About Otowa

Ear first

Most courses teach you to read, then hope your ears catch up. Otowa goes the other way. Every word starts as a sound: you hear it, guess what it means, see it revealed, hear the scene again with nothing to read, and review it just before you'd forget it.

• No Japanese text appears before you answer.
• Reveals show romaji and English at first, and kana later for learners who take the optional Kana Scrolls.
• Every line in a scene comes with a one-sentence note on why it's said that way.
• Words are chosen by how often anime characters say them, and taught with their everyday meaning.

A guild, seven ranks, one guide

You arrive in another world the classic way, and your Language Comprehension skill is broken. You climb the Adventurers' Guild from rank F to rank S, one boss scene per rank: a long scene with no text until the end. Realms are other worlds, reached through the waterfall that summoned you, and each opens beside the path at its rank: School Town, the Battle Arena, the Fantasy Kingdom, Edo Village, Spirit Mountain and Harbor Town. One story runs through all of them.

Your guide is Shizuku (雫, “a drop of water”). She's so shy that she spent her life listening instead of talking, which made her the best listener in this world. She speaks English at first and more Japanese with every rank, until rank S, when she speaks only Japanese.

The name

Otowa is named after the Otowa Waterfall at Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto, where visitors drink from one of three streams: for long life, for love, or for success in their studies. Shizuku began as a drop of the study stream.

Made for fans, made from scratch

Every character, scene, line and picture in Otowa is original. There are no clips, screenshots or scripts from real shows, and no famous catchphrases. The voices are made with VOICEVOX, credited on the credits page.

Otowa is for ages 13 and up. Anime's rough talk is taught as vocabulary; anything for adults stays behind an 18+ switch in the settings.