Just started using this app today - it still has active development and after joining the Discord inquiring about Mokuro support, it, and WaniKani integration are coming soon apparently 
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Thanks for the support! I have much more coming soon… Looking forward to sharing.
I’ve just released 3.9 which is a HUGE improvement to overall quality, stability and performance. I focused on quality and speed without introducing major features for several months. This includes fully functional iCloud sync across iOS & macOS devices (included in the free tier of course).
I’m now working on adding a manga mode via integrating Mokuro (including fixing the file size limit in Mokuro when used on web in iOS) and a streaming video mode for auto-captioning sites like Netflix.
Please let me know what you think. I plan to add WaniKani sync soon - let me know if importing your progress would be a good starting point for integrating WK into Manabi Reader. Later I can do things like allowing you to review WK cards directly from Manabi, reviewing cards that appear in whatever you’re reading/watching, and eventually auto-reviewing flashcards passively while you read native materials.
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Here’s a book I’m reading in the app, yes, a book, in Japanese! This is the most I’ve read in Japanese anywhere because I love the ability to click and show definitions and hide furigana for words I already know. It’s very addicting to mark words as known and create new flashcards.
And here are some stats from the homepage of the app. Almost 3k words known! I would have had no idea outside of WaniKani vocab if not for this app. I’ve been reading a bunch of NHK easy news which has helped fill out my vocabulary in the apps’ tracking.
Super excited to get my manga in here too with Mokuro. Being able to click to look up Netflix subtitles is going to speed up my watching, and of course WaniKani support will be great! Love the roadmap.
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^ Thanks for sharing those screenshots of your workflow!
Quick update: 3.10 is now out. This primarily focuses on quality and performance improvements. I now return to finishing up the Mokuro work.
How is the Mokuro integration coming along? Really excited to try it out.
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Sorry for the long delay. I’ve been investing more in baseline quality of the application and have a big update nearly ready.
I also took a detour to redo most of the design of the app to make it easier to use and understand. I’m getting rid of a lot of the segmented control-based navigation, especially the ones that are nested two layers deep, and fewer navigation controls that are just ambiguous icons. This work also sets up the app for iOS 26 design.
Here’s a peek at the new home screen:
And what the new bottom bar looks like when it’s expanded:
It also minimizes/hides while reading (still WIP, will share more soon).
Here’s an earlier version of the home screen to compare:
Now more of the home screen functionality is accessible from the bottom sheet / tab bar without having to leave the content you’re reading, unlike this old version: the dictionary search (plus other expanded Lookups features), the ability to look up text using your camera, the home screen itself, your learning progress stats, etc. You can also now hide home screen sections such as the curated library.
Mokuro is still the very next priority after wrapping up this quality & design work.
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Just wanted to say I love this app and it’s helping me so much to read Japanese. Physical copies with Google Lens (or competitors) was just too clunky. I will subscribe soon too, because the vocabulary tracker seems super useful. Once manga and Netflix are added this app will be even more invaluable.
One question I had, is there any way to sync progress in a book between devices? Considering I mark paragraph as complete I assume this should be possible, but it doesn’t seem to happen on mine, just the familiarity.
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Thanks for the support and I’m glad to hear it’s working well for you
The device sync is unfortunately a bug. I have it fixed in the next upcoming update. Sorry it’s taken so long to get this update out. I ended up doing a full redesign of the app to coincide with iOS 26’s Liquid Glass (not just for aesthetic but to simplify navigation and make it a better platform for extending with new features) which has taken me longer than I wanted. But I am making good progress and hope to have more to share soon.
Meanwhile I’ve also been improving the flashcards app (which btw is optional as you can also use Manabi Reader with Anki, an integration I intend to continue to improve). I’m about to release kanji drawing cards for touch & pencil (iPad).
I’ve posted a roadmap here btw: Manabi Reader Roadmap | Manabi
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Ah I see, thank you for letting me know! Glad to hear it’s unintended at least!
And sounds great, especially the drawing cards! I’ll try the flashcards app as soon as I sub 
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I’ve since subscribed to the app! One question I had was, would it be possible to add the sentence in which I tapped the word to add as a flashcard to the actual flashcard?
So very simple if the sentence is これはペンです。and I tap ”ペン”, it adds the whole sentence instead of just the word in isolation. It helps me to learn the words in context also after. Apologies if this is on the roadmap, I didn’t see it there.
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I have a bug in the flashcard update that isn’t showing your example sentence on the back side of recognition cards. However to have the sentence show up on the front of the flashcard, I will need to add a new feature for that - it’s planned!
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I have begun an open-source project that I hope to release soon alongside the next Manabi Reader update or two: Manabi Grammar DB, a web-based index of grammar explanations and other grammar-related resources. It automatically identifies the specific grammar points that are relevant to text that you paste, so it is more than just an index of resources. It will also let you supply local file EPUBs/PDFs of “offline” grammar resources to automatically display relevant entries.
I will launch this as a free service on web first and then as a feature inside Manabi Reader.
The database of grammar resources will be fully open-source under CC BY 4.0.
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Quick update: I just shipped FSRS to Manabi Flashcards. It also spaces out “sibling” cards and has “load balancing”, and uses the same latest FSRS v6 that Anki has.
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This redesign update has been a long time coming. I am getting close now. Some quick notes on notable developments:
- I’ve added Yomitan dictionary support! This means monolingual dictionary support out-of-box via Wiktionary, as well as being able to import your own.
- I’ve added an automatic full-screen mode which minimizes navigation UI. This is especially nice for ebooks.
- I continue to advance the manga mode work in tandem with finishing up the redesign update. In particular, I am training a new manga OCR suite that runs on-device for iPhone and Mac. The goal is to support both existing Mokuro volumes as well as to generate them and to work on-demand with online manga sites such as Bookwalker. I will also reuse the manga OCR tech for improved document scanning, beyond only manga.
Manabi Reader was also just recognized with an award by the blogger “Bee” as the best iPhone app for Japanese learning of 2025! The post has some screenshots of the upcoming redesign update: Best Japanese Learning Tools 2025 Award Show 🏆
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