| Difficulty | Title | Format | Furigana | Translated | Volumes | Description / Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | マンガ家さんとアシスタントさんと | Manga | Yes | Yes | 10 | All kanji include furigana. Easy vocabulary. Good to start with. Everyday life of a perverted manga artist. |
| Basic | とらぶる (To Love-Ru) | Manga | Yes | Yes | 18 | Everything has Furigana. Everything. A significant amount of words that are usually kanji are represented with hiragana, making dictionary look ups especially easy. |
| Basic | 絶対☆霊域 | 4koma | Yes | No | 5 | Easy read, cute moments, funny moments. 4koma about a guy who moves into an apartment with a tsundere ghost loli. |
| Easy | よつばと！ (Yotsuba&!) | Manga | Yes | Yes | 12+ | Homoerotic slang that might throw off brand new readers. Centered on a 5-year-old girl. Essential beginner reading. |
| Easy | 侵略！イカ娘 (Squid Girl) | Manga | Yes | Yes | 17 | Has the occasional long sentence. Cute squids doing cute squid things. |
| Easy | 惡の華 (Flowers of Evil) | Manga | Yes | Yes | 11 | Simple dialogue which constantly revolves around the same topics. Lots of onomatopoeia. |
| Easy | 徒然チルドレン | Web Manga | No | No | - | Consists mainly of short and simple sentences. Short episodes about normal Japanese high school boys and girls. |
| Easy | のんのんびより | Manga | Yes | Partially | 9 | Easy transition after reading Yotsubato. Might have some puns that are hard to understand for beginners. |
| Easy | 地球の放課後 | Manga | Yes | Halfway | 6 | It's an SoL with occasional plot. Interesting story which doesn't require a large vocabulary. |
| Easy / Int | 日常 (Nichijou) | Manga | Yes | Yes | 9 | Easy/Intermediate, leaning towards easy. Some longer sentences, but episodic nature makes it welcoming. |
| Intermediate | キルミーベイベー | 4koma | No | Yes | 6 | Low intermediate. Lack of furigana is probably the greatest challenge if your vocab is low. |
| Intermediate | くーねるまるた | Manga | No | No | 8 | Quite simple grammar. Good chance to brush up on cooking terms and fish names. |
| Intermediate | ひだまりスケッチ | Manga | No | Yes | 8 | Centers around a young girl named Yuno at Art High School. Everyday lives. |
| Intermediate | マギ (Magi) | Manga | Yes | Yes | 28 | Shounen in a somewhat Arabian setting. Easy grammar. |
| Intermediate | Ratman | Manga | Yes | Partially | 12 | Shounen Manga with probably the funniest "evil lackeys" ever. Good mix of humour, action and character development. |
| Intermediate | GREEN BLOOD | Manga | No | Partially | - | Unclear difficulty, but generally considered intermediate. |
| Difficulty | Title | Platform | Furigana | Translated | Description / Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | はなひらっ！ | PC | No | No | Easy vocabulary and fully voiced. Good to start with. Lighthearted story about four girls. |
| Fairly Easy? | キミのとなりで恋してる！ | PC | No | No | Friend character speaks in classic cool-dude accent (slurring). Otherwise small vocabulary. |
| Fairly Easy? | イセカイ・ラヴァーズ！ | PC | No | No | MC uses guns and military weapons which are obviously quite uncommon vocabulary, but otherwise easy. |
| Fairly Easy? | MA☆KO HUNTER | PC | No | No | Pig friend character speaks like a pig (ブー). MC uses specific tools/weapons vocabulary. |
| Fairly Easy? | 星織ユメミライ | PC | No | No | MC wants to be an architect and discussions on that subject can be heavy at times (moege heavy, nothing serious). |
| Easy/Int? | サツコイ～悠久なる恋の歌～ | PC | No | No | Harder because it has an actual plot, serious themes, and mentions genetics quite often. |
| Easy/Int? | なないろリンカネーション | PC | No | No | Accents, old style speaking loli, frequent infodumps about heavy plot, magical chants. |
| Early Int | Flyable Heart | PC | No | No | Very simple vocabulary, though narration might take a while to get used to. |
| Intermediate | 妹ペット | PC | - | - | Protagonist transfers school to meet with his sisters. They decide to be his 'pet-sisters'. |
| Intermediate | 穢翼のユースティア | PC | Few | Partially | Complex setting (floating city). Contagious disease causing wings. Political and fantasy jargon. |
| Advanced | Cleavage | PC | Few | No | Rather easy grammar-wise. Will boost your sex-terminology vocabulary. |
| Difficulty | Title | Platform | Furigana | Translated | Description / Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner | MOTHER 2 (Earthbound) | SNES | No | Yes | Almost entirely in kana. Vocabulary is a bit more advanced than most basic kana-only games. |
| Basic | ナップルテール | DC | No | No | Action RPG. Very basic game. Easy game. Great music (Yoko Kanno). |
| Basic | コロぱた | DS | Some | Yes | Puzzle game. Follows a little girl and her puzzles. Use the Japanese wiki if you have trouble. |
| Basic | イナズマイレブン | DS/3DS | Yes | Yes | Football RPG. Made for children, so the language is simple. |
| Basic | Mario Story (Paper Mario) | N64 | No | Yes | Almost everything is written in Kana, but some Kanji are used (Castle, Princess). |
| Basic | Fortune Summoners | PC | Yes | - | Cute platformer/RPG with furigana above all kanji, easy dialog. |
| Basic | Super Mario RPG | SNES | No | Yes | Requires a handful of Kyoiku Kanji. Unfamiliar Kanji can be difficult to read due to low res. |
| Basic | Animal Crossing (どうぶつの森) | Various | - | - | Real-time simulation. Good for items, plants, and socializing vocab. |
| Basic | Zelda: Skyward Sword | Wii | Yes | Yes | Furigana text only appears when you use a 16:9 setting in your TV. |
| Advanced | DS文学全集 | DS | Yes | - | Collection of classic Japanese literature. Difficulty varies by story. |
| Difficulty | Title | Author | Volumes | Description / Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy-ish | キノの旅 (Kino's Journey) | 時雨沢恵一 | 17 | Recommend reading after picking up some basic vocabulary. A pleasure to read. Violence level: medium. |
| Early Int | 文学少女と死にたがりの道化 | 野村美月 | 16 | A nice entry point into mystery light novels. Very easy vocab (high school setting). |
| Hard | とある魔術の禁書目録 (Index) | 鎌池和馬 | 22+ | Terminologies and language are the killers here. "Espers", "Grimoires", etc. Power struggle between magic and science. |
| Hard | 鋼殻のレギオス | 雨木シュウスケ | 25 | Military arts terminology (DITE, Kei). Alternate reality sci-fi setting. |
| Hard | 灼眼のシャナ | 高橋弥七郎 | 26 | Language is rather heavy. Terminologies like 'Sonzai no Chikara' (Power of existence) are prevalent. |
| Advanced | ふわふわの泉 | 野尻 抱介 | 1 | Expect lots of physics, construction and chemistry terms. Hard sci-fi. |
| Advanced | 神様の御用人 | 夏淺葉 | 5 | Lots of descriptive paragraphs and Shinto/Onyoudou specific vocabulary. Aimed at adults. |
| Advanced | 太陽の塔 | 森美登美彦 | 1 | One of the hardest novels. Narrated as a soliloquy from a university student with a really large vocabulary. |
| Very Hard | 帝都物語 | 荒俣宏 | 12 | Historical spoken language grammar. Historical/literary references. Dense prose. |
| Difficulty | Title | Format | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | 民話 むかし話のパージ | Website | Majority is hiragana, all with pictures, good for beginners. Fairy tales. |
| Easy | NHK News Web Easy | News | NHK news articles simplified and made easier to read for elementary schoolers. |
| Advanced | 朝日新聞 (Asahi Shimbun) | Newspaper | Official newspaper. Very dry, loaded with political and economic jargon. |