Duolingo to Launch Anime Miniseries

• The Final Test is a five-episode anime miniseries, aimed at motivating 128.3M monthly active users and 10.9M paid subscribers.
• Over 26% of Japanese learners cite anime as their main motivation, targeting the 18–34 demographic in a $31.9B USD market.
• Duolingo is supported by 41% annual revenue rise, and 46% subscription increase.

Duolingo, the popular language learning app, is set to launch its own anime, The Final Test, on October 13, 2025. This anime will be a five-episode miniseries, each running 60 seconds long, that will be available on Duolingo’s official YouTube channel. It has already launched a teaser on October 9, 2025.

The production partner for this miniseries is Titmouse. It is a Los Angeles animation studio known for releases like Big Mouth, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Metalocalypse, and The Legend of Vox Machina.

What is Duolingo’s Fist Anime About?

As reported by Variety, the anime features the company's green owl mascot, Duo, and his friends, revealing their origin before becoming the "guardians of the streak." It refers to the consecutive days a user completes their lessons in the app.

The series depicts Duo teaming up with "ordinary people" to help learners stay motivated, as the group faces various challenges to keep their streak and keep each other alive. Duo is depicted as “a persistent, social, and emotional boy who communicates via text, and is a day owl.”

In the anime, Duo will have its own language, which is similar to in-app sound effects. While the voice acting of other characters will entirely be in Japanese, the subtitles will be available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, and Thai. 

Why Anime?

With the global anime market valued at $31.9B USD in 2024, Duolingo's shift into anime is both strategic and market-driven. The market is expected to reach $64B USD by 2032, growing at ~9.2% CAGR, backed by streaming, merchandising, and fandom culture.

More than 60% of anime consumers are between the age bracket of 18-34, a key demographic for Duolingo’s digital subscriptions. This makes anime a natural fit for branding and marketing of their digital-first learning model.

In order to make learning Japanese more interesting, Duolingo views anime as a potent tool for capturing students' attention and leveraging its widespread appeal. “With The Final Test, we’re channeling that passion and expanding our character universe in a way that’s unexpected, streak-obsessed and unmistakably Duolingo,” said its CMO Manu Orssaud.

Additionally, it enables the company to establish a narrative brand for its green owl mascot, utilising visual storytelling to achieve a unique online presence.

Duolingo has already introduced its plush toys and pins at the recent New York Comic Con, using them in marketing, licensed products, and app visuals, driving sales. Duolingo doubled its motion design capabilities by acquiring Detroit-based animation studio Gunner in 2022 and then Hobbes to support this idea, strengthening its creative power.

Duolingo and Crunchyroll: Past Partnership

Duolingo first entered the anime market in 2023 in partnership with Crunchyroll, one of the most popular anime streaming platforms. They jointly offered a Japanese course that featured 50 fan-favorite phrases from various anime for the sixth anniversary of their course launch. 

Crunchyroll users got one and two months of trial opportunities of Super Duolingo, whereas Japanese learners on Duolingo received a month's access to Crunchyroll's ad-free Mega Plan. Anime has bolstered the interest in learning Japanese worldwide, as over 26% of Duolingo’s Japanese learners stated anime to be the main motivation for them to have "fun" while learning the language.