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come_love_sleep ([info]come_love_sleep) wrote in [info]fandom_lounge,
@ 2009-10-03 20:51:00


Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Request for Japanese media recs: Or, I'm Fricking Crazy.
Since every time I've come to you guys for assistance you've blown me away, here I am again, on my knees.

I'm one of those few, those happy few, who are taking the Japanese Language Proficiency Test come December. I'm soooooo not ready for this. I am only taking 3kyu but I'm really not at that level yet, and I have two months to haul my butt up to the point where I can really comprehend it. Part of the trouble I'm having, I think, is that I work at a library and am constantly finding delicious things to distract me. And worse, I think, is that I'm just not comfortable with what I do know. If I've had a couple of shots, I'm evidently much more fluent than when I'm sober, so I know it's there, I'm just too anxious to get at it normally.
So I've made myself a goal; aside from Halloween, which is my birthday, the six weeks leading up to the JLPT will see me consuming no media whatsoever that is not Japanese. No TV shows, no movies, no books, no magazines, no video games, no music in English but for that which I encounter by chance in passing being played by someone else.

This gives me a little under two weeks to gather as much as possible.

In English, I generally read between twenty and sixty books a month. A really hungry month can see me reading a hundred and fifty books. I read very swiftly and have just been accustomed from very early teenhood to constantly taking in many new stories and pieces of information in any given week. I'm a bit worried that devoting myself to a language I still very much struggle in will leave me frustrated or unsatisfied, but I'm willing to chance it because at this point I'm just moving too slowly.

So--suggestions?
Places I can find cheap manga? I prefer what I can hold in my hand and take on the bus to what I must read on the computer.
Musical groups I should listen to? I like Akino Arai, MUCC, Spitz, stuff like that.
Games I can play? These would have to be on DS, as I doubt my Gamecube or PS2(unmodded) are any good for non-US games.
Books and stories in simple-enough language (I don't mind turning to my kanji dictionary ten times a page, but thirty times a page is pushing it)?
Dramas I can download, movies I must see, etcetera? I've not actually seen that much in terms of Japanese television dramas--Hana Yori Dango, most of Hana Kimi, and Mei-Chan no Shitsuji are the extent of my experience.
(I'll admit it; I loved Mei-chan no Shitsuji. Embarrassing, yes, but ooh, so much fun.)

Many thanks in advance for anything you can suggest!

ETA
You guys kick so much ass!
Sorry it took me a couple of days to reply; I've been in the process of moving and don't have internet at the new place yet. But ooh, I have such a list of things to watch and read and listen to now! *thrilled*


(Post a new comment)


[info]catslash
2009-10-04 02:43 am UTC (link)
Battlefield Baseball. It is this completely ridiculous comedy movie about baseball and zombies, and the plot is not in any way relevant. It's out on DVD in the States, so you shouldn't have much trouble tracking it down.

Also, insert obligatory Battle Royale mention here. There's a movie, a novel, and a manga (I think), so there's plenty to choose from there. Although I doubt very much that the novel, which I've read translated, is one of the simpler works.

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]tez
2009-10-04 02:56 am UTC (link)
That's it, I am now going to go find this Battlefield Baseball thing you speak of.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]come_love_sleep
2009-10-07 04:00 pm UTC (link)
I have never heard of Battlefield Baseball but now I have to see it. Thank you!

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]violetsquirrel
2009-10-04 02:53 am UTC (link)
If you like MUCC then let me recommend Nightmare and maybe Gazette too. They're also visual kei and have a similar kind of style. Personally I prefer Nightmare to Gazette and what I've heard of MUCC to both but they're still pretty good. Especially Nighmare's Killer Show album. I'd also recommend Gackt, not just because I adore his music but because he uses Japanese really well and it's easy to find translations of his songs to compare notes with.

I don't watch too many dramas but My Boss, My Hero from a few years ago is really good :D Rather than dramas though, I'd suggest watching talkshows like Hey Hey Hey and Domoto Kyoudai. They're always entertaining no matter which guests are on, and they have much more natural language than drama/anime/songs. They also have (Japanese) subtitles that pop up for important lines so it's reading practice as well!

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]come_love_sleep
2009-10-07 04:00 pm UTC (link)
Thank you very much! This is just the kind of suggestion I was looking for. :)

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]charmian
2009-10-04 02:58 am UTC (link)
For games, the Phoenix Wright games have tons of text. The Japanese title is Gyakuten Saiban.

For books, try reading books for elementary-school aged children. Those have a low amount of kanji.

Places you can find cheap manga depend on where you live.

I think watching the Japanese news helps; they have subtitles in Japanese, so it also happens you can study reading as well that way. The kanji and vocab seen there are also more likely to be relevant to the test than reading manga.

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]come_love_sleep
2009-10-07 04:01 pm UTC (link)
Thank you! Can you recommend a site where I could get the Japanese news regularly?

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]kamiki_seto
2009-10-04 03:00 am UTC (link)
One police drama you might like is the series 'Galileo'. It's best classified as mystery/romance/police drama, it's fun, and I think you'd like it. It's not out in the states, but is available for download in various places if you check around. (Try Search and Rescue Fansubs, if you don't mind having subs on it.)

Another strong recommendation is any of the Ultraman TV series. The original from 1966 is out on DVD in the States and the option of watching it in Japanese with subtitles off is available on the DVD set. Ultraman is as culturally important in Japan as Superman or Star Trek is in the west - it's part of the background you just know because it's always there in the form of TV series, manga, movies, toys, commercials, etc. For recent variations of the series, "Ultraman Max" and "Ultraman Mebius" are really good. ("Max" is particularly funny in that one of the characters/actors is American and is given to blurting out things like 'Golly Gee!' in a really weird over-enunciated way. Fun!)

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]come_love_sleep
2009-10-07 04:01 pm UTC (link)
Heh, that sounds hilarious. Thank you!

(Reply to this)(Parent)

we few, we happy few, we band of masochists?
[info]blue_penguin
2009-10-04 03:24 am UTC (link)
Regarding the PS2, you don't have to mod it to play Japanese games if you get a Swap Magic disc. I can't recommend any games though, since the only ones I've ever tried to play in Japanese were Shin Megami Tensei games and their vocabulary is... complicated. To the point that it took me about thirty hours to get through what should have been more like ten hours of gameplay because I kept having to stop and look things up.

As for books/manga, if you've got a Japanese bookstore near you, that's going to be the cheapest place to get them. Otherwise you're going to have to turn to the internet (I've only ever used Amazon.co.jp, but I'm sure there are other sites), and while the books themselves don't cost that much if you buy used, the shipping will really take it out of you.

As far as specific recommendations go, the first manga I ever read in Japanese was, uh, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. I don't know how you feel about moving tales of The Power of Friendship!!! masquerading as gory psychological supernatural horror/mysteries masquerading as high school slice-of-life comedy; it's definitely not everyone's thing. I found it useful, though, because it has a lot of kanji, but also has furigana for everything, which isn't something I've really seen in a lot of other places. Usually it's either "mostly kana with the occasional kanji (which has furigana)" or "lots of kanji and no furigana for you."

I'd recommend some books without so many pictures in, but none of the ones I've been inching my way through reading seem like they'd be accessible to someone at the JLPT3 level. They're barely accessible to me, and I'm going for 2...

As for movies/dramas, I watch very little Japanese live-action, but I adore Kamikaze Girls/Shimotsuma Monogatari (which someone-or-other brought over to the US with subtitles, so it shouldn't be too hard to find). It's a coming-of-age/unlikely friendship thing and it's both sweet and hilarious (at least in my opinion). The only two TV series I've ever watched are Sh15uya and Maou, the former being a sci-fi action thing and the latter being more of a psychological thriller drama, so I'm not sure whether either of those would be up your alley either. I enjoyed them, though! They were kind of cheesy, but Japanese live-action always is.

... And I could ramble on about music a bit, because Japanese artists make up an absolutely shameful percentage of my music library, but I've got homework to do and I think I've tl;dr'd enough for now. I'll come back later, maybe.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Re: we few, we happy few, we band of masochists? - [info]come_love_sleep, 2009-10-07 04:02 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]blue_penguin, 2009-10-08 08:24 pm UTC

[info]rganymede
2009-10-04 04:50 am UTC (link)
The first drama I'd recommend is Trick, which has three seasons and a few specials and movies. The gist of it is: A magician and a gullible university professor investigate (and inevitably debunk) supposed psychics, who have a habit of killing people and claiming the deaths were caused by psychic phenomena. One thing I really liked about this series back when I was just starting out with Japanese is that it's more HowDunnit than WhoDunnit, and the How is usually very clearly shown onscreen, making it understandable and interesting even without a strong vocabulary.

Someone else mentioned Galileo, and I'd recommend that one as well. It's in kind of the same weird murder genre, but with some magic Physics thrown in.

For romance/comedy there's Densha Otoko: An extremely wimpy, nerdy guy rescues a woman from a drunk on a train. She thanks him with some really expensive teacups and they start a sort of relationship. Knowing his own lack of social skills, he turns to the internet for help (seriously). Apparently based on a true story.

I'm pretty sure all of these are up on d-addicts.

I'd recommend books/games/manga, but I went the learn-2000-kanji-in-one-go-before reading-anything route, so my perspective on what would be difficult kanji-wise is a probably a little off (more kanji == better chance of understanding words I've never seen before == easier). Reading articles on simple topics in Japanese Wikipedia is always fun, though possibly not as portable as you're looking for.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]come_love_sleep, 2009-10-07 04:03 pm UTC

[info]lucky13
2009-10-04 05:24 am UTC (link)
What fandoms are you already really into? If it's anything remotely popular in Japan, I'd be happy to go looking for fanfic for you. (I don't know much about Hana Yori Dango or HanaKimi, but they're pretty big, so there's probably fic for them out there...) This has the added bonus that you can use Rikaichan for reading with, provided you've got Firefox. Fanfic is seriously my favorite way to learn new vocabulary.

(Reply to this)


[info]bemysty
2009-10-04 08:02 am UTC (link)
Generally speaking I'd go for stuff with lots of furigana, this usually means shounen or shoujo stuff... it's probably easier to get stuff that's popular, which means Naruto, One Piece, FMA, Nana, the works.

Music-wise I'd advise you to go all over the place, no matter what your actual tastes are - Mucc is good and fine, but you'll need something with very easy lyrics to warm yourself up, so to speak, so you should probably look at current Oricon and get acquainted with Hello Project and Johnny's to start with.

Newspapers might be a good idea, if you can get them, but be prepared to spend HOURS on a single page.

Dorama - slice of life stuff might be good. I'd personally recommend Daisuki and Nodame Cantabile. There are other dorama I liked a lot - Triangle, Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi, Aishiteru, Harukanaru kizuna, Love Shuffle, Maou - but I don't know to what extend they might be useful to you. Most of them have subbed and unsubbed versions kicking around D-Addicts, I think.

For games, did you think about visual novels? Visual novels I've played and can recommend would be Umineko no naku koro ni, Higurashi no naku koro ni, Chaos;Head (caution: Mindfuckery of epic proportions), Saya no uta (caution: Mindfuckery of epic proportions, loli sex (sort of, he's actually banging Cthulhu), gore) and Tsukihime (caution: seafood moderate sex content).

Also, you can buy specific JLPT training books, just dig around amazon.co.jp with 日本語能力試験 and 3級 and you should find something. Usually you can order these through any Japanese bookstore.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]aloysius, 2009-10-04 12:34 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]bemysty, 2009-10-04 02:19 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]aloysius, 2009-10-04 02:27 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]bemysty, 2009-10-04 02:36 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]aloysius, 2009-10-04 02:38 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]bemysty, 2009-10-04 02:43 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]aloysius, 2009-10-04 02:45 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]bemysty, 2009-10-04 03:06 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]aloysius, 2009-10-04 03:23 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]bemysty, 2009-10-04 05:33 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]come_love_sleep, 2009-10-07 04:05 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]come_love_sleep, 2009-10-07 04:04 pm UTC

[info]qem_chibati
2009-10-04 09:30 am UTC (link)
Cheap Japanese media - try going to your local china town and just browsing. Also try contacting local anime clubs/Japanese course type places to see if you have any recommendations... Some times they'll know of a good local store.*


(*For example if you were in Sydney I would recommend kinokuniya (international bookstore) & hondarake (2nd hand Japanese bookstore).)

._. I have no idea of your location, but if there is a "Chinatown" type place nearby, spending a day browsing around will usually turn up some Japanese language things as well, like manga novels or dvds. (Or at least Chinese + Japanese subtitles, pirated crap. =/).

Shounen and shoujo type manga is usually fairly simple to start with and will also have furikana* that can assist.

Amazon and J-Queen I believe also sell japanese language novels.

*I'm not a Japanese language student, but I'm referring to the small text above works that helps sound it out for rarer unusual words.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]phosfate, 2009-10-04 05:52 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]come_love_sleep, 2009-10-07 04:06 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]phosfate, 2009-10-07 04:08 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]come_love_sleep, 2009-10-07 04:06 pm UTC

[info]platedlizard
2009-10-04 09:58 am UTC (link)
Be careful with the pirated stuff, I've seen some pretty atrocious English subtitles, and I can only imagine what the Japanese would be like since most of the pirated stuff comes from China.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]come_love_sleep, 2009-10-07 04:06 pm UTC

[info]coffee_mug
2009-10-04 10:57 am UTC (link)
My favourite jdramas are..

Nodame Cantabile - fun, romantic manga-esque comedy about classical music students. Heart-warming by the end, hilarious all the way through, bound to get you loving classical music than previously. Bonus: really attractive leads.

Tiger & Dragon - awesome, brilliantly scripted drama about two guys in the world of rakugo, Japanese's traditional "sit-down" comedy. Each episode features a rakugo story and flips it on itself, mirroring the events of the actual characters. Tough to explain but seriously so worth watching. Features Nagase Tomoya, hottest Japanese man ever. Watch the drama special first (chronologically it comes before ep 1).

I've seen plenty of other good ones (Utahime, Pride, Love Shuffle) but those are two I can recommend to everybody. (I know one person who didn't like NC, and not a single person who has tried T&D but not loved it.)

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]come_love_sleep, 2009-10-07 04:07 pm UTC

[info]aloysius
2009-10-04 12:24 pm UTC (link)
Oh, dammit. I've been meaning to sign up for that every single year for the past three years, and every year, I forget it.

If you can get ahold of them, and unless you're the kind of person to turn your nose up at YA literature, I think reading entertaining books for elementary school children such as this series would be a good idea. As far as I recall (it's been a while) they have big fonts, furigana on all but the most basic kanji, the storylines aren't actually too dumb, and they're illustrated, which sometimes helps with understanding.

Other titles of the same kind I'd recommend off the top of my head:
Miyazawa Kenji's works (Chûmon no ôi ryôriten in particular is fun and less, uh, "literary" and magical realizm-ish and thus easier to get into in a foreign language, I'd say)
Naita Akaoni (which will make you WEEP)
Chocolate sensô
the Kaiketsu Zorori series

If there is a Book Off or a Japanese bookstore near you, I'd recommend going in and asking for the children's books section and picking out something from the above list, or looking through the books yourself and decide which ones look good based on the illustrations.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]come_love_sleep, 2009-10-07 04:09 pm UTC

[info]sablemouse
2009-10-04 01:04 pm UTC (link)
I suggest watching Japanese variety shows, as they tend to have subtitles come up for most speech. It's also good because they have overlapping speech and casual speech patterns. Exercise those listening skills! Japanese radio shows are good for that too, but they're a bit harder to find. I can direct to some in my fandom (Arashi and Johnnys), but if you're not into JE, it's not as interesting. Same goes for variety shows, although Arashi's variety shows, VS Arashi, Himitsu no Arashi-chan and Arashi no Shukudai-kun, are fairly entertaining on their own.

So for Japanese dramas from 2008-2009, there's Mei-chan no Shitsuji (rom com), Smile (drama), MR BRAIN(crime), Majo Saiban (crime), VOICE(medical), Ryusei no Kizuna(crime/drama/com), Maou(crime/drama), Bloody Monday(crime/drama), Nodame Cantabile(rom com), ROOKIES(sports), Zettai Kareshi(rom com). Try downloading the raws from D-Addicts. Tenchijin (NHK's taiga drama for this year) is topping the ratings, so you might want to check that out too.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]sablemouse, 2009-10-04 01:06 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]sablemouse, 2009-10-04 01:08 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]come_love_sleep, 2009-10-07 04:10 pm UTC

[info]riah_chan
2009-10-04 05:44 pm UTC (link)
Sekai no Chūshin de, Ai o Sakebu, aka Socrates in Love, is a good drama/novel/manga. It's very sad but the drama is well done.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]come_love_sleep, 2009-10-07 04:10 pm UTC

[info]girlmorphine
2009-10-04 07:02 pm UTC (link)
Dramas - try Kurosagi. Oh, and Binbo Danshi - it's silly, but really fun (which, come to think of it, describes 90% of jdramas, and which is probably the reason why I'm such an addict :D)

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]ilinana, 2009-10-05 02:31 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]come_love_sleep, 2009-10-07 04:11 pm UTC

[info]seriousbusiness
2009-10-04 11:45 pm UTC (link)
Watch the news, variety shows and some of the kids shows (I'm sure Japan has Sesame Street/Between The Lions/shows that teach kids grammar and stuff; I know Germany does and this is how I got a lot of my basic comprehension down in between classes).

Music...I recommend L'arc~en~ciel, hide...that's what comes to mind. I'm more of a '80's jpop person so I can only rec that.

Beyond manga (I don't read manga anymore; the last one I read was Prince of Tennis) I think maybe try finding novels? Naoto Kine writes a bunch of fantasy stuff and stuff geared towards kids.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]come_love_sleep, 2009-10-07 04:11 pm UTC

[info]birdjsc
2009-10-05 01:58 am UTC (link)
Re: cheap manga: you could try book-swapping sites, like PaperbackSwap and Bookmooch? Or there's always eBay.

It'll only work if you can find books you like and receive them within your two-week deadline, though. (Folks at PBS have 5 days to ship your book once they respond, but who knows about the post office.)

But I trade a lot on Paperbackswap, and I know there are Japanese-language manga there, since I see them listed regularly when searching. Here are some searches:

  • Listed as Japanese Language in the genre
  • Generic search for "japanese manga" which has some English books
  • Tagged with "Japanese language" (only 1st 30 are actually posted right now, though)

    Ask if you want more info on how PBS works? I'd be happy to rattle on, but this is already kind of tl;dr. (And for all I know, you're already a member and already know all the details.)

    I know a lot less about Bookmooch (just signed up a few days ago), but they have Japanese-language manga over there, too. Some of them are in other countries, and if you request them you have to pay 3 credits. But some are in the US.

    (Reply to this)(Thread)

  • (no subject) - [info]come_love_sleep, 2009-10-07 04:12 pm UTC

    [info]talec
    2009-10-05 04:19 am UTC (link)
    For books, I nominate any novel you like in english that has a japanese translation ;D (I have my favorite novel, Watership Down in JP for when I have the POWER and SKILL to read it)
    For games, I nominate any Pokémon game -- lots of text but still easy. :3

    (Reply to this)(Thread)

    (no subject) - [info]talec, 2009-10-05 04:20 am UTC
    (no subject) - [info]come_love_sleep, 2009-10-07 04:12 pm UTC

    [info]ilinana
    2009-10-05 02:32 pm UTC (link)
    x_x I forgot to sign up for 3kyu...........

    (Reply to this)(Thread)

    (no subject) - [info]come_love_sleep, 2009-10-07 04:12 pm UTC

    [info]kaen
    2009-10-09 11:54 am UTC (link)
    I know this is very very late, but if you have any interest in Square-Enix they have some Japanese-only DS games you might want to check out. I don't speak Japanese myself so I can only speak from sadly reading game information and reviews and dreaming of the day Squeenix might give them a shot overseas, but the most notable ones are probably Sigma Harmonics, which is a mystery RPG where you need to catch a time traveling murderer (it seems to be kind of 'Phoenix Wright: with demons!' but in this one if you screw up at solving the case your punishment is a harder boss fight) and the survival horror/RPG Nanashi no Game games where they swipe the formula from The Ring, except instead of a movie that kills you seven days after watching it the story centers around an RPG that will kill you if you don't finish it within seven days. And, of course, the game occasionally switches to making you play the cursed (8-bit) game itself.

    (Reply to this)


     
       
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