しあわせ

Mitamura, (Kondansha International)

This book takes a more scholarly approach to kanji. The first half of the book concentrates on components, radicals and strokes, with an emphasis on reading and deriving meanings by educated guesses from the structure. The second half teaches writing introducing 250 kanji in order of their stroke counts.
Not as immediate as Basic kanji but it probably gives a more solid foundation to learning and understanding kanji.

Chieko Kano et al. (Bonjinsha Co. Ltd.)

To be literate in Japanese you need to know kanji. And to read at university level you need to know about 2000 of them. This is where to begin with a first 250.
This text takes a similar approach to Self Study Kana Workbook. It introduces about 10 related kanji per lesson and you learn them by copying model forms. Then use them in reading and writing exercises.
I like this books approach.

by AJTS

THE textbook. Its probably best to bite the bullet and get the kana version from the start.
Recently, AJTS has revised this series of textbooks, so it’s best to look for the 3rd edition. They now integrate more workbook content and come with a CD of all the dialogues. The structure of the course is also better with 4 chapters comprising a Unit based around a single theme.

My only complaint would be that Biji-san has gone and the drawings have lost a little of their humour as a result.

by Wayne P. Lammers, (Stone bridge Press)

This has it’s origions in Basic Japanese Through Comics above. However this time it is a more structured and comprehensive course on grammer and usage than before. It can be followed as a course in Japanese, however it is probably more difficult than a standard text like Japanese for Busy People. I think it is better as a way of reinforcing and expanding what you have learnt in class. It uses kanji as well as romaji and all the examples are from Manga. However there are no other reading excercises or comprehension tests.

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by Mangajin

Two books comprising a series of 24 articles from the now defunct magazine Mangajin. Each article covers a word or phrase such as どうも、どうぞ、すみません、or はい。Using manga to illustrate their points they go through various nuances of the word or phrase. Each dialog is presented in kana and kanji, romaji, a literal translation and an English translation. It is also scored from 1 to 4 for politeness, 1 being rude and abrupt. 4 being very formal.

These are very interesting books and can be dipped into rather than used as a textbook starting at the beginning and pressing on to the end.

Oxford University Press

All the key points of Japanese Grammar in one small book.

Verbs, adjectives, particles, counters and polite forms to name a few. It has many examples of usage and clear and concise explanations. There are also tables of verb forms to allow you to conjugate verbs.