Before leaving Kyoto in December, a few friends and I decided to fly into Book Off to see if we could grab anything of interest on the cheap. I picked up a few original Japanese volumes of Honey & Clover and Fruits Basket (for less than $1 per book, of course).
Upon returning to the States, I realized that, well, Japanese manga’s pretty difficult to read, even when I’ve already taken three years of Japanese. I haven’t really attempted to examine Fruits Basket, but looking at the level of language in Honey & Clover, I’ve realized that josei manga is clearly aimed at an older readership. Yes, it’s kind of obvious, but a simple thing like colloquial language (and boy does H&C show off its conversational vocabulary) really emphasizes the relationship between audience demographics and linguistic content.
My purpose for reading original Japanese manga is two-fold: one, to read the original (providing a bit of context, especially since the Japanese language is so contextual), and two, to improve my Japanese skills. In relation to the latter point, I know that manga isn’t the best type of literature with which to be practicing my reading ability, but the enjoyment accompanying the reading comics certainly helps the ease into education in the long run. The problem that I face: finding manga that fits the right level for my reading abilities.
Book Off is an amazing place. Yes, it boasts a wide range of manga translated into English, but as a Japanese book store it provides access to hundreds of volumes more, especially many series not available in America. Over the past year, I have increasingly wanted to emphasize that fans push themselves to learn the language, because I feel that knowledge puts approaches to Japanese popular culture into a more authentic context while providing a means of entry into pursuing media other than those issued by American publishers. Then again, I can appreciate those fans that watch anime out of a passion for it, whether or not it’s translated. SDS recently thought about this, writing, “One should not presume to speak authoritatively about anime and manga without at least understanding a little about the “language” that accompanies them. I of course am not saying you should literally study Japanese (although it can certainly help) but that you should not pigeonhole anime and manga entirely into the context of your own field, subordinating it to your greater topic while simultaneously denying its own creative and artistic language and structures.” Though I’m not sure there’s an intrinsic connection between language and such denial, I do agree that ignoring part of the context of the media — namely the linguistic element — challenges a full understanding of the work as a whole.
Anyway, last weekend after hanging out at a reunion with my friends from the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies, I picked up the above three books, which cost me a total of $2.50 (another reason why Book Off is amazing: really low prices, even when it’s imported manga). The first is a light novel adaptation of the Pokemon series, which covers up to about episode six of the televised series. The second is Beck: I’ve seen the anime, so I assume an easier comprehension, yet it was also published in Monthly Shonen Magazine (Kodansha), a comics magazine for younger readers, so almost all of the kanji have associated furigana. The third is Blackjack ni Yoroshiku, a new take on Tezuka’s Blackjack but set inside the hospital infrastructure. This last text might have been a stretch, because I realize it’s going to contain a lot of medical terms, but maybe it’ll help with my kanji reading (I need to start learning more than just kyouiku kanji, especially for the JLPT 2 exam in December).
I had an idea while choosing these manga though. Currently, there is no database for manga based on both review and level of Japanese. So, for those learning the Japanese language, we have to go by intimate recommendation or personal experience. However, I’m sure that a project like this could easily be crowdsourced by a small group of anime fans, to help a unique set of fans learn to pick up good manga without turning them away because they lack the linguistic ability. So, if someone’s interested in possibly setting this up, I have a few hours free to help out.
I too would love for something like that manga database to exist, but I wouldn’t be able to make it without the nagging feeling that I should be reading.
I’m having a blast trying to read manga and play DS games but to be honest it’s not carrying over very well when I try to read something purely written. My biggest problem with reading is 1) gigantic run-on sentences and 2) trying to keep track of what the hell the context is. For manga and DS, the tiny display space forces compact, efficient sentences and the context is provided by images.
Probably better to take the plunge and read something without pictures. If you have a dictionary and patience, you can read just about anything no matter what level you are.
Good luck for the JLPT2 in December. Mine’s in three days. Nagging feeling I should be studying …
I’ve picked up a few manga volumes in their original Japanese form from Kinokuniya on a few occasions despite knowing very little of the language (I took a few weeks of a Japanese 1 course and still have the book). I’ve been able to grasp a loose understanding of the plot in some of them through the art but though I occasionally have thoughts of slowly translating them for my own purposes and presumably helping my understanding of Japanese, the main mental roadblock I need to overcome is the tedious process I’d be undertaking.
The project sounds like a good idea given the range of Japanese knowledge among fans.
Re: Book Off – I’m thinking of stopping by one after AX before I head back home, having never been to one before.