Can “Lowbrow” Anime Actually Help You Learn Japanese?

Are Kids’ Shows the Secret to Learning Japanese?

In this off-the-cuff episode, Tom explores why language learners often overlook the power of “lowbrow” media like anime, kids’ shows, and mass-produced manga—and why that’s a mistake. From the academic polish of the Read Japanese Literature podcast to the underrated artistry of Anpanman and My Hero Academia, we unpack the tension between high art and pop culture in your study routine.

Plus:

• Why you might need to grind Mickey Mouse before you can tackle Gundam
• 5 spring 2025 anime picks ranked by difficulty (including Apocalypse Hotel, Witch Watch, and Kowloon Generic Romance)
• And an interesting yet useful Japanese phrase: 「騙されたと思ってやってみて」(“Just trust me, give it a try!”)

Whether you're a new learner or a long-time fan refining your study strategy, this episode is your reminder that meaningful input doesn’t have to be impossible—or even “high art.”

Chapters

• 1:18 The Value of Mass-Produced Art vs. "High" Art
• 7:34 Language Difficulty Can Limit What Media You Consume
• 15:01 Spring 2025 Anime Review
• 15:31 Apocalypse Hotel – N2 Level, Slow Pace, Polite Language
• 17:40 Gundam GQuuuuuuX - Retro Style with Punk Rock Energy
• 20:13 WitchWatch - Urban Fantasy Rom-Com. Great for N3
• 21:48 My Hero Academia Vigilante - Cool Art, Weak Writing
• 24:06 Kowloon Generic Romance - Nostalgia & Relationships
• 29:43 Japanese Grammar Focus: 「騙されたと思って」
• 33:14 Outro – Thanks, Updates, and What’s Coming Next

Transcript

[00:00:32] hey, I'm Tom Scullin, a language teacher living in Japan. And welcome to like my anime, the podcast where we talk about language learning through the lens of anime, manga, video games, and whatever else keeps us studying Japanese without burning out. And this month I'm gonna be trying a little bit. Of a new thing.
[00:00:52] Up to now I've been scripting out my episodes and I want to try to do just a little bit of a, an outline of what I want to talk about today. And so first on that list, I just wanted to talk about the value of mass produced art. Um, this podcast is really influenced by a number of other.
[00:01:18] Language learning podcasts how to Japanese and especially the podcast, read Japanese literature. It's an amazing podcast. If you haven't checked it out, please take a listen. They go through [00:01:32] a lot of Japanese literature and break down different themes, different genres, different writers, and it's amazing, but it's from a very academic perspective.
[00:01:44] And the host goes to great lengths to point out that she won't be talking about anime or manga, uh, kind of implying that. This is a more sophisticated high art pursuit and not that lowly mass media art in as big a air quotes as you can find around art.
[00:02:06] But I think there is a. There's obviously room for both, and there's also obviously value, especially in bringing attention to Japanese literature, to a non-Japanese speaking audience. I think that's an amazing thing that podcast is doing, and I think it's a very valuable thing because there's a lot of amazing. [00:02:32] Literature out there in translation in, and that you can go read in English right now. There's obviously much more that isn't and maybe never will be translated into English, and that's why I think learning Japanese is a great idea, but I also think that there is value in more mass market art forms.
[00:02:58] Sure. Like shonen jump or things like that are a little bit schlocky and a little bit, um, I don't know if you can always call it art, but in the same sort of way that like a writer like Miyazawa Kenji, or the character of Naruto, they're all immediately recognizable as Japanese art, as Japanese culture. And in that same sort of way, Hakusai, those woodblock prints were basically the equivalent of posters in a modern day sense. [00:03:32] They, they weren't high art.
[00:03:35] They weren't. And these amazing things. They were the mass produced low art of their time. Same thing with Shakespeare. If we want to get back into literature, Shakespeare was.
[00:03:51] How, how outlandish of a comparison do I want to make? He, you could argue that he was the, the Michael Bay, the, um, there aren't many comedies, mid-budget. That's a whole different conversation that mid-budget comedies don't exist anymore. But, Adam McKay, the kind of stepbrothers, dodge ball. Anchorman, those sort of comedies, that's kind of what Shakespeare was aiming for.
[00:04:21] And so now we consider Shakespeare as English canon as some of the finest writing in the English language. But [00:04:32] back when it was being written, it might have not appeared on a podcast like read Japanese literature because it wasn't considered worth anyone's time back then.
[00:04:46] And now every high schooler studies Shakespeare as high art as literature. With this podcast, I do kind of want to try and point out that there is amazing artistic quality in manga and anime, and that there obviously is other stuff that is more mass market appeal. Not to say that those stories aren't artistically valid or artistically proficient either I just, I don't know how much you can get from the same sort of literary analysis of an episode of say, [00:05:32] kind of giving away my taste here, uh, my hero academia than compared to a deep dive in all the themes in. Something like 1Q84. Not that I'm that big of a fan of Murakami either, but we'll get into that in other episodes of this podcast too.
[00:05:54] So that's just kind of my 2 cents of, I, I believe there is room enough in this conversation for both, um, high art and low art, if you want to call it that. And I hope that someday this podcast could kind of stand alongside, read Japanese literature and be that counterpoint for more mass market art. And what is in these mass market stories that we can look at critically. Uh, so that, that's kind of what one of my goals for this podcast is. Not just to talk about the, this media as a learner, but also, yeah, we want to [00:06:32] enjoy what we're using as, uh, study materials too. We don't wanna forget that. We are still trying to enjoy some of these stories and.
[00:06:42] Not just use them as study materials because there are still textbooks and other things for that. If we just wanted pure study materials, th those exist. But I think, like me, people that are listening to this podcast are more interested in what linguists call authentic materials. So that's study materials that are intended for a L1 speaking audience that, uh, I don't like the term native speaker, but it's hard to not use so native speaking audience, because we get a window into the culture and not just the language. We get an idea of what art looks like. In the language we're trying to study in the culture we're trying to study. [00:07:32] So, and that kind of brings me to another point is that because our main goal is study, or at least sometimes our main goal is study, we may end up. Reading or watching something we probably never would in English or whatever your first language might be. Just because the level of language that we are currently at does also dictate what we are able to consume. That kind of goes to Stephen Krashen’s. i + 1 hypothesis where he said that I is the current level of your language ability. And so that plus one, just one little step above where you are right now, so that you are pushed mentally to improve your language ability, kind of strain to understand what we're learning and for beginners that is going to [00:08:32] limit what we want or what we can watch.
[00:08:35] As beginners, it's harder to watch what we want. I remember when I was a beginner in Japanese that I still love Gundam and all these other ghosts in the shell. These stories with. Very complex themes, complex language that I still now as a fluent Japanese speaker struggle with because of all the language, all of the kind of political language, all of the military language, all of the underlying themes beyond what characters are literally saying, that stuff is still tricky and I, it doesn't mean that I don't like those series anymore. I still love those series and I'm still working towards understanding them, but it isn't as useful. I'm finally kind of getting to a stage now where it is a useful thing to study with, but when I was [00:09:32] first studying.
[00:09:34] Oh, wow. 10 years ago now. Uh, over 10 years ago. 15, almost. Uh, wow. So, yeah, when I started studying Japanese about 15 years ago I was not at a level where I could watch Gundam with Japanese subs. Uh, it's, it was just not something I could do. I wanted to, but really kids shows were a better fit for my level.
[00:10:00] And shows aimed at preschoolers were much closer. To my language ability at that time. So I've learned to enjoy Anpanman now with my daughter. I, it is a pretty good show, but it wasn't something that I was using when I was at that level because I was kind of striving for things that I couldn't do
[00:10:25] so there is this issue with using media as study materials where it will [00:10:32] bring us into a situation where we might be struggling to find what we want to use. Uh, I know my, my brother is, he also lives in Japan and he also is trying to study Japanese, but he doesn't like anime nearly as much as I do, which is perfectly fine, but that also.
[00:10:53] Kind of limits his scope of what he can use to study. He doesn't like anime because he thinks anime is just shonen and there's a huge world of stuff that he could be using that he probably would enjoy, but he doesn't know how to find it. And then on the other side is he could be watching dramas, but again, that those dramas might be beyond what his level is.
[00:11:21] Really, it's hard to suggest for some learners. But a great starting point is kid shows the stories [00:11:32] are simplistic. Yes. But that's a benefit right now. Sure. It wouldn't be something you'd sit down in your. In English or your native language and watch for fun. It'd be mind numbing. You'd hate it, but, and I can attest to that for some of these kids shows my daughter's watching. There's good ones. There's real good ones. Definitely Bluey Blueys on YouTube. The Japanese dub of Bluey is really good. But yeah, I, I don't. Personally, I don't sit around watching Mickey Mouse. My daughter loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and there's like six or seven different series and she watches it all day long.
[00:12:13] She would, if we'd let her. But I really would rather never watch that show again. So in Japanese, we will wanna try to gravitate toward that sort of stuff, at least at first because it is simple language, [00:12:32] usually said fairly slowly and using common words that a 6-year-old would know which is all hugely important for our goals of studying with media, but sometimes, yeah, it, it can feel as much of a grind as a textbook because you aren't watching what you want to watch. You aren't watching what is interesting to you, but it's a building block. If you think of it as a video game and you're grinding these early level enemies, that's kind of, Anpanman, the bluey Japanese dub, these sort of kids shows, can, they won't necessarily be. Intellectually stimulating from a story standpoint, but they're a goldmine for you as a learner.
[00:13:22] So that was, that was definitely something I struggled with early on is kind of getting over that mental hurdle of not really being able to [00:13:32] watch what I wanted. And being frustrated with how hard immersion was in what I thought I wanted to watch. Well, I knew I wanted to watch what I thought I should be watching and not what I could be watching and getting a lot more linguistic stimulation from.
[00:13:51] So that is definitely something I'm talking with my brother about right now. And I figured some other language learners would, would. Wanna hear that conversation too, of just what should I start with compared to what do I want to watch? And those things don't always match up. Like, a really good starting manga for example is Shiro Kuma Cafe.
[00:14:20] And if you don't really like that sort of absurdist slice of life pace. I guess going back to the video games, it's kind of like the cozy game [00:14:32] equivalent of a cafe story.
[00:14:36] That could be interesting for some people. That might be some people's favorite show, but. For other people, it will just be a stepping stone on their way to watching or reading what they want to watch later down the line. And that's fine too. We don't have to love everything we're watching, but if we're learning from it, then it's still worth our time.
[00:15:01] In that sort of spirit, I wanted to talk about some of the shows I've been trying to keep up with, in the spring 2025 season what I gave a shot, how it kinda stacks up, what sort of level learner it might work for, and whether or not I'm gonna stick with it, I tried to watch three episodes of all of these series and just to give you my ideas and let you know what I was thinking about. So first up is [00:15:32] Apocalypse Hotel. This one was pretty cool. It's, um, I don't want to give, I guess I won't spoil too much, but it's basically a hotel in Ginza run by robots.
[00:15:45] And the, there's some kind of nondescript plague that's spreading all over the world. Humans flee the earth to go live off on the moon or just out on space stations until the virus kind of runs its course. And during all of that, something happens to the humans and they never return. So hundreds of years pass and this staff wakes up every morning ready for customers that never come.
[00:16:20] And it was just a really interesting story and a really interesting perspective and has this sort of undertones of the coronavirus , COVID era. And it was really [00:16:32] cool. I really enjoyed it. The pace of the show is a little bit slower than some of the other things I'm gonna talk about today.
[00:16:37] But, uh, it was really a nice cozy anime. One thing that I think might be a little tricky for some learners is it's probably around an N2 level because of the kind of customer facing polite language, Keigo, this work language, customer language, all of that is gonna be a little tricky if you're just starting out.
[00:17:00] If you're around an N3 level, you might have a little bit of exposure to these sort of phrases and these ways of speaking. So it might not be as hard for you, but yeah, definitely a beginner, true beginner apocalypse hotel is gonna be a little tricky for that sort of immersive learning, but it would be great for a passive show.
[00:17:19] Have the subtitles on, get that exposure, uh, sorry, have English subtitles on, and have that kind of passive exposure to language. It'd still be a great show with a really fun story. So yeah, I definitely [00:17:32] recommend Apocalypse Hotel and I am planning to finish the series.
[00:17:35] Uh. Just, I couldn't finish it before this episode. Another one, another one that's, I don't know if it's harder, but, uh, how do you even pronounce the name of this Gunda? GGG Cooks the, like a lovecraftian spelling of the name there. But yeah, I watched the first episode of The New Gundam, the first three episodes of the new Gundam.
[00:18:01] And I mean, I, I love Gundam. I've. I love Gundam since I was a kid. For Gundam fans. It's a really, really cool look at this kind of alternate retelling of the first series. And I say I love Gundam, but yeah, I've mostly only watched the universal century stuff. I don't really, I.
[00:18:25] I don't know, something just doesn't click with me. With like Gundam seed, uh, Gundam Double O was really cool in [00:18:32] a early 2000 sort of way. I really like Gundam Oho, but most of the time I don't watch stuff that's outside the universal century. Um, I, I still am meaning to. Watch iron blooded orphans and which from Mercury.
[00:18:47] Those sounded really cool, but I just didn't have time when those were out. I'm going to circle back around, maybe do a episode on. Gundam for language learners, that might be a cool, cool idea. Uh, let me know if you want that. But yeah, the, this is an amazing show. It's really cool. Um, I like the, the gender swapped Amuro as the main character.
[00:19:08] That's a really fun idea too. And I don't know. Yeah, it just, I guess because of who is writing it, it's, uh, the team behind Evangelion and, and, uh, I forgot his name, but. One of those two. He also went on to write FLCL after Evangelion, the, they're huge Gainax people. [00:19:32] Uh, I should have looked up the names before this, but yeah.
[00:19:36] Um, so there is just, I don't know if it's because I went back and watched FLCL recently, but it really feels. Nothing like an, any other Gundam that's out there? Well, of the ones I've seen, iron blooded orphans, and which from Mercury might feel like this, I don't know, but there is just kind of a, a.
[00:19:59] Punk rock jet set Radio kind of vibe to this Gundam that other Gundam series don't have. And I'm really enjoying right now and I definitely want to keep going with the series. Another one I picked up this season was a witch watch. This was a really cool one. Uh, I'm kind of a sucker for magical realism, so maybe that's part of it, but it's this like high school rom-com of a witch and familiar living together.[00:20:32]
[00:20:32] But through some logic of the show, her familiar is a boy who's half Oni. And it's a, it's a really fun show. It's really cool to see this kind of modern, like urban fantasy, magical realist take on, on kind of like Kiki's delivery service. I don't know how to explain this, but they, they, there is a reason for them living together.
[00:21:03] Without trying to spoil anything, there is a reason they're living together that drives the plot. And it is just a really fun, like, heartwarming story, this cute anime and uh, I think it's probably easier. No, it, it definitely is easier than the other two.
[00:21:22] Apocalypse Hotel and Gundam, uh, uh, probably around an N3 level. It's not too bad. Even the magic stuff is pretty [00:21:32] understandable. But yeah, daily conversation and if you're looking for something to practice that sort of daily casual, daily conversation that you don't really get in those early beginner level books.
[00:21:41] This is a great pick and I highly recommend Witch Watch. It's really fun too. I guess before we go to my last pick, I wanna talk about, my hero, academia vigilante, just because I, I did watch the three episodes. I watched the first three episodes, but I don't think I'm gonna keep watching. I just, I don't, there's so much that I want to, like about my hero academia.
[00:22:11] It seemed like such a, a great concept and such a great idea. And then just the writing is not where I want it to be. The, I forgot the name of the writer, but he's, he's not great at writing women, and this one isn't different. The art [00:22:32] style is amazing. It's a really cool kind of more comic book style than a lot of other anime obviously.
[00:22:39] Influence from Western comic books and, and Marvel and things. It's a really cool looking anime. I just wish there was a little bit more to the story. Maybe I'll go back later and watch the rest of the series that, that first three episode, it kind of is a cliffhanger and something is developing with this story.
[00:23:00] It's just, I don't know, uh, the, like, it's, it's the strangest sort of PG fan service. 'cause there's nothing really. Yeah, compared to like, uh, one piece or, or other, other Shonen stuff where, uh, the fan service is kind of over the top. There basically is no fan service. It just, the one female character, uh, what was her name?
[00:23:29] A pop step. It, she is [00:23:32] hardly a character. She barely does anything, and it just, uh, is, it's unfortunate that the characterization of the, the. I guess the, the main character and his, uh, two co-leads they just, they're kind of boring. The, this amazingly fantastical world produced very, very boring people.
[00:24:00] And maybe that was on purpose, but I don't know. I just, I don't know if I'm gonna keep going. Especially when I compare it to my last pick of Kowloon Generic Romance. I've been meaning to read this manga series for years, and now that it is an anime, I'm super excited. There's even gonna be a live action movie out in August, so basically in the future, they live on this kind of recreation of Hong Kong and Kowloon.
[00:24:31] The [00:24:32] focus, especially from the first episode, is on nostalgia and it, they do an amazing job of hammering home that nostalgia. I, I grew up watching Jackie Chan, Jet Li, all these Hong Kong action movies when I was a kid.
[00:24:48] So Kowloon and Hong Kong is an amazingly nostalgic place despite I've never been there. Obviously, I've never been to Kowloon. It doesn't exist anymore, but I've never even been to Hong Kong and yet this still seems nostalgic because of the media I enjoyed because of Jackie Chan movies, because of Ghost in the Shell.
[00:25:10] The main characters talk about that too because they're Japanese people that transferred from a different real estate agent to live and work in Calhoon
[00:25:19] and this series really kind of talks about. Meditates on maybe even, um, nostalgia and what it means to be nostalgic for places you've never [00:25:32] been to. And a part of that is, or at least how I felt about it, is talking about the nostalgia for past relationships. Not even necessarily failed relationships or previous partners, but the nostalgia for your current relationship being better than it is.
[00:25:58] Remembering that there were times when the relationship was better. It's gotten to a place where you just feel stagnant and you not happy, but don't really know why. And the, the story, uh, kind of explores these themes in a really interesting way that I've never seen before and in a way where giving a character amnesia is the [00:26:32] core engine of the story and not just some, some gimmick or blow off thing that they forget about. It is honestly,
[00:26:42] An incredible story, and I can't wait to finish the rest of the series. Everything about the art style even looks like old nineties anime. Even the main voice actors starred in things like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and other series from the nineties and two thousands.
[00:27:00] So even the voices have that kind of nostalgic feel. The characters when they speak, it feels like you're watching perfect blue or paprika. It feels like you're watching a, a show from the nineties or early two thousands. It's, it's just an amazing piece of art and I really recommend it. It's not too bad, it's a little bit harder than witch watch, so maybe n three plus lower n two level.
[00:27:28] It is mostly daily conversation, so it's not too bad to follow the [00:27:32] plot and understand what's being talked about. But yeah, there was so much this season. There was, uh. How much was it? There was 26 different anime that I found on my anime list that are airing this, uh, this season, this spring.
[00:27:51] I wanted to say semester, but, uh, there, there was 26 animes airing this season, and of those 26 19 jumped out at me as being really, really interesting. And then, yeah, because of of life and all these other things, I, I only managed to watch, uh, five series. I I planned on watching seven for this podcast. But yeah, there's, there's the new series from the creator of Cowboy Bebo Lazarus, a remake of Anne of Green Gables called Anne Shirley, which, hugely influential in the anime world and, and in just Japanese culture.
[00:28:30] The [00:28:32] original what was it called, the original anime version of Anne of Green Gables was an amazing and influential piece of media in the seventies. Uh, it even kind of helped to launch. Ghibli in a way, Ghibli Studios. But yeah, that one, uh, seemed interesting. Uh, that's Tabby. That's Tabby, uh, seemed like a really interesting travel anime.
[00:28:59] What else? Uh, the Uma Musay show I heard was really, really good. Mono was an interesting food anime. I think that was mono, right? And oh, maybe that was, uh, food for the Soul. Food for the Soul seemed like a really interesting food anime. And yeah, there was just so much this season that I really wanted to take a look at and just never got a chance.
[00:29:25] So I'd, I'd love to hear from you guys, see what did I miss? What did I, what [00:29:32] should I have checked out? What have you been using this study recently? And. Just, yeah, I'd, I'd love to hear from you about what, how you're studying Japanese right now and I guess, yeah.
[00:29:43] I wanted to touch on a piece of Japanese grammar that just kept popping up in the month of June and I wanted to do a deep dive 'cause I haven't seen anybody else in the English language Japanese learning space talk about this piece of grammar that can actually be kind of tricky if you are just thinking about it literally. And that is 「騙されたと思って」
[00:30:11] And then the te-form is usually 「騙されたと思って食べてみて」, 「騙されたと思ってやってみて」, 「騙されたと思って見てみて」.　
[00:30:20] So what this, the way it's used is, trust me, give it a try. Just trust me, give [00:30:32] it a try.
「騙されたと思ってやてみて」
[00:30:37] Just trust me, give it a try. But if you notice there's a lot going on. Dam is to be fooled. So one thing when I first was hearing it in context, it's not so tricky, but it definitely kind of perked up. Think that you're being deceived and try it, think that you were deceived and try it is a literal translation of this phrase and so probably could trip people up.
[00:31:13] But it, it's definitely a useful phrase, especially if you're going to a restaurant with a picky eater or wanna try to show someone a new anime series and they, they just don't feel it. Just drop [00:31:32] a 「騙されたと思って食べてみて」, 「騙されたと思ってやってみて」, 「騙されたと思って見てみて」
[00:31:40] So you can just try to use this phrase in different situations where you are trying to get your speaking partner to believe you that something is good. So it's kind of ironic that Damita, because you are trying with this phrase to get someone to trust you to give this chocolate and pickle flavored limited time chip a try or, or put salt on watermelon or any of the things that you could be using for this phrase. You want the other person you're talking to, to believe you, to trust you. But this 騙される is, is in it. And I, I felt that was kind of funny and worth sharing.
[00:32:29] So, yeah, try to in the next month before our [00:32:32] next episode try to use 騙されたと思って in a journal entry or in a conversation. And try to think of different ways you might. Be trying to get people to do something, to try something with this phrase.
[00:32:48] It is really interesting and an amazing everyday language phrase that I just haven't encountered. Before coming to Japan, I, I don't see it. I never learned it in a textbook. I don't see people talking about it in language learning videos. This, this is a really key phrase for daily conversations that I just, I wanted to share with you all and yeah, so give it a try.
[00:33:14] But yeah, that, so that is the episode for June this month. I'm a little behind schedule release wise. Uh, there's just a, a lot going on. But yeah, I'm gonna try to be a little more regular with both the podcast and posting [00:33:32] on Patreon and Medium.
[00:33:35] The first semester of the school year here in Japan is winding down and we're going into summer break, so hopefully I'll have a little more time for this fun stuff too. And not just work, but the, the first semester is always the roughest for, uh, coming back to school for both students and teachers. So, uh, it's kind of understandable and, and I hope you are okay with a little bit of a more off the cuff.
[00:34:00] Episode for this month just because of everything that's going on, and I'm sorry about that. But yeah, if you do enjoy this podcast, I'd love for you to share it and with any other language learners, you can check out the Patreon at patreon.com/like my anime and, uh. You can join there. I hope to put out more free content as well as, uh, if you wanna support the podcast, you can join our paid tier, which will get you exclusive [00:34:32] episodes and hopefully, other paid posts, deep dives on different series, maybe even study guides. I have a lot of different plans, but, uh, not enough time to do any of them right now. But yeah, so I'd love for you to check out the Patreon and see what's going on over there. And yeah, just see next month. Uh, have a great one.
[00:34:54] It's already getting hot here in Japan, so stay safe and see you next time.