Dictionaries list 彗 as “comet”, as part of 彗星.
But it seems to have another meaning of “broom, sweep”, so perhaps it’s one of those kanji that got a new meaning from mostly being used in one compound.
品
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A really very simple and beautiful kanji. WK says that a stack of boxes make products.
But it could be a three very polite mouths, which give us words like
品行、ひんこう, proper conduct
品のいい, ひんのいい, refined.
What’s that! The sun has shined on my pile of products!
晶
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晶, crystal, gets its on’yomi reading from 昌, prosperous. Also inheriting the reading is 唱, chant.
I am しょう glad that I learned that!
Related to sparkling:
輝
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Take any song from this franchise and you’ll find that kanji in the lyrics somewhere, like:
Hey, I like rhythm games…
Next up conveniently:
咲
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As さき, this is a 漫画 series that began in 2006, about a high school girl who plays mahjong. Otherwise, it is just a flower blossom.
It’s 音読み reading is しょう, so it is phonetically related to 笑, laugh, and 送, send.
笑
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This kanji covers both “laugh” and “smile” in its meanings.
For 訓読み words, laughter tends to use the わら reading, while smiling tends to use the え reading (e.g. 笑顔・微笑み).
You can write 笑 to denote laughter, but have you ever seen this next kanji used as slang for that purpose?
草
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Let me get this all straight.
“wwwwwwwww” is "わらわらわらわらわらわら”, which is saying わらover and over again, which is 笑い which is laughter.
But the wwwwwwwwwwwww kind of looks like grass.
So we get the laughter with 草, which is grass.
The Japanese are so weird.
I was going to buy a pair of 草履 (ぞうり) sandals when I was in Japan. But I didn’t, so the next kanji is 履.
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WK calls this “boots”. The flag loiters near the black hole, where you left your boots. A nice mnemonic.
I read that this can sometimes be read like 靴, but IME will not bring up 履with that spelling.
Here are some common words using this kanji:
履物footwear
履くto put on a piece of lower body clothing.
履歴 personal history, log
履歴書personal history, CV
履行performance of a duty
Have fun climbing this word that is usually written in kana, but has a kanji:
麓
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Never seen this kanji, thanks for including the reading! According to the dictionary it means foot of a mountain. Which inspires me to write a haiku:
麓には
ウサギが2匹
跳ねていた
匹
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A counter for small animals (and apparently rolls of cloth!)
It’s read ひき unless 連濁 and is taught on level 44.
I learned it from it being used to count Pokémon.
濁
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By the early 1900s, Japanese kana spelling had become a big mess, due to gradual pronunciation changes that weren’t reflected in the spelling system.
The 現代仮名遣い (modern kana usage) reforms of 1946 (amended 1986) made huge changes, and produced the mostly-regular system we know today.
During the reform, most uses of ぢ・づ were replaced with じ・ず, which sound identical in the standard dialect.
However, an exception was made for words that are clearly using 連濁 to modify an underlying ち・つ. So that’s why the 遣い in 現代仮名遣い is still spelled づかい.
Phew. Now it’s time for:
遣
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(very nice, @Zalathar, now I will never forget the origin of 連濁!)
WK calls this “dispatch”. It is an insect and a bear on a scooter. The bear dispatches the insect by stepping on it, and the ambulance is dispatched for help. Nice mnemonic.
This is one of these kanjis that may be used for may things, but is often avoided in lieu of other kanji, or kana.
For instance, for 遣う, to use, we will more frequently see 使う.
For 遣い an errand, or a messenger, we will often see 使い.
For 遣る, to do, we will most often see やる, or we might even see a more specific kanji showing what is being done: 犯る, 演る, 殺る
演
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This kanji (“perform”) is one where I remember the reading (えん) by associating it with another kanji that has the same reading: 園
When I think of a performance in the park, it reminds me of going to see productions of Shakespeare in the local botanical gardens.
Next up, another kanji with the same reading:
猿
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What do you get when you cross a 猿 with a 狐?
A 狐猿! (Lemur) Usually written as きつねざる or キツネザル.
Next up:
狐
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It’s what we considered calling our dog for it’s red fur. It was an Akita Inu. But instead we settled for “Tomo” from 友.
So that’s the next one:
友
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This kanji originally depicted two hands, suggesting the idea of companionship.
As it consists of 又+又, it is in a sense similar to the character 双 (pair). However, this is a bit of a false connection, as 双 was created through simplification of 䨇, which in turn is a variant form of 雙.
Next kanji:
塞
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塞 has the vocabulary 塞がる meaning to be blocked. It can also be used in the sense of occupying seating as in 「この椅子塞がっていますか」
次の漢字は
齎
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This is a fancy one! My dictionary says it means “bring” or “bring about”.
The bottom part is obviously 貝, but the top part is 齊 , which isn’t immediately familiar. However, it turns out to be the traditional form of 斉.
That probably explains why 齎 has the listed 音読み of せい.
How about another kanji with that reading:
聖
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When you say 聖（せい）… 
I think holy prefix!
The first thing that comes to mind is the WK-taught 聖書 or “holy writing”, by which they mean the [mostly] Christian holy writings collection known as “Bible”, as opposed to the thousands of Buddhist sutras they had lying around well before the Portugese decided to visit.
However, 聖 also has the reading ひじり, meaning something like a “virtuous monk / saint”. It’s a term that came about in the late 11th century, along with the rise in popularity of Pure Land Buddhism ( 浄土宗 ), as monks with a more individualist mindset -unsuited to the life of institutional submission- left their monastaries to travel.
Regardless, all of them want to be reborn in Amida’s Paradise, sitting on a :
蓮
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“Lotus” makes me immediately think of Magic: the Gathering.
While the iconic Black Lotus doesn’t have a Japanese printing, we can still find some other lotus-themed card names:
ニクスの睡蓮 — Nyx Lotus
金粉の水蓮 — Gilded Lotus
蓮道のジン — Lotus Path Djinn
(Some sources say that 水蓮 is a misspelling of 睡蓮, which is a pretty understandable mistake to make.)
Curiously, 蓮 also shows up in the localized term for “pyromancer”:
放蕩紅蓮術師 — Prodigal Pyromancer
Next up:
魔
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