Behind the Scenes of 'Learn Toki Pona Grammar in 30 Minutes!'

There Were Far Too Few Japanese Learning Materials#

First, because there were far too few Toki Pona learning materials in Japanese. As far as I know, there were zero lesson articles written in Japanese that comprehensively covered the grammar at the time. While there were a fair number of materials offering partial explanations, I felt they were slightly out of sync with the consensus grammar as of 2025.

Also, at the time, there was (almost certainly) no Japanese material introducing vocabulary alongside sitelen pona (the hieroglyphic writing system for Toki Pona). As I explained in the video, since sitelen pona is logographic, learning it in parallel is bound to be much easier to understand, at least for Japanese speakers who are already accustomed to kanji.

I realized just how much clearer it is with sitelen pona side-by-side when I read the following lesson. If you can read English, I recommend checking it out as well:

mun! - Learn Toki Pona!

Learn Toki Pona, because it's fun and free!

mun.la

I Wanted to Try Using Manim#

Second, because I wanted to try using Manim. This video was created almost entirely with Manim.

Manim Community

Manim is a community-maintained Python library for creating mathematical animations.

www.manim.community

It was originally developed by 3b1b (Grant Sanderson, the math YouTuber), but it was open-sourced so anyone can use it. Currently, it seems using this Community Edition is the way to go.

In this generative AI era, even when making videos, I feel that building them code-first is easier to learn than mastering dedicated GUI tools, and it lets you offload work to AI. So, I decided to make the video using Manim this time.

In fact, the video script is managed by a single JSON file.

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    {
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        "タイトル": "",
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        "例文": [
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            {
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                "sitelen": "luka6 .9 tu6 tu6 .9 tu6 wan6 .9 tu6 .9 wan6 .9 ala6 !9 ala6 !9 ala6 !9 ",
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                "日本語訳": "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0! 0! 0!"
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            },
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            {
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                "sitelen": "mi1 jo2 e0 kili3 luka6 luka6 wan6",
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                "日本語訳": "私は11個の果物を持っています (5+5+1 = 11)"
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            },
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            {
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                "sitelen": "utala1 nanpa6 mute6 mute6 luka6 luka6 tu6 wan6",
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                "日本語訳": "53番目の戦い(20+20+5+5+2+1 = 53)"
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            }
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        ],
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        "注釈": "",
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        "字幕": "数を表すこれらの単語は最優先で結びつきます。\nこれまでの文法規則の例外となるので、pi は不要です。",
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        "表示時間": 5,
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        "音声ファイル": "155"
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    },

By having Manim handle the animation instructions appropriately based on this manuscript data, I was freed from the royal pain of manually tweaking positions and timing. On top of that, starting around the Gemini-1.5 era, LLMs seem to answer Toki Pona grammar questions with reasonable accuracy; when provided with a few-shot example, it colored the words (represented by the numbers at the ends of words) with remarkably high precision.

Setting up the automation took some effort in itself, but with a video this long, my spirit definitely would have broken if I had done it by hand.

I Wanted People to Understand “luka sama mi”#

Before this video, I tried my hand at producing my very first vocal song using Toki Pona.

luka sama mi | toki pona original song feat. ついなちゃん (Lyric Video)

This is my first attempt at creating a vocal song. Hope you enjoy.Lyrics:sina kama sin tan telo suli.sina musi lukin, taso mi sona e lon ante insa.mi mute li...

www.youtube.com

I used Toki Pona because writing lyrics in Japanese felt embarrassing. On the other hand, having nobody understand them is lonely in its own way.

As a result of those ambivalent feelings, I ended up thinking, Screw it, I’ll just make my own Toki Pona lesson video.

Master of Epic - BREEZE OF MIRIM#

• Because it’s one of my absolute favorite tracks in MoE (Master of Epic).
• I wanted listeners to be conscious of the 30-minute time limit.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Far Horizons#

• Because among the songs I like, this was the only one with the right length.
• Following MoE, I thought some open-world-ish music would fit well.

I.Q. Final - The 2nd Tide#

• Because I love this track.
• I wanted to evoke a “second half” feel.

Genshin Impact - Rite of Battle#

• Because I love this track.
• As a run-up to Lamentation et Triomphe.
• Being a Mondstadt track, it matches the theme reasonably well.

Genshin Impact - Lamentation et Triomphe#

• Because it’s my favorite combat BGM in Genshin Impact.
  • In Simulanka, there was one of those “defeat N enemies within the time limit” challenges that I couldn’t beat no matter how many times I tried.
  • But after leveling up and understanding elemental reactions, I finally cleared it.
  • That experience was so much fun, it became an unforgettable memory.
• Because of that, whenever I hear this track, it makes me feel vaguely rushed—it makes me hyper-aware of a time limit.

All Time Trial Challenge Simulanka Forest of Blessings Genshin Impact

All Time Trial Challenge Simulanka Forest of Blessings Genshin Impact00:00 1 Time Trial 00:36 2 Time Trial 01:12 3 Time Trial 01:49 4 Time Trial 02:49 5 Time...

www.youtube.com

↑ The challenge in question.

Using Lamentation et Triomphe as the bomb defusal theme in particular was an absolute masterstroke; watching it back myself, I’m genuinely captivated by it.