Illustrated stories are the core idea behind this language learning app.
Shinobi is a Japanese learning app built around visual stories that are made to let people learn by immersing themselves in real Japanese culture.
The app launched in August 2024.
Last month, it hit 20K downloads and $16K MRR across iOS and Android.
Most of their ambassador lineup is made of foreigners living in Japan.
The team is running a mix of faceless creators and headshot creators.
@read.in.japanese hit a total of 1.6M views with a faceless winning strategy:
This is the best performing format, and it is used across multiple accounts.
Hook: Japanese learning flex or motivation
Format: Studying japanese notes -> Tablet and Pen app demo.
“why is your japanese so much better than last Month??” 14K bookmarks.
The face-to-camera content has been weaker overall, but one format did well for @study.shinobi:
Relatable Japanese learning frustration skits, then the tablet with the app.
On Instagram, ambassador @angellearnjapanese also gained some traction with the same idea.
“learning japanese is hard” hit 38K views on December 14, compared to her usual 2K per video.
The real viral engine, though, is @shinobi_japanese.
The page has passed 22K followers and has multiple 1M+ videos.
Their first big hit spoke to manga readers:
“I want to read mangas in Japanese but I can’t read kanji” reached 1M views in January.
Later, they went viral again by using dramatic hooks tied to Japan policy news:
“Japan might ban foreigners.” hit 2M views and 12K comments on July 20 with a quick app promo at the end.
They repeated the same playbook in October and got 1.8M views:
Track their full collection on Shortimize:
https://app.shortimize.com/c/2b10DoEEkwR02O
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