During reviews i saw that the radical for gladiator 龹 does not look like in 勝 or other kanji with that radical. In the radical the downward right stroke does not connect both horizontal lines, whereas in the kanji it does. Is this a mistake or just a different way to write 龹 ? On the internet also seem to exist both ways.
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It seems like both versions of 龹 exist in different fonts, but considering it basically never appears alone, except in discussions of kanji components, I doubt most people are aware that there’s any variation.
Small variations in fonts are common (see this other discussion from earlier today). But also keep in mind that WaniKani plays fast and loose with components, favoring mnemonic creation over historically accurate kanji component breakdowns. So in other cases, differences might be chalked up to WK just choosing something that looks close enough.
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Thanks a lot Leebo for the reply with the fonts! Hmm, yeah seems that way that its just a stylistic choice. It just bothers my mind that there is ambiguity in how one can write a character 
. Oh well, guess i just have to accept it and move on 
.
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Yeah, it’s frustrating, but it’s also not that different from the variations we’re accustomed to in our alphabet.
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Thats true, but a bit different i think. Like its very important in some kanji to know small differences like in stroke length e.g. 末 or 未 . So its difficult to accept that the length of a stroke in a different character is not important 
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That’s true. There are cases where small differences can make a totally different character, and other cases where a big difference is no issue at all.
Slightly different topic, but my general recommendation, if you are concerned about writing correctly, is to check for fonts that look more like handwriting as opposed to printed text. It’s not wrong to write something that looks like printed text, but it will stand out a bit to natives.
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Is there a good source that you would recommend to find handwritten kanji?
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If you search for 教科書体 (textbook typeface), you’ll find fonts used in textbooks for teaching handwriting.
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Thanks a lot!
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Mmm. There are definitely some cases where WK merges into one component several different forms that you need to keep distinct if you care about writing the characters – https://www.wanikani.com/radicals/spirit is an early one that springs to mind.
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That is true… I feel like those confuse me because i expect a certain writing based on the mnemonic in my head. When i then see an alternative way of writing the radical, it can throw me off.
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Something else worth adding about this “playing fast and loose with components” is that the Japanese language itself already has a lot of that baked in.
A lot of components that we think of as being shared across kanji actually originated as completely different symbols in bone script, and as they simplified and took on similar forms, eventually people smashed them together and started writing them all the same way even though etymologically they have nothing whatsoever to do with each other.
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Not only that, but there’s also 新字体・旧字体 variation for 龹 where it looks a bit different but is conceptually the same.
カン・ケン 巻 (scroll) is used phonetically in e.g. ケン 圏 in its new form, but in e.g. ケン 捲 in its old form.
If one is focused on reading/recognition, I think it’s practical to remember all these variations as being the same component. And when eventually you get to handwriting, you could remember on case by case basis which kanji are using new and old forms.
Edit:
Also wanted to comment on this, and definitely agree that these two should be kept conceptually distinct. 礻is a form of 示 and has to do with offerings to ancestors on altars. 衤 is a form of 衣 and has to do with clothes (I associate it with altar clothes / miko and such in mnemonics).
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Ooh this is a good one, will probably help my handwriting
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