Japanese is the most popular asian language among westerners.
You'll have white chadlites or even chads as your competition.
Learning Japanese won't help you ascend but it will definitely help you cope with anime and games.
Anyways, I'll give you some tips:
Learn hiragana first and always use it. Learn to write it properly.
Start learning kanji and also learn to write with the right stroke order. I know it sounds complicated but it gets really easy the more you learn. The more complex kanji are made of simpler kanji
When you encounter new word, write it down in kanji and hiragana. Also review words with repetition software like Anki.
You'll be amazed how many kanji you now if you do this!!
When you've learned enough words, you'll notice different characters in anime talk differently. You can clearly know the attitude of the character and their gender based on their grammar. Verbs conjugate differently based on politeness.
Again, this might sound complicated but Japanese is a regular language so when you hear a new word, you usually know how to conjugate it!!
Maybe @FinnCel can help you out. I remember he gave some tips about learning Japanese. I just wonder how he can keep all of it in his head when he's always drunk.
Thanks for the shutout
I have no idea how I remember this stuff.