Hello,
I have learned hiragana and katagana mostly through Tofugu’s open access pdfs and they were immensely helpful, as I followed the recommended steps on Tofugu’s website. As I am starting to learn Kanji however, I am still quite lost on how Wani Kani works, and I feel like I am missing something. Does anyone have any recs on how to best use the page? Thank you so much.
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Hey there and welcome to Wanikani!
On the main page you’ll see “Lessons”. You’ll see new items the first time there and review them right after.
Then you have “Reviews”. If you answer correctly, you’ll see the item in 7 hours → 23 hours → 47 hours → 1 week etc. (spaced repetition). In the end the interval is ~4 months after which if you answer correctly you’ll never see the word again.
At the start you’ll probably see only “radicals”. Building blocks of kanji. These will unlock kanji with Chinese reading Onyomi and Japanese reading Kunyomi. After you unlock 90 % of kanji in a level, you’ll unlock a new level as well as new vocabulary words containing kanji!
The first few levels are slow, take your time, look around the platform and when you feel like you understand it, look for some browser add-ons or mobile apps to improve your experience.
Find your own pace and remember, consistency is key! Don’t let the reviews pile up!
Wanikani is a part of your daily life now 
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Welcome to WaniKani!
There is a series on the WaniKani Knowledge Guide that introduces the platform. You can start by reading through the What is WaniKani? page. I’d recommend reading through Doing Your First Lessons, followed by Doing Your First Reviews.
In a nutshell, the site introduces (1) radicals, (2) kanji, and (3) vocabulary.
Radicals (1) are shapes that make up kanji. They have a blue background on WaniKani lessons and reviews. Each has a name for you to memorize! This name is used in the little stories WaniKani uses as mnemonics to help you remember things.
Kanji (2) are the Chinese characters that are used in Japanese. They have a pink background on WaniKani lessons and reviews. Each has a meaning (an English word or phrase) and a reading (the way the character is pronounced; this can be either the on’yomi or the kun’yomi reading, depending on the character, and you type this using the hiragana you’ve learned) to memorize. The characters are (usually) just components of words and not actual words that people would say in Japanese, which is why there are also vocabulary words on WaniKani.
Vocabulary (3) are words that are composed of the kanji you learn. These are the actual words you’d use when speaking or writing Japanese. They have a purple background on WaniKani lessons and reviews. Each has a meaning (an English word or phrase) and a reading (the way the word is pronounced) to memorize.
Now, vocabulary terms (3) are composed of kanji (2), which are composed of radicals (1) in turn. As you answer reviews correctly, you level up radicals, kanji, and vocabulary according to the spaced repetition system stages. What you really need to know is that answering a review correctly will add another review of that item later on, with the interval between reviews increasing as you answer successive reviews correctly.
After you answer correctly a certain number of times, WaniKani considers that you know that radical, kanji, or vocabulary item, so it unlocks items that have it as a prerequisite. For example, the radical 工 (construction) is a prerequisite for the kanji 空 (sky), which is itself a prerequisite for the vocabulary word 空港 (airport). You need to reach a certain level with the radical 工 before you unlock the character 空, and you need to reach a certain level with the character 空 (and 港 and its prerequisites) before you unlock the vocabulary word 空港. WaniKani gives you building blocks that help you progress further, though the terminology can be a bit confusing at first.
In practice, what you will do is repeatedly
- Do a lesson to start your journey with a particular radical, character, or vocabulary term
- Come back periodically to do your reviews, which will ask you to recall the meaning and reading (where applicable) of the things you’ve seen before
That’s it! That’s all there is to it.
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Great explanation!
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Seem to remember this helping me out when I started.
The guide is the first comment.
Welcome to Wanikani, tons to learn about the site itself and of course the ever-mysterious Japanese kanji characters!
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Thank you so much! I’m starting to get the hang of it.
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yes, I’m learning to navigate it!
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