Thanks! I’ve heard great reviews of Majikoi’s comedic hijinks so it’s definitely on my “want to read” list even though it’s not something I’d usually pick up.

And yes, there’s definitely some benefit to even having a bit of baby Japanese. You start seeing patterns everywhere and recognizing words that you’ve learned before, and it feels good. It’s not perfect, but it’s encouraging and definitely helps boost one’s morale on their learning journey. For that reason alone, if the N5 exam cost isn’t too expensive for you, I’d recommend sitting for it and trying to pass it, if only to get an external assessment of your Japanese reading and listening capabilities.

(As I wrote on Reddit, I passed N5 with about 7 Cure Dolly videos (for grammar) and having done TheMoeWay N5 Anki deck. That’s all. What I love about Anki is that it works great on phones (I use AnkiDroid), so you can clear cards as you’re commuting or when you’re bored etc. TheMoeWay’s N5 and N4 decks are also built in an N+1 manner, meaning you’ll only ever see one word or phrase that is new. So that makes it much easier to learn, because you’re not seeing “uashdiu is the aoisdjasd of aisodoiasdoi”, you’re seeing “Red is the iasdokklm of blood” and you begin to learn “that word/phrase in the middle means ‘color’”. And the sentences use proper grammar, so even if you don’t watch videos on grammar or sit down to figure out the verb conjugations (which I’ve not yet done), you still implicitly pick up the basics of correct grammar and particle usage while learning vocab with the Anki cards.)

All the best on your language-learning journey too!