Anime for teens?

[maggieh]

 

Hi - I'm tutoring a teenage a boy & would like to introduce him to some anime.  Something like 尸兄 would be perfect in the sense those episodes are short and sweet and the language really useful. BUT the content is rather inappropriate...    Any other recommendations??

[feihong]

Is your student a fan of Japanese anime? If that's the case, you could look online for Chinese-dubbed versions of popular anime such as Naruto (火影忍者), One Piece (海贼王), or Case Closed (名侦探柯南). 

 

China has, in recent years, made big strides in the realm of movie animation. You could perhaps show him 西游记之大圣归来 or 一万年以后, although I feel those two titles skew towards younger audiences.

[TheBigZaboon]

There is a Chinese version of a Japanese animation series, in English I think it's called The Prince of Tennis. I have a copy I received as a reward for a purchase I made a couple of years ago, but I can't find it to give you the Chinese name or the ISBN. I think the first DVD will have multiple episodes, and there are subsequent DVDs in the series.

This might do the trick.

It should be available on YesAsia or China Sprout, and I am sure that Elina of StudyChinese on this site can find it for you. She went out of her way to help me several years ago. I am sure she could give you a slew of suggestions for other candidates, too.

Sorry I can't come up with more details.

TBZ

[mouse]

 

 

If that's the case, you could look online for Chinese-dubbed versions of popular anime such as Naruto (火影忍者), One Piece (海贼王), or Case Closed (名侦探柯南). 

 

Harder to find these days as Japanese copyright holders are vigorously taking things down off youtube and Chinese streaming sites are usually region locked.

[ZhangKaiRong]

The "term" anime per definition is only applicable for Japanese-made animated movies/series. Zombie Brother therefore is not an anime. I would, however, not recommend any animes with Chinese dub, as the quality of the dub is very bad compared to the Japanese original...

[TheBigZaboon]

Disclaimer: I edited out several smart-ass remarks written after reading one of the previous posts...

I think the quality of the Chinese here is more relevant than the faithfulness to the Japanese original. If the OP verifies the quality of the Chinese, approves of the relevance of the situations involved in the plot lines, and feels the vocabulary is useful for improving the level of the kid's Chinese, straying from strict orthodoxy might be allowed.

Just my two rupiah...

TBZ

[maggieh]

 

Yes, I don't give a toss about the quality of the dub in  relation to the Japanese version.   I just want a teenage student to hear everyday language in a fun setting.  Well, I will try some of the above choices - many thanks everyone, this is a great forum!

[ZhangKaiRong]

You won't find too much everyday content in Naruto, One Piece, and not even in Conan: Case closed... In terms of vocab, it's not necessarily easier than a Chinese historical drama. Even if you're interested in the story, it's such a big turnoff because of the steep learning curve of special and unnecessary vocab.

If you want some more relevant vocab, you should try to find some slice-of-life anime, which is aiming for everyday life issues rather than pirates, ninjas and detectives.

 

Just my 2 cents.

 

Edit: and just to be constructive, I give you some good slice-of-life examples with OK-ish vocab:

 

- sport animes: Prince of Tennis for tennis-lovers, Kuroko's Basketball for basketball-lovers, Cross Game for baseball-lovers, Captain Tsubasa for soccer-fans, Eyeshield 21 for football-lovers, Haikyuu for volleyball-lovers. So everyone can choose according to their tastes.

- Hyouka - a literature/mystery school club's everyday life

- You and Me (Kimi to Boku) - everyday stories about high-school boys

- Pet Girl of Sakurako - if he's interested in manga/anime, then it's also a good choice, as it's about inhabitants of a dorm planning to be artists (voice actors, manga designers, etc.)

 

I did not want to sound too negative in my first post, sorry if it could be misinterpreted.

The problem really is that good animes aimed at teenagers are kind of thematic, therefore heavy in vocab - which is completely understandable for native-speakers, but not appropriate for language learners.

 

Another thing that popped into my head is to check webomics/ short 4-5 min episode shows. They are getting extremely popular in China nowadays, and there are two or three shows in each anime season in Japan. I don't know whether these are dubbed to Chinese or just get subbed by Chinese fans. I can check it with some friends and get back to you.

[TheBigZaboon]

@ZhangKaiRong

Sorry if my remark about erasing my inappropriate comments was too easy to misconstrue as sniping at any of the previous posters. That's my fault. In fact the comments I erased were about what I felt were the unsuitable nature of strange and violent Japanese anime for anything but personal entertainment. My comments may have largely echoed some of yours in that respect.

It seems you are an extremely knowledgeable fan. I am not. But I have to confess that when I learned Japanese many years ago, before the technology for anime was available, I studied and learned way too much from violent and xenophobic manga. Some of the suggestions offered in the early posts share only the violence, and in a peculiarly bloodless way. They're pretty harmless compared to what I cut my teeth on. But, as you say, some of the examples offer little in the way of everyday vocabulary and sentence patterns.

But nothing is perfect, and anything that will attract and hold a teen-ager's interest has to be given some consideration. In my own case, my Chinese teachers pointed out my interest in police dramas led to me picking up lots of inappropriate and often unusable vocabulary, but it kept my nose to the grindstone.

A comment I want to add, and the reason for suggesting DVD-based materials, is the importance of avoiding fan-subs available on the Internet. They are labors of love, but love is not all it's cracked up to be. Commercially produced translations should, in theory, be vastly superior.

Again, let me apologize if my remarks made it seem as if I had been critical of the three previous posters. I wasn't. But I live in Japan, and I am surrounded by ads in mainstream publications for anime vastly different from the examples offered in ZhangKaiRong's latest post.

Sorry if I offended anyone personally.

TBZ

[maggieh]

 

Hi guys - who knew anime was such a sensitive subject!  

 

Basically this is a kid who has never seen Chinese outside of a boring textbook, so I just want 5 mins of something he can relate to.   I'm not going to use this as a major teaching tool, it's just to add some light and shade to a lesson and make the learning process more 'real'. 

 

Zhang Kairong:

 

"Another thing that popped into my head is to check webomics/ short 4-5 min episode shows."

 

Yes - these sound great - if you have any titles, please let me know.

 

Lots to follow up on here  - thanks so much everyone.

[feihong]

The region locking issue mentioned by mouse should not be a problem. All you have to do is install the Unblock Youku browser extension and then you can watch whatever you like on Youku, Tudou, etc.

[mouse]

 

The region locking issue mentioned by mouse should not be a problem. All you have to do is install the Unblock Youku browser extension and then you can watch whatever you like on Youku, Tudou, etc.

 

Funnily enough, just after I posted that I thought I should have a look to see if there were any easy work-arounds, and as you say, there are. It doesn't seem to work with Qiyi, unfortunately. I tried an extension called Qiyi Unblock, which also didn't work.

[kangrepublic]

Maybe it's not appropriate but there is 十万个冷笑话 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHCCeNed8M8&index=2&list=PLeI0gyheM7piOBxqVRALWv_i8_qiTGekg
I've only watched this one episode but find it funny.

There's also some good classic Chinese animation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bRxVmRuECk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IizgJ2os_w0

Also the Studio Ghibli movies can be found with very good Mandarin dubs and are probably at a simpler level language wise then most anime series.