Best 10 Anime to Learn Japanese

Hello, Welcome to ShoTora! This is a Website where you can find the most entertaining ways to learn Japanese! 

I have heard a lot of people saying “I want to learn Japanese from Anime but I don’t know which Anime I should choose…” 

As a Native Japanese and Anime Lover. I think I can help you with that!

In this post, I will share the Best 10 Anime to Learn Japanese from! 

How to Find Your Best Anime to Learn Japanese

Even though I listed the top 10 Anime for Japanese Learning, it doesn’t mean that your best is on this list.

The best Anime for your Japanese learning is:

Anime that you…

• • • want to watch
    • can watch again and again
    • don’t force yourself to watch

The key to learning a language is persistency and continuity. If you don’t use the word you learned, you will forget the word. So, it is important to have fun which will help you to continue learning! Don’t make yourself feel like you are studying, make yourself feel like learning by having fun!

Learning From Fighting Anime? Does It Help?

Are fighting-Anime like “ONE PIECE”, “Naruto” or “Dragon Ball” helpful for your Japanese Study?

Many of the words, sentences and accents in those Anime are not really commonly spoken in real life, so they may not be the best for your speaking practice.

But to improve your listening skill, there is no problem learning from fighting-Anime. I would even recommend you choose these types of Anime for your main learning tool if that is what you like watching the most, rather than feeling stressed watching a different kind of Anime that you don’t like.

List of 10 Best Anime to Learn Japanese

1) “Daily Lives of High School Boys”

1 season, 12 episodes (Series Ended)
Category: Life, School, Comedy

Highly recommended for your Japanese Study, especially for beginners! The title explains pretty much everything this Anime is about. Each episode is a gathering of 2~3 minutes short stories, which makes it easy to study scene by scene.

[Anime]
→ “Daily Lives of High School Boys” on Prime Video

[Manga]
→ “Daily Lives of High School Boys” Manga Vol.1 (Japanese ver)

2) “Nichijou”

1 season, 26 episodes (Series Ended)
Category: Life, Comedy

Nichijou means “Daily Life.” In short, this Anime is a Girls version of “Daily Lives of High School Boys” but with more extraordinary events. They go from normal life to instantaneous ridiculous mode, which is very funny and it is also easy to recognize that those scenes of “ridiculous mode” are not correct in terms of speaking practice and use.

[Anime]
→ “Nichijou” on Prime Video

[Manga]
→ “Nichijou” Manga Vol.1

3) “Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku”

1 season, 12 episodes (Not Ended)
Category: Otaku, Life, Love

Otakus’ romantic story. Featuring 4 main characters who are Otakus and work in the same normal office. They do various Otaku things like Game, Comic writing, Cosplay, and more. Except for the scenes when they come up with some Anime references or Otaku things, they talk normally so there is no problem learning from their conversations.

[Anime]
→ “Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku” on Prime Video

[Manga]
→ Manga “Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku” Vol.1 (Japanese ver)

4) “Kaguya-sama: Love is War”

2 seasons, 24 episodes (Not Ended)
Category: School, Love, Comedy

This is not just a typical school love story, it contains clever & ridiculous mind games, funny accidents, heartwarming scenes and more, that you never get bored watching. The love strategies they use in the show may or may not also be helpful for your real-life love. This is up to you to decide 😉

[Anime]
→ “Kaguya-sama: Love is War” Blue-ray

[Manga]
→ “Kaguya-sama: Love is War” Manga Vol.1 (Japanese ver)

5) “Teasing Master Takagi-san”

2 seasons, 25 episodes (Series Ended)
Category: Life, School, Love

Heartwarming teen romance story that will make you smile. There is the main character Nishikata, his classmate Takagi-san, and only a few other characters in this show. Each episode is made of few separated stories that makes it easy to learn scene by scene.

[Anime]
→ “Teasing Master Takagi-san” on Prime Video

[Manga]
→ “Teasing Master Takagi-san” Manga Vol.1 (Japanese ver)

6) “Gintama”

8 seasons, 367 episodes + 3 movies (Series Ended)
Category: Comedy, Science fiction

Episodic show that each story arc is one or a few episodes long. You will never get bored with what is going on and this Anime is so funny that you can watch again and again! Gintama contains a lot of parodies so it would be better that you know other Anime series as well.

[Anime]
→ “Gintama” Season 3 on Prime Video

[Manga]
→ “Gintama” Manga Vol.1 (English ver)

7) “Your Lie in April”

1 season, 22 episodes (Series Ended)
Category: Music, Love, Life

You might not be a big fan of Music Anime, but even so, this Anime is highly recommended to watch because it is a beautiful & touching story that will leave you with tears in your eyes. For many times you will hear characters’ inner voices explaining their emotions and feelings, and you can learn how to use those emotional words.

[Anime]
→ “Your Lie in April” Blu-ray

[Manga]
→ “Your Lie in April Complete Set (Japanese ver)

8) “Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day”

1 season, 11 episodes + 1 movie (Series Ended)
Category: Love, Life, Supernatural

This is also one of the most beautiful Anime stories that will bring a lot of tears to your eyes. The heroine of this Anime Menma talks in a little girlish way but otherwise every character speaks naturally so you can learn and use in real life and sound normal.

[Anime]
→ “Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day” Blu-ray

[Manga]
→ “Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day” Complete set

9) “The Promised Neverland”

1 season, 12 episodes (season 2 now on the air)
Category: Dark Fantasy, Science Fiction, Thriller

One of the best Anime in very recent years. Great storyline and wonderful artwork that will make you feel thrilled throughout the entire series. Season 2 is now on the air, so if you haven’t watched this Anime yet, it might be perfect timing to start watching.

[Anime]
→ “The Promised Neverland” Season 1 Blu-ray

[Manga]
→ “The Promised Neverland” Manga Vol.1 (Japanese ver)

10) “Death Note”

1 season, 37 episodes (Series Ended)
Category: Mystery, Psychological Thriller

One of the biggest Anime from the last decade that you need to watch. It was a huge hit around the world, and not only a Japanese Live action movie was made, but also an American version of Live Action movie was filmed. Because of high-level, complexed conversations over the mind game of characters, this anime is for more advanced learners but offers great depth in your language learning.

[Anime]
→ “Death Note” on Prime Video

[Manga]
→ “Death Note” Complete set (Japanese ver)

Conclusion

In this post, I listed the top 10 Anime that would help you in Japanese Study.

But Again,
the definition of your “Best Anime to Learn Japanese” is,

• • • want to watch
    • can watch again and again
    • don’t force yourself to watch

“Having Fun” should always come first! I hope you find YOUR best Anime for your Japanese Study endeavors, and that this post was helpful to you. Until next time!

Related Posts

Other Links (Japanese Learning Materials)

[Basic Japanese]

[Fun Japanese]