When I asked foreigners with good Japanese skills how they learned Japanese, I heard many of them say they learned by watching anime. So in this article, I will introduce some recommended anime for learning Japanese.
How to choose an anime to learn Japanese
Learning through anime can help you improve your overall Japanese conversation skills, including listening and speaking, but the effectiveness of this depends on which anime you choose.
Anime based on daily life themes
If your goal is to study everyday conversation, choose anime with everyday life as the theme. If the theme is daily life, you can learn a lot of “usable” expressions since many of the stories are based on familiar events.
On the other hand, it is best to avoid the following genres as much as possible.
- Historical anime: lots of proper nouns
- Fighting anime: lots of fight scenes and little conversation
- Science fiction anime: lots of difficult technical terms
Anime that you are interested in
There are countless types of anime, and you will have to choose the anime you want to study from a variety of options.
At this time, try to choose anime that you are interested in as much as possible. The presence or absence of your interests will affect the density of your study considerably.
Rather than studying forever with anime that you are not interested in, studying with anime that you are interested in will change your motivation, and most importantly, it will make it easier for you to continue.
If possible, it is better to use an anime that you have seen before, even in English.
Top 7 Anime to Learn Japanese
Mimi wo Sumaseba (Whisper of the Heart)
Mimi wo Sumaseba” contains everyday conversations that are often used.
It’s no wonder that many people recommend it as one of the best Ghibli works for learning Japanese.
It is recommended for people who are not complete beginners and want to be able to speak everyday Japanese.
Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro)
Tonari no Totoro” is one of Ghibli’s most popular works. The feature of this work is that it is spoken in very simple Japanese.
Even among Ghibli’s works with few difficult words and grammar, it is especially suitable for beginners.
Doraemon
Doraemon” is known to all Japanese people.
If you have watched it, you will understand that the theme is completely based on daily life in Japan, so there are many expressions that can be used directly.
Each episode is only 10 minutes long, so if you memorize it, you can expand your range of expressions.
Atashinchi (My family)
Atashinchi” is based on the theme of the Tachibana family of four.
Although “Sazae-san” is more famous when it comes to family anime, I recommend “Atashinchi” because it uses the current standard language.
I think it is the best anime for learning Japanese.
K-On!
K-On!” depicts the theme of high school life.
It’s not for complete beginners, but there are a lot of useful expressions.
If you don’t mind the pictures or the content, I highly recommend this anime.
Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou (Daily Life of High School Boys)
This is also a work about high school life, and unlike K-on, it is a comedy anime centered on men.
There are some gags that are a little difficult for foreigners to understand, but it’s basically fun to watch. It is also the best anime to learn gags in Japanese.
Death Note (Advanced)
Although it is quite difficult, “Death Note” is recommended for advanced Japanese learners.
It’s a head-to-head battle between Light and L, and the content is simply incredibly interesting. In addition, the amount of conversations is unbelievably large, so it is ideal for improving listening and expression skills.
Scripts can be easily obtained by searching, so this is an anime that advanced students should definitely give a try.
The following also on my list of recommended anime.
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