iPhone app lets moe girl read you a bedtime story

4:30 PM on 07.29.2010   |   Bob Muir

Well here is certainly an interesting approach to making an audiobook. Hashihime has discovered Rodoku Shojo ("Reading Girl"), a new app available for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad in which a CG-drawn young girl will read various Japanese books to you. The first title for the app is Rashoman by Ryuunosuke Akitagawa. Audiobook service Otobank has also released Yodaka's Star by Kenji Miyazawa and Gongitsune by Nankichi Niimi and plans on releasing three more audio books a month at the cost of ¥350 a piece.

The young girl, voiced by seiyuu Nozomi Sasaki, will select the book you choose and sit down to read. Text appears on-screen, with the backgrounds changing to match the story. Rodoku Shojo includes additional functions, like a sleep function and alarm that allow you to fall asleep listening to the story.

If you can understand Japanese and are interested in trying this out, there is a 26-minute "lite" version available for free on the iTunes store for a limited time. If not, you can check out the app in action below the jump. I'm personally not a fan of audiobooks, preferring to do the reading myself, but does this make anyone else more interested in audiobooks? Would you maybe consider such an app for reading stories to your kids?

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