You can learn from watching anime if the reason why you want to learn Japanese is to understand anime/manga.
If that's not your only reason, I'd heavily recommend taking classes or at least getting a normal textbook like Genki or Minna no Nihongo and/or looking for some language exchange with real people, watching "normal" (non-animated) TV, listening to some radio and reading texts that aren't part of comics.
If you try to learn everything by watching anime and reading some comics, there's the danger of making terrible mistakes by talking rude.
Although in most of the manga I read people talk pretty normal most of the time, there still are some expressions that'd be absolute no-gos in a non-Otaku Japanese environment, I guess.
Moreover, I think, it's not good to start learning Japanese with manga. Though that's just my personal opinion. To me, that'd be like learning things like "Ey dude, what's up?" before "Good morning, how are you?"
I have tried a few programs specifically for learning Japanese and did not like them. However, I am a big fan of flash card software (Anki is good, as it SmartFM.com - both free)
A lot of people have given good advice on how to read/write Japanese so I'll give some tips on listening and speaking.
1) Listening: While hearing characters talk in animes might help somewhat, they often speak colloquially. The best way to improve listening skills is to watch the news. After all, newscasters have to speak clearly by default. Try watching a morning show that is broadcasted throughout Japan. I find that morning news programs focus more on fun topics like a current trend, new technology, food etc. During the course of the day, there is greater focus on politics and economical issues. Mornings are usually easy-going and a bit more casual.
Not anyone can watch Japanese news programs but personally that's the best way to improve on listening.
2) Speaking: It's very difficult to get rid of an accent, but it's important to make each syllable distinct and clear. Never elongate a vowel.
Most advices were already told...may I suggest something though...a tip for kanji, kana in general...write them down on your own, try some calligraphy, not just read them and memorize them...writing them down helps a lot, I learned hiragana and katakana, in a weekend by writing...
Nah, not really, considering that's how I learnt all the Japanese I know (well I did read magazines and watch dramas and variety shows too but yeah, same principle) and without a single textbook. In 2 years I passed JLPT2 so it's clearly not impossible or all that out there It may not be the best way, but it is definitely the cheapest And you get to have fun and learn what you like and not what you're forced to learn ^^
You just gotta keep pushing. Every day is another chance to live your life, and since our common goal is mastering the language we are learning, a step in the direction of success in life means having a strong hold on what our passion is.
Sometimes I feel as if I am wasting time, but don't let this get you down. You'll truly be wasting time if you don't push forward and live the life you want to live. There will be times when money isn't coming in, and you still have your language study.
There will also be a time when your language study will pay off, and people will come to you for help. Money will come. The time you are putting in right now will be paid for.
If you are a complete beginner, learn hiragana and katakana before you do anything else, and learn them well. That should really be your first step.
If you can't get a class in RL, I'd recommend the website Textfugu. Sadly it has a price, but I tell you, it's absolutely not a scam (like Rosetta Stone, what a waste!) and totally worth it. It is a site specifically made for self teachers. And some lessons are free, so you can browse a bit and see if it's for you.
Up until a few weeks, I would've recommended smart.fm to practice vocabulary, but they lost my trust after they shut down the free site and took all my vocab lists I took hours to write to a new webspace that has a fee. So I'd say use the programme Anki for vocab and kanji training (it's free).
Once you know your way around a bit and can write a few sentences, open an account on Lang-8 (also free). You'd be writing a blog there, in the language you'd like to learn. Then, the people who speak the language as their native tongue read your entries and correct them.
All of this of course is no good when you wanna learn how to talk to people. Watching Japanese shows definitely helps, a lot, and there's lots woth English subtitles around nowadays. Without a real person to talk to, though, it'll be hard. So if you really can't find a real life teacher, try EduFire. It's a website chuck full of online tutors, who'll work with you one on one at the level you're at. There's even reviews from students so you know which tutor is good. But of course, them tutors wants to get payed.
I took classroom lessons, helped me alot...yet at the same time it was hard to pay attention, maybe it was my ADD but really just reading manga and anime along with self taught sites, but you need to practice daily and want to learn, with that you should be fine.
I learnt it by simply watching anime. this process took me a year of watching subs before I finally started to be able to point out mistakes in the subs. I dunno whether this helps, but try go to Japan for a holiday
The hiragana and katagana is pure memorization unfortunately. However, I somehow started with romanji. I recommend not to do that because it makes everything pretty difficult.
As for learning kanji, it wasn't really that difficult, i may not know exactly how to read it, but I can understand it since I also know chinese. If you know chinese i really helps memorizing the kanji since a lot of the words are the same.
Basically if you know chinese you are pretty much prepared to learn Japanese. Chinese and English were my first languages, and then I learnt Japanese as a hobby. I can currently translate stuff that people say, im not so good with the reading though so i like to read Japanese blog posts of voice actors from an anime I like (they say really interesting things) But if you want formal you can just buy a japense book. If your willing to pay, then you can get a tutor, but since i am a cheapskate, I had to self learn.
Like many have said watching anime/jdrama and listening to japanese music has helped me with learning the language. I've also used a site called japanesepod101.com, there are primium versions where they give you transcriptions on the podcasts but i just download the free ones to get used to hearing the language being spoken. Also some books that i've used while i was taking college courses were the Genki series which is pretty good, details a lot of the grammar points, and the Japanese for Dummies book. They can't teach you everything but they provided a good basis for me when i was trying to learn it on my own. hope this helps!
Well, when I was last here about a year or so ago, I could translate, but mostly due to understanding particles quite well. Now that I'm back, I am actually starting to comprehend some verbs and sentences with simple nouns without using my trusty dictionary. I also learnt to recognize all the major verb conjugations, as well as finally memorizing all the katakana. I have also started learning some kanji as I go along.
Looking back, I was a noob, and I probably still am. I am however, much better read on japanese. I will outline a way to learn japanese that you may, or may not, find useful, as well as offering some resources I have found invaluable along the way.
First of all, my main criticism is that online lessons and tutorials invariably start by giving you a list of nouns and desu to make sentences with. Why, when japanese is a verb based language, are we being taught how to say a noun exists, or even more absurdly that the noun is 'pretty'. Although it is a great place to start when teaching english, and can form the basis for many sentences, I feel that this is a farcical place to start teaching japanese, especially considering that the nouns aren't always necessary in japanese.
Another problem I have is that most tutorials introduce が and は at the same time, which as I recall, confused me a little bit, and probably confused others to a greater degree. I feel that particles should be introduced according to what types of words they modify, and preferably when that type of word is introduced.
I think it would have been much easier to understand japanese later on, if I were given a bit of background and then given a sheet of useful verbs to memorize, as well as conjugation rules as an introduction into japanese. not only that, but it would have allowed me to say sentences I could actually practice in real life, such as 見る or 行きました, '[I, you] see' and '[I, you] went' respectively. Anyways, here is the basic outline of what I was thinking:
Basic Foundation for Sentences (no extras, just necessities):
Learn kana (realkana.com was a great resource to master them after I learnt them)
Learn aru, iru, and verbs in general.
Learn が and を (noun-verb relationships)
Study some examples of both particles in use to get an understanding (examples should contain useful nouns, including watashi, anata, and the ko, so, a -no and -re without Mr. Tanaka examples)
Learn に particle, as well as study examples and how it can refer to time, location or direction
Learn common honorifics and be told to use Tanaka-san in favour of anata, examples included
Learn aru's conjugations (they are relevant to more advanced conjugations and sentences)
Learn conjugations
Study Method:
Memorize kana (hiragana at minimum)
Memorize short sheet of the most frequently used/useful verbs
Memorize how to conjugate into simpler verb forms, such as past, negative, polite and -te (in request and continuative forms, -te kudasai and -te iru)
Get a list of nouns to memorize, avoid pronouns, save for watashi and anata to avoid confusion and encourage leaving subject out when speaking.
Probably the most important: be given study material without answers visible to test comprehension.
Simple sentences (no clauses):
This is where lesson order matters a lot less, but some things would be prerequisites of others
(Optional, but useful) Learn a bit about japan's background as well as some simple stock phrases such as arigatou gozaimasu and oyasumi nasai
Learn about the honourable 'O' prefix
Learn noun + desu copula, as well as it's conjugations... examples, but not a large amount, and spread out along the lesson as examples should be as each new idea is introduced.
Learn adjectives and adjective + noun as well as being introduced to the two types
Learn conjugations for the -i adjectives, be told that desu conjugations are used for -na
adjectives
Learn adjective + desu (especially for -na adjectives)
Learn は particle
Study Method:
Worksheet (sample sentences with blanks for answers, answers on back)
(Optional)Guided translations of longer works with notes on how clauses work to improve vocabulary and give some challenge
Regrettably, beyond this is where I lack the skill necessary to be a reliable in judging what is more important. I do encourage that you seek out learning materials that do not use romaji (I avoided them except when I needed convenience or was learning vocab). I also encourage that learning materials use kanji with furigana, except for the simplest verbs which should encourage them to be memorized. I also would recommend that comprehension testing materials be used along the way (no answers on the same page) and that new nouns be introduced in any materials (with translation visible on the page to prevent interruption of thought).
I hope this list can be used to further your language studies, or, if you happen to have mastered all this, that it can provide a useful outline for teaching materials you might produce. I also encourage that you seek out good reading material early, as it will aid you in learning much faster.
Also, please note that my outline is created with the goal of teaching how to read japanese (writing it is a different monster that is relatively easy to practice at the same time), not japanese communication/speech, so I omitted many of the 'basics' of written japanese tutorials.
If you can recommend any other good resources, or perhaps changes, I am willing to consider your opinions and look up the resource, as I am still learning japanese and am in need of japanese reading materials (preferably with furigana and of intermediate level), not lessons. In short, I am happy to hear feedback.
Also, is there any good way to gain vocabulary? I find that things written in kanji only are very difficult to gain vocabulary from, due to how often I have to take a 10 minute break to find the kanji. Preschool level books rarely challenge me anymore, except with an occasional word that I need to look up, and I have had a lot of trouble finding them written in kanji with furigana, which would be perfect for picking up vocabulary.
Useful Materials:
Tools:
Wakan (http://wakan.manga.cz) - an invaluable tool that provides both dictionary and a means to attach meaings to each word in a sentence for easy reading of unkown words. A little bit outdated, but works wonderfully
Real Kana (http://realkana.com) - a very useful online resource to master 'reading' your kana. It is what I owe my ability to recognize kana (in a font) instantly. I can read kana faster than I can speak due to drilling myself with this while saying the kana. It can really help you to read kana flawlessly, even if you don't know what the word means.
Kotoba! (Ipod app store) - An invaluable FREE dictionary. It provides many useful features, including conjugations and examples for every entry.
Anki (http://ankisrs.net, Ipod app store) - A customizable, free flashcard program. It truly is the best way to use flashcards, and it is very useful for memorizing vocab. Although the ipod app is expensive, it makes it much easier to test yourself, and it is extremely easy to do anywhere. It's convenience has ensured that I always have time to practice the words I know. My desktop version had been sitting unused for a whole week because I never had the time until I got the app.
Textbooks/pdfs (to learn more thoroughly):
Japanese in Mangaland Series by Mark Bernabe - useful for a basic run-through of japanese from start to finish.
Making Sense of Japanese Grammar - Explains many topics in-depth in short lessons that can be read in any order at any time. Very good for clarifying many common issues that people studying japanese may face.
A Guide to Japanese Grammar by Tae Kim - A very good tutorial that explains new ideas quite clearly, I have found this to be better than Japanese in Mangaland if you already understand the basic particles and conjugations.
Reading Materials:
RAW manga (http://j-comi.jp, where you can find user-submitted translations for some manga)
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It may not be the best way, but it is definitely the cheapest 
And you get to have fun and learn what you like and not what you're forced to learn ^^
