Manga Nippon Mukashibanashi

In 2012, The Asahi Shimbun announced the 104 TV anime that they considered to be the most representative and memorable of all TV anime between 1963 and 2012. It's a good starting point for exploring general TV anime history, and the shows are all worth giving a shot. The list was not ranked, and ordered by release date.

This interest stack only covers stuff referenced in the WataMote anime, not the manga. There may be some instances when a video game or manga is referenced, and I put the anime adaption in here instead. That is why a few of the anime listed here are newer than the WataMote anime itself. The stack also covers the OVA.

This is a list of anime referenced in the WataMote anime. The first anime added in is WataMote itself, in order to make sure this interest stack is shown on the WataMote anime page.

Message me if I am missing anything, and I will add it here.

Sources:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ShoutOut/NoMatterHowILookAtItItsYouGuysFaultImNotPopular
https://www.reddit.com/r/watamote/comments/m3h794/watamote_references/
https://watamote.fandom.com/wiki/WataMote_Wiki (Episode Wiki Pages)

i considered myself to be at an early-intermediate level in japanese studies--until i came to japan. though i suspected i would probably be have over-estimated my abilities, and i had heard plenty of common wisdom about how studying grammar and college-level japanese courses like the ones i had been in weren't ideal ways of actually learning japanese/languages in general. but i didn't truly realize just how little my study of intermediate grammar points would help me comprehend daily life in japan.

as many of the people reading a list like this will probably already know, linguists such as Stephen Krashen (pronounced: 言語学の神様) and Beniko Mason have insisted that SELF-SELECTED READING (or FREE VOLUNTARY READING) is key in the process of second-language aquisition. in (overly) simple terms, they believe that language acquisition begins with input (e.g. reading & listening), and that output, grammatical knowledge, and communicative competence come after an abundance of 'comprehensible' input. but as the qualifier 'free voluntary' suggests, Krashen, Mason and their cohort believe that input must be compelling to the learner--engaging and comprehensible (enough) to keep them interested and driven to keep going.

most of us language learners here on MAL probably have a lot in common when it comes to what we find to be 'compelling' input material/content. i honestly have my doubts about whether it is specifically reading that plays this massive role that Krashen and Mason suggest--i tend to work under the assumption that subtitled video, spotify's lyric function etc. have just as much to offer to language learners. im convinced that its most important that we find activities we enjoy and are likely to make routines of, and keep ideas like those of Krashen and Mason in the back of our minds as we choose from whatever activities our natural inclinations lead us toward. ergo: if you like reading hentai raw, in the name of haruhi-sama i implore you to read hentai raw!!

here are recommendations of anime i've found helpful for japanese study at around my current level or below. most of them use fairly simple language, are great for re-watching, and are probably pretty easy to get a hold of.

i'll order this by MAL popularity, for lack of a better idea.

as always, i would LOVE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THIS LIST! just dm me! and please take any and all information i share with an appropriate of salt--this is all more-or-less armchair linguistics/language learning, and i am by NO means fluent in japanese! lol.

also, while i won't put direct pirate links in the comments for each entry, feel free to message me if you want help procuring anything here, and i'll do my best!

OTHER RESOURCES:

for discovering content based on japanese language level:
https://learnnatively.com/

https://jpdb.io/prebuilt_decks


SOURCES & FURTHER READING:

https://www.sdkrashen.com/content/articles/pac5.pdf

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/4C7ADDDF7F10A600160D0505D99D0E85/S2058631019000126a.pdf/free_voluntary_reading_and_comprehensible_input.pdf


( AJATT / all japanese all the time / language learning / japanese language / matt vs japan / polyglot / self-study / JLPT / steven krashen / anki / jpdb / immersion / self-selected reading / second-language acquisition / free voluntary reading / comprehensible input / nihongo / 日本語 / 勉強 / 自習 )