Genre: Manga Translation Site
This review was suggested to me by my good friend Alyssa, a well-read manga expert with excellent taste!
Summary
Batoto is a Manga translation site where you can find popular and niche manga translated into hundreds of different languages, with English and Spanish being the two most accessible languages (I would suggest this website to French learners, but unfortunately it is much less common to find French translations). If you're new to manga, a few suggestions:
- Nana - A girl-power manga that follows two friends (both named Nana) as they struggle to make it in Tokyo. Nana Osaki is an aspiring punk star, while Nana Komatsu is a boy crazy girl with a codependent tendency. I previously reviewed Nana for the French section of Borderlands.
- Tokyo Goul - A manga focusing on the unique and intriguing trials of Ken Kaneki who becomes half-goul after miraculously surviving a goul attack. For gore and horror lovers, this series is perfect! Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans would especially enjoy this manga.
- Ouran High School Host Club - This lighthearted manga features a troupe of excessively rich and handsome high school students who spend their extra time entertaining the equally rich girls at their school (for a fee, of course). Haruhi Fujioka, a poor honors student with a tendency towards androgynous dressing, accidentally joins the club and hilarious antics ensue. If Ouran High School Host Club tickles your fancy, check out its anime counterpart on Netflix!
Mini-Critique
First of all: you do have to make an account to use Batoto, but the website is safe and it costs nothing to make an account, so no worries! As for translation, I have always found Batoto's translations to be quite reliable. What I think makes Batoto so great for Spanish learners is that most manga that have been translated into Spanish have also been translated into English. This means that you can open both the Spanish and English version of a manga, and read along in the Spanish version while referring to the English version for clarification when you need it! My only complaint is that bookmarking, while possible, is slightly difficult to do on Batoto. And if you forget to bookmark your page, it's a real pain to click through 50 pages to find your spot.
Difficulty Rating
★★★✩✩ Intermediate
See our "About" page for an overview of our difficulty ratings!
I personally struggled a bit with the Spanish manga on Batoto since my Spanish reading skills are not especially strong. However, for those who find that their reading skills are more advanced than their listening or speaking skills, Batoto's manga should prove fairly easy to read, especially given the slightly easier format. Manga, like graphic novels are highly dependent on the visual context provided by their illustrations, so reading around tough words is much easier. What's more, because manga are generally less dense than regular novels, the reading on Batoto is generally pretty manageable.
Click here to access Batoto