MaruMori.io & Kitsun.io - [UPDATE: SIMILAR KANJI MINIGAME & NEW N2 & N3 JLPT MOCK EXAMS - COMMUNITY STUDY LISTS (sharing study lists) - N2 REGION LIVE] - Grammar SRS, Grammar Lessons, Reading Exercises, Vocabulary, Kanji and more!

[sand_hellcat]

Totally agreed. I’ve been using MM as my “textbook” (in lieu of Genki which I still plan on using maybe with an instructor) and it’s been great.

I’m really impressed by the MM team’s transparency. Because if IIRC, Tofugu (company that runs WaniKani) had an online textbook “TextFugu” that ran on a subscription and even offered lifetime memberships. But it eventually got scrapped and shutdown to make way for a successor (EtoEto). That successor never materialized.

Granted, MM might run into that same issue but given the team’s track record I trust that at the very least we’d know it’s coming. Whereas with WK, I feel some aspects feel very outdated (e.g. mnemonics and vocabulary) and features (or lack thereof) disappointing.

And so far, in the short time since the Beta’s launch the content and features have been outstanding. So even if MM were to close doors eventually, users today can still get a lot of value of what’s currently available (seems to be the equivalent of Genki 1 at the very least).

Edit: Just to be clear, I think WK is still great based on my experience so far. And the pros outweigh the cons especially with scripts. I like that WK is more focused as a Kanji learning tool. Whereas with MM it can feel a bit overwhelming with all the features.

[Student-Bunny]

@s1212z

I’m trying to find the post, did someone actually say this? From the Discord to the threads, I never caught this extreme sentiment…in fact, I usually see paying WK users on both platforms that discuss differences from what I’ve seen.

it wasn’t a specific post, just like people repeatedly bringing up other sites like MM and bunpro in another thread

but it was in a very ‘I don’t need WK bc i have these! you sir, have lost a customer’ way
and it’s like…
I know it’s being done to try and convince the staff to take their complaints seriously
but I just worried it’d be taken like ‘well then, I guess discussion of non-WK products won’t be allowed anymore’ or people resenting the other sites

[s1212z]

Understood and I get what you are saying, there is definitely a way to recommend a resource without disparaging another (and don’t want any trouble either, no one wins)…keep it tasteful so we can talk freely. Most of the negative feedback about WK is on the WK forums, otherwise I see reciprocated promotion in other forums if they use it.

[neicul]

New update, bringing JLPT study lists and two new teasers (new region artwork!)

We’re also gearing up to release our Grammar Index and Grammar SRS in the coming weeks, read more about it here:

New JLPT Study Lists, new features and new (art) teasers! - Changelog - MaruMori

Also, a new Jungle of Tenacity (N3) region teaser!

[mrenaud]

@neicul Just came across a weird bug: A couple minutes ago, I did 30 reviews, and on the summary page it listed 10 words for level 6 and 20 for level 9. When I returned to the home page, I found that the level-6 reviews had been accounted for properly, but the master word count was still at 0, and it said that I had 20 reviews to do. When I did those, the same words came up again, and in the end they were at level 10, but still not mastered. Out of curiosity, I did it again, and they’re now at level 11. Logging out and back in didn’t help. At this rate, I’ll soon have a three-digit number of reviews that will never go away and come up at every review session, which would render the SRS pretty much unusable.

EDIT: This morning it showed 52 reviews, but then only asked for the 30 I was supposed to do anyway. It looks like the count is wrong, both on the number of reviews and the master count on the bottom right corner, but the reviews themselves seem to be working fine.

[neicul]

Heya! Am I correct in assuming this is on MM?

I just put out a hotfix so it filters the mastered items properly Seems like they weren’t being excluded in the query just yet haha

[mrenaud]

Hi, yes, on MM, sorry, I should have specified. Just checked back and can confirm everything is fine now.

[neicul]

Great to hear

[mrenaud]

Actually, I just found another small bug (possibly related to the previous one): the Upcoming SRS Reviews graph still shows completed master level reviews. But that’s a very minor one, I’d say, as the SRS itself works just fine.

[neicul]

I think I missed it while adjusting the other calls. Will see to it, thanks for reporting!

[neicul]

New Update: Detailed Example Sentences Breakdowns & MaruBot

Detailed Example Sentences

Ever wanted to see exactly which vocabulary, kanji, grammar points, and conjugations are being used in a sentence? Ever wanted this while studying? Ever wanted to add these items (kanji/vocab/grammar) to a study list right away?

We’ve got just the thing for you! Introducing our initial release of example sentences, completely curated and tagged with the appropriate items and conjugation information for super easy lookups. I think a small gif might explain it better than I can, so check this out:

You can find them on the corresponding kanji and vocabulary dictionary pages in MaruMori, but soon they will be all throughout the website (grammar lessons, reading exercises, (grammar) SRS etc). We will constantly be adding sentences too, to cover all the grammar points in our Grammar Library (also releasing in the next few days!) in tandem with releasing the Grammar SRS items.

MaruBot, our very own Discord Bot

We’re also introducing another way to look up items and add them to your lists quickly; MaruBot!

MaruBot is a Discord Bot that you can use to easily search things on MaruMori, inside Discord!

Here’s a few examples:

You can also use it to share your own customized profile images to show off your study progress, achievements, badges and titles!

For more information and read about our other changes, be sure to take a look at our changelog!

Example Sentences with full breakdown tooltips, MaruMori Discord Bot and more!...

[neicul]

The Grammar Library has been released!

Another major feature release coming in hot! Introducing the Grammar Library!

Some of you might’ve already seen part of it if you explored one of our latest features (you could already go there by clicking on a grammar point in an example sentence breakdown). But now we’re ready to release it for everyone!

The Grammar Library

So, what exactly is this Grammar Library? It’s our final name for something we previously referenced as the Grammar Database or Grammar Index.

It’s also where you will be able to find and reference any grammar point, get a reminder of how it worked through a concise breakdown, find links to related grammar points, view example sentences and of course find out where in our adventure region we dedicate a full lesson to explaining the grammar in great detail.

You can find it by hovering/tapping “Resources” in the navbar at the top.

Here’s how it looks:

Overview of all Grammar Points

Example Search

Example Grammar Point Details Page

We hope that this will make it a lot easier for everyone to search for (unknown) grammar points and get a quick reminder of what they entail, see examples, and do further reading.

Once Grammar SRS gets added in the coming weeks, you’ll also be able to quickly view which grammar point you know and don’t know yet.

Right now about 45 items have breakdowns with example sentences, and all current grammar lessons in Adventure have been added as links to the corresponding grammar points in the Library. In the coming weeks, we’ll be working on writing more and more of these breakdowns, example sentences, and other info until we get to the point where we catch up to our currently available adventure lessons. After that, we will be releasing new breakdowns in tandem with our grammar lessons

Explore it at https://marumori.io/grammar (No account needed!)

Keep up the studying!

[evandcs]

Interesting updates, actually I am reading more users saying good things about marumori than kitsun,

one year into wk and all I could read was kitsun this and that, but more recently no one talks about it and I am still looking for something srs related for when I hit lvl 60 here.

Also, I already did bunpro from n5-n1 but it is always interesting to review more advanced grammar all the time.

[neicul]

I think that might be because MaruMori is a newer project than Kitsun, and is specifically aimed at Japanese rather than all kinds of subjects. Letting us really focus on making everything work together for studying Japanese

Feel free to give it a shot anytime, it will give you an idea of how it works, and it’s still free to use after all (although we will be locking away some content/features behind subs soon). If you have any questions about MM or Kitsun, you can always contact me here too ^^

[neicul]

A new update for MM landed yesterday!

We’ve just updated our Overworld artwork to include nameplates and released our new batch of adventure levels. Back to our regular content release schedule we go!

Here’s a small preview!

As always, read more here:

Overworld art update (nameplates!) and resuming our regular adventure content...

[jesseberezan]

The name tags are SO GOOD

[neicul]

New MM Update: Recruit a Friend (Referral) System, New Onboarding, Updated Tools Page, New content drop, and Launch Information!

Today we’re releasing a few very exciting new features and got some special launch news! First up we have a brand new referral system that you can use to invite your friends, family, audience, pets, or whoever else you might want to introduce to MaruMori. And in return, you’ll also get credit and rewards!

Recruit A Friend (Referrals)

We want to reward our users for sharing MaruMori with friends and family. Because of that, you can now recruit your friends by going to the corresponding page from the profile menu and generating a unique code. This code will then be used in your unique invite link (which you can copy right over there), to link new referrals to your account.

So what happens when you invite other users using your link? You get rewards for every first purchase made. The rewards are both credit ($) and Unlocks (achievements, titles). This credit will then automatically be used to make your next purchase (say, monthly renewal) cost less! So if you invite enough people and they all purchase something at MM, you could potentially get free Monthly, Yearly, or Lifetime! We also made it easy for you to track your progress toward unlocks!

Here’s how much a (first) purchase by a referral would net you:

Monthly: $2.00

Yearly: $15.00

Lifetime: $25.00

Note that if you are an influencer, or reach substantial amounts of credit, you can contact us for direct payouts too (rather than it being credited on your next purchase).

New Onboarding

To make starting with MaruMori easier, we also have a whole new onboarding system for new signups! It lets you pick your preferred region to begin with, set a goal, and set your daily SRS lessons according to that goal. It also explains the adventure levels and what to expect from MM.

Tools & Mini Games Redesign

The Tools & Mini Games page has been split up into two separate pages and had their designs updated to fit better with the rest of MaruMori:

Other Small Changes

We’ve also updated the design of the popups modals in Adventure. They are now more in line with the other pages:

Another small design change we made is the submenu styling. It’s now more in line with the other submenus.

Content Drop

We’re back to our usual bi-weekly release schedule for the adventure regions. Meaning a new content drop of 5 Grammar Lessons, 1 Reading Exercise, and 1 Training Exercise.

3, 2, 1, Launch!!

With Grammar SRS and Mock Exams on the horizon and phase 2 ending, we feel like it’s a good time to announce that we’re launching out of Beta! This means we’ll be launching for real this time, and to celebrate we’ll be doing a very special launch double sale with Kitsun! So if you are thinking of getting MM and/or Kitsun, soon might be your very best shot! More info about this in the next update!

[neicul]

Pre-Launch Double Sale!!

Let’s get right to it! We’re launching MaruMori out of beta on the 12th of August! To celebrate, we are holding a big pre-launch sale right now, until then!

This means that not just MM is on sale, but Kitsun as well! MaruMori is $100 off and Kitsun is $50 off during the sale period. If you already have Kitsun Lifetime, you will get an additional discount. If you are interested in getting both, you will probably want to grab the Kitsun Lifetime addon while purchasing MM, as that makes the total for both platforms just $299.99! It might also be nice to keep in mind that you can rack up an additional discount by inviting your friends with our new Recruit A Friend system!

Thank you!

We are all absolutely overjoyed at being able to launch MaruMori and very proud of what we as a team have been able to put together. We feel that we have a very special product on our hands and that the upcoming features will make it even more complete and worthy of being called your favorite all-in-one study platform for Japanese!

I also want to sincerely thank everyone who has given MaruMori a try, especially the ones who have supported us and have been active in our lovely community over the past few months. You guys are literally the best and I’m so happy to see that MM is working out for so many people in the way I envisioned it when I first started thinking about this project We couldn’t have done it without you!

Coming Up

Our take on a Grammar SRS should be out on the launch date (or earlier!), and we’ve also got JLPT Mock Exams coming up right after that! Our text parser is also looking very solid, as we’ve been tuning it in the background, so expect the study lists for Light Novels, Games, Manga, etc to also pop up pretty soon! With that, we’ll be bursting into Phase 3, where we will be releasing many exciting new things too (mobile apps anyone?)! Of course, we will also keep refining our existing content and keep delivering the bi-weekly content batches for the adventure regions.

Speaking of adventure regions, here’s a new teaser for the Jungle of Tenacity (Adept - N3)!

https://data.marumori.io/changelog/teaser.gif(image larger than 4 MB)

Trial System

In related news, you might’ve also noticed that we’ve released our Trial system and that every existing user without a lifetime membership or a subscription has a free trial waiting for them. You can activate this whenever you want, but when you do it will last for 14 days.

The trial gives you access to all MaruMori features, with a few restrictions: You can only view the first 10 grammar lessons and the first 2 reading exercises per region. SRS, Mini Games, and any other features are currently completely unlimited and available during the Trial.

I think that’s about it for now! Again, thank you so much for all the support and feedback!

[HenrikRose]

Hey, I just read into the topic and overflew a lot of comments but still have some questions. I hope this is the right place to ask.

1. MaruMoro is described as the definitive platform for learning Japanese, including everything one needs. Why should I get kitsun then and how do they work together

2. I guess like everyone else here I am using wanikani to learn kanji and vocabulary. Having a platform to learn grammar and practice reading sounds great, but will I have to “learn” and more importantly review everything I learned here again, or is there a way to synchronize both. Otherwise it sounds like a lot or even most stuff learned would be redundant. I am spending 1-2 hours a day on WK, doing the very same for the same time on another platform sounds terrible, it even interferes with the srs.

Thanks in advance. Any other useful information is highly appreciated, since I am indeed interested.

[SpiderWeb]

I saw there was a sale and just bought lifetime on MaruMori, wondering when the app is planned because I’ll probably use it more if it’s usable on mobile.
Glad to support something new and I actually bought your lifetime before paying for wk lifetime.
The panda looks cute.