So this is why I was extremely excited when, upon attempting to read a random manga Ben brought out, I actually understood a good portion of it. Yes, it was probably only about a third that I could understand, but I was so happy that I wasn't stumbling on simply reading the writing, but understanding it. It's the equivalent of going from having to sound out every letter or word when you first learn how to read to reading every sentence and going back. That's big in a language with a different writing system(of course, I am using furigana, which helps you cheat).
So I'm still in the early stages, but it's good. I was able to breeze through about 40 pages while getting the gist of what was going on. I recognized a lot of the words from just this past year or past semester, so they've really been teaching something useful. Though I think just as important was the grammar, specifically the passive form, he-made-me-do-it form(forgot the name XD), and the polite Japanese. I mean, at least I can understand 'ただいま'(tadaima), which means 'I'm home' and 'めしあげる', which means I'm eating(in a very polite way) even if I don't know what else is going on in the story.
Once you get to a certain level in a language, I've heard it's better to just read through first without consulting a dictionary, then maybe later look at one. So that's what I did. I'm not sure if it's for the best or not, but I thought not having the crutch of a dictionary would make me actually work at it. I think I'll go back and make a list of words that I didn't know this time around so I can keep up. A lot of kanji I recognized, but didn't remember the meaning... Though I previewed the next chapter and it looks too complicated for the read-first-ask-second method, because the chapter's about an actual case and I don't know a lot of detectivey-Japanese yet.
So what's the story? It's called Steam Detectives. Ben randomly got the second volume, so I came in not exactly knowing what was going on. Like all good comic artists, Asamiya Kia does start out this volume with a sketch of everyone and the city, but I didn't get any of that. Luckily, in comics, you do have context! At least from what the mangaka draws. Basically, the first chapter was a classic enemy-kidnaps-girl, boy-fights-enemy-and-gets-girl chapter. Everything starts with a bang. Although main protagonist Narutaki is at home relaxing and waiting for the nurse Rinrin, someone seems to want Rinrin dead - first it's a giant metal ball from the end of a crane that goes crashing through the phone booth she was in, then the train she's riding in goes into a river. At the last moment, Narutaki's nemesis Night of Phantom grabs her. All the while, Narutaki is wondering where she is. He gets a message from Night of Phantom, who and hung her from the small hand of a clock tower. When the clock would turn one o'clock, she was going to plummet to her death because the line she was on would be cut. In any case, Narutaki has to go through a lot to get to her, including a drawn-out battle and running through as many gears as you can fit in a page. And apparently Night of Phantom has some relationship with Narutaki's father. In any case, of course Narutaki wins and it looks like Night of Phantom dies, but you never know. It helps that their robot comes in at the last second. And Narutaki finally gets his coffee :-) - a running gag throughout the whole episode was that he had to do something at the exact moment when his butler was about to give it to him.Anyway, this is a happy mark in my life. I remember when I was first able to read an entire book in Spanish in high school - Senderos Fronterizos - I was quite ecstatic! And this is the same kind of feeling :-D
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