Learning Japanese with Anime: Every Method Compared
The fastest way to learn Japanese from anime is to learn the words anime uses most, in the order it uses them, and keep watching. Every episode we watch is a free review. Here's how that compares with the other methods, and what each one teaches you first.
Why word order matters
I counted every word spoken in the first 12 episodes of 120 anime: 3,313,663 words across 1,432 episodes. A small number of words does most of the work. In those episodes, the 50 most common words make up half of the dialogue, and the 210 most common make up 67%.
Source: Watch Anime, Learn Japanese, Chapter 3.
Verbs follow the same curve. Out of more than 6,000 verbs in those shows, the top 10 make up 43% of the verbs you'll hear, and the top 200 reach 80%.
Source: Top 200 Japanese Verbs in Anime, "Why These 200".
Every method, side by side
| Method | What you learn first | Cost | Where it falls short |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just watching | Whatever the episode says | Your streaming service | Slow: the common words are mixed in with thousands of rare ones |
| Dual subtitles (Language Reactor, Animelon) | Words from the show, with a translation beside them | Language Reactor: free tier, paid Pro | The English is right there, so it's easy to read that instead |
| Anki | Any words you add, on a review schedule | Free on desktop and Android, one-time purchase on iOS | You choose and make every card yourself |
| Takoboto | Words you look up, saved to lists and reviewed as flashcards | Free | Fewer scheduling settings than Anki |
| WaniKani | Kanji, and the words built from them | First three levels free, then a subscription | Kanji order, not anime order |
| Textbooks (Genki) | Grammar, one lesson at a time | Paid book | Starts with polite Japanese, while anime mostly talks casually |
| Yomu Yomu | Graded stories with audio | Free, with a paid premium | Stories, not anime dialogue |
| Frequency-first (the books and Yomikit) | The words anime says most, in order | Yomikit is free; the books are paid | Not a grammar course: you get words and data, not lessons |
What I use
Takoboto is my dictionary and my flashcards. I look up a word, save it to a list, and review that list as flashcards without leaving the app. For me it does everything Anki does, with the lookup built in. If you want more control over your review schedule, Anki is the one for that.
Yomu Yomu is where I read. You listen to a short story while reading it with furigana, tap a word for its meaning, and slow the voice down when you need to. Words and phrases from those stories eventually show up in an anime or a song.
Yomikit links every word in its reading pane to Takoboto, so a lookup is one click away.
They work together
These methods aren't rivals. Learn the most common words first, save new ones in Takoboto, read in Yomu Yomu, and keep watching. Each one makes the others easier.
Try it free
Yomikit opens on the top 10 verbs in anime, with furigana and romaji over every word. Paste any line from a show and it does the same.
Open the Top 10 Verbs in Yomikit →The books
- Watch Anime, Learn Japanese: the 210 words that make up 67% of the dialogue, as word cards, plus a top 1,000 list and the data behind it.
- Top 200 Japanese Verbs in Anime: the 200 verbs that reach 80% of the verbs you'll hear, one page each, with the forms anime uses most, phrases heard in 10 or more shows, and an anime joke for every verb.
Questions
- Can you learn Japanese just by watching anime?
- Slowly. You'll pick up the most common words by ear, but learning them on purpose first makes every episode count.
- How many words do I need to understand anime?
- In the 1,432 episodes I counted, 210 words make up 67% of the dialogue, and the 50 most common make up half. See the full curve and the top 20 words.
- How long until I understand anime without subtitles?
- It depends on how much you study and watch, but word counts give you checkpoints: 50 words cover half the dialogue, 210 cover 67%, and the top 200 verbs cover 80% of the verbs you'll hear. See the full path.
- What are the best free tools?
- Yomikit for reading, Takoboto for lookups and flashcards, and Anki if you want more control over scheduling.
How I counted
I used the Japanese subtitles for the first 12 episodes of 120 anime: 20 shows from each of six genres (action, fantasy, isekai, everyday, romance, and mystery). Words were split with the MeCab analyzer, and verbs were counted by dictionary form, so 言った and 言います both count as 言う. In the verb ranking, every show counts the same, so one talkative series can't push its favorite verb up the list.