Today, I would like to talk about some differences I’ve noticed so far between reading manga vs novels. I will use ReLIFE and キノの旅 manga, and 天気の子小説 as examples. This may seem really obvious to some people, but it may not to others, which is why I wanted to discuss it.
For your information, according to learnnatively.com, which is a site that ranks Japanese reading material based on a grading system, these are the reading levels for the materials.
ReLIFE: Level 23 -> N3
キノの旅 (light novel): Level 27 -> N3
天気の子: Level 31 -> N2
Overall
The biggest difference between manga and novels is all the ように variations used in every sentence for novels. Just kidding, but actually there are quite a lot of ように in 天気の子.
But actually I think the number one noticeable difference is all the settings and all the actions the main character takes have to be described, whereas in manga they have pictures to show these settings and actions (same as watching tv or movies).
Manga is mainly dialogue, and dialogue is a lot easier to read than flowery descriptions of locations. For that reason, manga is mainly in short and choppy sentences, whereas novels have long flowing sentences. This makes novels more difficult besides the unknown vocabulary. Also it’s a lot harder to notice complex grammar patterns in manga because the sentences are too short to include them.
Reading Experience
I think when I read manga and come across an unknown word, I literally just skip over it and move on, but in a novel, I feel a lot more compelled to annotate and look up everything I don’t know. Basically I tend to read extensively for manga and intensively for novels.
Extensive Reading: Reading lots of sources and not annotating or looking up words
Intensive Reading: Focusing on one source and looking up all the words
Here is a great explanation of intensive vs extensive reading on the Japanese Book Club Cafe.
Reading Levels
I think ReLIFE is doable to understand at N4+ and 天気の子 with a solid N3+ understanding (like you’ve already learned everything and are reviewing).
Manga and novels are two very different reading experiences, but I think it’s good to try both.
Do you prefer reading manga or novels in Japanese?
framed in beige 