~ FIFTY MANGOES ~
Take two - INTRODUCTION
Hiya. You weren't supposed to stumble across this page, it was just meant to be me screaming into the void for the sheer fuck of it. but seeing as you're here I'll let you know what's going on.
I have been for the past couple of years learning Japanese, to mixed success (read: no success). Mainly focusing on the reading aspect (and the listening a little bit, when I can be arsed) but even then I've generally been doing the bare minimum so I don't forget what little I've already learned. That is, slugging through Core6k in Anki, dipping into Tae Kim's grammar guide on occasion, and doing a spot of reading here and there. The problem is, 'a spot of reading here and there' isn't enough to actually get any real learning done. I'm not running into vocab 'in the wild' enough for it to stick properly. So I decided back at the start of last year to up my reading a bit, and set a goal of fifty volumes of manga. Which for various reasons (mainly laziness) didn't go all according to keikaku. I got like 23 read (plus 3 light novels and the translation of the first Harry Potter) which was about the same as I had read the year before. So rather than kicking my reading up a notch I just sort of maintained the status quo.
So I'm trying it again this year.
THE LOG
Newest at the bottom, opposite of your usual blog, so it can be read chronologically.
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08/02/26 - Current progress: 2/50
Had I had the idea of starting this again earlier, say New Years' Day, maybe my progress would be a little less laughable. As it stands all I've read is the first volume of K-On! and the 5th volume of Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou which is suprisingly easy to read - I'd done the first three volumes of ShimSim last year and found them tough going, but SSR is a walk in the cake by comparison.
Also I'm about a quarter of the way through 'Kimagure Robot' by Hoshi Shinichi, which is a short story compilation with emphasis on the 'short' - each one's like three pages which is perfect for someone like me with a chronic case of bone idle. But since it's not manga, it doesn't count towards the fifty no matter how much reading practice it is.
The LIST itself
Possibly the most screamingly boring section of the site for anyone apart from myself.
1.) K-On! 第一巻 (12/01/26)
2.) 少女終末旅行 第5巻 (23/01/26)
Coming soon: Rating various series, based on how useful they are to Japanese learners looking for reading practice. Points added for furigana, simpler vocab and such, points deducted for really confusing slang, really specific cultural references that are a pain to look up, and honestly maybe points deducted for too much furigana. Because then you find your eyes naturally veering to the right of the kanji and just reading the pronunciation. If it's really basic vocab then the training wheels just become a hindrance.
It'll happen once I can think of a heading less groanworthy than the apologies-to-geologists-everywhere 'Moe Scale of Hardness'.
Last updated 08/02/26.