青空文庫Stella vs Penguin
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
青空文庫Stella
Discover Japanese literature through intuition and chance. This app uses a unique Tarot feature to suggest passages, allowing you to build a personal bookshelf of resonant literary fragments. It offers tools for language learners, including furigana modes and customizable reading settings.
- Tarot-guided literary discovery
- Personalized bookshelf
- Furigana (Ruby) modes
- Font size and theme customization
- Aesthetic quote card creation
- Reading profile sharing
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Aozora Stella – A Literary Sanctuary Guided by Fate and Intuition. "What should I read next?" When you dive into a foreign language, the hardest part is knowing where to begin. You don’t know the authors, you don’t know the titles, and search bars leave you empty-handed. Aozora Stella is designed for you. It strips away the noise—reviews, ratings, and biases—and connects you directly with the raw beauty of Japanese literature through chance, intuition, and the mystique of Tarot. ○ Meet Your Literary Destiny via Tarot Let the cards guide your reading journey. Use our unique Tarot feature to reflect your current mood or fortune, leading you to a handpicked, profound passage from over 500 classic Japanese works. On your screen, a beautiful 500-character excerpt appears—it could be the gripping opening or a random, dazzling line from deep within the book. No titles to prejudice you, no lengthy synopses. Just you and the words. If the text resonates with your soul, tap the "Sparkle" button. A shooting star animation will carry your newly discovered "Star" into your personal bookshelf. If not, simply skip. Your next destined encounter is just a swipe away. ○ Weave Your Personal Constellation Your bookshelf is a reflection of your soul. It contains no trending rankings or generic recommendations—only the fragments of literature that genuinely moved you. Track your reading progress, bookmark your favorite pages, and look back at your literary journey. For those moments when you seek something specific, a seamless search function is also available, allowing you to explore by author, title, or keywords. Here, serendipity and intention coexist beautifully. ○ A Mindful, Stress-Free Japanese Reading Experience We believe reading should be comfortable and immersive, especially when reading in its original language. Aozora Stella offers powerful, thoughtful tools tailored for Japanese language learners and enthusiasts alike: 3 Furigana (Ruby) Modes: Toggle between full reading guides, kanji-only, or kana-only text to match your reading proficiency. Total Comfort Customization: Easily adjust font sizes with a slider and switch between Light and Dark modes for optimal reading anytime, anywhere. Beautiful Literary Cards: Save the passages that shook your heart as elegant, aesthetic quote cards. Complete with the author’s name and title, they are perfect for sharing your emotional discoveries with friends or on social media. Your Reading Profile: Your profile page visualizes your literary world. Share your favorite authors, quotes, and reading habits as a unique self-introduction card with the global community. ○ Why "Stella"? "Stella" is the Latin word for Star. Just like the countless stars shining in the night sky, there are thousands of masterpieces waiting to be found in Japanese literature. Just as ancient stargazers connected individual stars to draw constellations and tell stories, you will connect the beautiful fragments that touched your heart to build your very own literary universe. Welcome to Aozora Stella. May you find the star that speaks to your soul tonight.
Penguin
This app allows you to read your own comic collection in various formats, with on-device translation for Japanese manga. It offers a customizable reading experience and a smart bookshelf, all while prioritizing user privacy and local data processing.
- On-device manga translation for Japanese comics
- Supports various file formats (CBZ, CBR, PDF, etc.)
- SMB and WebDAV network drive support
- OPDS catalog compatibility
- Smart bookshelf with automatic categorization
- Customizable reading gestures and scrolling
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A comic reader for the books you already own. CBZ, CBR, PDF and EPUB open straight from Files, your Mac, or your NAS — no unpacking, no account, no ads, and no internet needed once a book is on the device. Japanese pages you cannot read? Penguin Viewer translates the speech bubbles on your device and paints the English back into the balloon. ■ Manga and novels in one library - Drop in CBZ, CBR, CB7 (7z), ZIP, RAR, PDF or an image folder. TXT, MD and EPUB novels land on the same shelf. - Auto margin cropping fills the screen with books you scanned yourself. ■ A library in your own folders - Make folders like in Finder, nested at any depth, and drag books between them. - New imports land in the open folder, dozens at a time. Move or delete in bulk, or drag books into your own order. - The folder layout and book order follow you over iCloud. Files are not uploaded and use no iCloud storage. ■ Translation that ends on the device - A manga or webtoon bubble is read sentence by sentence, translated, and painted back where the original lettering was. Vertical Japanese is recognized too. - In novels, translate a sentence or page to read beside the original, or look up words. - Translate a book in advance and pages turn with no wait. Nothing is sent anywhere. ■ Read novels your way - Font, size, line spacing, margins and background change in Text and Layout, live. - Jump chapters from the contents. Position and bookmarks carry between devices. ■ Your NAS and server library - Connect over SMB (NAS), WebDAV or OPDS, compatible with Komga and Kavita. - OPDS-PSE streaming resumes at your page without downloading, so a huge library takes no storage. - Reading position syncs over iCloud, and server credentials stay in the device keychain. ■ Read it the way you want - Single Page, Two-Page, or Smart Two-Page picking by screen ratio, plus right-to-left binding. - Webtoons scroll vertically, or run 120Hz auto-scroll through a binge. Pan sideways while zoomed in. - Multi-gigabyte volumes turn without stutter, and pinch zoom works in spreads too. - A night theme blacks out the reader on your schedule, and Mac turns pages from the keyboard. ■ A library that sorts itself - Smart shelves file books as unread, reading or finished, and ComicInfo groups a scattered series. - Set grid columns and cover size, sort by recently opened, search by title, author or series. ■ A record that grows as you read - Reading statistics, streaks and milestones build the habit. - The reading calendar shows how much you read, iOS widgets show today's, and Face ID locks the app, hiding books from widgets and search. ■ Local AI Translation Benchmark - Measure how fast your iPhone, iPad or Mac translates a manga page. Run it from Translation in Settings. - The result is a single PVScore. A bigger number means a faster device. - The results screen is CRT arcade, scanlines and all. Beat your best and NEW RECORD appears. - Save and share the score as a PNG card, device name and chip included. - Enter a nickname (up to 12 characters) to see the worldwide PVScore top 500. ■ Honest pricing - Almost everything is free. The free library holds 30 books, and sharing the app opens 10 more. - The benchmark and leaderboard are free, with unlimited runs. - An unlimited library is one lifetime Pro purchase, not a subscription. No ads anywhere. ■ Privacy by default - Local first: files, translation, statistics and benchmark results stay on the device. - Leaderboard posts send nickname, score, run log and device info (model, chip, RAM, OS), all shown first. - Linking MyAnimeList sends it your title searches and volumes read. - No account, no sign-up, not a single tracking SDK. Open it and read. - Export your library and reading history, and restore it on a new device. ■ Good to know - Penguin Viewer supplies no manga or novels. It reads files you already own. - The interface comes in 17 languages. Requests left in reviews get built quickly. Novel reading came out of one.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: 青空文庫Stella at 13.0 against Penguin's 18.0. On price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. 青空文庫Stella sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Penguin sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
青空文庫Stella ships an update every 4 days, Penguin every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | 青空文庫Stella | Penguin |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 4.5 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 195 MB | 120 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | kyohei sugita | HAEDUN KIM |
Customer experience
青空文庫Stella
Penguin
In-app purchases
青空文庫Stella
- Stellaプレミアム7 Days trial$0.991 Month
- Stellaプレミアム$0.991 Month
- Stellaプレミアム(年間)$9.991 Year
Penguin
- Pro Lifetime — Buy Once$3.99









