Beginners special selection 2

Version française/日本語バージョン

I'm sorry for taking so much time, I said I'd write the second selection mid-July but I was very busy. As promised, here are web mangas aimed at a bit more mature audience.


Title : アイカギ屋
Artist : トモリ
Website : brown note
Chapters : 4 (ongoing)

Kogake is an unusual locksmith: on top of the normal keys, she also makes keys that can open the door to someone's heart. While promoting her shop, she travels through many parallel worlds. But Kogake's twin sister, Koyomi is afraid Kogake might never be able to come back to her own world one day.

Aikagiya is a supernatural story with a bit of romance and a lot of slice of life. This art style isn't very engaging but the story is interesting enough to override that weakness. The level is moderate beginner: the grammar is pretty simple with short sentences but as always the problem is the kanjis. There aren't a lot of them but since some of them are unusual or advanced level (i.e. tobira 扉 or kagi 鍵). So you may want to have a dictionary ready at hand.

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. 

Hori-san to Miyamura-kun

Version française

Hori-san to Miyamura-kun volume 1
source: Amazon

Edit : I talked with the manager of HERO's website but I couldn't get permission to use excerpts from the web comic. However as stated below, Square Enix published 10 volumes of Hori-san to Miyamura-kun so here's the cover of the first volume (source : Amazon).

Title: 堀さんと宮村くん
Author: HERO
Website: 読解アヘン
Chapters: original series 140 (complete), including bonuses 491 (ongoing)
Keywords: slice of life, romantic comedy, school life, 4koma, friendship, self-acceptance
Related media: an OVA in 2012, an adaptation by Hagiwara Daisuke under the title Horimiya published in GFantasy magazine since 2011

I chose to write my first review on Hori-san to Miyamura-kun because it was my first web comic in Japanese. It's one of the most popular web comics in the Japanese speaking community : it has an OVA, a new adaptation and 10 volumes were published by Square Enix. It's also been on top of the Comic Room ranking for a while now.

The story is pretty usual : Hori Kyôko is a highschool girl with a cool beauty image but when she's at home she's in full housewife mode. One day her little brother brings back a young man with long hair and many piercings. He's actually Miyamura Izumi, the gloomy four-eyes in her class. She realizes he isn't that gloomy, they become friends and the rest you can guess.