Not much, really. The grammar is rather different from Indo-European languages (maybe from all other languages), so I recommend getting at least some understanding of the main grammar points and how they work, but aside from that you could just read a lot until you get the hang of it.
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A lot of people are telling you to study grammar, and I’m sorry I am going to be another voice in the crowd saying the same thing.
But here’s my take anyway: I am currently (very casually) learning Spanish, and I have never felt the need to study or look up any grammar. The meaning of the sentence is obvious from context alone, at least at the beginner level that I’m at now.
Japanese is different. Even when I knew every single word in a sentence, I sometimes still couldn’t understand it. Even now, there are certain grammar constructions that I can’t understand from context alone, and I need to look them up when I encounter them. When I started learning, I went through some beginner textbooks, not really doing the exercises, but reading the explanations, and I think that was really important for understanding the basic construction of the language, and it got me off the ground for the more fun things later on.
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I’ll offer a bit of a counter to everybody else-- My personal experience was I used wanikani and only wanikani for almost a year before I started actually learning Japanese. I was level 30 when I started my first semester of Japanese class in college, and I only glanced over pdfs of Genki before that point.
In my opinion, this is probably not the most efficient way to do things, but if wanikani continues to be motivational and not too boring to continue studying (for me, I didn’t get bored even though I was only doing what most consider the most boring part of studying Japanese), then having your kanji knowledge considerably ahead of your other skills gives you a real advantage while learning. Learning vocabulary will come easier, kanji won’t be a barrier to reading once you have enough grammar and vocab to start, and it’s a fun feeling to see kanji you know from Wanikani in your other studies. So dedicating time to only kanji at the outset will set you back, yes, but it’ll kind of smooth the road when you’re ready to go forward.
It’s probably never too early to start grammar, and doing what I did is definitely not optimal. But it worked very well for me, so I would say you’re in no way shooting yourself in the foot by sticking with what gives you a routine and structure until you feel more prepared to tackle grammar. (A year might be excessive though lol.)
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I would say do at least basic N5 (and maybe some N4) level grammar. Then if you don’t want to go nuts with more grammar you can start reading books and have an (online searchable) grammar reference to look things up as you need.
Depending on what you read, 200-300 kanji and beginner grammar can actually get you started. You’ll have to look up stuff, and you might not get every nuance, but it’s a way to start and can be quite comfortable for existing multilingual people whose brains are already used to such discomfort.
But yes you absolutely should pair WK with other things. What you pair it with depends on you and your goals.
This is my list, but other people have their own list of tools that are valid for them:
WaniKani for kanji, NativShark for (casual-focused) grammar, JapanesePod101 for longer form listening, JPDB for WK/Jpod101 vocab extra review, Migii for JLPT prep, and of course books for actual practice. Disney Movie Books for furigana easy days. And then various intermediate books for the harder challenging days.
Best of luck.
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The problem is getting started with the specific ways of using the language. WaniKani may help with reading, but vocab are too random, and many Kana-only or often-Kana ones are missing. You will already forgot or don’t know some vocab yet, before even getting to speaking/listening, etc – those don’t absolutely need Kanji to recognize.
If you want to do other than reading, it would be faster to learn to speak/listen in parallel early on.
Even in Japanese reading, words are sometimes written with Hiragana or Katakana instead, and contractions and omitted particles could easily occur. It implies that basic listening skills could help.
I don’t really count English as I am not conscious much of how I learned this language. Also I have had formal classes.
Material recommendations – I might not be the best person to answer this one, as I knew about WaniKani at the beginning of Japanese learning, but I ignored WaniKani for a few years before using it, only when I have had time to try to conquer Level 60.
I used Minna no Nihongo and Tae Kim, but I think Irodori is a good one. There might be other interesting recommendations in above replies. Or browse Japanese Language > Resources or Japanese Language > Grammar
For a pure grammar approach, I think it’s knowing up to N4 very well, and most of N3, plus colloquials. But you can start reading without understanding that well earlier than that.
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