FAQ
The things people ask most, before and after installing. Open a question for the full answer.
About Fushi
- Is Fushi free?Yes. Open source under GPLv3, every feature is free, no in-app purchases or subscriptions.
- Which platforms are supported?Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon only), Android and iOS; Linux can be built from source.
- How is Fushi different from asbplayer, Language Reactor, Migaku, Yomitan and Anki? Can I use them together?Yomitan is a browser lookup extension, asbplayer and Language Reactor mainly add lookup-ready subtitles to videos in the browser, Migaku is a paid all-in-one subscription, and Anki does spaced-repetition review. Fushi is a free, open-source standalone app that brings anime watching, light novel reading, manga OCR, galgame lookup and Anki card mining together — and it works alongside all of these tools.
- Is it only for Japanese?No. What you can look up depends on the dictionaries you import.
- Glossary: what do the words in these articles mean?Immersion, SRS, mining, raw, furigana, pitch accent, frequency, monolingual dictionary, OCR, transcription, hook, scraping, seeding, extension / source / repository, interconnect, debug build… grouped by topic, one line each. Come back here whenever another article uses a word you don't know.
Setup
- What is the recommended pack? Do I have to install it?About 9.5 GB of Japanese dictionaries plus Japanese / English pronunciation libraries. Recommended for Japanese; skip it for other languages.
- How do I install Fushi on Windows? Installer or portable version?On Windows, download the fushi-…-windows-setup.exe installer. It needs no admin rights, installs for the current user, includes Galgame voice mining and desktop text lookup, and updates itself from inside the app. Here are the install steps, where your data lives, what to do about SmartScreen, and what happened to the portable build.
- How do I install Fushi on Android? arm64 APK or universal?On Android, download the Android (arm64) APK — that's almost every phone — on Android 7.0 or later. Older 32-bit devices take arm32, emulators and x86 tablets take x86_64, and the debug channel has a single universal package. After that the app checks for updates and picks the right package for your device, so you can watch anime, read light novels, look words up and mine Anki cards right away.
- How do I install Fushi on macOS? Does it run on Intel Macs?Fushi for macOS supports Apple Silicon (M-series) only and needs macOS 13.4 or later; Intel Macs are no longer supported. Unzip the download, drag it into Applications, and if Gatekeeper blocks the first launch click "Open Anyway" in Privacy & Security. After that it updates itself, and watching anime, reading, looking words up and mining Anki cards work just like on other platforms.
- How do I install Fushi on iOS? Why is there no Discover or online sources on iPhone?Fushi for iPhone / iPad is installed through TestFlight and needs iOS 15.1 or later. Under App Store review rules the iOS build has no Browse module: no Discover page, no online manga / video / novel sources and no download center. Locally imported light novels, manga and anime work as usual, and lookup, Anki mining, media servers and interconnect are all there; the Games page is a streaming client.
- Does Fushi run on Linux? Is there a Linux package?The Linux desktop app has no prebuilt packages — it can only be built from source — and its reader and lookup popup WebView depend on WPE WebKit, though the app still starts without it. To run Fushi on a Linux server or NAS, use the headless fushi_server, which does ship official Linux packages, and connect to it from your phone to watch anime, read and look words up.
- Stable vs. debug builds: which one gets the newest features?Stable ships every few weeks and is tested; debug is built automatically after every merge, gets new features first and occasionally has bugs. Switch channels on the download page. Want the newest stuff and don't mind reporting a bug? Use debug.
- I closed the onboarding wizard halfway. How do I reopen it?Settings → System and about → Getting started guide.
- How do I import dictionaries (Yomitan / MDX)? Which kinds do I need for Japanese?Fushi reads Yomitan dictionary zips, MDict .mdx / .mdd, Lingvo .dsl and StarDict; the recommended pack already sets up vocabulary, pitch-accent and frequency dictionaries plus a pronunciation library. Adding your own: one or two monolingual dictionaries, one bilingual, one pitch accent, one frequency, one grammar — too many just slows lookups down. The pronunciation library uses the same database as Yomitan's local audio server.
- How do I connect my phone and PC with Fushi interconnect?Turn on "Host service" on the PC, tap the discovered PC under "Pairing & devices" on the phone (or scan the PC's pairing QR code), click Allow on the PC — paired, and it keeps working when you're away from home. The phone can then stream the PC's anime, books and manga, look words up with the PC's dictionaries and pronunciation library, send cards to the PC's Anki, and progress syncs both ways.
- What is the Fushi server (fushi_server), and how do I deploy it on a NAS or Linux server?fushi_server is a Fushi host with no GUI and a web admin interface (WebUI), meant for a NAS, home server or VPS. Once your phone and computer pair with it through Fushi Interconnect, they can stream its anime, books and manga, look words up in its dictionaries, and hand it manga OCR, subtitle recognition (ASR) and anime downloads. Includes Linux deployment and systemd steps.
- Does Fushi support keyboard shortcuts and gamepads? What are the default keys?Yes. The reader, manga, video, home screen and dictionary popup all have default keyboard and gamepad bindings, and every one of them can be remapped, looked up by key and de-conflicted in Keyboard shortcuts. Turn on keyboard & gamepad focus navigation and you can skip the mouse and touchscreen entirely — watch anime, read light novels, look up words and mine cards from the couch with a controller. Includes default key tables and platform differences.
Anki & mining
- What is Anki? Which one do I install? What does a card look like and how do I review?Anki is free spaced-repetition software: Fushi turns words you look up into cards, Anki schedules the reviews around how you forget. On desktop install the official build from apps.ankiweb.net (outdated third-party downloads break imports), AnkiDroid on Android, the paid AnkiMobile on iOS. Includes what the Lapis card front and back show and the daily review routine.
- Can I review without Anki? What is Fushi review?Fushi has built-in spaced repetition (the "Review" tab): decks, FSRS-7 scheduling and sync across devices. Cards you mine go straight into review with no Anki install, and you can import Anki .apkg / .colpkg packages. For now it is only in debug and beta builds, not in stable releases.
- How do I connect Anki?Desktop Anki + AnkiConnect; AnkiDroid on Android; AnkiMobile on iOS. Cards wait in a queue while Anki is closed, and you can even sync straight to an Anki server without installing Anki.
- It's installed — how do I mine cards while watching anime?From onboarding to the first card: set up dictionaries and Anki, then tap words in subtitles to look them up and tap the plus to make a card with the sentence and its audio.
- How do I use Anki? FSRS, the four buttons, and audio on the frontThree things to do once it's connected: switch the scheduler to FSRS (the onboarding wizard has the steps), use only "Again" and "Good" when reviewing, never put audio on the card front. Fushi can also reorder new cards by frequency and merge several subtitle lines into one card.
- What is the Lapis card template? What goes into each field when Fushi mines a card, and how do I change it?Lapis is the Anki note type Fushi creates for you in one tap: the word, reading, word audio, source sentence, sentence audio, screenshot or animation, pitch accent, frequency and source each get their own field. This page lists Fushi's default field mappings, how to switch between the five card types, and how to restyle the card visually inside Fushi.
Books
- How do audiobooks, books and subtitles fit together? How do I use audiobooks?In Fushi an audiobook = the book's text + the narration audio + a subtitle file that lines the two up. With all three, the reader follows the audio and tapping a sentence seeks to it. No subtitle? Generate one with on-device transcription. No book? Use just subtitle + audio.
- How do I read EPUB light novels in Fushi, look up words with a tap and mine cards?Import an EPUB light novel into Books and it opens in a vertical-text reader: tap any word for a dictionary popup, tap the plus to turn it into an Anki card with the sentence and the book cover (plus narration audio for audiobooks). Paginated, scroll and visual-novel modes; progress and reading speed are tracked automatically.
- Paginated, scroll or visual novel (VN): what's the difference between Fushi's reading modes, and which should I use?Paginated turns page by page like a paper book and suits vertical light novels; scroll is one long continuous strip, good for web novels and one-handed phone reading; visual-novel mode shows one paragraph or a few sentences per screen with a typewriter reveal, ideal for intensive reading and audiobooks. All three support tap-to-look-up and card mining, and you can switch any time without losing your place.
- How do I set vertical / horizontal text, fonts, font size, line spacing and furigana in Fushi's reader?All the layout for reading Japanese light novels lives in Reader settings: switch vertical and horizontal text with one tap, import your favourite Mincho or Gothic font as the body font, and adjust size, line height, margins and columns with a live preview; furigana can be shown as-is, revealed on tap, dimmed or hidden entirely to practise readings.
- How do I read web novels online in Fushi with LNReader plugins, and download them as EPUB to my bookshelf?Fushi supports LNReader novel plugins: add a plugin repository yourself, install novel sources, then search and read web novels online with tap-to-look-up and card mining; or download a range of chapters as an EPUB with a table of contents and illustrations to read offline from your bookshelf. Available on Windows, macOS, Android and Linux; iOS doesn't have this feature.
- Which book formats can Fushi import? How do I get EPUB, PDF and TXT into my bookshelf?Books can import EPUB, PDF and plain text such as TXT, HTML and Markdown (converted to EPUB automatically); you can also build an audiobook from just subtitles + audio, scan whole folders, and migrate from a Hoshi Reader backup. MOBI / AZW3 and DRM-protected e-books are not supported.
Manga
- How do I read manga online and OCR the text for mining?With a manga source extension installed: find the manga under Browse → tap a chapter to read it online, or add it to your shelf and download chapters → on-device OCR reads the speech bubbles → tap text to look up and mine. Don't want to bother with extensions? The built-in Mokuro catalog already comes with OCR data.
- How do I import local manga (CBZ / ZIP / PDF / image folders) into Fushi and look up words and mine cards?In the manga library's Import page, use "Import Manga" or "Import folder": CBZ / ZIP / PDF / .mokuro / image folders are supported, CBR / RAR / CB7 need 7-Zip. After import, on-device manga OCR reads the speech bubbles so you can tap text to look it up and mine Anki cards that carry the sentence and the page image.
- What is mokuro, and how does Fushi read manga in the .mokuro format?mokuro is an open-source OCR tool for Japanese manga that produces .mokuro files holding the text boxes and their text. Fushi imports .mokuro plus page images directly for tap-to-look-up and Anki mining, and stores its own manga OCR results in the same format; on desktop it can call your installed mokuro, and outside iOS a built-in Mokuro catalog offers volumes that already come with OCR.
- Fushi's manga OCR gets text wrong or misses it — what can I do? How do vertical/horizontal text, models and engines work?When manga OCR is inaccurate, first work out what kind of problem it is: Fushi routes vertical and horizontal text automatically per text box; switch the local model (Manga CTC / Baberu) or the engine (local / device / Google Lens / external mokuro / interconnect server), let "AI recognition" re-read the uncertain text, then re-run OCR on the volume.
Video
- How do I stream anime through a video source?With an Aniyomi video source extension installed: find the show under Browse → tap an episode and it plays in the built-in player, auto-continuing; any subtitle track the stream carries loads as an external subtitle, and with Japanese subtitles you can tap words and mine. You can also add shows to your library or download them.
- I can't follow yet — how do I use a secondary (bilingual) subtitle, and when do I turn it off?Primary subtitle in Japanese for tapping words; a second track in your native language as a reference, blurred, revealed on hover only when you're lost. Once you can follow the plot, hide the secondary track; later blur the primary one too to train listening. Four steps, all in the player's subtitle settings.
- How do I play anime from a Jellyfin / Emby / Plex server in Fushi?Settings → Online services → Jellyfin · Emby (or Plex): enter the server address and sign in. Then browse the server's own folders in the video library's "Media servers" section; videos stream directly, subtitle tracks stay tappable for lookups and mining, and Jellyfin / Emby progress syncs both ways.
- My anime / video has no Japanese subtitles — can speech recognition generate them?Yes. "Generate subtitles with speech recognition" in Fushi's subtitle menu runs an on-device speech model over the whole episode and produces text subtitles you can tap to look up words and mine Anki cards from. Nothing is uploaded; the first run downloads a model (about 160 MB for the light Japanese one), and it works on all five platforms.
- How do I find Japanese subtitles for anime? Can Fushi search and download subtitles?Yes. Tap "Search subtitles online" in the player's subtitle menu and Fushi searches Jimaku, OpenSubtitles, SubDL and the AJATT subtitle library at once, matches files to episodes and can batch-download a whole season; downloaded subtitles are auto-aligned to the video's embedded subtitle track, ready for word lookup and Anki mining.
- What is scraping, and how does Fushi's scraping work?Scraping = working out which show a file is from its name, then pulling the poster, synopsis, rating and episode list from an online database. Video sources set to "By series" scrape automatically — AniDB as the primary source by default (following Shoko's approach) with TMDB filling in, or MAL / TMDB as primary if you prefer — and anything uncertain waits under "Pending confirmation" for you to pick; books, manga and games can scrape covers and details too.
- Can I look up words in image subtitles like Blu-ray PGS or DVD VobSub?Yes. When you pause, Fushi runs OCR on the subtitle image on screen and lays the text back in place, so you can tap a word to look it up and mine an Anki card that still carries the line's audio and clip. "Convert to text subtitles (OCR)" recognizes the whole track once so you can look things up while playing. PGS, VobSub and DVB are supported, for local and remote playback.
- What are the most efficient controls and shortcuts for learning Japanese with videos in Fushi?The moves you'll use most when learning Japanese from anime: Ctrl+← / → to jump line by line, R to replay the current line, "Subtitle pause playback mode" to pause automatically after each line, L for the subtitle list with search and favorites, [ / ] for speed, and holding E for a temporary speed-up. Every shortcut can be changed in "Keyboard shortcuts", and gamepads get a full default mapping.
- Can I learn Japanese from YouTube with Fushi? Can I look up words in online videos?Yes. Paste a YouTube link into Fushi's "Import video" and it plays in the built-in player, up to 4K; the video's own Japanese subtitles (auto-generated ones included) can be tapped for word lookup and mined into Anki cards with the line's original audio and clip. For Netflix, Bilibili and other video sites, use the Fushi browser extension in your browser.
Games
- How do I hook a galgame into Fushi?On Windows, drag the game's exe into the game library and press "Launch and capture": Fushi hooks the dialogue out of the game and shows it in a floating window — tap characters to look up, tap the plus to mine, and the card automatically carries that line's voice and a screenshot. It can also switch the locale automatically and upscale old games' windows with Magpie; you can also experimentally stream games to your phone or other devices to play and look things up.
- Can I play the galgames on my PC from a phone or iPad, and look up words and mine cards while I play?Yes, with Fushi's game streaming (experimental): the game and the text hook stay on the Windows PC, while picture, sound and dialogue stream to a paired phone or tablet. Tap the dialogue to look words up (using the PC's dictionaries) and mine cards (the PC writes them into its own Anki); touch and gamepad input goes back to the game, and you can even launch PC games remotely from the phone.
- Which engines does Fushi's galgame text hook support? How does it work, and how does the lookup card appear on the game screen?On Windows, Fushi captures galgame dialogue with an isolated injection helper and bundled LunaHook, then uses per-engine adapters for per-line voice and in-game lookup cards. Support status follows the engine support manifest: SiglusEngine and Unity IL2CPP are verified, KiriKiri, TyranoScript and others are partial, the rest are implemented but unverified.
Downloads
- Stream anime or download it? Which of the two should I pick?Streaming: install a video source extension and press play. Downloading: find the work under Browse → Discover, hit "Search resources" and pick a release (or just ask the AI to download it); play while downloading, auto-match Jimaku Japanese subtitles, subscribe for new episodes. For mining, downloading wins.
- What is AI download? Do I need my own AI?Tell the AI a title; it finds the work, picks a release, then downloads or subscribes, with subtitles matched automatically. You first set up your own AI provider under Settings → Models → LLM (billed at that provider's prices; a local model works too). Without one, everything else still works. Not available on iOS.
- What is BitTorrent, and how is it wired into Fushi?BT is downloading without a central server — everyone fetching a file shares it with everyone else; the torrent / magnet link is the file's ID card, and more seeders means faster downloads. Fushi has a built-in libtorrent engine and can also drive an external qBittorrent; searches go through indexes like Nyaa, and finished downloads get subtitles, scraping and shelving automatically.
- Can't find an anime or manga? Search in romaji or JapaneseOn the index sites Fushi uses (Nyaa and friends) release titles are almost always romaji (Sousou no Frieren), then the Japanese original; translated titles rarely match. In Fushi you find the work first and the resource search uses its original title / aliases automatically; when editing the query yourself: romaji > kana / kanji > English, never a local translation.
Extensions (Mihon / Aniyomi)
Browser extension
Lookup & dictionaries
- How does Fushi's lookup popup work? Tap to look up, hover lookup, lookups inside the popup, mining with the plusTap a word while watching anime, reading light novels or manga and the lookup popup opens: several dictionaries in your order, verbs and adjectives deinflected back to their dictionary form, words in a definition tappable for a further lookup, a speaker for word audio and a plus that makes an Anki card. This page walks through every button and setting.
- How does Fushi show Japanese pitch accent? Which dictionary do I need?Pitch accent comes from a pitch dictionary: install a Yomitan-format pitch dictionary and the lookup popup draws high/low lines over the reading plus the accent position such as [0] or [1]. When you mine an Anki card, the pitch and its heiban / atamadaka / nakadaka / odaka category go onto the card, and Lapis cards colour the word by type.
- What is a frequency dictionary, and how does it tell me whether a word is worth learning?A frequency dictionary tells you how common a word is in novels, anime and web text. Install one and Fushi's lookup popup shows a frequency rank, mined Anki cards carry it in a field, and new Anki cards can be reordered so common words come first — whether you learn Japanese from anime or flashcards, you start with the most useful words.
- How do I install word audio in Fushi? How do I hear it in lookups and put it on Anki cards?Word pronunciation comes from audio sources: the local pronunciation library in the recommended pack (Japanese + English), an audio database in the same format as Yomitan's Local Audio Server, a custom online link, or your computer's library through Fushi Interconnect. Once set up, tap the speaker in the lookup popup to listen, and mined Anki cards get the word audio automatically.
- Can I look words up in any app on my computer? Fushi's global lookup, floating ball and clipboard lookupYes. On Windows and macOS, select a word in any program and press Ctrl+Alt+D (⌘⌥D on macOS): Fushi's lookup card opens next to the pointer, with nested lookups, word audio and one-tap Anki mining. The floating ball adds clipboard lookup and screen OCR outside the app. Android uses the system text menu, and web pages have the browser extension.
Subtitles & video basics
- External, embedded, burned-in subtitles: which ones can Fushi look up?External = a separate subtitle file next to the video; embedded = a switchable subtitle track packed inside the mkv / mp4; burned-in = text painted into the picture. The first two are text and support lookups and mining; burned-in is just pixels.
- SRT, ASS, VTT — what's the difference between subtitle formats?SRT is just timings and text, the simplest and most universal; ASS adds fonts, colours, positions and effects and is the fansub standard; VTT is the web version of SRT. Fushi reads all of them, and lookups and cards use the plain text with styling stripped.
- MKV, MP4, H.264, HEVC, 1080p… what do these video terms mean?The container (mkv / mp4) is the box things are packed in, the codec (H.264 / HEVC / AV1) is how the picture is compressed, 1080p is the resolution, and bitrate decides sharpness and file size. Knowing these is enough to pick releases.
- Raw, subbed, BDRip, WEB-DL… how do I read an anime release name?Raw = the original with no translation, what you want for Japanese; subbed = with translated subtitles. BDRip comes from Blu-ray, WEB-DL from streaming, TVRip from broadcast. What each part of a release name says, so you can pick.
- Subtitles don't line up with the picture (early or late) — what do I do?Subtitles off by a fixed few seconds throughout means subtitle and video are different versions (BD vs. WEB, with or without the OP); drift that grows over the episode means different frame rates. Fushi's player has "Subtitle sync" with a slider, auto-align and waveform alignment, remembered per episode; the subtitle menu can also align to embedded subtitles or retime line by line with a speech model.
- What are Jellyfin, Emby and Plex, and how do they relate to Fushi?They are "media servers": installed on a NAS or an always-on PC, they organise the videos on your drives into a library with posters that phones, TVs and other computers can stream. Fushi can act as a Jellyfin / Emby / Plex client, and has its own take on this (interconnect).
Troubleshooting
- Where is my data stored? Is anything uploaded?By default everything stays on your device: no registration, and your books, dictionaries, progress and cards are never uploaded. The only exception is a daily anonymous usage report (version, platform, install ID) that you can turn off; online features such as sync, the leaderboard and AI only run if you turn them on.
- How do I back up Fushi? How do I move to a new phone or computer?Fushi keeps your books, dictionaries, reading progress and study statistics on your device. There are three ways to back them up: export a .fushi.zip backup file, sync to Google Drive / OneDrive / Dropbox / WebDAV / FTP / SFTP, or use Fushi Interconnect to keep the data on your own computer or server. This page walks through moving to a new device step by step.
- The download is slow or won't open — what now?The download page switches sources automatically; you can also go straight to GitHub Releases.
- Found a bug or have a suggestion — where do I report it?A GitHub issue, or Discord / the QQ group.
Learning method
- What is sentence mining? Why should Anki cards include the original sentence, picture and audio?Sentence mining means taking sentences from the anime, books and games you already enjoy — the ones you'd understand if not for one word — and turning them, with the scene and the original audio, into Anki cards. How it differs from word lists, why context matters, how to pick sentences, and how to do it in Fushi.
- Can you learn Japanese from anime? How do I start from zero?Yes — but watching with subtitles in your own language won't turn into Japanese by itself. A from-zero route for learning Japanese with anime: set up Fushi and dictionaries, learn hiragana, build basic vocabulary and grammar with Anki decks, and at the same time start watching with Japanese subtitles, tapping words to look them up and mining cards as you go. Plus how much time per day, which shows to pick, and what to do when you understand nothing.
- Japanese subtitles, native-language subtitles, dual subtitles, or none when learning from anime?Which subtitles to use when learning Japanese from anime, stage by stage: start with Japanese subtitles you can tap to look up words, keeping your native language only as a blurred secondary subtitle; drop the translation once you can follow the plot; blur the Japanese for listening practice once it reads smoothly; finally go without. Pros and cons of each option, when to step back, and how to set it up in Fushi.
- How many new Anki cards a day? How long should I review? What do I do about a backlog?When mining cards while watching anime, 5–20 new cards a day and 15–30 minutes of review are enough. Why the number of new cards decides your review load weeks later, how FSRS and desired retention control the workload, how Fushi's frequency reordering and batch mining help, and how to clear an Anki backlog step by step.
- What is comprehensible input (i+1)? How do I pick anime and books at the right difficulty?Comprehensible input is linguist Stephen Krashen's idea that languages are acquired by understanding lots of content you mostly follow; i+1 means just a little above your current level. How to tell whether a show, light novel or manga is the right difficulty for you, how content roughly ranks from easy to hard, and how to use it while looking up words and mining cards in Fushi.
- How do Fushi's study statistics work? How are reading time, characters read, lookups and cards counted?The Statistics center on the home screen shows study time, characters read, reading speed (chars/hr), lookups, cards mined, and favorited words and sentences across four tabs — Overview, Read, Watch and Game — along with a study calendar and every immersion session. This page covers where to find it, how each number is counted (idle timeout, first-time viewing only), how to change the hour a new day starts, how to delete mistaken records, and multi-device sync.