Are the Genki Japanese Graded Readers Any Good? 

Forgot to mention that you can get all the audio for free on the official Japan Times OtoNavi app… Even if you don’t own the books… 🤷‍♂️

Honest and indepth reviews are so invaluable. Thanks for this!

Honestly the graded reader books for native kids are way cheaper and much more interesting than these. I really like the "10分で読めるお話” series. The 1年生 level books suffer from lack of kanji, but 3年生 and higher are great. Best part is they're around 200 pages each and only 900円. There's other 10分で読める series too like 10分で読める物語 、10分で読める伝記、 10分で読める伝記名作

I think these are so expensive because they expect schools and colleges to purchase them for their classrooms. Or maybe they expect the college students themselves to purchase them. $50 for a book for a single class is definitely not unheard of. And the sad thing is I bet they'll make a ton of money off of these too.

I looked at the thumbnail like “Wow I need to get this!” But the review told me otherwise… thanks for the review!

I was seriously thinking about buying them, since I like the updated Genki series. However, I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much money on the books. Especially since they wouldn't let us see very much content before we bought them. Thanks for making all the content! I signed up on your website and have been going through Genki 1 again. It really has helped. As for the graded readers, I'll take your advice and skip them.

Thanks for providing these reviews Andy! Also, thank you for providing us with an affordable and effective way of learning Japanese. I've been going through your online course coupled with virtual lessons and it's been such a game changer! The original content in the immersion material is not only helpful but funny and entertaining to read as well. If you and Yuki ever plan to publish readers I would gladly support!

Appreciate the honesty, keep up with the great content!

Can always count on you for honesty! I balked at the price of those. I've been buying kindle books with more interesting stories and value for content than what I've seen from the Genki readers. Granted some are better/worse than others. But they've only ever cost me $3-$7 and reading turned out to be my favourite way to learn. Thanks for reviewing them for us!!

Thanks for the info! You are awesome!

I'd rather subscribe to Satori Reader. can't remember if it's cheaper, because i'm not subscribed anymore, but it sure has more content and words. Plus it also has grammar/words explanation. It was well worth the money.

Hey 先生, Requesting you to start a kanji series with different reading and example sentences with its uses and exceptions!!

Thanks for sharing Andi, I was considering the Genki graded readers. Usually I read the level 0-1 tadoku graded readers since I want to increase my reading level Japanese with the free stories and just started buying their books which are pretty cool too. I’ll check your graded readers too, I didn’t know y’all had that service as well👍

Thank you! Oto Navi has the audio for L1-12 free in the app if anyones interested. I checked the physical books to see if i could read along but the price is not worth it. Glad to know im not alone in that opinion

Thanks for this. I need to read more. I did consider this. However I went with satori reader. I may consider joining your site just to read and try out other stuff😊

Hmm... honestly I could only see this set as a conversation piece, i.e, pull one off the shelf and read a page or two to anyone that is curious . That being said, recently I bought a year of Satori Reader using Andy's promo link. Totally recommend it. It really helps with learning about the infinite degrees of nuance that Japanese can convey through grammatical subtlety (whereas in English, we tend to convey nuance through vocabulary/word selection).

I just read Crystal Hunters a manga that teaches Japanese.

Ah, man! I was looking forward to these! What a bummer...

I can recommend the KLC Graded Readers if you want sentences to go with your Kanji studies. Not the most interesting, but it is n + 1, which is pretty rare.

Thanks for the heads up Andy. I’m always happy to see your new videos!

I was looking into buying them after getting through the massive Tadoku downloads I found of each level's readers combined into single PDFs. I've already zoomed through 300 pages of the Lv 0 content...I'd be mad about how little I'm getting if I bought the genki readers.

Do your stories on your website include audio, dictionary lookup, and are there ones for beginner level around N5? Thanks

Thanks for the review. Is there anyway where I can see a inside preview of the books? Would you say they are equivalent of L3 of the Tadoku readers?

I don’t think they are worth the price. There are so many sites that have graded reading, especially folk tales. You can also buy books which have Japanese on one page which the English on the other, some even have quizzes. These retail about $9.99. Let’s not forget the JLPT practice tests in reading that you can take a look at for short study burst. Thanks for sharing these though, always knowledgeable and impartial 😊

Thanks for heads up. I suppose most people should start with the tadoku series, then work their up to selected japanese works (like Breaking into Japanese Literature: Seven Modern Classics in Parallel Text - Revised Edition). That should make you familiar with native text. So when you read an actual novel, you're not going to be buried

Wow everyone is right that price is intense. Outstanding thumbnail though! 😆

Thank you for this video! It was helpful for me in order to decide if buy or not. I know it’s not related to this video, but I was thinking to subscribe to Andy’s channel, and I want to know if the videos of Genki and Quartet that are free in this channel, are the same I will get after the subscription? Or did he made special videos just for those registered? Thank you

I love how this whole video just became a shameless plug for his website and how much better value it is I think Andy been taking lessons from Yuta. Also I also subscribed to Andy website and the content is indeed worth and can start using it again since I am back from my vacation in Europe. Andy you need really need to do a Andosan manga using Midjourney AI that would be awesome and disturbing at the same time.

I was hoping you'd also compare them to Satori reader in terms of difficulty, content, and value.

If they would have released something in level of the Quartet books, could have been great !!

Thanks for the insight with this series. Even though I was not thinking about buying them, I know that I still recommend - and use - the free Tadoku ones. On a different note: Can you do a review of the new Japanese series by The Japan Times, J-Peak Japanese for the Liberal Arts at the University of Tokyo? It is supposed to be a 3-volume series on Japanese for Humanities, with only the first volume released earlier this year. I'm interested in those since I'm interested in academic texts of that nature, but I have heard mixed reviews about it, and other options like 日本語で考えたくなる科学の問い are pretty effin advanced for me. Again, thanks for all your help! I'm currently starting Quartet and I love your content.

Thank you for saving my money. I probably would have picked up a box and been very grumpy.

Nah cuz they actually made a whole ass cinematic universe for this book I’m talking a live action, anime, light novel AND NOW A MANGA for Takeshi and Mary’s love story 😭

Please create a masterpiece for us! Wait, you did it!

I’m a nanny to a family with Japanese heritage (though neither parent know Japanese). They want their children to be Japanese bilingual but we’re struggling to find good children’s books/shows for the kids. They’re not quite old enough yet, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I love ur content man keep up ... Can u make a kanji sereis cuz i am a new and cant find a free place to start

Looks nice for beginner readers, but that price is so steep though. I bought both the Tobira books and those two are very pricey on their own, let alone added the price for shipping. Wonder if there's a way to acquire these through _different_ ways 😏😏

Anyone know where the books are printed? If they're printed outside china that could explain the price

As someone who reads manga the Genki 1 would probably confuse me. I'm already trained to go right to left when reading for Japanese. It's unfortunate they didn't try to make these better than what we can resource online for cheaper/free.

I also wanted to buy them, but that’s some pricey stuff! Thank you for the review. Now even for $25 I will avoid them. 😂

Listening to the free audio on the Oto app and I noticed the lessons don't even cover / drill the grammar contents of the corresponding lesson in Genki. In fact for most of the grammar points there was not even one example in the corresponding story. dumb

Thanks for warning people about this, a lot of shortcomings for a ridiculous price.

Thanks for the review, I was thinking about picking them up but maybe it's now a pass.. 😅

Do they continue the lore of Mary and Takeshi though?

One has to mention that the story in Lesson 9-2 The School Restroom is too disturbing. It in gave me PTSD. I am an adult normally into horror and not easily spooked, but I have not imagined in my wildest dreams that something that horrific will be dropped at me so casually in the middle of my beginner Japanese learning. あかいいろが すき? What the...

Could any one tell me what is the websites shown at 2:25 ? I'd really like to try it

how much time has it been 🙂since i came back this channel to watch some non-study material. 😛😛😛sensei very busy huh.

i can very slowly read kana but only know like 20 words, i get so frustrated when a "level 0" book like on the free book site, just throws shit at you and expects you to just "pick it up". the least that free book site could do is provide a list of words to lookup ahead of time, and they could stop putting the damn audio on one massive play button! why do i have to listen to a whole book to re-hear one fricken page!

I was thinking of getting this. But now I won’t 🙈

In my opinion these are not worth it at all. So far I've read both volumes of Kevin Marx's short stories, as well as the first Lingo Mastery volume, and I'm positively surprised, especially with the former. There's no furigana, but that's better in my opinion since you have to pay attention to the kanji and not just eyeball the furigana each time you encounter a new word. Definitely recommend!

Hair looks great! xD

Those prices are a year round April fools joke

Are you planning on doing a kanji study video soon?

やった！

Guys, you need to chill out. I am sure someone just typed in a zero too much by accident. Everything will be resolved 🤔

Hard pass on my end, The resources on the website 100% better priced and better

I use the textbooks issued by Japanese schools. They are much better, and were free.

I dunno why I expected this to be an April Fool's joke...

There is so much space and so little reading in those pages.

I don't even use Genki, but I definitely wouldn't use these readers. I'd try just read manga or online articles in Japanese instead for free. Satori Reader also exists.

I had been watching for these to come out...but between the price point and the content, I think that'll be a pass from me. Travel pamphlets and social studies content seems like a slog, and so many other resources already provide retold folktales.

Second ❤

Bro just get the Tobira Beginning Japanese book. It's basically an almost ripped off version of Genki but it's also very modified with improvements and even includes both a tone-accent guide for words and a keyboard section for typing. Not to forget that the Kanji is included IN the lessons themselves and not in the back of the book randomly like Genki does it. Genki REALLY dropped the ball but I suppose if it's for beginners it isn't so bad but I agree, definitely WAY more expensive than textbooks of such basic quality should cost.

Am I the only one who doesn't care about "interesting" when choosing a grade reader? I just want to read something, anything, at my level. I don't care what it is.

Thanks for the heads up, hard pass.

It's not worth it at all.

Absolute garbage, as expected. Given the amount of low-level reading material already available, this was a massive waste of time and just a cash grab from schools and universities.

Hmmm... i dont know man... I wanted to buy a simple Cat Fancy and K-Pop magazine to put in my kid's Easter Basket, THEY were $19.99 each!

I don't need any more sagas of Takeshi and Mary (｀_´メ)