Beginners special selection 1

Version française/日本語バージョン

Here is a first selection for beginners in Japanese, around JLPT N5 to N4 levels. The following web mangas are made for children, in a picture book style. Later in the month I'll give another selection for a bit more mature audience.

Title : くまいぬつうしん ("Kumainu News")
Author : ひろこっこ
Website : くまいぬつうしん
Chapters : 135 (ongoing)

Kumainu and Chibikuma's adventures in the forest. That's about all.

Here it's about as close to a picture book as you can get: every page is composed of a big picture followed by a few typewritten lines. This is what makes Kumainu Tsûshin ideal for a beginner. Since the text is short you can read a little, stop and read again without having the impression of being in front of an insurmountable wall. Also the text isn't part of the images so as soon as there's a word you don't understand, you can copy-paste it in an online dictionary. 

______________________________

Titre : おさかなぶんこ ("The Fish Library")
Artiste : さーさん
Site :  おさかなぶんこ

Chapitres : 19 (ongoing)

Abe the fox and Uu the ogre live in a mountain with the shape of a fish (hence the name osakana yama) and they often play pranks on the inhabitants and the other mononokes. Osakana-bunko recounts their daily life.

The text is typewritten and although there are only a few furiganas, since it's mainly in hiragana it's easy to read. The language level is accessible especially the narration, a little less for the dialogues. The style is close to a picture book's. There are sometimes references to the local folklore but nothing that couldn't be understood with a quick look at Wikipedia.

______________________________

Titre : ままごとは、ほんのむし 。("Mamagoto is a Bookworm")

Artiste : たからもも。

Site : たからもも。の漫画喫茶

Chapitres : 21 (ongoing)

The heroine, Keina, works in a library but she doesn't like books that much. One day, her friend gives her a kitten and she decides to name him Mamagoto ("playing house"). He started reading the books Keina brought home and became a bookworm, he can even speak human language. He often get immersed in his new passions (making tea, learning Chinese, cooking...) and Keina has to handle his eccentricities.  

The art style isn't very attractive but the story makes up for that weak point. The text is typewritten (but sadly without any furigana) et there are sometimes notes to explain difficult phrasings. The language level is intermediate beginner: the grammar is simple but there are many kanjis (not too much though). I'd say a little N4 is more than enough as long as you have a dictionary nearby.

If you enjoyed reading Mamagoto wa, Hon no Mushi, then I encourage you to read Natsume Sôseki's great classics, I am a Cat (I don't know for the other translations but the French one is very well done).