I dunno if I'm just stupid, but there's a decent amount of challenging vocab in these books for me. I grant my vocabulary is kind of low for N3, but I still use the wankani reading club notes when I read these books as a lot of unfamiliar words pop up throughout. Hearing it should be easy for N4 is discouraging haha.
I certainly wouldn't say it's "easy", although I may have misspoke in the video. I mean to say that it's APPROPRIATE level. It's easy for N2 to N1. There is definitely challenging vocabulary, but it's much less so than the average Shonen. =)
@@ToKiniAndy Nah, I guess I mean the reputation is it's very readable for N4. I think maybe 2 years ago or so, I had just finished Genki 1 and was working through Genki 2. I hadn't taken the N4 but probably could have passed it. I wouldn't have been able to read Yotsuba to just to the intimidation factor and all the Kanji I didn't know. I managed to pass N3 and intend on taking the N2 next year, but I still am not accustomed to all the vocabulary (Kanji helps) and a lot of the words are in hiragana, which means if you're unfamiliar with them it can be difficult to guess the meaning. Also Im used to seeing certain words in kanji so I have to reread some things when they're mashed in a wall of hiragana. Anyways, approaching N2 and struggling more than I feel like I should given a lot of people around N4 say it's easy and a perfect challenge. Maybe I should hold off on N2?
@@dereklarson5322 i am literally only a month into japanese so i dont know much at all, but i hope this helps. I think you just need to be more confident in your abilities, its incredible that you have passed N3 and as you have said you struggle with the vocabulary because its a lot of hiragana rather than kanji, which means you have at least identified your weakness. I wouldn't hold off on N2, I would just go for it and if you dont pass you can look at and work on your areas of weakness. That said, good luck with N2
@@0Enigmatic0 absolutely. I'm glad I can potentially learn new words while I read. If I wasn't improving my Japanese from it, it would just be yet another leisure activity and I should be challenging myself with something else. I'm happy I can consider it two birds one stone.
Yotsubato is not only about the kids mishaps and funny adventures, i feel like its about exploring and looking at things from a different "deep"/kids perspective and also, about what its like to raise a child. when the Yotsuba, her dad and dad's sister went to the mall to get a school bag for the first time, and the Dad realized, that Yotsuba has grown so much in so little time - i also got teared up like Yotsuba's dad T_T or when they went to find stones/rocks - i looooved that chapter, when some rando on the street showed them the way - and the details on those stones were mhhmmm mmmh! such a peaceful story) studying wise - i think its a good read + practice for N3 level.
only if I was able to feel it at such a level. I've recently finished verb conjugations and now I'm just reading yotsuba to! to increase my vocabulary and comprehension. seems good so far, although with frequent look ups, which I totally don't mind. watching so much anime, combined with the furigana really helps reduce the number of lookups, but they are still there.
As someone who specifically read this to learn one year into learning, I'd say it's reccomended to beginners a little to eagerly. I don't think it's without reason though as the vocab used is broad, and it can help beginners who've been learning grammar for a while put it all together into coherent conversations. Also from personal experience, reading at least one manga you struggle with can be a really valuable experience. It gives you a lot of perspective on how far you've gone once you re-read it a year or two later and you're blazing past chapters that took you hours to complete the first time.
I very much agree with you! I'm reading Yotsubato for fun these days, while Flying Witch is my go-to manga for challenging myself! Same with "Creature!" (Hakaijuu).
I would absolutely LOVE if you did one of these for Chi's Sweet Home too. As someone who's goal is manga and anime, even if it's an easy kid manga I'd consider that a win. ^^
I found the entirety of this at my local bookstore for 10 cents a copy because they didn't know what to do with it. I almost felt like I was stealing it; I was so happy.
I’ve been reading the entire series as volumes come out with my daughter. I’m a single dad and we both thought it was great and really resonated with us. When I started learning mandarin years later I bought the whole series in Chinese (traditional). It really helps with foreign language learning in general.
For US, Kinokuniya has them listed between $9-12 USD depending on the volume, which is still expensive but if you have a membership and take advantage of the occasional 20% off sales it can be a decent deal for a brand new copy.
Yotsuba is one of my favorite manga. Read it in English and am looking forward to read it in Japanese. I need to grind through N5 first though. As for the content of the manga, I agree with Andy that you gotta have kids to understand the humor and fully appreciate the chill atmosphere of this manga. I started reading it when my son was nearly 6, so I can relate to every single panel in this manga. Youtsuba is 5 y.o. if I recall correctly.
I started this immediately after being able to read Hiragana and Katakana due to the frequent recommendations. Well, that was definitely too early ;). But after getting more acquainted with general Japanese grammar through your Genki series (visualizing parts of sentences was really key) so that I was able to extract single words and throw them into translators, I was able to get back into it. Even as someone who cannot deal with children IRL, I found this to be perfect. It's a great mixture of humor and a heartwarming atmosphere, so the Manga managed to keep me engaged by simply making me feel comfortable. It's really hard to describe, but I just felt at peace while working through the Manga. So I spent my evenings with the Manga on my desk with a translator and an English translated version open on my PC if all else fails. Definitely a great daily practice and I loved my time with it, although I also got a bit bored of it around the final editions. As a super early beginner, I just kept in mind that Yotsuba's parts are not as important, so I sometimes didn't bother spending too much time deciphering them to not learn something wrong.
My first manga is Yokai watch, and currently I’m doing Genki 1 (almost finished and moving on to Genki 2). And it’s pretty easy and digestible. I only had to use dictionary on a few words. But imma probably give this one a shot.
「ちょっと山のほうに行くだけでもここよりずっとよく見えるぞ」 Even when I understand all the words it's still hard as heck to actually understand these without google translate. "If you just go up to the mountains, you can see much better than here." Didn't know that 「ちょっと」 can be "just". I would have thought, "a little up the mountain" or something like that.
Yeah, the online price is kind of a killer here. I did pick up a volume awhile ago when I found a used copy of volume 1 in a games store for a few dollars. It was quite enjoyable, though it made me realize I really have to up the amount of kanji I learn, as there was still quite a bit I hadn't really noticed/used before which I probably should have already known.
2:35 in Vietnam, Yotsuba&! Is just about 1$ but it’s but it is no longer printed. And i found a bookstore here that sells yotsuba&! Japanese ver for just 8.50$
My favorite manga since... I dunno, maybe 15 years back?? Crazy really how I first stumbled upon the English version and instantly fell in love with it, then started reading it in Japanese in 2013 when I went to Japan to study Japanese. Been an absolute addict to the series since then and even pre-order the next volume as soon as I'm able to :3 What I like about it, despite actually _disliking kids_ in general, is the pacing, the way it depicts Japan, the easy of reading it in Japanese, the lovable characters and of course the humor. Highly recommended for people who are getting into learning Japanese (especially after N5), all the way up to N3. The rest of you can enjoy it simply because it's such a charming manga ;3
Personally I'm not a fan of kids IRL but reading Yotsubato I absolutely loved it. Of course though it's definitely better to just read a few volumes at a time, I can see it getting boring if you read 10+ in a row haha. Have you tried からかい上手の高木さん? That's personally one of my biggest go-to recommendation for beginners. The spinoff, からかい上手の元高木さん, is even easier but probably not that interesting if you haven't read the main series haha.
I'm just beginning to get past kana and I'm beginning to look at kanji, so I'm quite new to Japanese. I was wondering, though, if you knew why 高木 is read as "Takagi" instead of "Takaki". I might just not have the right reading in the dictionary I was looking at.
I read the entire series as it's often recommended to learners. I found the story and content very entertaining and there were many moments that made me laugh out loud. That said, from a learner's perspective, there were several times where I struggled with slang or Yotsuba's childish mistakes or jokes that I didn't have the background needed to understand. Also I think there were times where Yotsuba would speak, but words that are commonly written with kanji were written with kana. This made guessing the intended meaning a bit difficult at times. I think if you have a native Japanese friend that you can ask for assistance, this series is definitely worth a read if you enjoy humor or slice-of-life stuff.
I bought the first book a couple of years ago because it was so highly recommended for Japanese learners, but I don’t think I finished it. I just wasn’t interested in the story. Interest is super important to language learning (well for me anyway). Especially since I live in Japan where there are so many options. If I don’t like something I can drop it easily and try something else. I enjoyed the first 4 books of 死役所. They were free with Kindle unlimited. Last night I read the Kindle sample of Beserk. I don’t usually like fantasy, but it was pretty good. Might have to buy it! 😆
Yeah, I think it's definitely hit or miss when it comes to whether someone will like this book. That's why I rated it lower than I imagine some would expect. For me too, interest is extremely important. It's why I stopped bothering with reading Japanese content many years ago. Fortunately, I've found more stuff I enjoy since. Glad to hear you enjoyed 死役所！ It's a super unique series. I've only read the first 2 so far, and it's pretty heavy topic wise, but I definitely enjoyed it. =)
One of my goals is being able to read Steel Ball Run in Japanese, because it's my favourite manga. I'll definitely start with some slice-of-life mangas though, so that when I get to SBR, I can enjoy it without struggling to understand stuff.
i want Andy to read me a (English-subtitled) bedtime story, but *really* put in extra effort with the voices! make the bad guy sound really scary! make the hero sound really strong! make the scared villagers sound really afraid!
Thank you so much for this series! As someone who is almost done Genki 2 (using your awesome course btw) and long finished RTK, I'm at the point in my learning journey where I'm starting to read manga and visual novels. The timing is perfect! Personally, I've been finding that my interest in the content is more important than the difficulty (so long as I can at least understand some of it). For example, I love romance stories, but most of those are above my level (given the age demographic that they're written for). However, my motivation is really high to read something that I really want to understand, even if I'm spending a ton of time in the dictionary. Any concerns with this type of approach? I've been getting somewhat comfortable with not understanding everything, and if nothing else, it gives me a goal to work towards when re-reading in future. Thanks again for all that you do! These reviews, the courses, everything! I've already bought the Quartet books and plan to continue when I wrap Genki 2 :)
No concerns. That's exactly how I approach it. If I'm not interested, I quit fast. If I'm really into it, even if it's a bit too hard, I can power through. Of course, there are limits to this. Sometimes if it's WAY to hard, even if I'm interested, I burn out. But if you're enjoying it, keep going! =) Thank you for your support! =)
One that I'd love to read in Japanese is Flying Witch... as that's a really nice gentle series to get into. I've watched the anime and have the first 7 volumes of the English manga!
One really good manga that is the same level as youtsubato isトモちゃんは女の子！and it's really good by the use of vocabulary and the simple grammar, the manga is like one chapter per page and it's really good paced and short (only 7 volumes)
This is very interesting to me. Please keep making these. I'm at the point where I need to start ingesting media so I'm hopeful to find the right stuff to start with.
I love your channel as a japanese beginner, and will definitely go hunting for Yotsubato for cheap when i go to japan in january. Your video of how you would learn japanese if you could start over has loads of amazing suggestions. I've been considering joining your subscription for a couple weeks now but have found it hard to justify as I am a uni student. Though I think I am going to bite the bullet soon, mostly for the shadowing and other listening content. I would love some suggestions of other manga, books or even games (3ds, switch or ps4) i should buy when i go japan and can grab them for cheap. Thanks for making a great channel
You can still enjoy the series even if you don't care for kids! I personally hate kids (sorry people with children lol) but I really love the Yotsuba books. She's too cute and the books are honestly hilarious, none of the books have failed to make me laugh; the random humor is so on point (Not sure how it reads in the Japanese books, but my favorite line is yotsuba singing a song "We are all living! And living is pain!")
Yotsubato is great! CDJapan have the whole physical set for Yotsubato for quite cheap-ish, at least when I looked at it. Probably nothing beats going to Book Off haha :D Nichijou is supposed to be the other easy to approach manga... Unfortunately for me I really wanted to read one Josei series Atashi no Lion / My darling Lion and Psyren... I did not look at anything else and would "re-read" these overand over haha
My first manga was Mirai Nikki when I was about 2 years into Japanese, and was studying at Uni. After I took a 2ish year break due to the pandemic, I just started getting back into regular manga reading, and though Yotsubato isn't the "best" for the level I was, it is for what I am currently. Plus I really enjoy reading it.
Yo Andy!! I'm loving this series and cant wait for more! I finally finished school so I can take my learning a bit more serious. Your videos are SO SO SO helpful!! Keep up the great work :)
I love Yotsuba's mistakes. Like when she and Ena are playing like they're running an inn or something and Miura comes in and Yotsuba means to tell her お構い＝おかまい but instead says おまかい which sounds like お魔界 and Miura is wondering WTF. Such a hilarious series. Since you asked favorite manga though, for me it's からかい上手の高木さん by a mile, one of the funniest things I have ever read.
On chapter 96 and I'm reading this scene with Yotsuba saying the phrase at the bottom and thinking "I know how to read it, but that's too simple to be what it actually says". I definitely preferred Flying Witch in terms of Japanese, harder vocab but everyone is coherent. I also hate children (Chinatsu doesn't really child much). もしかするとよつばはすごい発見したかも 冬には木に葉っぱがなくなって裸になってるけど それは…秋にこうして葉っぱが全部落ちてしまうからかも
Love this channel! I’m curious if you know of anime that is good for learning useful grammar? I grew up in Japan but only speak very childish japanese, and I’m totally confused about what is a good/right way to say things as an adult. Would love to learn to read one day, but that has to wait…
Great video, looking forward to more of these! Visiting a book store in Japan is difficult for me as there aren’t previews for most of the manga being sold, meaning I can’t see how difficult the language is unless I buy. I’ll keep a lookout for Yotsuba to when I next go!
You'll want to go to a USED book store, for sure. Something like Book-Off. There you're aloud to stand and read for as long as you like, and they are all un-wrapped. If you definitely want to buy something new, find it in a store like that first, and see if you can read it. I personally buy ALL my manga used, unless I'm unable to find it. Also, the "Look inside" feature on Amazon Japan can be very helpful, even if you don't buy it from there.
I like Yotsuba. I guess I’m getting old and enjoy more peaceful manga. Also it reminds me of when my kids were younger and i had to teach them how to use words and stuff
I'd say most manga aimed at natives is going to be VERY difficult at N5. You MAY be able to get some mileage out of something like Doraemon though. I generally recommend graded reading material until you get to around an N4 level.
Hey Andy, Awesome video, I've made my way up to a 2010 course in Japanese and your videos have been very helpful for going over chapter concepts with my classmates. A few of us have read Yotsuba to! and it has been a nice little refresher and "exposure" for us to keep in the mindset. It has also been great for judging pronunciation and learning and seeing a few more words and concepts put into action. Even as I progress higher in the proficiency I'll still probably come back to it just for the practice. Prospective readers should consider shopping for these books via bookstores like Kinokuniya (if they're in the United States!) instead of Amazon. I was able to buy new JP print copies of Yotsuba To! for ~$10. It's worth looking into! I look forward to seeing more reviews from you. お疲れ様です！！！
I'm glad that you have found them helpful (and glad I could help, too!)! And yes, if you can find them cheaper, they are probably worth it for N4 to N3 level. =)
I just finished volume 15 in Japanese and I'm trying to find chapters 105 to 111 in Japanese. I can't find them. I've read the whole thing in English before but I can't find the rest of it in Japanese.
I bought this a few years ago since, as you say, it's recommended for beginners. It was too hard for me as a beginner and also I just found the character really annoying and badly behaved. I'm a bit more advanced now so perhaps I should try it again.
