I’m doing the same as you and have encountered no problems with just memorizing the reading thus far. When I encounter a kanji for the first time, I always try to memorize the meaning and reading with a Japanese word or phrase I am familiar with, since that will lessen the workload.
However, I started to encounter some problems, when I started to practice handwriting the kanji from memory. Since I had not memorized the radicals, I had real problems writing kanji by hand. This is even more pronounced with kanji that are similar to each other, like 特, 待, 持, 侍, 詩.
So around that time I started to make all these mnemonics like “only SPECIAL cows go to a temple, so they are 特別な牛”, since I already new the word 特別 beforehand.
I have found that self made mnemonics stick much better, since I have had to think them first. I’m more “invested” in them, so to speak. I haven’t even looked at WK’s mnemonics, since I do not want them to influence me
EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot to mention that there is no real necessity to be able to write by hand, unless you are doing formal study of Japanese, or have some special reason. Passive memorization is enough to read material and to type with pc/smartphone
“WK for Wanikani” is what I’ve been using. Couldn’t find it in the play store but I found the link through my library. To connect it to your account, you link your API key from your wanikani account to grant it access.
I never once even read one of the mnemonics and I’m doing fine. That said, I already had a masters degree in Japanese language and literature when I stated so I’m not a typical user.
