Otakana

About Otakana

Otakana is a fan-made word game built around anime. Each day there is one hidden name, either a character or a term the fandom would recognise, between four and eight letters long. The grid shows the length before you type, and you get one more guess than the answer has letters, so a five-letter name gives six tries.

The tiles work as in Wordle: teal for a right letter in the right spot, amber for a letter that is in the answer somewhere else and ink grey for one that is not there. Repeated letters are handled the usual way, exact matches first. There is no dictionary check, because character names are not dictionary words, so any guess of the right length goes through.

The daily puzzle is keyed to the UTC date, identical for every player, and can be played once. Win or lose, it ends on a reveal card naming the series, the year it debuted, what the answer is and why it matters, along with the clue the game held back. Only the daily feeds your streak and stats, earns points on the monthly leaderboard and gives you a share grid.

Two optional assists cost Koban, the game's coin: a hint that pencils in one letter, and a dart that strikes up to four absent letters off the keyboard. Koban come from play, such as solving the daily, and can also be bought. Beyond the daily there is Classic for unlimited practice in three difficulty bands, Fever, a timed unscramble, Clue Ladder, which reveals three clues one at a time, an archive of past dailies, trophies and a library of anime lore.

Otakana needs no account and keeps your progress in the browser. It is free with ads, and an iPhone app by the same maker offers the same daily with an optional purchase to remove ads. It is not affiliated with any anime studio.

How to play Otakana

1. Open the Daily Puzzle on otakana.net or in the iPhone app; the grid shows how many letters today's name has.
2. Type any guess of that length and submit it; names do not need to be dictionary words.
3. Read the tiles: teal is the right letter in the right spot, amber is in the name elsewhere, grey is not in it.
4. Use your remaining guesses, one more than the name's length, to spell the answer, spending Koban on a hint or dart if you want.
5. Read the reveal card about the series, then share your grid and come back after midnight UTC.

Screenshots

Tips

• Open with a common anime name that uses frequent letters, such as NARUTO for six letters, to place vowels early.
• Romanised Japanese names follow syllable patterns, so a teal K or S is often followed by a vowel.
• Save darts for long names, where clearing four absent letters off the keyboard narrows the field the most.
• Play Classic on Easy to learn the pool of well-known names before your daily attempt.

Questions