English Guide For Nico Nico Douga, Part 2: How To Use

Posted on December 31st, 2010 by Serkan Toto

We explained how to register for Japanese video sharing site Nico Nico Douga in English here (click here for a list of all Nico Nico articles we’ve written so far).

This quick guide should explains Nico Nico’s main features and how to actually get around the site (ignore our older guide). Nico Nico has changed a lot over the past months, having added live streaming, apps, a manga section etc. – too much to cover the now massive site in a blog post.

Nico Nico is still being used mostly for clips, which is why we focus on the “videos” section in the following. (Note: Unlike YouTube, you can’t view videos on Nico Nico without being logged in.)

Please click on the screengrabs to enlarge them.

Screen 1 (Nico Nico top page, viewed as a logged-in user):

Screen 2 (videos section – what you see after clicking the “videos” category on the top left on the top page):


Screen 3 (video display):

Serkan Toto

Dr. Serkan Toto is a German based in Tokyo. Like us, he is passionate about introducing Japanese IT to the rest of the world. Full-time, Serkan works as an independent web industry consultant for hedge funds, venture capital companies and start-ups worldwide. He is also a writer for mega tech blog network TechCrunch, covering Japan-related technology and web trends. This is Serkan's website. Follow Serkan on Twitter here.

Tags: Japan // 26 Comments »

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  • Eezy_breezy6

    how do you see other videos made by the same user?

    • http://www.serkantoto.com/ Serkan Toto

      After the video is played, Nico Nico serves up a few options what to do next in the form of icons. If you click the icon that’s highlighted automatically (the two arrows forming a square), for example, the video will be repeated.

      For seeing other videos made by the same user, click the “film reel icon” that’s right next to the one I just described.

  • tart

     Thanks so much for the super helpful guides! :D

    Btw, do you know how to pm someone on there?

    • http://twitter.com/akky Akky Akimoto

      Does pm mean private message? If so, there is no such function.

      You may ask a friend request then the author may realize that you are interested in her/him. Though still there are no messaging feature even between friends.

      If the author does not link to her/his blog/twitter/etc., it is likely that she/he does not want to be contacted.

      • tart

        Yes, that is what I meant. :P But aww that ‘s too bad.
        So the only way to communicate with somebody is to comment on their video?

        Thanks a lot for your help! :)

  • Terranada

    This was so incredibly helpful! Thank you so much!!!

  • NekoFLASH!

    I’m so glad I stumbled on this! I made a Nico Nico account a few weeks back,but haven’t been able to do much yet since I don’t know any Japanese whatsoever… Thanks a ton for posting this!!

  • Neko

    Thanks—just one thing. Can you please make a guide to Nico in iPhone browser? As in, the NND mobile site. Thanks and God bless.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_IBWBAF5EXATGQ2H7EPUSJTESPQ o-o

    Thanks! How do I change the video to make it less pixelated when I watch on the site, since one video it would be fine, and the next video would be super pixelated

    • http://twitter.com/akky Akky Akimoto

      Free member will see less pixelated videos when Nico Nico Douga server gets excessive access. With paid subscription, which passes over 1.5 million now, you won’t be taken to this “economy mode”.

  • Sadistic Hero

    I have an acount, but now,  I can´t log in!

  • Nicole

    I have a Nicojpvideo account,i registered from the original version somehow,anyway,is their a way i can have this laptop translate niconico right away please? is their something free i can install,or is their an option on niconico to have it translated? Thanks!!!

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/NJPWXH5X2AZF42I67FKFLJI434 Mika

    i too would want to know how to make nicovideo in English. my PC translates with the automatic google translator but it sounds like rubbish and rikaikun translates only words. I’ve been searching for an English option in the original site but it was pointless. i have a registration (just used FB) in the ‘smiling’ site but i didn’t saw anything like that. what’s the point of having a registration if everything in the site is in Japanese? i found an English version of niconico, called niconico.com but it doesn’t look a lot like the original site so i’m not really interested in it. but if there really isn’t any way for the nicovideo.jp to become in English with just some clicks then i’ll give up. i only want to know if there is an option and if there isn’t i’ll just use the other one. :)

  • http://www.pcpartsltd.com/ pc part

    is their something free i can install,or is their an option on niconico to have it translated? Thanks!!!

    • http://twitter.com/akky Akky Akimoto

      I do not know any tool specialized for it. Generic tool (such like Google Translate for webpage) may help some.

  • L2131s

    umm how do i get to the uploader’s page? on youtube you just click that persons name above the video…where the heck is it on nnd?

    • http://twitter.com/akky Akky Akimoto

      It’s same. You can click the uploader’s name on top-right of the video page. Then on the user page, left menu has “all uploaded videos by this user”.

  • ajrocker2048

    Thank you so much for posting this article. However, I have a question.
    On NicoVideo, I was wondering how to subscribe to a particular user, if you can at all?

    • http://twitter.com/akky Akky Akimoto

      First of all, it depends on if the user make it public or not. If the user page’s left sidebar is grayed out, video list of the user is not available. And it seems that many of users turned it off (maybe off by default?).

      Even if the user shares his/her list, there are no guide for RSS feed. It was taken off some time ago. They have “Watch List” feature and they likely want users to use that feature instead. RSS function itself is still active if you directly type http://www.nicovideo.jp/user/(user id)/video?rss=2.0on browser, but I do not know if this will keep working.

  • Shizayachan

    Can you download the songs from here? If so how?

    • http://twitter.com/akky Akky Akimoto

      There are tools, web services and browser extensions. It is the same as other video sharing service like YouTube. You may search by “Niconico download” (better results in Japanese).

      Term of usage does not allow it but someone analysed how to do it.

  • Terrahachi

    Is there a limit to how many friend requests you can send?

    • http://twitter.com/akky Akky Akimoto

      You may have 200 friends at most.

  • Kaoru

    is there a way to view the authors of comments on videos?

    • http://twitter.com/akky Akky Akimoto

      No. Niconico is kind of a child service of 2-channel, anonymity is important.

      Once there was a system bug which displayed all commenters’ handle for hours, which caused huge troubles and users got cautious what they express on comments.

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