Forum - View topicReading Japanese Manga
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ThatMatt
Posts: 162 |
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Ok, I dont know a word of japanese, but there is some manga i want to get and read. Is it possible to basically get the main idea of whats going on in the manga without being able to read japanese, or will I be extremely confused.
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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While occasionally it is possible to figure out what is going on from just the images, you're mostly going to be confused trying to go with just the artwork. First thing you should do is double check to see if the series you are interesed in is licensed or not.
If the series you want to read is not licensed and is not on it's way to you in English, you should seek a scanlation of it. I hate to recommend such a thing but that's your only option if it's not available in a language you can understand. You really have to know what they're saying most of the time to follow the plot. |
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Raven Shinobi
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Just imagine reading Death Note or any other series with the dialogue bubbles completely blank - it's hard to enjoy it unless you know what exactly they're talking about and there are things that can't be understood with body language alone.
If you're desperate and you didn't find a place to provide translated scans to the series you want to check, then you can do what I did before my Japanese gotten better: picking up an expansive Japanese dictionary, most of the words in Kanji are also translated to hiragana in most if not all manga series, so it's easy to look it up, but you still need to know basic Japanese and grammar to avoid confusion. |
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d.yaro
Posts: 528 |
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My suggestion: Don't even try it if you're not serious about learning some Japanese. My opinion is that at the very least you should be able to decypher/read hiragana and katakana (characters/alphabets where the letters correspond to syllables in the Japanese language) and be armed with a decent Japanese to English dictionary. If you're thinking of diving into a shonen/shojo series then you'll probably come across furigana - hirigana pronounciation aids for kanji/Chinese characters. To give you an idea of what to expect, manga I've read over the years with furigana are Ranma 1/2, Inuyasha, Mermaids Forest and Welcome to the NHK. As mentioned earlier in this thread, without some knowledge of the language there is little chance of being able to follow a manga. It'll just be a bunch of disconnected drawings.
ps: Which manga are you considering buying? |
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EVA fiend
 Posts: 314 Location: Somewhere in the UK. |
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I have over two dozen volumes of manga in Japanese, & for the most part, at least some knowledge of written Japanese is needed to understand what is going on. There are some series in which being able to read Japanese is a must (e.g., GitS vol 2: I got this way before Dark Horse translated it, & whilst the artwork is stunning, I had no clue as to what was going on till DH released their version), whereas in others, you can get the gist of what's going on just by looking at the artwork (e.g., Bakuretsu Tenshi - Angel's Adolesecence: a prequel to the anime series where the dialogue is kept to a minimum).
As others have pointed out, a Japanese to English dictionary is very useful, or at least a helpful Japanese friend; I bribe mine with cigarettes. 
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ThatMatt
Posts: 162 |
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Thanks for the advice guys. Getting the dictionary to help me with the translations actually sounds fun. They sell Japanese dictionaries at Borders and Barnes and Noble right?
PS - Just a little note here, the manga I'm referencing is Gundam X: Under the Moonlight. Got a scanlated version of Vol. 1 and really got into the story, but couldn't find anything past Vol. 1 in English, so thats how this whole topic started. |
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darkhunter
 Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
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Or get a japanese friend and tell her/him to read it for you
I actually had a japanese friend in one of my management class to translate some word in an art book for me. |
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Webki
 Posts: 299 Location: Albany, NY |
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Or you can always learn Japanese. Not only will it be a good way for you to understand anime and manga, but it is a damn good language to know for business reasons. If you know Japanese, it is very easy to get a job in America - and a good one at that.
Not to mention it really isn't that hard. If you put in some of your own time to learn Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji, then sign up for a class, you will learn very fast. If you want to make it more fun, pick up "Learning Japanese the Manga Way" or some such book. As for me? I've been studying Japanese for a little bit now (not even a half-a-year), but I am a Japanese major, so it will get better with time. However, I have learned an extraordinary amount in the short time I have been studying it. So, seriously, give it a try. |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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That's one way of putting it. I've tried to avoid posting in this thread because when the subject of the Japanese language comes up everyone will then envy me about it, since I can speak Japanese. Though I find translating Japanese into English a bit harder than English to Japanese. A dictionary or a friend would be some of the best ways to know what's going on. |
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huh?
 Posts: 130 Location: playing trumpet w/ jesus |
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im a first year japanese major too in suny albany. whos class are you in. |
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aya_honda
 Posts: 920 Location: Around here |
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It's difficult to read a manga without knowing Japanese. (well, in this case actually one can't speak of reading)
I mean, yes, you could tell what happens in the manga but just in a small amount and the best of the story is lost. Now, it's not that difficult to learn Japanese. I have studied Japanese for some time now and I would say that still it's easier to speak in Japanese rather than read in Japanese.  Kanji is still killing me. And since I don't have too much time to spend with it I think that it will take some time before finally being able to perfectly understand Kanji.
So my recommendation would be rather to start learning Japenese. It's quite interesting and who knows, you might actually like it very much. As for reading manga without knowing Japenee, it's quite a difficult task and I wouldn't recommend it. |
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NinjaUmbreon
 Posts: 43 |
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Depending on the manga you can get a fairly good idea on what's going on but more with action manga. With more drama manga you miss quit a bit. I'm try to improve my japanese. I need to get into a better study habbit.
For those that know Japanese, any advice you can give on learnign how ot read it? |
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Raven Shinobi
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First you should memorize both hiragana and katakana, kanji is not necessary at this stage since they come translated in hiragana, in manga, the dialogues are written vertically -from top to bottom- and read from right to left. Learning counters, honorifics and grammar, at least the different forms that a verb takes, like for example when "-te", "-ta" and "-nai" are added is also crucial. It becomes easier with practice. |
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ThatMatt
Posts: 162 |
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Any advice on what kind of Japanese dictionary/translation book I should get?
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ShadrachAnki
 Posts: 180 Location: New England |
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The answer to this question depends on the answers to a couple other questions. First, how seriously do you plan to study Japanese? Second, how much money are you willing to spend? As with most reference materials, you can find Japanese dictionaries and language guides in a range of prices and styles. Basic Dictionaries
Sanseido's Daily Concise English Dictionary These are two of the best dictionaries I've found, but neither of them use romanized lookups for the Japanese words, so you need to know hiragana and katakana (or have a chart to reference). There are also a number of dictionaries that do use romanized lookups, so if you aren't comfortable with reading the Japanese characters you won't be quite as lost. That said, Sanseido's is probably one of the best if you're trying to read untranslated manga since it is only a Japanese to English dictionary. Kanji Guides
The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary Kanji & Kana starts by covering the Japanese syllabaries (hiragana and katakana), so it's a good starter book. As others have stated, you need to learn these elements first, and most of the manga you will probably encounter will have furigana pronounciation beside any kanji that are used. Eventually you are going to want a more complete kanji guide, though, and I am particularly fond of Kodansha's offering here. For grammatical structure in Japanese you're going to be looking at textbook-type books. You may be able to find some teach yourself books in the foreign language section of your local bookstore, so I'd check there. Beyond that it sort of depends on your learning style as to what system works best. The Kana de Manga and Kanji de Manga series of books may be useful for this, but I don't know how much they go into grammatical structures. I do know that they teach kanji and kana, though. ~Shadrach Anki |
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