VN Recommendations & Discovery

Resources for finding visual novels suited to your level, tracking your reading, and discovering new titles.

Difficulty & Tracking Tools

These tools help you find VNs appropriate for your Japanese level and track your vocabulary progress.

Jiten.moe

Jiten.moe is a free, open-source platform for Japanese immersion learners. It provides detailed statistics for thousands of Japanese media titles, including visual novels, light novels, and more. With vocabulary breakdowns, difficulty metrics, and pre-built Anki decks, it helps you find content that matches your level.

Why We Recommend It:

• Difficulty ratings - Gives you a good idea if something is right for your level
• Vocabulary breakdowns - See how many unique words a title contains and their frequency levels
• Sorting and filtering - Browse by difficulty, length, or media type to find what fits
• Length estimates - Character counts help you gauge time investment
• Pre-built Anki decks - Download vocabulary decks for titles you're about to read

What an Entry Looks Like:

Each title page shows you the total character count, unique vocabulary, difficulty score, and a detailed breakdown of word frequencies. This helps you make informed decisions about whether something is appropriate for your level or if you should build up more vocabulary first.

Jpdb.io

A powerful Japanese learning database with difficulty ratings for thousands of visual novels, anime, and other media.

Features:

• Difficulty rankings based on vocabulary frequency
• Pre-made Anki decks for specific VNs
• Track vocabulary across multiple works
• Find VNs that match your current level

Community Recommendations

Kuri's Japanese Media Recommendation Spreadsheet

A community-curated spreadsheet with Japanese media recommendations across various categories and difficulty levels. Great for finding your next read based on what others in the community have enjoyed.

Databases

Databases for discovering new titles and keeping track of what you've read.

VNDB

A massive, community-maintained encyclopedia of VNs. If you aren't on here, what are you doing?

Features:

• Detailed release history
• Tags, ratings, and screenshots
• User lists and advanced filters (great for creating your infinite backlog)

ErogameScape

Japanese database for eroge and visual novels. Mostly useful for when you want to know what the native audience thinks about a certain game.

Features:

• Median play time and player rankings
• Character popularity ratings
• Voting trends and historical data
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