This makes fixing it harder, but I’ll look into it.
This is now included in the volume navigation rather than as a separate setting:
Side-note: Improving the mobile device look of pagination links is on my to-do list (but not at the very top):
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Thanks, not a huge deal since I can sort anything on desktop but just wanted to flag it
Right, so apparently I missed that. This is a much more convenient location, thanks! And for pointing out the pagination trick on the Frieren thread. It’s an amazing tool
Latest Updates
Up to 4,109 volumes across 1,456 series.
Filter by Word Density
Pages with the sort dropdown now have a basic filter to filter by word density:
I plan to update this to a min/max slider sometime.
I also plan to add filtering by known word/sentence percentages. I just need to figure out how to fit everything into the interface.
Recommended Words
The recommended words pages now include only words from series/volumes you are reading.
Previously, these lists included series/volumes in other statuses, but I’ve found the inclusion of other statuses to be detrimental to these lists because:
- Paused items: If a series is paused, there’s likely a valid reason for it and no reason to focus on learning words from it. If it’s due to one’s vocabulary being too low, it’s better to focus on learning words specifically from the series frequency list.
- Owned items: It’s common to buy manga on sale without expecting to read it soon. There’s no reason to focus on the words from these series that may not be read for a while.
- Wishlist items: There’s no guarantee a wishlist series will ever be read, so there’s no reason to include them in a list of recommended words.
This should result in recommended words more likely to come up when reading.
Genre, Tags, and Collections
I’ve started populating genres, mostly sourced from AniList but sometimes also from コミックシーモア or MAL.
I’ve also replaced some collections with tags, which I’ve wanted to do for a while now.
Collections will be used to collect related works, such as a manga and its spinoffs, or manga read in the Beginner Book Club.
Tagging will be used for unrelated works, such as manga centered around baseball.
The series pages for genres and tags don’t filter out series marked as “Uninterested” or “Finished” yet. That will be added in eventually.
Javascript
As someone who browses the web with JavaScript disabled by default, I’ve worked to ensure Manga Kotoba likewise works without JavaScript.
I firmly believe a website that provides information should never require JavaScript to view information.
One type of website where I’ve always felt JavaScript makes sense as a requirement is a web application.
Manga Kotoba sits in the middle. There is static information, and there is dynamic user interactivity.
For this reason, I plan to start freely using JavaScript for application aspects without regard for making them work without JavaScript. In the future, I may remove some buttons that are only present when JavaScript is disabled.
2 Likes
Great updates, thanks!
amazing, I’ll try that feature out again!
Maybe only one small change this weekend.
I’ve slimmed down the search result dropdown from this:
To this:
The progress bars have been adjusted, now using a circle for vocabulary % and dropping the sentence %.
Why shrink the height?
To add more types of content to the search box:
Search still has room for improvement, but it’s gotten slightly better.
Known issues:
- Keyboard navigation (up/down arrows) renders the active search result’s progress bar invisible:
- Keyboard navigation is broken on Firefox.
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A few more changes/updates for the weekend:
Dashboard
I’ve reduced the number of links in the dashboard and placed them in the ≡ menu.
This includes links for:
- Library
- Known Words
- Kanji section
The top menu now includes a link to the Library, while the Dashboard link has been removed. The latter is still available in the ≡ menu.
Library
The library is now split by reading status:
This means you can now view all series you’ve marked as “Uninterested”, which wasn’t readily available before.
Series thumbnail images are now based on volume-level reading statuses when set:
Sentence progress bars now include the percent of +1 sentences (orange bar):
Reading status can now be changed from the library:
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Minor updates going into the weekend:
Wider Tile View
I recently added icons for switching between a wider tile view:
I’m not utilizing the extra space yet, but have some ideas for how to in the future.
Relocated Sort/Filter
The sort/filter options are now hidden behind an icon:
Old appearance:
New appearance:
This will make it easier to add filtering options in the future, as I have a lot more vertical space than horizontal space for adding filters.
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Thank you so much for this! I am going to check it out now.
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When importing known words, would it be possible to make a selection feature to mark words in bulk?
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I’ll check into this and see what I can come up with.
It might take a while to get to, though. Due to circumstances, I’ve been unavailable this week and am about to be out of town for a week. I’m hoping when I return, I’ll be ready to dive in and start coding!
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As an initial step toward improving the import feature, any words that can unambiguously be marked as known upon import will be.
The only words displayed following an import will be ambiguous words that may match multiple dictionary entries and should be reviewed manually.
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Sorry, I’m afraid I don’t quite follow you.
I have a ton of already processed manga that I’d love to get frequency lists out of. I will be exporting them out of Manga Kotoba and into jpdb since that’s the tool that I already use. I’d be happy to share them with you if you wanted them for the site, or if you simply wanted to share a way I could go from processed Mokuro to frequency list and not have to bother you with a ton of manga that I have that would also work for me 
I’ve considered writing a python program to loop through all of the json files and compiling a frequency list from there, but I’m also lazy so…
(I sent you a friend request on Discord if you want to talk there. Feel free to ignore if not.)
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Coincidentally, two friend requests came in around the same time, so I don’t know which one you sent.
Real-time communication might be easier, but here are the basics:
- I use a script to extract Mokuro’s OCR output into a text file.
- I use another script to run that output through Ichiran.
- I use another script to convert the Ichiran output into a frequency list (which I load into Manga Kotoba).
I believe all the scripts are in the Mokuro thread, but if not, I can add missing ones.
Ichiran is the magic for parsing sentences into dictionary from words and (optionally) getting English translations.
If your manga was purchased through Kobo or another source providing an EPUB, I can run the JSON files through Ichiran and my scripts (and add them to Manga Kotoba). I can also make it work if the files are via Amazon or BookWalker. We can coordinate via Discord for that.
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I’m the one with the cat profile pic (from Chi’s Sweet Home). I don’t know my actual discord name offhand anymore 
, but I’ll grab it if that’s not specific enough.
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@Pitviper101, following up from another thread, I’ve now added the first two volumes of 聲の形:
I know many people have enjoyed the series, so I’m glad to finally have frequency lists (for the first two volumes) avialable for future readers.
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Those ideas didn’t include adding series descriptions, but here we are:
The layout still needs a bit of work, which may require a complete overhaul of the CSS for these tiles.
The summary (when available) also appears on series pages:
The information that used to occupy this space is now hidden behind a “information and links” label, which when selected expands:
Summaries are generated by Grok 2. While I can’t speak for the accuracy of them, the ones for series I’m familiar with have been really good. I’ve optimized my prompting a bit over time to remove (or at least drastically reduce) AI hallucinations.
I may redo some summaries later down the line, but currently I’m focused on adding summaries for everything that doesn’t have one. Rather than just just automating the whole process and accepting whatever Grok returns, I’m doing quality control on the results. This takes a lot longer, but the end result will be much better. So far, I’ve added summaries to 632 series, with 1,299 left to go.
I think this is the last major piece I’ve lamented not having on the site, as I’ve been required to follow a link to Anilist or another site to read a summary, and even then sometimes Anilist and MAL both lack one. When I see a nice-looking cover for a series that I know a high percent of vocaublary for, it’s nice to have that summary available at a glance.
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That makes browsing so much more convenient, amazing. Thanks!!
As I steadily work to improve Manga Kotoba, here are the latest results:
Improved Performance
Various database queries have been optimized. The biggest offender was volume frequency lists taking a few seconds to load, which I finally resolved a week or two ago. Along with caching added a while back, the site should feel snappier overall.
New Kanji Recommendation Pages
Two new pages have been added to help you decide which kanji to learn next based on the manga volumes you’re currently reading. You can find them in the menu (when logged in):
Note: These links are exclusive to logged-in users. You’ll see an error page for now if you’re not logged in. They’ll only show up in the menu once you’re signed in.
Expanded Frequency Lists
Manga Kotoba now features frequency lists covering 5,719 volumes across 2,061 manga series. (And growing every week.)
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Thank you so much for the work you do on this platform, I love the page by page breakdown of vocabulary so I can read along!
Only problem is that now I have dozens of series wishlisted to check out, and no idea when I will have time to do them all lol
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