Thanks a lot for your valuable feedback.
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So you recommend WK + BunPro in combinationā¦ Could you please explain how WK and BunPro sync together? Are they related? do you use different accounts?
Is there any other option that can provide both Kanji and grammar learning simultaneously through the SRS system?
Iām not super qualified to give a good answer since I feel like Iām just getting started, but Iāve seen lots of people here recommend sticking with WaniKani by itself until you get to around level 10. Others say you should start grammar as soon as possible, so itās honestly up to you. What I can say, though, is that having some Kanji under my belt helps me understand more of the sentences in BunPro, so I think you should do WaniKani for a while first, then start BunPro later.
When you create a BunPro account (itās a separate account), you can sync it to your WaniKani account and carry your Kanji and vocabulary progress over. If you decide to switch to BunPro completely (and drop WaniKani, for whatever reason), you can technically pick up your vocab where you left off from your time in WaniKani. Like I said, I wouldnāt recommend this because I think WK is better, but it doesnāt do grammar, so you need something like BunPro for that.
I think the main benefit of syncing your WaniKani account to BunPro is that you can have it show furigana, but only for kanji/vocab you donāt already know. Furigana is the thing where it shows hiragana characters above Kanji to make it easier to read. Normally, this is either enabled for all kanji or disabled completely, but syncing your account lets you remove furigana for kanji you already know, which helps you practice your recognition and reading skills while you practice grammar at the same time. (However, you can mouse over the kanji, and it will show you the meaning and definition regardless)
For your last question, Iām sure there are alternatives to WaniKani and BunPro, but I donāt know them all. Genki is another popular option for grammar, but I think itās a textbook-style lesson plan instead of SRS flashcards. I donāt know much about it, though.
Edit: I forgot to mention this, but BunPro has a free trial just like WaniKani, so Iād recommend checking it out for that alone.
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there is no leech managementā¦
anki suspendsā¦
bunpro has extra ghost reviews, you can reset items to zero and remove them from your study queueā¦
as I said in my original post search the forumsā¦
for YEARS and YEARS people have been complaining about this
I bailed on wk at level 44 when they did the great script breakage
migrated all of my existing wk to kistun and finished my remaining reviews over there
hit level 60 in Dec of 2024.
Iām working off the rest of them and working off some leeches
Iām also reading and studying in other ways so any vocab leeches that wonāt die Iām just removing them to a non studied deckā¦kitsun has the ability to suspend, move things, etcā¦
if it werenāt for kitsun (same makers of marumori) I would have given up on wk after all those yearsā¦
search the forums (send some time) seriously instead of just asking here
read the feedback/suggestions threads
if wk was so great then why do all these scripts keep being needed ā¦ yes there are some people that succeed in vanilla mode ā¦ great it worked for them but this isnāt a free platformā¦ vote with your pocketbook. If you do subscribeā¦avoid lifetimeā¦ even with the upcoming saleā¦wait is my opinionā¦ at least until you get to level 15. Most people honestly donāt understand the overall workload and various issues with the system until they get into the 15-20 level and by then it will be too late to back out. Lifetime is expensive and a sunk cost if you end up quitting.
It wonāt take that long for you to find that wk has some serious deficiencies and any SRS system w/o any sort of leach management is either torture or a cash grabā¦ (you do the math)
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Thanks a lot for sharing your valuable experience.
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SoulStealerShuly, I really appreciate your detailed feedback. All what you said makes sense. I will definitely spend time reading the forums.
Just curious, did your goal of leaning Japanese include passing any JLPT tests? Did you pass any?
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Not that I know of. In my case for grammar I learned with the Genki books and group lessons at my local Japanese cultural center and it was perfect. My main problem learning is the lack of structure and self-discipline, so for me the Genki books were absolutely great as long as I had a given structure: having weekly classes, each week I would learn between 1 and 3 points of grammar, and do some homework between classes.
My favorite thing about using old-school methods like a textbook is that you spread your learnings evenly between grammar, reading, writing and listening. I find it hard to learn vocab and kanji just with the textbook so WK fits well there.
I like hearing other peopleās experience too, it makes me want to check Bunpro closer, it looks interesting 
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As far as I know, Maru Mori teaches both. However, Iāve only tried it for a short while, so I donāt have enough information to properly evaluate itā¦ But I know some people really like it.
Personally, Iād recommend WaniKani for kanji and something like Tae Kim or Cure Dolly for grammarā¦
I myself learnd grammar on TextFugu (which, unfortunately, is no longer available) and then using this book:
Anyway, best of luck with your studies! 
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Tofugu has a grammar hub with a ton of (free) articles about various grammar points:
For a paid source, Iām fond of the Grammar Dictionaries from The Japan Times. Weāve reviewed them in the past here:
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Oh, yes, I have A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar too ā and itās great!
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Thank you a lot.
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The Dictionaries of [Basic/Intermediate/Advanced] Japanese are good but I think itās worth pointing out they are specifically not really made to be a primary source you learn your Japanese grammar foundation from. Theyāre reference guides, ordered alphabetically, and in a sort of detail thatās likely to be more overwhelming if youāre trying to learn some grammar for the first time with no point of reference. They arenāt structured or written to be your first encounter learning basic grammar the way a textbook or online learning course for that purpose would be.
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to quote someone wise ārandom learners on the internet need to stop holding it up as the ultimate indicator of abilityā My simple opinion of the JLPT too though is ā¦ itās just a testā¦ it doesnāt necessarily mean you are fluent and itās primarily used for employment purposes.
Honestly learning Japanese was just something I always wanted to do since I was young, Iām not young anymoreā¦ when I was a kid we didnāt have fancy internet things and so many tools that exist now that make learning a language much easier - biggest one is having instant access to native speakers !!!
No desire to pass any special tests been studying Japanese for over 7 years and did my time on wk, but the leechy death made the system just miserable. I never reset or stopped doing reviews but when the daily reviews are 80-90% leeches and you cannot suspend them it really really sucksā¦want to feel demotivationā¦this is the way.
I plan to be done with the remaining wk stuff by the end of this year and whatever vocab leeches are still there will be sent to the forever suspended pile in kitsun. Iām working on grammar and generally read almost everyday (this week been slacking little though) but also writing everyday now and practice speaking regularly for a number of years.
Iām slow with language learning but as long as I donāt give up and keep going no matter how slow I can survive. My trip to Japan in 2022 I was able to get by in the countryside alone for a few weeks with one exception of one hokkaido ben obaachan 
Give wk a tryā¦but avoid the temptation for lifetime. You can buy it at any time and it goes on sale at the end of the year normally. Do monthly if you really want to try it and if you find that when you get to 15-20 the issues with the system start to annoy you, easy to stop and walk away and do something else. If you love it then take advantage of the 2026 holiday sale or go super fast if you can handle it and do it in under 2 years and will cost less than lifetime (or used to).
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I started with the Genki 1 and 2 textbooks. They are probably the most well known resources out there. I think they do an amazing job at setting up a foundation for grammar and various verb conjugation that you can easily build on, practice, and then recognize everywhere. I believe they generally cover N5 to N4ish. Iāve also used the Quartet 1 and 2 textbooks afterwards, they are kind of like the Genki textbookās sequel that cover around N3 to N2ish, and are a bit more advanced.
Other than that my main source for studying grammar and pretty much all things japanese is lots and lots of native material for reading and listening while using ChatGPT as like a ātutorā. You can ask it to translate and breakdown everything you see and it will tell you what every word means and what grammar is used. You can then ask it for more details and talk about specific grammar points or words, etc. As you do this over and over again you begin to see the same words used often, the same grammar used often, etc. And over time it gets embedded into your head. So you can just pick things you enjoy doing like reading books or Manga, watching TV/movies or anime, playing video games, etc. And then just incorporate analyzing everything piece by piece with the help of ChatGPT. Just keep in mind that it can make mistakes, so be mindful of what it is saying and ask it often for details and confirmation. Iāve been meticulously translating/analyzing and reading/listening my way through Persona 5 Royal (video game) and have found it incredibly useful.
If youāre interested in the JLPT specifically, there are numerous textbooks out there with practice problems and āprepā, as well as practice and mock exams online I think. I personally donāt bother with the JLPT specific or focused stuff because Iām more focused on developing my japanese through immersion rather than preparing it for a specific test or format of questions.
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Thank you again for sharing your unique Japanese learning experience.
It would be amazing to utilize Japanese language skills developed over time while traveling to Japan like you did.
Thank you again.
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Thank you for all the tips and for sharing your experience.
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Igotchu fam!
For grammar and example sentences for that Japanese levelās grammar
Type these on ChatGPT or Deepseek:
List JLPN N5 grammar
List JLPT N5 - N1 grammar
Generate example sentences with āć®ć§ā
So you get AI to list the grammar for the level then get it to generate example sentences.
For taking JLPT tests
There are apps that has mock JLPT test based on JLPT levels, they are useful for practicing listening and grammar
For speaking
Aside from talking to AI, you can also practice speaking with real people in games like VRchat, there is an EN-JP language exchange world
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@Illiya I wanted to follow upā¦you mean that studying grammar in the past can be sufficient to build foundation, making example sentences more understandable while studying kanji with Wainikani. Right?
I have studied Japanese grammar and culture using Youkoso (alternative to Genki) using the first textbook and workbook only. I believe there is part two that I did not use just because it was not included in the classes I enrolled inā¦ I still think there are other grammar topics that I donāt know yet.
Looking forward to your perspective on this.
Thank you.
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Thanks for your thoughts, as I too had similar question as the OP. With Renshuu and learning kanji, similar to WK, do they provide imagery and text/ātricksā, on how to remember the radicals and kanji? Because, similar to what some others said, I donāt know if I would have been able to simply āmemorizeā various kanji, without all the visuals and text tricks that WK provides to us.
As for Anki, while Iāve heard so many people talking about it, when I briefly looked at it, it didnāt seem very user-friendlyā¦seemed very erā¦ātechieā and clunky looking.. Iāve even had fellow classmates, who were talking about Anki, try to help one another (one already had Anki on their phoneā¦) to download/set up Anki, and then I saw they were having troubleā¦it just didnāt seem to be working ā¦and they couldnāt figure out āwhyāā¦
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for what itās worth renshuu is 100% free
for real ā¦ seriously!
there is a discord server and helpful community if you have questions about how things work. You will likely get help almost immediately - canāt hurt to try it out - there are even recorded learning lessons again for free.
they have quite a few activities on the discord server as well but depending on time zones may or may not be workable for you but also free!
If you want to unlock some of the paid features you can do that, too but itās not required to use the kanji/vocab/grammar features.
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And even if your free trial expired a long time ago, the creator is kind enough to give another two weeks ā he recently did it for me
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