Quickstart

This tutorial walks you from a fresh install to your first mined Anki card. It assumes Saitenka is already installed — if not, start with Installation.

Prerequisites

mpv and ffmpeg on your PATH. For mining (Step 5), Anki must be open with the AnkiConnect add-on running.

Step 1 — Set up (once)

Run the one-time setup. It builds your consolidated dictionary database from your Yomitan .zip dictionaries and registers their titles in your config, so later runs need only a video path.

saitenka setup

Tip

Run saitenka doctor any time to see what's imported and whether mpv, ffmpeg, and AnkiConnect are reachable.

Step 2 — Launch an episode

Point Saitenka at any Japanese video file. It opens mpv with the study overlay: your subtitles, FSRS-aware coloring, hover tooltips, and one-key mining — all on mpv's single surface.

saitenka run episode.mkv

mpv opens and starts playing. When a Japanese subtitle line appears, the overlay takes over.

Step 3 — Read the colors

The subtitle line is tokenized word by word and each word is colored by your FSRS knowledge: words you already know look different from words that are new or due. At a glance you can see which parts of the line are worth mining.

Step 4 — Hover for the dictionary

Move your mouse over a colored word. A tooltip pops up above it with definitions from your dictionaries — meaning, reading, and pitch — merged across every dictionary you imported.

Tip

Readings and pitch always come straight from your dictionaries, never guessed.

Step 5 — Mine your first card

With Anki open (and AnkiConnect running), press Ctrl+M to mine the current subtitle line. Saitenka builds a note — the sentence, the target word with its readings and glosses, and the audio snippet — and sends it to Anki, showing a quick preview.

That's it: switch to Anki and you'll find a brand-new card waiting in your target deck. You just mined your first card from real immersion.

Tip

Ctrl+M mines one line; there's a bulk-mining key too — see the shortcuts page below.

Play your own episodes

Most anime rips carry embedded Japanese subtitles — just pass the file and Saitenka uses them:

saitenka run /path/to/anime.mkv

Got subtitles as a separate file? Point at them with --sub-file:

saitenka run video.mkv --sub-file jp.srt

No Japanese subs on the file at all? Fetch them from jimaku.cc with --jimaku (supply your key via --jimaku-key or the $JIMAKU_API_KEY environment variable):

saitenka run show.mkv --jimaku --jimaku-key YOUR_KEY

Next

• Keyboard shortcuts — every key in the overlay, including bulk mining.
• Features — coloring, tooltips, translation, and mining in depth.