The best manga to learn Japanese? The one you actually want to read.
Furigana on every kanji, a tap-to-define dictionary, and a spaced-repetition deck built from the panels and pages you actually read. Bring your own chapters — Sumi turns them into the most motivating Japanese textbook there is.
Free to start · offline dictionary included · cancel in two clicks
Six beginner-friendly manga to start with
All six are famous for simple, everyday Japanese — and their official Japanese editions mostly carry furigana already. Read them, or skip straight to whatever you love: Sumi makes harder series readable too.
Yotsuba&! (よつばと!)
Everyday slice-of-life with short, natural sentences — the classic first manga for a reason.
Shirokuma Café (しろくまカフェ)
Gentle humor, simple dialogue, and lots of common daily vocabulary.
Chi's Sweet Home (チーズスイートホーム)
A kitten narrates in beginner-level Japanese; official editions carry full furigana.
Doraemon (ドラえもん)
Written for Japanese kids — short panels, high-frequency words, furigana throughout.
Teasing Master Takagi-san (からかい上手の高木さん)
School banter in plain, repetitive patterns that cement core grammar.
Dragon Ball (ドラゴンボール)
Action carries the story, so you can follow along even when a line escapes you.
Flashcards forget the story. Sumi doesn’t.
The fastest way to learn a language is to read something you can’t put down. Sumi removes the two things that stop learners cold — unknown kanji and unknown words — without removing the Japanese. You stay in the original; the help comes to you.
Everything a reader-learner needs, in one app.
Furigana on every kanji
Reading Japanese ebooks or light novels? Sumi keeps the original ruby and renders furigana over each kanji, so you can read by sound long before you have memorised every character.
Tap any word to define it
A built-in offline dictionary (JMdict) gives the reading and meaning of any word the instant you tap it — in the flow of reading, never breaking you out to a browser.
Review what you actually read
Save words to a deck and revise them with FSRS spaced repetition. The cards come from your own stories, so every review reinforces the manga and books you care about.
Read the real thing
No watered-down learner editions. Import the manga and books you already own and read native Japanese — with a translation one tap away whenever a panel stumps you.
Tap a word, learn it, keep it.
Three steps from a chapter to fluency reps.
Import a chapter
Drop in the manga or Japanese ebook you own — PDF, ZIP/CBZ, EPUB, or MOBI.
Read, tap what you don’t know
Furigana carries the readings; tap any word for its meaning, or tap a manga bubble to check yourself against the translation.
Bank it and review
Save new words to your deck. FSRS brings each one back right before you’d forget it — using the words from your own reading.
Before you start reading
What is the best manga to learn Japanese for beginners?+
Start with slice-of-life series written in everyday speech: Yotsuba&!, Shirokuma Café, Chi’s Sweet Home, Doraemon, or Teasing Master Takagi-san. Their official Japanese editions use short sentences, common vocabulary, and (mostly) furigana. With Sumi you are not limited to the easy list, though — furigana support and a one-tap dictionary make the manga you actually care about readable.
Do I already need to know a lot of kanji?+
No. For Japanese ebooks and light novels Sumi puts furigana over every kanji, so you can read by sound and look words up as you go. For manga you can tap any speech bubble to reveal the translation, check your understanding, then flip back to the original.
Where do the readings and definitions come from?+
A built-in offline dictionary (JMdict, plus CC-CEDICT for Chinese). Tap a word to see its reading and meaning instantly — no network, nothing leaves your device.
Can I use my own manga and books?+
Yes — that is the whole point. Import the PDF, ZIP/CBZ, EPUB, or MOBI chapters you legally own. Sumi never hosts, crawls, or links to manga; it only works on what you open.
How does the vocabulary review work?+
Save any word you look up to your deck and review it with FSRS spaced repetition — a modern algorithm that schedules each card right before you would forget it. You revise the words from the stories you are actually reading, not a generic list.
Is furigana available on ebooks and manga both?+
Furigana renders on Japanese ebooks (EPUB and MOBI/AZW3) where Sumi parses the original ruby text. Manga panels are images, so there Sumi gives you the original Japanese plus an on-demand translation rather than overlaid furigana.
Is it free to try?+
Yes. The first 5 pages of cloud translation are free — and 5 more to claim each day after that — and the offline dictionary and vocabulary deck are included at no extra cost — the reading and study side is not behind a plan. Sumi Pro ($6.99/month, cancel in two clicks) only buys you more cloud translation on the web.
Free to start · Furigana + offline dictionary + vocab deck included · Cancel in two clicks