SomaruLearn Japanese from the things you already love.
Somaru turns anime, music videos and real conversations into interactive lessons, with furigana, romaji, translations and a dictionary one tap away.
踊り子 – Vaundy
Watch. Tap. Remember.
No dry textbook drills. Learn real Japanese the way native speakers actually use it.
Pick something you love
Choose from anime, music videos, business and everyday conversations, filtered to your JLPT level.
Watch with smart subtitles
Every line shows Japanese with furigana, romaji and an English translation, synced to the video.
Save & review
Tap any word to look it up, save it, and review it later so it sticks.
Every line, fully explained.
ない愛を 歌うように回り出した
Somaru breaks each sentence into words with furigana over every kanji, colour-coded so you can see how Japanese fits together.
- Furigana, romaji and English for every line
- Loop any sentence until you've got it
- Slow down playback to 0.5x–1x
- Bookmark sentences to study later
Tap any word. Get the meaning instantly.
No more switching apps. Tap a word in any video to see its reading, meanings, JLPT level and real example sentences, with native audio.
- Readings, meanings and part of speech
- JLPT level tags (N5–N1)
- Example sentences with translations
- One-tap "Save Word" to your study list
Shadow real Japanese speakers.
Practise pronunciation line by line. Listen to the clip, then repeat after the speaker with the mic, just like shadowing in a real class.
- Short, focused clips per line
- Swipe between sentences
- Favourite the scenes you love
- Content tagged by genre and level
Sing along and learn the lyrics.
Turn any song into karaoke. Lyrics light up word by word as they're sung, with furigana and translations underneath.
ない愛を歌うように
- Full-screen, distraction-free lyrics
- Repeat a song or a single line
- Perfect for J-Pop, anime openings and more
Small habits. Big progress.
Somaru keeps you motivated with streaks, achievements and a study map of your learning rhythm.
Discover by what you're into
Browse a growing library by category and difficulty, then pick up right where you left off.
Saved learning
Keep videos, sentences and words in one place to come back to anytime.
Smart review
Review the words you saved so your new vocabulary sticks.
Achievements
Unlock milestones such as 十 First 10 words, 七 7-day streak and 百 100 videos.
Study activity map
See your learning rhythm over the last 18 weeks and keep your streak alive.
Designed to be calm, clean and focused.
Questions? Answers.
Who is Somaru for?
Anyone learning Japanese who wants to learn from real content. Beginners can lean on furigana, romaji and translations. Intermediate and advanced learners can turn the extra help off and focus on listening.
Do I need to know hiragana first?
It helps, but it isn't required. Romaji and furigana are shown for every line so you can follow along from day one.
Where do the videos come from?
Somaru plays videos through YouTube's official embedded player and adds learning tools such as subtitles, the dictionary and review on top.
Is Somaru free?
Somaru is free to download.
Can I use it on multiple devices?
Sign in and your saved words, progress and streaks sync across your devices.
Start learning Japanese
the fun way.
Download Somaru and turn your next anime episode or favourite song into a lesson.