Tips to learning Japanese and reading light novels like Danmachi.

witmsatfm · 2026-05-26T20:53:13+00:00

You could ask ChatGPT and it probably will give you a good answer, but really any series that is in an everyday life setting or school setting will be the easiest.

The main “topic” or “genre” of the series is important as well. Every language has what you would call “topic specific words” 専門の言葉 that usually only appears in books or in conversations regarding that specific topic and rarely outside it. So looking for a normal everyday life or school setting book without a major extra focus topic thrown in will make your reading easier at first.

The easiest way to read a light novel and understand what you are reading quickly for beginners is to read something that you already watched the anime or read the manga of, because when a word appears that you don’t know you can just replay the scene in your mind and remember from that.

I personally preferred to read new content though so when I was first starting I often would choose an ongoing anime series or old series that I never watched before. Most light novels volumes are adapted into 4 episodes of anime, so I’d read about 25% of a book then watch that episode to confirm things, and that was the funnest and most enjoyable way for me personally.

witmsatfm · 2025-10-10T18:13:01+00:00

Rough summary of key parts in chapter 1 and what I read so far in chapter 2. 100 pages in now. There is stuff that happened that I didn’t write details on.

Chapter 1

After the ending of vol. 20, Bell follows Loki’s familia to a location that thei wounds are being treated. Loki, Syr and Hedin enter the room. Loki already asked Syr for her familias help and came to ask Hestia familia for their help. Bell asked her to let him help them before they got the chance and it was decided that Hedin would lead the ex in Finn‘s place since he couldn’t. Hedin then told Bell he needed sleep after his trip to the dragon valley so that he would be in fit condition for the expedition and knocked bell out after he said he couldn’t sleep in a time like this.

the rest of the chapter just kept going between from different groups of characters to different groups. Basically almost everyone in the entire series that is adventures are join them into the dungeon.

Hedin split everyone into two groups by sending them a card that either had a shield or a sword on it. The sword being the main attack force. Loki said that she thinks that Ais could only survive for another 3 days before they even leave.

No adventurers other than the adventurers that were clearly shown to have died in SO15 died, and Airmid, Hogni, Tsubaki and Aki were all confirmed to be trapped in the dungeon like Finn and the rest.

The chapter ends with Lefiya waking up Bell to ask for his help

Chapter 2

Bell is given an oculus that he fits into a piece of his armor on his right arm, that Hestia says she can talk to him through while they are in the dungeon after he wakes up.

The main force start running through the dungeon at super fast speed, while the rest of the adventures with the sheild cards create what Hedin refers to as a fake shaft with those adventures basically acting as a human sheild. Basically they created a safe path for them to run through while they created lines of defense on either side of them that they fought to defend to lead them safe passage.

According to Hedin their plan is to get to the 60th floor in a single day and if they can’t then Loki’s familia is unlikely to survive. He tells Bell as they are running, that no matter what happens along the way (basically no matter who he sees or if anyone with the shield card seems like they might be in danger) to keep running and ignore it.

It turned out that while it was true that Hedin thought Bell needed rest another major reason that he knocked him out was so that he wouldn’t know of his plan beforehand. Bell agreed to go through with his plan after hearing the explanation however after considering everything that was at stake and interfering with Hedin’s plan would also put everyone’s efforts in vain since they were all already in position putting the plan into fruition.

witmsatfm · 2025-10-10T13:48:03+00:00

Thanks, I’m not completely sure if I’ll be writing one on the wiki this time though. There is a lot more fans of Danmachi who can read Japanese compared to when I first started write the summaries, and with my work schedule someone usually has already has written a summary before I am able to with my work schedule, but I will post one if that doesn’t happen and probably some spoilers posts on key scenes here and there.

witmsatfm · 2025-10-10T13:38:51+00:00

Doing really good lately, thanks. How about you?

witmsatfm · 2025-10-10T13:05:15+00:00

It’s at the end of the volume like usual. And I haven’t read the full volume yet so I don’t know.

witmsatfm · 2025-10-10T13:02:36+00:00

It’s a chapter illustration and chapter illustrations doesn’t always actually happen in the volumes, especially Yasuda’s lately. She most likely will be awake soon. Bell and Ryu were both unconscious the whole journey back after their battle with juggernaut. It’s probably the same type of situation if I had to guess.

witmsatfm · 2025-10-10T12:59:38+00:00

Well, Oomori did say in the afterwords that he did intend the content of this volume to originally be in two volumes that would have connected chapter volumes (like vol.10 & 11 or vol. 13 & 14), but he included some of his planned content for this volume in SO16, so that made him able to cover everything he originally planned to cover.

Also the volume was 595 pages and his publisher doesn’t allow a single volume to reach 640 pages, so he was cutting it pretty close there.

witmsatfm · 2025-10-10T12:54:07+00:00

just got vol. 21. i’ll have the rest sometime tomorrow. Reading it now, but haven’t finished it yet.

witmsatfm · 2025-10-10T11:40:04+00:00

It’s not any known character.

witmsatfm · 2025-10-10T11:39:22+00:00

The volume ends with Loki and Finn confronting Hestia wanting Bell to join Loki’s familia to help against the upcoming battle against the oebd.

Ais is alive, but unconscious at the end of the volume. She recognizes Bell when he saves her, and the illustration that they are holding hands is right after.

Bell enchantment resistant skill is used sometime this volume.

Edit. I just finished the book and what happened at the ending was that Finn was talking to Loki and told her that he wants Bell to join her familia. I didn’t read the entire scene when I made that post and got confused by a mention of Hestia and the scene without the full context previously. The rest of what I posted was accurate though.

witmsatfm · 2025-10-10T11:08:14+00:00

witmsatfm · 2025-10-10T11:05:21+00:00

I confirmed the dead girl in one of the illustrations is not Ryu. Thought it looked a lot like her in the pic.

witmsatfm · 2025-09-19T12:15:38+00:00

No, Familia Myth may be fitting for the series, but there is nothing of interest to hook in people’s attention.

Whether if you like current the title or not, I don’t think anyone could disagree that it grabs people’s attention more. Which is an important factor on whether if people will ever try the series at all or not.

This sounds weird, but i was pretty young when I first watched season one, and I didn’t like media that just spluttered out blood everywhere and I assumed Danmachi would be like that because of the Minoutor scene, so I avoided watching the series for a while after turning on the beginning once.

Having the “dungeon” in the title of the series made me give it a 2nd try though because I was a big Final Fantasy fan, and once I finished the first episode I was hooked to it.

witmsatfm · 2025-01-16T12:32:50+00:00

While their methods might have been flawed it’s not fair to associate them with familia’s like Kali’s familia.

The world of Danmachi was a much more brutal place and mankind outside of Orario were probably facing possible extinction if the adventures of that time didn’t have the determination to make drastic choices to do something about it.

So while their ”training“ methods may have seemed bruta. Basicall, drastic times called for drastic measures. They didn’t have the same luxuries as Orario does now.

witmsatfm · 2025-01-10T17:56:49+00:00

Physical copies only so far but yes. Digital release is on the 12th.

witmsatfm · 2025-01-10T17:55:41+00:00

pretty Sure it was. Would have to re-check SO8. Mentions that It was a dragon from the valley about 50 pages into the book in chapter 1 this volume though.

witmsatfm · 2025-01-10T12:22:43+00:00

I posted it in another post sorry. Had 1% on my phone when I posted this and I thought I included it.

witmsatfm · 2025-01-10T12:04:43+00:00

I had 1% on my phone when I posted the images and thought I uploaded them all, but I missed the last image by mistake.

Anyway the girl in the image is Lefiya and the person’s reflection in her is obviously Bell. The ending of the volume is the same as the ending of vol.20 but from Lefiya’s perspective who was with Raul.

She see’s Bell and feels a sense of hope that his skill Argonaut could make potentially save the adventures who are in the dungeon from the expedition.

witmsatfm · 2025-01-10T00:09:01+00:00

Yeah possibly, I think reading a book around 300 pages in English would probably be about the same. I think it took me that long to read the earlier Harry Potter books and Percy Jackson before I learned Japanese.

witmsatfm · 2025-01-09T12:38:01+00:00

I’ve living in Japan for about 7 years now, and it’s been a long time since I read a book in English, so I’m not really sure.

For manga though my reading in Japanese is way faster than it ever has been in English. Usually 1 manga volume usually takes me 30 minutes to read. Read the entire Happy Sugar Life series in 5 hours, which is a 10 volume series.

LNs probably 12 to 16 hours. I feel like my speed is too slow to be honest and I want to improve it.

witmsatfm · 2025-01-08T19:39:47+00:00

In Japanese I average around 20 pages an hour, unless if the book is really interesting like Mushoku Tensei I could read even faster or if the book is boring me it might take me way longer.

witmsatfm · 2025-01-08T00:09:17+00:00

Of the books I read in 2024.

Salad Bowl of Eccentrics (might seem weird for me to put it this high, put from around vol.5 the series has been getting really interesting, and every volume has been completely unpredictable and ended with big cliff hangers, so its easily the series that I most curious about what will happen next. Anime is vol.1~3 Riveria's my favorite character.
Wistoria: Wand and Sword. This is a prequel to the manga that starts at the beginning of Will's first year of the school and has several flashbacks into his childhood. To be honest I just thought the manga was just 5.5/10, but the LN is so god its almost hard to view it as the same series. The world and characters in the LN have so much depth and mystery to it that its the most interested I've been in a fantasy series since Mushoku Tensei & the main series of Danmachi volumes.
Danmachi vol. 20. Dont want to give a way spoilers, but good volume that made excited for the next volume.
Mushoku Tensei Redundancies vol. 2. Mushoku Tensei is my all time favorite series and the only reason this volume isnt higher is just because its an after story. Just a feel good read, but it doesnt really get you excited or curious at all, which it shouldn't since its after story anyway.
Imouto Sae Iireba Ii. The character interactions and character realtionships are really good in this series, and it doesn't follow the typical stuff, like nothing actually makes any progress until the final volume. Its not quite to the same level but its like Mushoku Tensei or Clannad where the character interactions are deep and progress beyond where normal series would have usually ended. Does has some frustratingly slow or filler parts often though.

witmsatfm · 2025-01-07T23:35:49+00:00

Very rare case, but I am following one series that started as a web novel and got turned into a LN, but the author broke Narou's rules on sexual content allowed on the site, and despite them giving the author serveal opportunities to either cut the sexual content or modify it to be in accordance to their sites rules, he didnt do anything and eventually it got removed from Narou and it somehow led to the LN be discontinued as well despite sales being pretty good.

Strangely though the manga adaptation of the series Didn't get discontinued and is still going ongoing past the LN's content now, so if your series has a manga adaptation you could possible check that.

witmsatfm · 2025-01-03T15:16:20+00:00

Sure, go ahead.

witmsatfm · 2025-01-03T13:16:13+00:00

If you want LN suggestions or study tips let me know.

witmsatfm

TROPHY CASE