I'm going to Japan soon (really excited) and I'm hoping to be around N3 level by the time I get there. I wanted to ask if anyone had any recommendations for N3-friendly (or just above that sort of level - basically something not insanely difficult to read) manga or where to buy them (if possible). Thanks so much!
P.S. I know manga is Japanese but meant manga that is in Japanese.
What genres do you like? I'm caught up to 薫る花は凛と咲く, and that was very easy to read. I also had a good time reading WIND BREAKER. I'd generally recommend more "grounded" manga, since fantasy / sci-fi can have a lot of weird terminology.
I recently been read "Death Note" and I really enjoyed that. I'm currently reading "The Summer Hikaru Died" (spoiler alert: he died), but they were both in English so I wanted to try something in Japanese. I'm open to anything really, but I like horror or mystery or thriller - that kind of thing (but as I said, anything works). I agree, maybe the "slice of life" type would be best because I don't need to add "flux capacitor" to my vocabulary!
I would also personally like to read manga in Japanese, but the libraries I've been to really don't have any in Japanese. I haven't tried looking myself, but I think something worth trying is looking online for a Japanese comic. I know there are sites with children's books, so there must be some with more advanced manga. I'm not sure if they would be free, and maybe try asking AI if you have trouble finding some.
Im sorry I can't help you find any specific ones, but I think basically any manga will do (as long as it's not super spicy lol). There are plenty of popular mangas (that I haven't read but I have heard of), that you can just look up, but they may have difficult plots so watch out. ;)
Anyways, I hope that this helped, and I wish you luck! I believe that you can do anything you set your mind to! :)
If it's about where to read, there are plenty of legal websites that offer free chapters, as well as daily tickets and points. For example, the site I currently use (https://pocket.shonenmagazine....) usually gives you 1-2 tickets a day (you spend those to rent a chapter for 72 hours). You can also earn points by reading randomly (I assume) selected manga every day. It's their way of promoting different manga.
For example, right now you can read the first 17 chapters of TenSura for free. Looks like you can't use tickets after that though.
In general, if you take the Japanese name of a manga, add 試し読み, and look it up, you'll get a preview of the first chapter (sometimes more). E.g. 光が死んだ夏試し読み [LINK]
Thanks so much for the tips; I haven't been super helpful... I could probably just occupy myself by reading the blurb/description of it! You guys have been really genuinely helpful, thank you.
I usually get my manga at BookOff. It's used so it's usually quite cheap, especially the popular ones. I know that よつばと!(Yotsuba&!) is quite popular, especially for those just starting to read manga in Japanese.
my goto for estimating the difficulty of manga is natively.
aimed at japanese learners, other learners rate how difficult books and manga were to read, compared to other books/manga they've read. that creates a pretty solid rating system. that then also gives you an approximate equivalency to jlpt levels.
readers will also often leave comments on what exactly was difficult or easy; e.g. a manga has simple grammar but lots of slang, or uses obscure kanji, etc...
One manga series in Japanese that I've greatly enjoyed so far is となりの怪物くん. Progress has been slow because I've been writing down a translation as I go, but it's been a very entertaining read. The characters are excellent, the art is lovely, and the dialogue is mostly casual high school vocabulary If you're a romance/drama fan, this might be a series for you!
Honestly Detective Conan manga is excellent in my opinion plus the Japanese Kao Manga here is not bad speaking of Kao did you know he was singing karaoke in my garden! Cute!
I've been wanting to read Death Note! I've fully watched The Summer Hikaru Died and it's really good :) Sorry I don't have any suggestions because my local bookstore only has manga in English :/
If you're a romance/drama fan, this might be a series for you! 
