Summary

Manga Sensei is a free resource with podcasts, YouTube videos, comics, and a 30-day challenge to learn the basics of Japanese from scratch. The daily 5-minute podcasts clearly explain complicated grammar points and break down vocabulary. On the weekends, you can also enjoy interviews with various Japanese learners, teachers, and business people. Each day, the 30 day challenge introduces 20 words and one grammatical concept, each of which can be practically applied to every day life. If you go through these lessons without the help of the Manga-Sensei field guide (currently available for pre-order), you may want to create an SRS flashcard deck with Anki to effectively memorize the vocabulary, and write some sentences on LangCorrect to test your understanding of the grammar points. Every Thursday the site publishes a new comic that teaches vocabulary and grammar. They should be read in order, as the concepts build on one another. Because the intro to each comic has a lengthy grammar explanation, you may prefer to go straight to the comic and then occasionally read the intro if you struggle with specific concepts. Under each panel is a list of translations for each word or expression — this way you will learn the structure of Japanese sentences rather than reading translations of the spirit of the text. Overall, the content seems most appropriate for beginner to lower-intermediate learners, but this might change as the site develops its content.