバブル入行組
オレたち花のバブル組
零戦 その誕生と栄光の記録 (just about finishing up)
I’d recommend all of them except the first one; they were all quite interesting to read, in completely different ways. The 3rd and 4th ones have been made into drama (called 半沢直樹, supposedly the highest rated drama in 2013 according to http://artv.info) so I might watch it as well.
Next month’s 多読 contest I will read many more books!
June
I’m watching Monster, the anime, it is absolutely an amazing series and I cannot stop watching it. It’s great to find series that are in Japanese that make you addicted to learning and not stopping.
I’m slowly working my way through the Bible in my Japanese translation and also reading the Bleach manga.
I haven’t found really any games that I can play in Japanese yet, although I really really want to play Zelda: Ocarina of Time or Majora’s Mask.
I’m listening to the following:
Podcasts:
バナナムーンGOLD ポッドキャスト , 谷村新司 まぁるい日曜日 and NHK News Podcast
Music:
Bump of Chicken, Radwimps, People in the Box, サカナクション, RIP SLYME, Shing02, Kick the Can Crew, and a few others…
While I’m at work, I usually have some anime playing in one ear, right now I’m listening to “Baccano!”. My immersion environment has gotten to the point now where I don’t have to go out of my way to listen to Japanese because I have a lot to listen to now and it’s all I have. I’m having so much fun with it all though and have no intention of stopping.
Playing: Borderlands 2 (Japanese). Great game if you enjoy shooters and RPGs. I initially got it when it came out almost 2 years ago, but decided to resume it in Japanese.
Reading: Every once in a while, I’l pick up my copy of Battle Royale and flip through the pages, trying to find something I can understand. It’s a paper edition, so there’s no mining I can really do. I want to get some manga, but I haven’t yet.
Watching: I finished the OreImo series. VERY disappointing ending (It came fast and was anticlimactic), but the show as a whole was entertaining. I watched it sub but I’m gonna look for a raw later. Also, there’s a romance between brother and sister. If you don’t like that (I didn’t but also didn’t really mind until the end), then don’t watch it.
Listening: 古川本舗 is the best musician I’ve ever heard. Look him up. On top of that, I have 40meterP (utaites, of course; get outta here with that vocaloid pleb shiz), THA BLUE HERB (incredible rapper; most of his songs are on the American iTunes, too, simplifying the process of getting his stuff), and others I find at random. I also listen to 爆笑問題カーボーイ, Bakushou Mondai Cowboy, for podcasts. I hardly understand it, but whatever.
Reading:
I have been binge reading 魔法先生ネギま! which is quite fun and silly. Japanese level wise: lots of dialogue, straightforward grammar, magic-related vocabulary, different accents for the different characters.
I also read the first volume of 暗殺教室 of which I enjoyed the plot and the drawing style. I’ll be starting volume two today. Japanese level wise: Clean pages with minimal dialogue, shorter sentences but more difficult grammar at times due to those shorter sentences, not bombarded with strange words.
Watching:
I watched a few episodes of ピンポン which is quite good. Interesting art, interesting composition, available even on Hulu.
I also rewatched a few episodes of Trigun for nostalgia’s sake.
Daisetsu, I’m surprised that you haven’t found a game that works for you yet, as it sounds like you’re quite a bit more advanced than me.
I’ve been playing Tales of Vesperia (JPN PS3 version) for a few hours a week, and while I can only read ~20% of the dialogue at this point, it’s enough to follow the high-level plot. The fact that I can advance the conversations at my own pace really helps.
More importantly, I’ve found that it works marvelously for learning words in context. For example, I’d never seen 「調べる」 before I played the game, but after seeing it every 30 seconds for several hours and doing the associated action over and over, it’s like a familiar old friend now =)
Ultimately I *really* want to play アルノサージュ (Ar nosurge – the successor to Ar Tonelico), but I’m going to finish Vesperia as a stepping stone before I dive into that one.
Watching:
Kill La Kill
Excel Saga
Yes, I realize how behind I am.
In another couple weeks, I’ll probably be watching Sailor Moon Crystal since my fiance’s a big fan.
Playing:
Chrono Trigger
Illusion of Gaia
I tried Final Fantasy 4, but the wall of hiragana floored me. Really taught me a lesson I didn’t need in how much I use kanji to ground myself in the language.
All in all a slow month for Japanese; I finished absorbing The One Deck 28 days ago and switched focus to making flash cards for Java. Hey, at least I know that Anki works, right? :)
Reading:
Naruto 1 for 6th time. A kid’s magazine with short manga, educational titbits and an interview with the mangaka of Inuyasha etc. Lot’s of Scandal tweets – there are 4 members of the band so there’s always plenty.
Watching:
Previously, Yakou Kanransha, which was simple enough to understand (apart from one crucial detail I missed until the last episode) and very exciting. Currently, Hanazawa Naoki – may drop it because I already cannot follow the plot and I’ve only watched 2 eps (tbh, couldn’t even follow ep 1). Occasionally HunterxHunter, Kuroko’s Basketball and Reborn, but only the last one ever feels satisfying to me without English subs, so I’m generally avoiding anime.
Playing:
Pokemon Black and occasionally Zelda: Ocarina of Time N64 but it’s full of blurry kanji that infuriate me.
Listening to:
Shiina Ringo, School Food Punishment, UVERworld, Arashi and AI (her closing theme made Yakou Kanransha all the more dramatic). On a no-Scandal diet because I plan to buy their Temptation Box album soon and want to make an event of it.
Watching:
Naruto SD (ロック・リーの青春フルパワー忍伝)
This is a hilariously silly Naruto spin-off with chibi and caricature like versions of the Naruto characters. Episodes are generally thematic, with the characters often engaging in common activities in Japanese culture, like school trips to the capital or the beach, fire work festivals, mushroom picking, and more. That combined with the fact that the characters are CONSTANTLY going into short skits (寸劇、 although Rock Lee describes them as 幻術) which are themselves based on famous Japanese novels, TV shows, etc, makes this series an amazing way to get exposed to a lot of diverse Japanese culture. Plus, it’s hilarious. Highly recommended if you are familiar with the Narutoverse.
Recently watched/still watching:
Hunter x Hunter anime (the 2011 version, which is still ongoing)
Technically this is still ongoing, but after watching 130+ episodes in little more than a week, watching one per week feels a little slow. I find the pace of this anime to be amazingly addicting, which is why I often ended up watching 10 or more episodes in a row even though my listening abilities would start noticeably degrading 3 or 4 episodes into it.
Rewatching Liar Game for the first time since learning Japanese. I would like to find more shows like it but I’m not sure what could be similar, it’s great.
Just like the commenters above, I’ve been keeping up with hunter x hunter! Last episode was the saddest thing, I was not prepared for the way the last 5 episodes or so ended this arc…
Been listening to a lot of Asian Kung Fu Generation recently, the lyrics are clear to understand and the singer has a great voice.
@Daisetsu Monster was one of my favourite anime of all time! Some people say it was too slow-paced for them but the suspense killed me… I’d attempt watching it but I’d hazard to guess the level of Japanese is a little high…
July
This month I started watching Tonari no Seki-kun, which I really like! I’m surprised because I thought I’d be frustrated by it, but the girl who sits next to him actually grows a lot over time, instead of it following one trope. It’s really interesting and funny.I recently found Square Enix’s new online manga magazine, 少女ロマンス (Shoujo Romance) here:http://www.ganganonline.com/romance/. They currently have ばらかもん (Barakamon) episodes 1 through 10 and more coming, so if you’ve been wanting to read it, check it out! Because it won’t be there forever. I own volume 1 and am reading volume 2 through the site now.
I finally watched 池袋ウエストゲートパーク (Ikebukuro West Gate Park) and it immediately became my favorite ドラマ ever, despite the fact that it’s a bit old. So good! I adored Takashi (the King), played by 窪塚 洋介 (Kubozuka Yosuke), so if anyone can recommend something else good that he’s acted in, I would be really grateful.Also really enjoyed Ogon no Buta. I really liked the female lead. And Okada Masaki is really pretty. And I am really shallow.Also been watching Papa to Musume no Nanokakan, and it’s pretty cute and it keeps me pretty interested, although I’m not super into it.Oh! I almost forgot Kurosagi, which I liked quite a bit. I’m sort of developing a thing for Horikita Maki. And this led me to the completely addictive song “Daite Senorita,” which was used as the theme song and sung by Yamashita Tomohisa, who plays the male lead.My favorite music find of late is Boris. They have a really interesting and appealing sound. I really like the stuff they did with Kurihara Michio. It’s kind of…ethereal, I guess? But not in an annoying or insipid way. I’m terrible at describing music, but I like them a lot.I also finally found an Utada Hikaru song that I like–”Beautiful World”. Probably everyone and their dog knew about it but me, but I’ve never liked her stuff in the past so I just discovered it.
I picked up this series last October or so in this weird phase of my learning where actually reading a novel felt like an easier task than choosing which one I would like, so I picked this up mainly because it looked lighthearted as opposed the tragically depressing alternatives I considered.
Now being 9 volumes into the story (out of the current 18), I have to say I really like it. Describing this series is a little hard. Much of its core is traditional 少年: you start with a pitifully weak hero who progressively gets stronger and stronger by fighting bigger and bigger foes, with a little romance with the heroine on the side (while being absolutely clueless about it). But then to that you add the fact that that hero is also the world’s most clueless pervert, always fantasizing about the 5 or so girls in his friends group while failing to understand that the reason the girls keep fighting between themselves is because they are all falling for him.(Both of these are really ongoing stuff which I was going to include last month but just didn’t find the time for)
1. What are you watching?
I just finished watching Face Maker, which I went through both periods of ridiculous excitement and frustration with why anyone would change their face this way (the ending was definitely all excitment though so overall I liked it). Now watching Bambino because I like odd job-based dramas and Matso Jun’s as good as ever.
I also recently changed my homepage to Fuji News Network and have watched a lot of videos every time I turn on my computer about Japanese weather, which I find quite fun and makes a good habit. I’ve also been watching a lot of Ari Keita’s Ari or Ali daily vlogs while doing other things and Asahivlogs too, and some Memei.
2. What are you reading?
Doraemon mostly; great fun. Also, tweets from all 4 members of the band Scandal with Rikaikun.
3. What are you playing?
Er… nothing really. Well, I’ve been playing Half Life on mute while listening to Japanese in the background.
4. What are you listening to?
A bit of UVERworld and Shiina Ringo. Plenty of Tokyo Jihen. I rediscovered Babymetal the other day, after watching one of their videos months ago and dismissing them as just too weird and no good, and found I sort of love them and immediately learnt the words to the chorus of their song Headbangeeer!! and started headbanging to everything.
Watching-
[with subs >_>]
Robotics;Notes (Akiho is shaping up to be one of my favorite characters in anything ever)
Mekakucity Actors (Just finished. Story was a bit weird, but it’s a gorgeous show. I *love* SHAFT’s art style.)
[w/o subs!]
GTO [2014 version on Crunchyroll] (Thanks to H4 for convincing me to give the no-sub drama thing a try. Quite enjoying it so far.)
Listening-
EGOIST (I found a great video of “Euterpe” with JP subs & furigana. I wish there were more videos like that.)
Various OPs from “Monogatari” (“Renai Circulation” is just way too catchy.)
Playing-
Still waiting patiently for my copy of Ar No Surge to arrive from Play Asia. I probably won’t start it until I finish Tales of Vesperia JP, though. One boss battle at a time.
Video games were my primary motivator for starting this journey, so hopefully I’ll have more to contribute on this front as I improve in the months to come.
I’ve been watching the Youtube channel “Amusing MEGWIN TV 毎日面白動画” lately which is sort of a game show channel where the titular Megwin and his buddies go out and do wacky/stupid hijinks together. For example having three people attempt to eat at all 10 hamburger chains in Los Angeles in one day while spinning a wheel to decide who has to eat:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2LYx2GubsU&list=PLl2EwARSSde76vdIMfxiR4Wt1mLeTvD0O
1. What are you watching?
Just started watching my first ドラマ, イタズラなKiss~Love in Tokyo. I am watching it on Viki.com, a website I wish I knew about earlier to watch ドラマ。
2. What are you reading?
I am reading my Bible in Japanese, the new interconfessional version
3. What are you playing?
ポケモン金 for the gameboy
4. What are you listening to?
I am on a supercell and YUI kick lately, but am looking for new music to listen to.
Reading – I’ve been gradually working my way through two different Japanese books aimed at a younger audience: 魔女の宅急便 (Majo no Takkyūbin – also known as Kiki’s Delivery Service) and 銀河鉄道の夜 (Ginga Tetsudō no Yoru – also known as Night on the Galactic Railroad.) Their prose is pretty straightforward and I really enjoy the fantasy elements of both. I’d recommend them highly to others with an intermediate-ish reading level and would greatly appreciate further recommendations in this vein.
Listening – I’ve really been enjoying the バイリンガルニュース (Bilingual News) podcast lately. It’s probably not as beneficial, learning-wise, as a fully Japanese podcast, but I enjoy the range of content covered and the intelligent-but-casual attitudes of the hosts. I’d really, really love some podcast recommendations from JALUP readers.
Here’s one site I’ve been frequenting quite a bit this past month, so why not recommend it?
Metal Page – http://metal.the-ninja.jp/index.html
For anyone who likes the RPG series Ultima and/or Wizardry, this site contains play diaries from both, plus some others for other role playing games. I’ve been a fan of this site for a couple of years now. The website hasn’t been updated in over a year, but there is such a vast amount of content one can go through that one need not fear running out of text to read for quite some time.
What makes this site shine (in my opinion at least) is the existence of a full translation of Ultima VII: The Black Gate, laid out in story form. Ultima VII was never translated into Japanese in Japan, so seeing someone take the time to translate every single bit of dialogue from the first game is quite the monumental feat. Metal (the site owner) even takes the time to translate the game’s manual of all things.
I have no way of knowing (unless I manually go through every card I tagged as coming from websites, but that’d be a pain and a waste of time), but I would guess that I’ve mined at least 1000 sentences from just this one website alone over the last two years. It’s quite the treasure trove, and even now I’m still finding gold, so to speak. ;)
August
Right now most of my free time outside Anki is going to video games.
With the recent release of Final Fantasy X HD, I picked up the JP version for my PS Vita. It’s nice to have something I can play away from home, like on breaks at work.
Strong Points:
-Tutorials and battle info text make heavy use of JALUP Intermediate vocab; frequent repetition in context has huge reinforcement value
-Turn-based combat with lots of visual cues, and very simple controls
-Nearly all dialog is voiced, and critical info can usually be repeated
Challenges:
-Abilities and special commands use mostly Japanese terms, as compared to Tales which uses far more loanwords. While this is great for getting exposed to new words, it can be pretty overwhelming early on.
-You can’t control the pace of dialog, so you may miss quite a bit, and can’t easily repeat most of it. This isn’t likely to prevent you from progressing, but may hinder understanding of the story.
If you don’t have a Vita, you can also find it for the PS3 (There’s even an X/X2 bundle if you’re so inclined). It’s a gorgeous game with a moving story, and still holds up well despite being over a decade old. Definitely recommend.
I have been reading the pokemon manga that I picked up from book off. I have been playing tales of symphonic and vesperia for the ps3 I have played those games before so they are not to hard to understand. I have been watching Hunter X Hunter on Netflix I love the fact that you can turn off the English subtitles. I am trying to get into dramas but there are so many out there.
1. What are you watching?
– Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
– Cowboy Bebop
2. What are you reading?
– The Sigh of Suzumiya Haruhi
3. What are you playing?
– Final Fantasy 6
– Illusion of Gaia
4. What are you listening to?
– Kill la Kill OST (not a whole lot of Japanese though, mostly English and one song in German o_O )
1. What are you watching?
* Yuusha Yoshihiko – As a Monty Python fan I love the silly humour. A big thanks to Bocc Kob for mentioning it in a previous post!
* Nya nya Neko Mario Time on Youtube – it’s both silly, cute and game related, thanks to Alexandre from previous post!
2. What are you reading?
* Hellsing manga – vampires and ultra violence <3
* A manga about the history of Japan – informative and fairly easy: “まんが日本の歴史 なぜなに事典”
* Roald Dahl’s Charlie & the Chocolate Factory in Japanese.
* “Save the cat” a book about screen writing, Japanese edition.
3. What are you playing?
* Valkyria Chronicles (戦場のヴァルキュリア) for PS3. I love this game! It’s a tactical RPG with turn based battles, lots of cut scenes with subtitles and an engaging story. The graphics are sort of anime like, very smooth and pleasant to look at.
* Famicom games – the KANA attack continues… :)
4. What are you listening to?
* Yuusha Yoshihiko audio rip.
* Harry Potter audio book – it’s just pleasant to have in the background.
* J-rap.
1. What are you rewatching?
Hunter x Hunter on netflix (watched on crunchyroll last year july), nice reminder that my Japanese has come some way. Especially seeing I was only doing RTK at the time and no Japanese whatsoever.
Also watching digimon series one on netflix.
As someone else noted, netflix is absolutey fantastic for the limited library of anime it has. You can turn off subtitles and streams are so stable, not to mention HD and surround sound <3. 素晴らし!
2. What are you reading?
魔女の宅急便, Witch’s delivery service on my iPad. Just wanted to say how awesome it is to read off this device, you can highlight and define any word on the fly and get the readings/definition for all words in J-J. Fantastic for monolingual learners. You can even download a J-E dictionary, though I don’t personally use it.
I went to Kinokuniya the other day and the kind clerk there helped select out a few titles. The one I’m reading at the moment is one in the Yoshimoto Banana series. I haven’t been reading this much as I only use it in situations where I can’t use my ipad (it’s small, light and cheap). Also picked up Attack on titan light novel, since i enjoyed the anime so much (though with english subtitles).
3. What are you playing?
Pokemon Y – haven’t touched it in a while, too much gameplay not enough language. Might start FFX on vita soon, once I can be bothered switching my Vita to Japanese store to buy it digitally.
4. What are you listening to?
Various Podcasts, The junk podcasts series are pretty energetic, though I don’t understand the topics of conversation most of the time.
Really want to hunter down that Harry potteraudiobook that Saruman is using. As well as a place to watch Sayounara Zetsubou sensei, as Gregory mentioned earlier.
1. What are you watching?
I watched the entire Hunter x Hunter series for the first time. (great show)
2. What are you reading?
I just finished catching up on よつばと!and マンガ家さんとアシスタントさんと. Both are very funny manga.
3. What are you playing?
Finished Tales of Xillia 2 as my first game in Japanese. The darker story was very refreshing for a Tales game.
Playing Tales of Vesperia (PS3) now and just about every bit of dialogue outside side quests is voiced.
4. What are you listening to?
Various anime
1. What are you watching?
クラナド, might follow it up with after story.
2. What are you reading?
The popular Japanese Bible translation 新共同訳聖書
3. What are you playing?
Pokemon Green, Mario Story (paper Mario in English), Pokemon Stadium 2!
4. What are you listening to?
On a 宇多田 ヒカル kick right now.
2. 守人!Or, more specifically, 精霊の守人. This is the first book in the Guardian series, and the one the moribito anime was based on. I love that series to pieces, so buying this book has been on my dream list for a while. And this is a book, not a manga, meaning it’s primarily a Lot of Words. It does usually introduce each kanji with furigana, which makes looking them up easier (though I’m still too lazy to do so 99% of the time). The book is 349 pages long, and I’m on page 144 after starting it at the beginning of July. I tend to read it in spurts.
I’m mainly posting this to encourage anyone out there hoping to dive into Japanese light novels. Everything about my Japanese proficiency says that I shouldn’t be able to read this at all. My vocabulary, kanji, and grammar are all pretty sketchy since my studying is so lapsedaisical. And yet, I can track with this story pretty well (having watched the anime helps a lot), and can sometimes understand whole paragraphs and conversations – a totally amazing feeling.If you’re already playing video games in Japanese (I play DQ9), you’ll have a good base vocabulary for fantasy books: Spear (槍), sword (剣)、defeat (たおす), etc. All this to say, if you haven’t started reading yet because it seems too difficult, try it out anyway. You might be selling your mind too short.
1. What are you watching?
Crunchyroll on Roku! It’s amazing! I recommend any Japanese learner get Roku for that alone. Makes immersion much more accessible since you have a remote. For new series, I am watching 夏目友人帳 and Henneko on Crunchyroll (I’ll be translating the Henneko light novel so I thought I should watch the anime too). I also started watching Aria on the Manga channel on Roku. Although I just started watching these series. I also watched No Dropping Out -Back to School at 35- at the beginning of the month and absolutely loved it. I binge watched it because I was just so into it. I started watching Future Diary on DramaFever before tadoku started, but forget what episode I left off on! I really want to go back to it once tadoku ends, just got to figure out which episode. I guess I should create a DramaFever account and make a queue.
2. What are you reading?
I’m getting into Harlequin manga! I recently became a translator for Digital Manga and my speciality are Harlequins. Before my first Harlequin assignment I wanted to check out the genre for myself to see if I liked it, and turns out I do! While I’ve also been reading Harlequins I’ve been assigned to translate, I also follow the free, Harlequin web magazine in Japanese to keep up with the genre on my own. They release chapters weekly from selected series. http://www.harlequin-library.jp/magazine Currently reading 冷たいハネムーン. I recommending finding a series on that magazine that is either on chapter one or chapter two. If it’s on chapter two, you can catch up by reading the free preview from the book on the website by looking up the title, and then read chapter two from the magazine. If you read a series from chapter three or on, you’ll be missing some of the story.
I’ve also been reading ばらかもん through 少女ロマンスWeb. They are releasing chapters from the manga for free weekly and have an archive of each chapter released so far as well. Catch it while you can!
I like to watch/read stuff with plenty of contrast to keep things interesting. This is some of the stuff that I would recommend to people from what I’ve come across in the last 6 months:
Manga (free):
http://www.shonenmagazine.com/samples/
Japanese TV (Variety Shows):
Episodes of Hello Morning (I watch these while eating breakfast)
Gaki No Tsukai – KiKi Series [ http://www.reddit.com/r/GakiNoTsukai ]
Jdrama:
Kimi wa petto
Ohitorisama
Anime:
Hajime no Ippo – Rising
Minami Ke
September
1. What are you watching?
– Fate Stay Night (3 stars)
– Chuunibyou Demo Koi Ga Shitai (2-3 stars)
– Hellsing OVAs (2-3 stars)
2. What are you reading?
– Same as last month. :(
3. What are you playing?
– Mother 2 (Earthbound in the U.S.) (2 stars)
4. What are you listening to?
– Chiaki Ishikawa (really depends)
More effort went towards defeating The One Deck than towards media this month, with the expectation I get more media time next month. :D
I’m going to leave out the star ratings because I find it impossibly to quantify difficult numerically.
Watching:
-J-Drama
BOSS
Trick
-Anime
Re: Cutey Honey
Reading:
ハリー・ポッターと賢者の石
Listening:
木村カエラ
藍井エイル
The Akabane Vulgars on Strong Bybass
Playing:
Final Fantasy II
1. What are you watching?
Second season Michievous kiss in tokyo(crunchyroll) – 1-2 stars
deadman wonderland (netflix)- 3 stars
Madoka magica (netflix) – 2 stars (jumps to 3 occassionally, averages out towards 2)
School of rock (itunes) – (2 stars)songs are in english
2. What are you reading?
Dragon ball z first volume in colour (free off itunes)- 2 stars
Kitchen (itunes) – just finished – 2 stars
カゲロウデイズ -in a daze- (itunes)- 3 stars
3. What are you playing?
final fantasy 6 – ios (3-4 stars, loads of jargon, fantasy words)
Smash brothers – 3ds japan (not much text, 1 star).
Clannad – vita (2 stars)
4. What are you listening to?
Podcast – HideRadio by hideo kojima (creator of metal gear solid. 3-4 stars. Mostly used passively tbh
1. What are you watching?
Monthly girl’s Nozaki-kun (☆☆) on crunchyroll without subs. This seems like it will be a soppy romance a the beginning but at least by the second episode, which is hilarious, it shows itself to really be a high-energy comedy that satirises romance anime.
Watched the Battle Royale movie (☆☆☆) the other day. It was very gorey, but certainly more creepy and sad than actually scary for the most part (I jumped only a couple of times, even though there were intense scenes throughout). The teacher was a very odd character and probably the most expressionless people I’ve ever seen, I’m still questioning what he did at the end. I want to read the manga because I can guess from the size of it that their’s much more story in there.
2. What are you reading?
Doraemon (☆), as I have been for a long time. My half-Japanese friend has become a Doraemon library for me with her unwanted collection.
The blog of Scandal the Japanese girl rock band http://ameblo.jp/scandalblog-4/ (☆). They take lots of nicely taken pictures showing what they’re up to and write a blog entry to go with them. The pictures break up the text and make it much more fun to read. All 4 of them will write an entry one after the other and because they work so hard that they’re always together, each round of entries is on a similar topic, which makes them easy to read. If you don’t know the band you should check them out because not only do I love their music but I find their blog and SCANOMICS little radio show (mentioned below) very useful for reading and listening practice.
3. What are you playing?
Naruto Ultimate Ninja 3 PS2 PAL has optional Japanese voices but you can’t even hear them over the music so I can’t difficulty rate it or really recommend it unless someone can tell me how to fix that.
4. What are you listening to?
On the music front, the usual: Scandal, Shiina Ringo, Tokyo Jihen, School food punishment, andymori, Nightmare, Maximum the Hormone, UVERworld, Kreva.
Other than that, lots of Scandal’s SCANOMICS radio show ( ☆☆) because its simple and jolly. I rip them from the static videos on this youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/Takuwan2009
Watching:
South Park dubbed: If you’re unfamiliar with the series at all then possibly ☆☆☆, ☆☆ if you are.
There’s a free program called Nijishow that allows you to stream 11 Japanese TV channels like NHK, TBS, TV Tokyo, and even a few Kansai channels, so I’ve been flipping around on that. Unfortunately there are some audio desynch issues ranging from mild to severe in a few cases. Your mileage may vary. Can’t put a level on this one, but I can note that I now understand roughly half of what’s being said most times on simpler variety shows and most commercials, especially if there’s Japanese subtitles, so that’s nice.
Reading:
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (Manga, Battle Shounen): ☆☆
Kino no Tabi (Light Novel, Adventure): ☆☆ (the upper end of this I think, it’s just a lot less difficult than most LNs)
IRC chat window left on-screen permanently and connected to 8 different channels: too varied to put a number on, but often above my level
Playing:
Hanahira (PC, VN, moege): ☆ (try this if you want to get into visual novels easily)
Rhythm Heaven (GBA, rhythm game): ☆
Sakura Momoko no Ukiuki Carnival (GBA, RPG): ☆☆ (EXTREMELY overlooked game and unfortunately never released outside of Japan; play this immediately if you like quirky Nintendo RPGs. Miyamoto worked on it.)
Gyakuten Saiban (GBA, VN with heavy puzzle elements): ☆☆☆ or even higher but again, if you’re intimately familiar with the series you can punch way above your weight on this one.
Listening:
Soul Scream (Hip Hop group): ☆☆☆☆ (most of their songs are way above my level but I’m attacking them with a dictionary a bit each day)
1. What are you watching?
Drama: 昼顔~平日午後3時の恋人たち- 2 stars
Drama: Hero 2014 – 3 stars
TV Show: 世界の果てまでイッテq! – 2 stars
TV Show: ニンゲン観察バラエティ モニタリング – 2 stars
(all available on d-addicts.com)
2. What are you reading?
I don’t spend much time on reading, but I am trying to work through the entire series of 亀有公園前派出所 manga when I get time, which is just 1 star I guess.
3. What are you playing?
Nothing at the moment, but would like to find something that appeals to me.
4. What are you listening to?
Various audio tracks ripped from dramas. I have the audio tracks of over 42 drama series which I rotate and listen to on my phone while commuting or doing housework etc.
Currently listening to 年下の男, which I guess would be 2-3 stars.
1. What are you watching?
I’m finally finishing Kamen Rider Gaim (which ends…this week?). It’s not bad but not my favorite Kamen Rider series. It’s either a 3 or a high 2.
2. What are you reading?
Paseli Densetsu (volume 2). I’d probably put it at a 2 (or maybe a low 3)
3. What are you playing?
I hardly ever play video games :(
4. What are you listening to?
Akiko Shikata (3), SHINee’s Japanese albums (1 or 2 depending on the song), Tackey and Tsubasa (probably a 2 generally), and the simulation CD Ouritsu Ouji Gakuen 2 (maybe a 2).
1. What are you watching?
好きっていいなよ (☆) (Finished) (Hulu)
One Week Friends (☆) (Hulu)
夏目友人帳 (☆☆) (Crunchyroll)
Monthly Girl’s Nozaki-kun (☆☆) (Crunchyroll)
ばらかもん (☆☆) (Hulu)
変態王子と笑わない猫。 (☆☆☆) (Stopped at episode 4, will continue after I read the second novel.)
最上の命医 (☆☆☆☆, I think. I don’t remember the difficulty, but it’s a medical drama, so I’m assuming it’s hard.) (I watched three or four episodes) (GyaO! during their promotion)
2. What are you reading?
林檎と蜂蜜 (☆) volume 1, as part of the 秋マン!!2014 campaign going on.
千の夜をあなたと (☆☆), a harlequin manga I translated for Digital Manga.
大家さんはマスコットな彼女 (☆☆☆) from Manga Got a Chance! It’s won over my heart and made it on my favorites list right next to 喫茶部へようこそ! I didn’t think I’d find something that’d compete with how much I love 喫茶部へようこそ! You can read it here: http://mangag.com/manga/?p=16304
変態王子と笑わない猫。(☆☆☆), a novel I’m translating for Digital Manga. I absolutely love this series! I’ve only been assigned volume one so far, but I’d love to continue translating the rest if given the opportunity after I finish translating this one.
3. What are you playing?
ゆけむり温泉郷 (☆) on Android through Amazon Apps, a business simulator game about running a hot springs. There was a $10 promotion credit for Amazon Apps for Amazon Students. If you change your amazon app store country settings to Japan, you can access the Japanese region content. I’ve played the trial for this before and am sooo happy to have the full version and totally obsessed with it right now!
I also bought another app, Symphony of Origins (RPG), with the left over money, but haven’t played it yet.
4. What are you listening to?
Niconico’s Vocaloid Radio (N/A, since there are multiple songs from multiple artists)
1. What are you watching?
ログ・ホライズン ☆☆☆
ダンガンロンパ 希望の学園と絶望の高校生 the animation ☆☆☆
2. What are you reading?/3. What are you playing?
東京バベル (visual novel) ☆☆☆
4. What are you listening to?
Just what I ”sing” in karaoke(multiple artists).
October
1. What are you watching?
キルラキル
Awesome anime that was introduced to me by Anime Hunters.
High school physics’ videos in Japanese (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwXNesWiFPo)
I find that once you have a basic vocabulary in a field it is nice to listen to these kind of videos in the background, because it solidifies the words you already know and allows you to pick new technical Japanese words from the fact that you know the field.
I’d generally recommend anyone do the same with a subject which they find basic enough, as picking out words simply from the logic of what is being said is a lot of fun.
2. What are you reading?
Still reading the ハイスクールDxD novels, now on volume 17
There are “only” 18 volumes out for this series, and it’s weird to think I’ll soon be over with a series that once seemed like it would last forever…
Time to find myself a new series of novels…
A bunch of manga from http://mangag.com/, プリズーミー・サブ being a personal favorite.
This is actually part of a project of Rachel’s to produce ratings for manga in that website (you can contact either of us if you want in).
3. What are you playing?
妖怪ウオッチ
Just got this today, and honestly I won’t start playing this at full speed until November (this being a Tadoku month I’m focusing on stuff where it is easy to register how much you read). I was completely sold on this game when I saw it on ニャニャニャ!ネコマリオタイム. It’s a bit like Pokemon except with Japanese spirits (妖怪), and you’re a kid going around in a little modern Japanese town collecting them. Honestly it’s like getting to experience the “Japanese childhood” I never had, except with 妖怪.
1. What are you watching?
– Finished Toppa Tengen Gurenn Lagann 突破天元グレンラガン (3 to 4 stars because listening is really hard for me :T)
– Fate Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works (3-4 again, closer to 3 I think)
– Chuunibyou Demo Koi Ga Shitai! 中二病でも故意がしたい! Seasons 1 & 2 (2-3 stars, simpler vocabulary, less fantasy elements)
– Sword Art Online ソードアートオンライン season 1. (2 stars, might be familiar vocab with my gaming background bringing the difficulty down)
– Kyoukai no Kanata 境界の彼方 (3 stars)
2. What are you reading?
– Still “The Sigh of Suzumiya Haruhi”. Not been a reading month.
3. What are you playing?
– Finished Earthbound ・ Mother 2(rated 2 last month) It’s 99% all in hiragana and katakana, which made it really rough going despite relative simplicity.
– Started Illusion of Gaia ガイア幻想気 tonight. So far, rated 2. There’s kanji mixed in, which makes it easier to mentally parse than Earthbound’s kana wall.
4. What are you listening to?
– Err, nothing. (will be combing comments for suggestion. :) )