Anime and J-drama immersion
Read every line with furigana instead of pausing to look up kanji. Miteiru keeps you in the scene while you pick up natural Japanese from shows you already watch.
Free open-source Migaku alternative
Watch stuff.Actually learn from it.A free open-source Migaku alternative for Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Vietnamese.
Miteiru is a free, open-source desktop video player for Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Vietnamese — a Migaku alternative with furigana, pinyin, and jyutping on your subtitles, plus lookups, vocab colors, and Anki export. No account. No subscription.
Windows · macOS · Linux — no account, no paywall. Compare with Migaku
live demo · hover a word ✨
Miteiru — scenery.mp4
Nice weather today, isn't it?
Japanese · furigana · romaji · meanings — hover a word
36 seconds, sound on
See it before you install it
Real app footage, an original soundtrack, and every feature in under a minute.
Prefer YouTube? Watch it there.
見るto see
你好hello
我哋we
xin chàohello
天気weather
朋友friend
食飯have a meal
cảm ơnthank you
食べるto eat
学习to study
唔該thanks
họcto learn
公園park
谢谢thank you
好味tasty
bạnfriend
Real life use
For the shows you were gonna watch anyway
No textbook voice. Just your media, with the readings and lookups baked in.
Mandarin from dramas and vlogs
Pinyin appears above hanzi in real time so you connect pronunciation to characters. Dual subtitles let you stay in Mandarin while checking English when you need it.
Cantonese with jyutping
Few tools overlay jyutping on Cantonese subtitles. Miteiru fills that gap for HK films, YouTube creators, and ripped media with your own .srt files.
Sentence mining for Anki
Build cards from lines you hear in context. Learn mode tokenizes the sentence, adds readings, and exports a deck you can review the next day.
Migaku alternative
Same immersion idea. No subscription.
Miteiru is a free, open-source desktop player for people who would rather not rent their subtitle overlay. Honest split: files and YouTube here, Netflix in the browser there.
| Feature | Miteiru | Migaku |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free to download and use. No trial clock. | Paid subscription after a short trial. Lifetime plan also sold. |
| What you watch | Local files (MP4, MKV, and other Chromium formats) and YouTube URLs. | Streaming sites in the browser (Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Viki, and others). |
| Flashcards | Export words or sentences to Anki. | Built-in SRS, plus export options depending on the current plan. |
| Netflix / Disney+ / Viki | Not supported. | Core workflow. |
Quick tour
Six steps, zero lecture
Real screenshots from the app. Scroll, and it walks you through.
Step 1
Pick your language stack
Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese or Vietnamese: pick it once on the home screen, then jump into Watch, Learn or Flashcards. Fonts, Live Captions and media tools live under Settings & tools.
Step 2
Drop it in
Drag a video and its subtitles anywhere on the window, or paste a YouTube link with Ctrl+V. Miteiru asks once whether a subtitle is the language you're learning or your translation, and files named like
show.en.srt sort themselves. HEVC or several audio tracks? It offers to remux or convert.
Step 3
Ruby on your subtitles
Furigana, pinyin or jyutping above every word, short glosses underneath, your translation at the bottom. Every subtitle line is marked on the seek bar: hover it to read a line before you jump.
Step 4
Meaning box moment
Click any word for its dictionary entry, pitch accent and notes. Copy it plain or with readings, send it to Anki, or let AI write example sentences into your notes.
Step 5
Kanji, broken down
Click a kanji for stroke order, JLPT level, readings, WaniKani radicals and a mnemonic. Verb chains like 食べてしまいました stay one word and open 食べる, with every form explained.
Step 6
Learn mode
Ctrl + Shift + L opens the lab. Paste a line for formal, neutral or casual AI translations, grammar notes and a glossary (pick only the parts you want for a faster answer), plus one-click sentence cards.
Feature dump (the good kind)
Everything tucked around the video
Not a passive player: a little study nook that shows up when you need it.
Cross-platform
Windows, macOS, Linux. Local files work offline; paste a YouTube link for the rest.
Reading overlays
Furigana, pinyin, or jyutping over every word, with short glosses underneath.
Instant lookups
Click a word for its dictionary entry, pitch accent and your notes.
Kanji breakdown
Stroke order, JLPT level, readings, radicals and a mnemonic for every kanji.
Verb chains, whole
食べてしまいました stays one word and opens 食べる, with 15 forms and when to use them.
Dual subtitles
Target language on top, your translation underneath. *.en.srt files find their slot.
Vocab colors
Mark how well you know a word; the subtitle colors it from then on.
Flashcards & Anki
Words you mark come back as flashcards, or go to Anki with readings and glosses.
Learn mode
Formal, neutral or casual AI translations and grammar notes, with your own OpenRouter key.
Karaoke lyrics
Scrolling lyrics that follow the song, and LRCLIB lyrics search built in.
Lines on the seek bar
Every subtitle line is marked on the track. Hover to read one before you jump.
Live Captions
Captions of whatever is playing (Windows and macOS), in the player and in Learn. No subtitle file needed.
Guides
If you searched for one of these, start here
Dedicated pages for the searches people actually type — not a dump of keywords on the homepage.
Miteiru vs Migaku
Side-by-side: price, Netflix vs local files, Anki, and who each tool is actually for.
Read →Learn Japanese with anime
Furigana overlays, JMDict lookups, and sentence cards from the shows you already watch.
Read →Cantonese with jyutping
Few immersion tools take jyutping seriously. Miteiru overlays it on your own subtitles.
Read →Mine sentences into Anki
Tokenize a line, keep the reading and gloss, export a card, keep watching.
Read →FAQ
Stuff people ask
Including the Migaku question. If yours isn't here, GitHub issues are welcome.
What is Miteiru?
Miteiru is a free, open-source desktop video player built for language learners. It adds furigana, pinyin, or jyutping on top of subtitles, supports dual-language tracks, and includes dictionary lookups, vocabulary tracking, and a learn mode for sentence practice.
Is Miteiru a Migaku alternative?
Yes, if what you want from Migaku is immersion from video: readings on subtitles, instant dictionary lookups, and Anki export. Miteiru is a free desktop player for local files and YouTube. It is not a browser extension and does not overlay Netflix, Disney+, or other streaming sites the way Migaku does.
Which languages does Miteiru support?
Miteiru supports Japanese (with furigana), Mandarin Chinese (pinyin), Cantonese (jyutping), and Vietnamese. You can watch local video files or paste YouTube URLs.
Is Miteiru free?
Yes. Downloads for Windows, macOS, and Linux are free. The source is public on GitHub under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. There is no account, trial countdown, or subscription.
Can I use Miteiru with YouTube videos?
Yes. Paste a YouTube URL or drag a local MP4, MKV, or other common video format into the app. Pair the video with .srt, .ass, or .vtt subtitle files for the best experience. YouTube Japanese text appears when the video has Japanese captions, including auto-generated tracks.
Does Miteiru work with Netflix?
No. Miteiru is a desktop player for files on your computer and for YouTube URLs. For Netflix, Disney+, or Rakuten Viki inside the browser, a tool like Migaku or Language Reactor is the better fit.
Does Miteiru work offline?
Local videos and subtitle files work offline. Dictionaries ship with the installer. Some features such as YouTube playback or online AI notes require an internet connection.
Can I export vocabulary to Anki?
Yes. Look up a word and send it to Anki, or build sentence cards from Learn mode with readings and glosses included.
What operating systems are supported?
Miteiru runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Installers are published on the GitHub Releases page.
Get the app
Download & go watch something
Free, source on GitHub, no signup. Pick your OS or browse all builds on GitHub.
Open release page (v7.6.1)
Missing a build? Open an issue — someone might compile it for you.