# AI Roleplay With Japanese Dialogue and English Translation Source: https://lunafic.ai/blog/ai-roleplay-japanese-dialogue-translation | Published: 2026-08-30T08:18:55.729Z | Updated: 2026-10-09T08:15:01.190Z | Author: Lunafic Team | Tags: Roleplay, Language > Roleplay with anime characters who actually speak Japanese, with romaji and English translations under every line so you know how it sounds and what it means. If you like anime and roleplay with anime characters, you probably noticed how bad most AI chat apps are at Japanese. You start a chat, and after two messages the character starts replying in English, or if they speak Japanese, it sounds like an awkward textbook instead of how anime characters actually talk. We actually built Lunafic because we wanted to hear how anime characters sound without having to know Kanji. ## What people complain about on Reddit If you search on Reddit, you will see a lot of people complaining about this - [“How it feels talking to a japanese speaking anime character”](https://www.reddit.com/r/CharacterAI/comments/1f4wqwm/how_it_feels_talking_to_a_japanese_speaking_anime/), where someone wants Japanese dialogue with the story in English, but the AI keeps messing it up - [“Tried speaking Japanese on cai but the bot doesn’t speak Japanese correctly either lol”](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1i0wjdt/tried_speaking_japanese_on_cai_but_the_bot_doesnt/), people talking about how weird the Japanese sounds - [“Ummm...is there any reason as to why he randomly started”](https://www.reddit.com/r/CharacterAI/comments/1hhs2jp/ummmis_there_any_reason_as_to_why_he_randomly/), about characters randomly switching back to English mid-chat When an anime character speaks in translated polite English, all the personality disappears, so people want characters to actually talk like themselves in Japanese. ## Why chat apps keep switching back to English In normal chat apps, the AI only reads a single text box and tries to predict words. Even if you put that she speaks Japanese in the character description, the AI quickly forgets that after a few turns. It gets confused between the story narration and the character dialogue, so everything slowly turns back into English. ## What we wanted to see in an anime roleplay The beauty of anime characters is in their speech styles, like how a tsundere speaks or the cute sentence endings they use. When you translate everything directly into standard English, all of that personality gets lost. What we really wanted was simple - The character speaks Japanese - You see the romaji so you know how it sounds - The English translation sits right underneath each line ## The usual workaround people try Some people try to set up tools like SillyTavern, pick a Japanese model, and connect a separate translation plugin. It can work if you like tweaking settings for hours, but connecting different plugins together takes a lot of work and often breaks when you just want to relax and write. ## How Lunafic handles dual-language dialogue On Lunafic, language belongs to the character settings. When you create or pick a world, you choose who speaks what, including the character language, the story language, and [how dialogue appears](https://lunafic.ai/features/dual-language/). The character can speak Japanese while the story narration stays in English. In the editor, a line looks like this, from Victoria in Romance Beyond the Nekoyo, an original world on Lunafic *“Anata-tachi, watashi no purin o katte ni tabeta wa ne?”* *[You two ate my pudding without asking, didn't you?]* The AI keeps this format for every chapter, so the character never randomly switches back to English. ## It works for other languages too This is not only for Japanese. If you have Russian characters, they can speak Russian with English translation right under it. If you have Korean characters, they speak Korean. You can also pick how you want to read the dialogue, whether you want romaji with translation, original script, or translation only. ## Common questions ### Do I need to know how to read Japanese? No, the romaji shows you how the words sound, and the English translation sits right under each line so you always understand what is happening. ### Can I turn off the romaji? Yes, you can change the view in your settings to show only the translation or the original script anytime. ### Does this cost extra? No, dual-language dialogue is available on all plans including the free tier. ## Try it on Lunafic If you want to roleplay with characters who actually speak their native language with translations under every line, you can pick an anime world and start writing for free without a credit card. You can explore our [anime roleplay worlds](https://lunafic.ai/anime-roleplay), read our [Lunafic vs Character.ai comparison](https://lunafic.ai/compare/character-ai), or check out [why the AI never plays your character](https://lunafic.ai/blog/character-ai-alternative-where-the-ai-doesnt-play-your-character) and [how Lunafic remembers long stories](https://lunafic.ai/blog/ai-roleplay-long-term-memory). Every feature is on one page at [lunafic.ai/features](https://lunafic.ai/features/). --- Read this on Lunafic: https://lunafic.ai/blog/ai-roleplay-japanese-dialogue-translation More from Lunafic: https://lunafic.ai/blog What is Lunafic: https://lunafic.ai/ai-roleplay AI characters you build stories with over long memories. You play as your character, the AI plays everyone else, and stories stay private by default.