vivster on 03 January 2016
It only helps if you already know some Japanese. That way you can better discern between words and can practice reading Japanese signs. Without any prior knowledge it won't help you jacksquat. So just get yourself some beginners learning book or site and then start learning vocabulary. Animes will not help you learn vocabulary but it will help solidifying the basics when you actually learn it on the side.
I've been on and off learning japanese for a few years now and I've watched close to 10000 episodes worth of anime but I can tell you that the ratio of what I learned through basic vocabulary training and what I learned through anime is around 20/1.
If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.
