/otaku/ - Japan / Otaku / Anime

Whenever Miura was introduced in the second volume I didn't care for her at all, but she's slowly grown on me, and now going through the series the second time she's one of my favorites. She's so smug when she manipulates Jumbo. The Ayase sisters are all fairly proper so Miura's tomboyish strong personality is a great foil.

But Fuuka is obviously best. She tries so hard to be proper but she fails 80% of the time. She constantly blunders into circumstances that are awkwardly misinterpreted by the other characters, she has a terrible sense of style, reads comics and and teen magazines in her free time, sleeps in later than her sisters, makes jokes that land flat, and is often mistaken for being Koiwai or Jumbo's girlfriend. Plus her eyebrows are insane.

Yotsubato! is what taught me Japanese and I still go back and read my physical copies from time to time. Yes Fuuka is best girl of course.

>>1042
仲間, 仲間!

I've always been at a loss for how to describe the target audience for Yotsuba. On the one hand it's a story about a little girl being raised by a single father, which is a trope often reserved for seinen anime/manga, but on the other hand it's got furigana which usually means it's aimed at a younger (pre-high school?) audience. It really seems like it was made for learning Japanese.

>>1042
If you actually managed to learn Japanese I would love some tips. How long did it take you? I'm slowly making progress, but I feel like I've been studying forever and I'm still far from fluency. Was there anything that really turned the tide for you? Or if you're not that advanced yet then I would love a study partner.

>>1045
Looking at their past works, Kiyohiko Azuma was definitely aiming this manga to hit younger audiences. They really liked the SoL genre like in Azumanga Daioh and a lot of that leaks into Yotsubato!
>>1046
Oh man I remember that I started off as self learning with the help of some friends irl who were from Japan. Eventually I found out of of /djt/ back on 4chan's /a/ back when it was still allowed on there. Ankideck definitely helped me out and watching dramas and anime without subs as well. For me to actually get to 3rd grade level comprehension I'd say a good 2-3 years if you practice daily.
I highly recommend you get to kanji as soon as you finish your hiragana and katakana. If you want to be certified to work in Japan or just have it on paper that you know Japanese then pick up the genki textbooks and any JLPT test book. Hopefully my post wasn't too long and hope you continue learning Japanese fellow sushi! がんばれ！

>>1047
The weird thing is Kiyohiko's past work was basically only Azumanga. Looking at his Wiki page there was only one other manga (Wallaby) which only had one volume as far as I can tell. It's insane he's had a 20+ year career and only has three series because he's been working on Yotsuba for 80% of it.

相談してもらって、ありがとう!　2ー3年かかったこと聞くと安心させられました。一年反前から勉強し始めましたけど、毎日勉強することは一年間以下だけです。ANKIはめちゃ活用ことです。最近私も英語のSubtitlesを無くしてアニメを見ている。でも日本語のSubtitlesを付けることは分かり安くなると聞いましたんだから、日本語のSubtitlesを使っています。

I dunno if that's comprehensible, so I'll say it again: thanks for the advice! I feel better knowing it took 2-3 years to get to some sort of fluency. I'm like 1.75 years in, although I've only been studying daily for just under a year. Anki is a life saver. I've been doing a vocab deck with kanji since near the beginning which was the best decision I ever made. I also started watching anime with Japanese subs recently, although if it gets very dialogue heavy it's slow going.
I kinda wish I'd started with the Genki textbooks, but now I'm as far in as I am I don't want to shell out $60 for something I probably know half of.

>>1050
ノープロブレム！
僕も毎日に日本語を勉強しています！七年後、遂にJLPTのN4を取られる！Never stop practicing and learning!
I was going to be a Translator but became an Animator instead instead.

>>1050
He used to draw H-doujinshi too.