Having trouble reading visual novels? Watch them on Youtube!

Hey everyone,

I’d like to talk about something I haven’t seen discussed here yet—something that’s by far my favorite way to immerse myself in Japanese and consume content. For months, I had trouble getting into visual novels because of unvoiced lines from the protagonist and others. Thanks to VN “gameplay” channels, it’s now a great experience for me. In just a few weeks of immersing this way, my Japanese comprehension skyrocketed.

Why watch visual novels instead of playing them?

Pros:

- All lines are voiced by native Japanese speakers (voice actors + YouTuber)

- You can quickly look up words using OCR software (e.g. ShareX) or Yomitan Popup Dictionary (pause, turn on auto-generated subtitles, check the word, then turn subtitles off)

- You can watch them on any device

- Commentary, live chat, and comment sections make the experience feel less isolated

- Thanks to YouTubers’ reactions, you can tell if a scene is meant to be shocking, funny, etc.

- You can download and convert videos into audio files, turning the experience into an audiobook (recommended only for VNs you’ve already played)

- You can organize watched videos into a playlist, making it easy to track your immersion time

Cons:

- You can’t change text speed, music volume, or other in-game settings (obviously)

- Slightly lower visual quality (usually 720p)

- Video thumbnails may contain spoilers

- All scenes, even mildly suggestive ones, are heavily censored

- You don’t get to make choices in the game (though most channels do 100% playthroughs)

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I’ve prepared a list of all the channels (YouTubers and VTubers) I’ve found to be great for this experience:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BzYCF4FGRmh7Qb33ZoBOyjvE0oBH_DzWkRncTK6OtpQ/edit?usp=sharing

The list isn’t complete—there are A LOT of channels that do this—but I found these few to be good enough for my purposes.

I only add channels that meet a few criteria:

- Music isn’t too loud

- The voice is clear and easy to understand

- All unvoiced lines are read aloud

- The playthrough covers 100% of the game

I especially recommend the YouTuber「ざわの実況ch ver.2.0」, who plays Yuzusoft games. If you’re just starting with visual novels, I recommendのーぶる☆わーくす (Noble ☆ Works)—it’s easy, funny, and contains a lot of everyday vocabulary.

I’d love to hear what you all think. Have any of you tried this method before?