This post will be rather short but so be it. The idea is to post recommendations for beginners/somewhat advanced people who are studying Japanese regarding anime, manga, light novels that are really easy to comprehend. This doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to get 100% and feel like a Nobunaga who’s conquered all of the Japanese language, but you should be able to get the gist of it. I’ll write recommendations and a few thoughts on them when I stumble over ’em, so it’ll be an irregular thing.
As the title already hints at ever so slightly, I’d recommend you to try and watch Non Non Biyori and its sequel Non Non Biyori Repeat, take the leap of faith and turn the subtitles off, and only use them if you still don’t get it after listening to it half a dozen of times or more.
The show’s about a bunch of girls who live life away in the countryside and do just normal stuff. This is great as you don’t have to deal with made-up terms, skill explanations, or otherworldly stuff in general. It’s just normal talk and they’re speaking slowly at that. You should be able to get the most of it. And it’s nice to look at since the visual’s are detailed and hi-res. For that matter, I’d encourage you to get a 1080p BD release, if you can find one.
It’s also worth watching an episode twice if you leave subtitles off since the newly-acquired storyline context will make priorly unclear things clearer now.
You shouldn’t underestimate watching such beginner things, it’ll give you valuable experience in listening comprehension and you should never make light of the motivation that comes from, “hey, I understood that!” Don’t get discouraged in case you can’t seem to hear what the subtitle then reveals, sometimes translations are really liberal, which isn’t a bad thing, but might confuse you.
Anyway, have fun and Godspeed!
