NOOOO DON'T TAKE ME AWAY
NOOOO DON'T TAKE ME AWAY
That cat's face in the last panel makes this meme perfect.
It's not much, I know, but it's a start.
Hopefully I'll be able to play SCA-DI's works (replay H2O for learning, then get on the Subahibi/SakuUta/SakuToki etc.) along with other famous kamiges and great games alike (WA2, Majikoi, etc.) in time.
Longer write-up over here for those curious. Credits to u/Orixa1's post for the original encouragement, though the creeping censorship in localization certainly helps motivate one.
In my experience it was a bit easier getting started with Manga than going straight to VNs, though admittedly I've only played through one VN so maybe others are easier than the one I've tried. If you find VNs overwhelming I definitely recommend giving something like Yotsuba a go. I know a lot of people recommend it so maybe you're tired of hearing about it, but that's only because it's both funny and (relatively) easy.
I've not heard of it before, surprisingly. (The only yotsuba I'm familiar with is 4chan, lol). Thanks for the rec!
Oh! Well then, I guess I should be more specific; earlier I left off the end of the manga's name. It's actually よつばと!. Here's a good write-up about what makes it a great first manga for a Japanese learner.
Majikoi mentioned, praise be! (シ_ _)シ
I can't wait to get to this point myself. I had a small taste of it not long ago reading Wagahime (machine translated) and I was surprised how much I was able to catch by just listening to the voice acting - I don't think I'm ready for anything but the most baby level stuff but it's better than nothing.
Good luck with your reading and congrats on passing N5.
Thanks! I've heard great reviews of Majikoi's comedic hijinks so it's definitely on my "want to read" list even though it's not something I'd usually pick up.
And yes, there's definitely some benefit to even having a bit of baby Japanese. You start seeing patterns everywhere and recognizing words that you've learned before, and it feels good. It's not perfect, but it's encouraging and definitely helps boost one's morale on their learning journey. For that reason alone, if the N5 exam cost isn't too expensive for you, I'd recommend sitting for it and trying to pass it, if only to get an external assessment of your Japanese reading and listening capabilities.
(As I wrote on Reddit, I passed N5 with about 7 Cure Dolly videos (for grammar) and having done TheMoeWay N5 Anki deck. That's all. What I love about Anki is that it works great on phones (I use AnkiDroid), so you can clear cards as you're commuting or when you're bored etc. TheMoeWay's N5 and N4 decks are also built in an N+1 manner, meaning you'll only ever see one word or phrase that is new. So that makes it much easier to learn, because you're not seeing "uashdiu is the aoisdjasd of aisodoiasdoi", you're seeing "Red is the iasdokklm of blood" and you begin to learn "that word/phrase in the middle means 'color'". And the sentences use proper grammar, so even if you don't watch videos on grammar or sit down to figure out the verb conjugations (which I've not yet done), you still implicitly pick up the basics of correct grammar and particle usage while learning vocab with the Anki cards.)
All the best on your language-learning journey too!
It's certainly not perfect and there are a few scenes that show their age but Majikoi as a series is a wonderful story about friendship and self improvement. Ended up reading through most of it (first game, S and A disks) in a month or so. Definitely worth the read.
As for JP learning, I'm taking a less structured approach for now. I did start with all the basics (kanas, some kanji, grammar) but I mostly moved to practice by reading as I have a serious problem staying focused when studying at the moment. I want to go back to that eventually but for now it's just: use use use. And hey, it does work - slowly, sure, but I can read more than I did a year ago.
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll note them down for when I'm ready to go back to proper learning.