Japanese & Twisted Wonderland!
How difficult is the Japanese used in the (1) game, (2) manga, and (3) novel?
Note: This is according to the author's perhaps wrong opinion!! Please keep that in mind while reading!
@twsttanoshii
Hello! It's your author again, who cannot wait for the Tapis Rouge event! 🎬 Don't you think it means something that they've selected the "good actors" of NRC to attend this event (Azul, Jamil, Ace, ignoring the actual actor Vil lol)? Is it an acting event!?!?!
Sorry. Today I wanted to tackle the question I received on Marshmallow about the Japanese level in this game. I think it's a great question but there is no way it would fit into the character limit on X, so I resorted back to Privatter!
Note: I understand that there are already "fan translations" of some of the media content already! However, the question I want to answer this time is if you PERSONALLY want to read the content in Japanese.
Today's Question
What JLPT level would be sufficient to generally understand the material? This includes the game, manga, and novels.
Note: the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) is like TOEFL for Japanese, or the standard by which foreigners learn Japanese to demonstrate an aptitude for the language. N1 means "native level fluency", followed by N2, N3, N4, and lastly N5. There are yearly tests around the world that students take to achieve one of these ranks.
Prior Experience
First, I think that just as important as the actual language is the "experience" you have with similar games and/or stories. I was also studying Japanese in University when the game first came out, but I already had some experience with Japanese games (mobile and console), and therefore I was sort of able to "get the general feeling" if you know what I mean.
Japanese as a language is tied intricately with its culture, so if you understand their culture/where they're coming from, you will understand the language better. For this, there really is no other substitute than watching Japanese shows, reading Japanese books/comics, and playing Japanese games. (Or I mean... Going to Japan, but that's way more expensive lol.) Even if you know the meaning of the words, that only gives you 50% of understanding of the content of anything. Why? Because Japanese as a language is a CONTEXT-BASED language and they love using outside cues to inform the meaning of their words. So my first advice would be to get used to the WAY info is transmitted in this culture, once again by digesting Japanese media. Even if you understand the words, you might not understand what the sentence means.
Listening
For the Twisted Wonderland game, the main story is fully voiced in Japanese. And it's done really, really well too (I wonder how much their budget is, seriously?? Just listen to Ruggie's and Azul's voice actor talk about how they have to retake takes) If you have watched Japanese-dubbed anime before, it might be easier for you to start off with this main story. You have the audio to help you out, especially if you're an audio learner! Also, all of the card voices can also be listened to to help your comprehension.
Personally, your author also recommends starting off with the game's main story.
Note: the card's Personal Stories are almost all not-voiced. The Birthday SSRs are fully voiced, and Rollo Flamme's story is also fully voiced (thank you Kamiya-san). This brings us to...
The game's level of Japanese
When your author first began to play the game, they were on their second.....? First and a half? Year of studying Japanese as well. Maybe that would put me at around an N2 level or so?
Personally I had no problem with understanding the game story, apart from one or two difficult characters (kanji). I believe that if you were okay with a "broader" understanding of the story, N2 or a high N3 is passable. The game, being set in a "faux-English??" environment, tends to use a lot of katakana and foreign loan-words, which makes it easier as a foreign speaker.
However, the later on in the story you get (Episode 5+), the more complicated the story becomes. Keep that in mind!
The manga's level of Japanese
I actually think the manga is easier to understand than the game so far 🤣🤣 I haven't finished reading the second nor third Comicalizes, but I have all four Heartslabyul volumes. Many of the kanji/characters have ルビ on top of them, which means they have hiragana written on top of the characters like this:
漢字
Which is really helpful for younger readers. So MAYBE if you're at a high N4 level you could make it?
However, I would not recommend one's first experience of the story being the manga. While it's a visual feast, it also skips some information and introduces many new "main characters" that might confuse a new player. I guess I'm a source material purist now LOL
The novel's level of Japanese
The novel is by far the most difficult to understand out of all three of these options. Just compare it to a regular novel... I actually think it's a little harder to read than some simpler Japanese light novels aimed for teenagers? I would definitely suggest a N1 achievement before trying to read it if you actually want to understand it.
If you've ever read free novels online in Japanese on Narou (some examples I've personally read are Honzuki no gekokujou or Kusuriya no hitorigoto... which I think eventually both got an anime? Is Kusuriya currently airing?), you can get an idea of how difficult reading the novel is.
I think what makes Twisted's novels harder is that it really digs into scenes with a bit more sombre and detailed tone than the game's comedic undertone does, which slows down the pacing. I would recommend reading the novel after playing the game as an "additional material" for the game, especially if you like a particular character featured in the novel.
Personal opinion: I'm blown away by how much understanding the novel gives me about each character of Heartslabyul and Savanaclaw (so far). It really digs deep. The person writing it is the person who writes all of the Personal Stories and many of the event scenarios, Hioki Jun-sensei. She talked about writing characters briefly on the Twisted Radio Show (#16 or 17?)... She's so good at uncovering new ground while still making sure each character is just a teenage boy at a teenage boy school LOL
Also personal opinion: The second novel made Episode 2 100 times better... And also ruined my emotional state.
Too long, didn't read
JLPT Level to Understand the Material!
Game: around N2~. Maybe N3 for earlier chapters?
Manga: around N4-N3.
Novel: N1.
Please note that this is your author's personal guess! It's been a few years since I took the N1 exam and I've never taken any of the N2/3/4/5 ones so I might not be well-informed on the topic. However, it might be a better guideline than no guideline at all! Maybe... or maybe not... That's up to YOU
(P.S. I actually don't think the N1 really guarantees that a speaker has native-level fluency in my opinion... But the listening portion of the exam is pretty good as an indicator of fluency!)
Okay, thanks for reading all my rambling. I think Japanese as a language is super interesting and I always need an excuse to talk about Twisted Wonderland LOL. Please continue to message me on Marshmallow if you have any other questions related to this post or to anything at all!
writingerror's Marshmallow!
Thank you for reading! That's all for now.
—writingerror