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This might be an off topic question. If it is just close my question.

I want to know what anime do you recommend to learn japanese? The problem with the anime I've watch so far is that they tend to speak pretty casual and some of them use yakuza way to talk. Is there any appropriate anime for those who want to learn Japanese or should I give up on anime and learn from a different media (drama, news, etc.).

I don't pretend to learn only from listening (I've been studying japanese for about 5 years). It's just that I think that learning any language is not only reading books.

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    It's probably good to try a variety of sources, but if you're looking for anime specifically, めぞん一刻 is pretty good. It's a little dated, but as a romantic comedy, it deals in every-day situations and the every-day sort of language that goes with that. No magic, monsters, or robots, though.
    – rdb
    Sep 12, 2011 at 21:30
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    I think you're forgetting the magic... of love. No, but seriously, great rec.
    – Matt
    Sep 12, 2011 at 23:35
  • Interesting as it is, it is probably off-topic (question about "learning resources" rather than specific item) and definitely too open-ended. I'm converting to community-wiki and letting the community decide whether it should be closed. I may add that, from seeing @jkerian's response, I do see a way it might be made more on-topic.
    – Dave
    Sep 13, 2011 at 1:40
  • @rdb: funny coincidence, I just bought the first 3 volumes of that very manga (had to order, since no stores has the first volumes in stock) upon some similar recommendation by friends (far from an avid manga reader, but they still make the best practice). In case anybody was interested in the manga over the anime: it's fun reading [for a manga geared at teens], but it's not the ideal beginner reading... there's literally zero furigana (kanji-only, whereas out-of-jouyou words simply get written in kana). Not that hard to read, but a bit more frustrating than it should be.
    – Dave
    Sep 13, 2011 at 11:04

1 Answer 1

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The main issue you're going to run into is explained in this answer, specifically:

Avoid learning from manga until you're at a level where you can make the difference between what you hear and what you can say.

In spite of this, there is a rough guideline you can use to determine which anime you might be able to use to learn even basic pronunciation.... it needs to be boring to your average 15 year old.

In other words:

  • no space ships
  • no dragons
  • no magical girl outfits
  • no mecha
  • and absolutely no gainax bounce

This isn't to say that you can't learn something from these shows... but be constantly suspicious of the constructions/vocabulary you hear in them until you have a pretty good grasp of the language.

So, what does that leave us? Mostly

  • high school dramas (beware archtypically gendered language)
  • detective/mystery shows
  • sports-focused anime

The only thing that sometimes gets you here is the "humor" characters that are added in with a "wild" accent. For obvious reasons, be careful of any character's "catch phrase".

(Disclaimer: I am not a highly accomplished speaker. A few years ago I was involved with an anime club that was roughly half made up of native Japanese... this is mostly from a series of conversations with these kids, and should be understood from that anecdotal frame of reference)

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  • No gainax bounce for you!
    – Golden Cuy
    Sep 19, 2011 at 5:44

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