カードキャプターさくら 1

Language Learning

Read this with the Absolute Beginner's book club on Wanikani, so there are now book club threads for questions and further help, which should make this an approachable pick. Biggest roadblock is definitely Kero's dialect, but this is not a very text-dense manga overall. Maybe good as a second or third manga, or a first manga for an enterprising learner who doesn't mind a bit of friction.

Entertainment

My first classic shoujo manga. I thought it was really cute and enjoyed the art style and all of Sakura's outfits. Will probably continue the series since it's shorter than I expected.

I prefer the anime, but the mangas not horrid

I found Kero's Osaka ben to be pretty hard to understand, so if I didn't have the English to compare to IDK if I'd have really understood half of what he says.

I specifically read the Bilingual edition, which means that the kanji did not have furigana, and the speech bubbles had English in them (the Japanese text is on the sides). In general, the books are pretty easy on the vocabulary, with the main exception being Sakura's magic incantation.

In total, I have about 100 words I had to look up, when reading this novel. 40 words in the first chapter, and 1 word on the final chapter, which is really good. I'd have rated this better for Japanese learning If I understood Kero better.

Cute and fun, but not for an absolute beginner

Strictly speaking, the vocab and grammar aren't particularly difficult — on par with any other shoujo or shounen manga — but it has some quirks that make it tricky for language learners. One of the main characters speaks in a strong Osaka dialect, and since he delivers a lot of necessary plot information that's a roadblock. There's a lot of asides handwritten outside the text bubbles, which are difficult to make out if you're only used to reading perfectly regular Japanese computer fonts. The main character occasionally uses somewhat archaic vocab when performing magic (like the pronoun 汝), but it's repeated often and in the exact same way, so you just have to learn it once; otherwise the vocab is very typical day-to-day material, hardly any made-up fantasy jargon at all. And lastly, the characters do use occasional slang or slur their pronunciation for comedic effect (for example ごひほうはま instead of ごちそうさま), which will make some lines baffling and impossible to look up if you're an absolute beginner.

Once you get past all that, though, it's a great series and very enjoyable.