Learn Japanese with Netflix

Contents 4

Both lines on the screen

Many language learners like to put the subtitles in their own language while watching a series. That helps them catch a phrase and notice where the spoken line and the written one differ. Can both languages be on screen at the same time?

In the Netflix player, you open Audio and Subtitles and pick one track, Japanese or English, whichever the title offers. What shows up on that list depends on the episode, the language saved on your profile, the device, and the country of the account. The player keeps a single subtitle language. A browser extension draws the second line over the video.

The tip works with other languages too. Install the extension on a computer, open the Netflix website, and study the show you were already going to watch.

There is more than one extension aimed at studying Japanese with Netflix. The extension to install spent years under the name Language Learning with Netflix and is now Language Reactor. Dioco offers it on the Chrome Web Store, and the old name is still in the description, in parentheses. The store lists version 5.1.8, updated on July 1, 2026, and 2,000,000 users.

On the Netflix website it adds a second subtitle line under the picture, a dictionary when you click a word, and controls that can stop at the end of a line. The store says it runs in Google Chrome on desktop and laptop computers with Windows and macOS. The Netflix app on a phone or a TV cannot load Chrome extensions, so this part of the study stays on the computer.

With this extension installed, a series in Japanese on Netflix can show the dialogue in kanji and kana, with the meaning in the language you already read. The picture below is a paused kitchen scene on 卵が10個もあるからさ. The reading in Latin letters sits above the Japanese, the English line sits below, and the subtitle list is on the right. That spelling is romaji. Auto-pause waits until you press the space bar. The layout is especially useful for making flashcards. Take a short sentence you just heard and put the Japanese line into Anki or a similar program. The extension keeps the sentence on screen while the episode is still open. You review the card later.

What you can watch on Netflix

We have already written lists of anime and dramas available on Netflix, as suggestions for what to watch. For anime, that is the list of the best anime on Netflix. For live-action shows, it is our list of Japanese dramas on Netflix. Pick an episode whose menu really offers Japanese audio, and watch a few minutes with the second line before you commit to the season.

Japanese subtitles are missing on some titles. On devices made before 2014, the Netflix app often cannot show Japanese subtitles, and some newer devices leave that track out too. Netflix uses 2014 as a general guide for when devices began supporting Japanese subtitles. Some devices made later still skip them. If the language is absent, check the title's license, the profile language, and the device playing it. You can also browse the catalog by subtitle language or by audio language when you want a title that already carries Japanese.

Animelon as another option

Animelon, for example, is a site where the dialogue can be followed in Japanese, English, or romanized form. It was created to help people learn Japanese with anime, and the side panel can show the same line in Japanese, hiragana, katakana, or romaji.

You can create a loop of a certain phrase and repeat it until you learn it. An account adds vocabulary quizzes. Using extensions like Rikaikun or Rikaichamp, along with Jisho and Anki, makes it easier to check one line and save it.

In some browsers, the resolution of the anime may come out wrong, and the site can run into bugs. Animelon describes itself as a non-profit learning project and says the anime belongs to the studios. The same loop, one sentence, the Japanese writing, a lookup, is what Language Reactor does on Netflix, on a title from your own account.

Netflix, Crunchyroll, or Prime Video

Unlike the 90s and the early 2000s, new anime rarely show up on broadcast television. Streaming services hold the licenses now, so a new season usually means a subscription. Netflix, Crunchyroll, and Prime Video are the three services still in that comparison. Funimation's website and app closed on April 2, 2024, and most of its catalog moved to Crunchyroll.

If you want to work on one sentence at a time, Netflix in the browser is the service Language Reactor was made for. You need an episode with Japanese audio, then you look in the menu for Japanese or English subtitles.

Crunchyroll carries most of the shows that were on Funimation. The store page for Language Reactor names Netflix and YouTube. The second subtitle line from this extension does not appear in Crunchyroll's player.

Prime Video is in the comparison because Japanese series are there too. Those two lines appear on the Netflix website, while Prime plays in its own app and on its own site.

A VPN changes the place Netflix thinks you are connecting from. You then mostly see titles it licenses worldwide, and Netflix asks you to turn the VPN off when you want the shows available in your country. Live events and an ad-supported plan are both left out. Pointing a VPN at Japan is an unreliable way to open a Japanese catalog.

Stay on the Netflix website: Japanese audio, a language you already read under the picture, one short line in the pause, then the card. A show that used to be on Funimation is on Crunchyroll now, and you watch it there without Language Reactor.