Manga review Yotsubato! よつばと！ Beginners Manga 1

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Manga is an excellent way to study Japanese and learn kanji and vocabulary, there are manga for almost any interest you may have, however many manga are very difficult in the beginning if they don`t have furigana (Hiragana reading above the kanji).  On this blog I hope to review some manga that I have read that are suitable for beginner to intermediate students. 


Yotsubato! よつばと！




Yotsubato! is definitely my first recommendation for starting to read manga.  There isn`t a  lot of text on each page and most of it is hiragana but there are enough kanji in there to learn new characters and to stop it becoming confusing as to where one word ends and the next begins (I find hiragana only books or manga like Doraemon a nightmare to read).  Each book holds about 7-10 chapters and they usually read like separate stories so you won`t get bogged down if you don`t understand something. There are only 13 books in total, so it isn`t a huge series.


On this page for example the one word I couldn`t read was 回覧板　かい・らん・ばん　(kairanban) which means circular notice (especially for neighborhood associations).　But that was probably the hardest word in the book.


The story is great, not a lot happens but it is amusing.  It`s about a five year old girl called Yotsuba.  Each story is about her daily life with her father, his friends and the neighboring family. Each chapter is Yotsuba& something. For example here is book one chapter one:


It is Yostuba and Hikkoshi (Moving house). 

So this whole chapter is just moving, unpacking and meeting the neighbours. 

Everything is daily Japanese and takes place in familiar places such as the zoo or the supermarket.  A lot involves her asking questions and somebody explaining something to her, for example what is Halloween.  This makes it perfect for studying natural Japanese and as we already know what Halloween is so the vocabulary becomes much more manageable.

Anyway I think it`s great, please leave any comments below!

Enjoy Everything!


You can help support this site by buying below from Amazon, I am an affiliate.

ありがとう！

Yotsubato! Vol. 1 (Yotsubato!) (in Japanese) (Japanese Edition)



More reviews;
Beginners Manga 2 Meitantei Conan （Case Closed)



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