RakugakiAR: how it works, and apps like it

RakugakiAR (らくがきAR) is an iPhone and iPad app from the Japanese studio Whatever that brings a doodle to life. Draw something in a notebook, on paper or on a whiteboard, scan it with the app, and it becomes a little creature that walks around your room in AR. You can feed it and poke it. It isn’t free: it costs US$0.99 once in the US (¥150 in Japan), with no in-app purchases.

How it works

1. Draw a creature, an animal or anything you like, in a notebook, on paper or on a whiteboard.
2. Open RakugakiAR and scan the doodle with the camera.
3. The doodle comes to life and walks around the room on the screen.
4. Feed it, poke it and play with it.

These steps follow the app’s own description in the App Store. The app is in Japanese and English.

Is RakugakiAR free?

No. It’s a paid app: US$0.99 on the US App Store and ¥150 on the Japanese one (checked 21 October 2026). You pay once, and the App Store lists no in-app purchases. Its developer asks that the app isn’t used to make money or at events without permission.

RakugakiAR came out in August 2020. According to Whatever, it was downloaded more than 460,000 times in its first five days and was a finalist for an Apple Design Award in 2021. Its App Store privacy label lists usage data and diagnostics, not linked to you.

Apps like RakugakiAR

• Levende (iPhone and iPad, $1.99 once): scan a drawing, and the figure gets a skeleton and walks, jumps and dances on a stage or on your table in AR. More below.
• Quiver (iPhone, iPad and Android, subscription for most pages): print and color QuiverVision’s own pages, and they come to life in 3D. It doesn’t work with your own drawings.
• Meta Animated Drawings (browser, free): upload a drawing of a person-like figure and pick one of 27 motions. The drawing goes to Meta’s servers, and its terms don’t allow users under 18.

RakugakiAR or Levende?

Both bring a drawing to life on the phone, but they do different things with it. Levende is an independent app by Peter Theill, not connected to Whatever.

• What the drawing becomes: In RakugakiAR, a doodle becomes a creature you look after: you feed it and poke it. In Levende, the figure gets a skeleton, and you choose what it does: 20 moves, from walk and dance to boxing and zombie.
• Kinds of drawings: Levende is made for children’s drawings of people, animals and monsters, and for cars, buses and trains, which drive on turning wheels. Photos of a teddy or a toy can join in.
• Where: RakugakiAR lives in AR. Levende has a stage with backdrops and AR on your table, with several figures at once, and you can record a video with music.
• Price: RakugakiAR is a one-time purchase, and so is Levende: $1.99 once, with every feature and no in-app purchases.
• Data: Levende never connects to the internet and collects nothing.

Want a doodle that feels like a little pet? RakugakiAR. Want your child’s drawing to dance with its friends, and a video for grandma? Levende. Step by step: how to animate a drawing on iPhone or iPad.