Kitsun and MM do not replace each other, but there is a bit of overlap in terms of SRS functionality. Kitsun is more aimed at when you want more control over your SRS settings, cards (data, templates, layouts), or if you want functionality not offered by MM.
Another very big distinction is that Kitsun is not for Japanese only. In Kitsun you can study multiple subjects at a time or make use of community-made content (decks) and import things like anki decks. It is also a pretty mature product, MM on the other hand is much more restrictive in terms of settings (no interval tweaking, no custom layouts to name a few), but offers more than “just” SRS and is more specialised in Japanese in particular.
In general, if you are looking to learn just Japanese and are satisfied with the options we give you in MaruMori for SRS, I would personally say you wouldn’t need to add Kitsun (at least, at this point). Perhaps when you are further in your learning, you might want to have more control over how you learn, which is where Kitsun would shine.
Currently, they do not work together, but in the future, we might introduce some sort of “known” word sync, which would remove things from your lesson queue if you already learned it on, say, Kitsun.
You don’t! Anything in MaruMori can be skipped or done in any order you’d like. To put it more concretely for kanji and vocab, you can suspend any items you already know, which removes them from your SRS lessons/reviews
Awesome to hear you’re interested! Be sure to let me know if anything is still unclear or you have other questions!
Thank you so much for the support! I’m certain it will be of help in your studies!
A mobile app is planned for Phase 3, which will start in the next few weeks. It is probably the highest priority item on our roadmap, but as you can imagine, development might take a little while as we basically have to recreate almost all functionality. Based on how long it took to create Kitsun’s mobile apps, I think four months to half a year is a reasonable estimate, but it’s pretty difficult to estimate!
While on a 14-day free trial, you now have access to everything included in the paid version (MaruMori Plus) with a few differences:
The introduction region is completely free
From the second region onwards, you will be able to access the first 10 grammar lessons and first 2 reading exercises (per region), as well as all vocabulary & kanji unlocks and course exercises.
You now have a daily unlock credit that you can use to unlock grammar lessons or reading exercises further in the region. This means, 1 additional free adventure lesson per day.
After the trial ends, your account will be locked for the most part. You can still use the dictionary, grammar library, kana drills, and conjugation drills, but you will no longer get any daily credits and lose access to most grammar lessons and so on.
I hope this makes it easier for those of you who were already halfway in a region to continue their journey.
So, how do I unlock an adventure lesson?
Simple! When you did not spend your daily credit yet, you will see this (see image) pop up at the bottom of a locked grammar lesson or reading exercise. There you can click the button and the page will reload with this specific lesson in full glory!
When will the JLPT mock tests be added to MaruMori and how will it work? Will there be a clock shown in the corner of the screen or something? I’m personally interested in ones for N2 and N1.
They are coming right after we add the Grammar SRS (the current target date is launch, 12th of August). Development is pretty much done, but we need more time to write (and record!) the exam content.
It will indeed have a timer per section, just as it would on the real test, along with having a break time and unskippable audio recordings for the listening section. We also made sure to have the correct amount of questions per question type on the JLPT exams (the subsections so to speak).
Here are a few screenshots to give an idea of what it currently looks like:
The data in the screenshots is obviously a bit weird, so don’t mind that, but note that on the results page you can see per question what you did wrong and what study suggestions we give. This means we’ll link to the specific grammar points you did wrong, the grammar lessons that explain the concepts in detail, the vocabulary and kanji you didn’t know and so on. That way you’ll quickly be able to improve for the real test!
For releasing the exams, we’ll first focus on having enough questions to fill at least 3 exams per JLPT level, with N5 and N4 being the main focus. Later on, we’ll be adding N3+ as well, so for N2-N1 you’d have to wait a little while I’m afraid!
It depends a bit! When you say around N4 level, do you mean that you already know all N4 grammar? In that case, we do not have adventure levels (grammar lessons, reading exercises, etc) available for you right now (although we are 3/4th of the way to completing that region, so we’ll likely start with N3 content in the coming few months).
What we do have however is a dictionary so you could add any vocabulary or kanji you search up to your personal study lists, import study lists, or use one of the premade study lists for the JLPT N3+ levels. In the coming weeks, we’ll also start adding premade study lists from native materials (Anime, manga, games etc), that you could also use to study along while consuming native material.
Next to that, we also have minigames and study tools available. Of which the conjugation drills might be the most handy for you!
Using the upcoming grammar SRS might also be a nice way to solidify what you already learned before, as we will also be providing a different way of reviewing them than other SRS platforms.
The system works very similarly to Wanikani, you type the answer of both the reading and the meaning
I’d say it’s still a pretty good source for you. A lot of the users end up learning new things about the grammar they already know since our grammar articles tend to be comprehensive
WK tells you whether the answer is correct or incorrect or not. Most vocab SRS that I have encountered ask you to self-report whether you know it. Which camp is your app in?
The Kitsun mobile apps are indeed on a small hiatus although pretty much fully functional on Testflight for iOS and the play store for Android. I do have plans to expand on the functionality currently in the app though, mostly in terms of being able to create a custom card from the dictionary and editing existing cards outside of the review session.
Is there anything, in particular, you are looking forward to being implemented?
As MaruMori is launching and Phase 3 is starting, we should be able to dedicate part of our time to Kitsun again soon. Our deadlines for Phase 2 were a bit tight (I moved Grammar SRS into Phase 2 without taking things out… turns out that was pretty much the largest and most complicated feature yet. ).
I was hoping automatic keyboard switching could be implemented? (E.g. when asked for reading, switch to flick kana keyboard; when asked for meaning, switch to English keyboard).
This may seem small, but it’s soooo helpful! If you need a reference, Bunpro’s app does this and so does Tsurukame.
(Also, a much smaller thing, but it would be great to be able to move decks into folders through the app).
Edit: Sorry for the multiple edits and deletes! For some reason the initial post didn’t indicate it was a reply, so I tried to change it and then it magically fixed itself
I’ve done all of Wanikani and Bunpro, so looking to start learning off texts and random materials.
Like, I’m currently on Harry Potter 5 in Japanese. But I’d love to be able to have the weird words in all of the books I’m reading available on SRS, quizzable like in Wanikani. In other words, meaning + pronunciation. Is that possible?
tbh, it sounds like jpdb.io or renshuu.org might suit what you’re looking for better. My understanding is that for jpdb.io, you can copy and paste the text and it’ll make lessons and chart frequencies for you. For renshuu.org, I don’t think you can copy and paste the same way, but when you use renshuu’s dictionary, you can save any words you look up into a special folder called the studypad (which you could also make subfolders for if you wanted to sort your lookups by chapter or something) and through the studypad, you can make your own decks (schedules) with meaning and readings or if you try out renshuu pro, pitch accent, listening, and other study vectors.
I’ll reiterate that what you want sounds like what jpdb.io is all about. Check out jpdb.io . They also have some preconfigured book lists with the vocab from those books
idk about on jpdb, but on renshuu yes! Unless it’s a question asking for the kanji specifically. I often get lazy about switching keyboards and just leave it on English.
Anything in MaruMori can be skipped or done in any order you’d like. To put it more concretely for kanji and vocab, you can suspend any items you already know, which removes them from your SRS lessons/reviews 
).