Hoshi Reader

Hoshi Reader

by Manh-Hao Steffen Pham

20 ratings
10 reviews
Free

Details

  • Released
  • Updated
  • March 24, 2026
  • August 22, 2026

Features

Hoshi Reader screenshot #1 for iPhone
Hoshi Reader screenshot #2 for iPhone
Hoshi Reader screenshot #3 for iPhone
Hoshi Reader screenshot #4 for iPhone
Hoshi Reader screenshot #5 for iPhone
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About

This app is a lightweight Japanese EPUB reader designed for immersion learning. It features a pop-up dictionary with deinflection and supports Anki integration for vocabulary mining. Organize your library with bookshelves and track your reading progress.

Vertical and horizontal reading modes
Yomitan-like pop-up dictionary
Anki mining support
Customizable Anki card format
Reading statistics
Bookshelves for library organization
Customizable themes and fonts
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What's New in Hoshi Reader

1.4.0

August 22, 2026

Statistics: - Added a new statistics tab - See an overview of your reading time or set a daily goal and build up a streak - Book statistics can be edited from the overview at the bottom - Statistics are archived when a book is deleted and still count towards statistics unless manually deleted - Daily reset time can be configured Sasayaki: - New control bar for playback, which can be placed on the right or left side - On new matches, playback can now pause on images for a configurable amount of time - Increased speed and delay ranges - Fixed issues with matching and auto scroll Dictionary and Anki: - Added support for kanji dictionaries - Added support for more pitch accent dictionaries - Added the option to create more than one card format - Added a button to search for the card in the card browser - Added the ability to categorize dictionaries into bilingual or monolingual and mine those into dedicated handlebars - You can choose a specific frequency dictionary to sort entries by now - In the dictionary tab, the entire search text is now shown so you can quickly look up a different part of e.g. a sentence - Long pressing the speaker icon now enables you to choose the audio source - Handlebars can also work in the tags field now General: - Added a gallery overview to quickly scroll through the images of a book - Chapters, highlights and gallery are now grouped into a new "Contents" option to reduce clutter - Added book search to find text in a book - Added the option to show separate chapter progress - Fixed the chapter overview for some books and fixed related chapter finish time calculation - Furigana can now be set to toggle and dimmed in addition to hide option - Book covers in the library can be blurred or hidden entirely now - Highlights now keep their furigana - Newly imported dictionaries can now be up to 50% smaller - Fixed an issue where text couldn't be selected in some cases - Fixed several crashes and issues, and improved general performance and stability

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User reviews

Perfect Reader

Quite literally everything I wanted in an app for reading Japanese. Simple one tap to look up words without having to fiddle with highlighting. Love it.

Phenomenal App

It has everything you need. The mobile Anki integration is perfect. It's exactly what I would have built for myself, but better - and now I don't have to! Really can't recommend this app enough, seriously impressed. Great job.

Comfiest Japanese reader

It looks good, it feels good to use, and it has all functionality you could possibly want for reading novels in Japanese! Love this app, thanks for making this. The only thing that could make it even better for me would be manga support, but I understand if you want to keep this app very specific to novels (and it’s already so good at that)
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Gold Standard App

Nothing much to say about this app other than this is how apps should be. This is gold standard when it comes to apps on iOS and it brings back a sort of simplicity and efficient minimalism we all need from apps these days.

Ultimate reading app

This app is perfect and effortlessly allows us to look up words and add them to anki. Thank you for making this app

FAQ

What is Hoshi Reader?

Hoshi Reader is a free, lightweight Japanese EPUB reader designed for immersion learning. It offers a pop-up dictionary and Anki integration to help users build vocabulary.

Does Hoshi Reader have ads?

No, Hoshi Reader does not contain advertisements. It is a completely free application.

What devices does Hoshi Reader support?

Hoshi Reader is available for iPhone and iPad devices.

How does the pop-up dictionary work in Hoshi Reader?

The pop-up dictionary in Hoshi Reader is Yomitan-like, providing deinflection support and allowing you to look up words directly within your EPUBs.

Can I use Hoshi Reader with Anki?

Yes, Hoshi Reader fully supports AnkiMobile mining, allowing you to export vocabulary directly to Anki for spaced repetition learning.

What reading modes does Hoshi Reader offer?

Hoshi Reader supports both vertical (縦書き) and horizontal (横書き) reading modes, catering to different Japanese text conventions.

How can I organize my books in Hoshi Reader?

Hoshi Reader provides bookshelves to help you organize your EPUB library, making it easy to manage your collection.

Is Hoshi Reader suitable for beginners?

Hoshi Reader is designed for immersion learning, which can be beneficial for learners at various stages. Its dictionary and Anki features are particularly helpful for vocabulary acquisition.