Perhaps the best part about using anime to learn Japanese is that it makes it a lot of fun! You get to learn a language and be entertained at the same time. Watching a fun show and then recognizing certain words that the characters say is a very rewarding experience that keeps you coming back for more.
They are able to fully hear the different sounds of each language and there is very little crossover. How this applies to Japanese with anime is that when you are watching it, your brain is going to ignore the Japanese sounds that you’re not used to hearing. Kind of scary, right?
You get to learn a language and be entertained at the same time. Watching a fun show and then recognizing certain words that the characters say is a very rewarding experience that keeps you coming back for more.
This time you will be watching it 100% in Japanese, but if you’ve been studying the common words for that anime and you just watched it while reading the English subtitles, then you are actually going to recognize and understand a lot of what’s being said!
It’s a question I get asked regularly, so here’s my answer. This article is written for someone with little to no exposure to Japanese. It assumes that you live in (or are willing to move to) Japan and that you will learn through immersion (e.g., at school or work).
Doraemon was created with children and aimed to teach them the most basic Japanese words and phrases. The anime’s characters speak in Tokyo dialect, so learning this type of speech will help you familiarize yourself with informal Japanese.
Watching with English subtitles resulted in 17% increase in the test score.
Japanese language is very contextual. Simplifying a bit: you speak in a casual way to your friends and family, but in a polite way to strangers and people older or more senior than you. If you confuse these types of speech, you come across either as too formal (distant) or basically rude. To a lesser degree this is true in English as well. You would generally speak in different way with your school friend than with your grandma.
I have always felt that watching anime helps with my Japanese, but still regarded it as mostly leisure time with potentially some language learning benefits. However, apparently if done right, it can be a cornerstone of foreign language acquisition, even though watching anime for this purpose is considered counterproductive by some.
However, it’s not really true that anime characters don’t speak the same way real people do. They do, but it’s all about the context. In everyday life, you don’t often pick fights with ninjas or join yakuza…. Japanese language is very contextual.
Anime and manga definitely use a lot of impolite speech and slang, so this is probably where this misconception came from. This is especially true for anime like Naruto, Dragon Ball or Bleach, which are targeted to younger male audience.
According to Krashen, speaking (output) alone doesn’t improve your language competence at all. You wouldn’t learn anything new just by speaking to yourself. On the other hand, talking with other people would actually work, as you are listening to their responses.
According to the hypothesis, the later usage of the language we learned through conscious studying (like vocabulary and grammar drilling) is actually limited. Mostly to language self-monitoring and self-correcting, which is obviously useful when writing, but not very useful for spontaneous speech.
Watching anime can certainly be one way to get some listening practice. If you turn on the Japanese subtitles, it could also be a way to get reading practice. Listening and reading are both input.
Short answer, you shouldn’t rely on the Japanese you see onscreen or in manga if you want to learn to communicate with Japanese people. The Japanese used for entertainment tends to be plain and coarse. You would sound rude, uncultured or disrespectful.* Manga can teach you kanji.
For those who enjoy it, anime is one good tool for learning Japanese, but it is not enough by itself.
About managing to watch anime and reading manga, since there are many aspects that you must investigate on Internet, probably you will need at least 100 extra hours. Probably.
If you watch only seinen/josei anime you will sound like a violent punk.
For example, Japanese kyuushoku —or lunchtime—is one of the most interesting aspects of Japanese culture. Few if ANY anime go into detail about how children learn to divide up portions among themselves, and almost none bring up the details of the kind of food they eat during lunch. Anime, rather, focuses on Cup Ramen, yakisoba, and possibly “naked-apron chef-senpai.”
Fantasy though? Science fiction? Any drama, shonen, or anything with superpowers is super hard to understand unless you have a lot of practice with the language, so 2 years won't cut it, but 5 years does.
In a sense since anime reflects greatly on Japanese culture a great deal of these things do happen - but the tiniest details are left out compared to discussing them with a native speaker. When I moved to Japan, these are the things I realized:
So if you're ready to embark in a long journey like that, I'd say buckle up and don't worry about time, you'll be able to watch anime without subtitles eventually… It all depends on how much effort you put in.
In summation, it’s nice that you understand the conversation, but there is still much more you need to learn. Anime is a conventional, enjoyable tool for experience, but there is too much about the language and culture separate to anime that needs to be addressed when participating in conversation. I strongly recommend that you and whoever else here who feels the same as you do pick up a couple books and pen pals to practice with, as this will only bolster your development.