Kageyama Method: Tadashii Kanji Kakitori-Kun - Kondo wa Kanken Taidaku Dayo!

I have been studying Japanese for three years, but Kanji remains my biggest obstacle. It seems obvious to me that such a game would only use kanji for menus, instructions and reading exercises AFTER they've been introduced, but it doesn't. It throws it at you and expects you to keep up. Sadly, my quest continues as this is clearly intended for users who understand kanji but are looking to improve their handwriting. In fact, the game is incredibly strict when it comes to handwriting such that if your stroke order, position and size is not absolutely perfect, you can't advance to the next lesson. If you want to learn kanji and their meanings, stick with my Japanese coach from Ubisoft and get yourself a copy of Remembering Japanese Characters

Even though a bit intimidating at first, this game has been of great use to me after I had learned my first sets of kanji. It is highly recommended that you know hiragana and katakana very well, and also understand some basic Japanese, so that you can actually understand the menu texts and what you are asked to do.

However, a beginner in Japanese will find this program very useful, as it first forces you to use the all-Japanese interface, and more importantly, it teaches you the kanji perfectly: the drawing order, precise from and readings. After the somewhat heavy beginning, the game is pretty easy to use, and the amount of things to learn in the game is huge. Ranging from utter beginner's stuff to a reasonable amount of harder kanjis.

If you feel the need to access English explanations (which this game does not have), you might want to buy Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten, a more dictionary-type approach, to support your studying (especially if you have two DS consoles).

All in all, a very good product and highly recommended for quality, good value and longevity.

I can strongly recommend this tool to anyone who is looking at learning Japanese. It Has a very steep learning curve and is such better for a user who has been studying for a while. But if you are willing to throw yourself in the deep end then this is a risk that will show its full value in no time at all.

I've studied japanese for 3 years, but I still have many problems with kanji, so I thought it would be great to play a game that is designed for japanese students...Now I can say I made a good choice, but it would have been more helpful if I knew a little more japanese.
This game definitely helps you when you're practicing the writing, but also the reading of the kanji, with a little dictionary that explains the meaning and the different readings of every kanji with many examples. Unfortunately, being this game designed for japanese people, it is often frustrating: you cannot understand what a kanji means directly from the explanation of the game (obviously written in japanese), and many examples are very difficult to remember (sometimes nearly impossble).
If you are a beginner, the "drill" section is absolutely USELESS (you have to know at least 1000 kanji to play the easiest mode without getting mad) and the last section requires intense preparation because it will test your knowledge on both reading and meaning, and you have to remember by heart every single reading and combination of kanji taken from the examples.

In the end, the game is not bad, but if you are a total beginner, prepare for your worst japanese nightmare! If you can resist it, you'll surely become a kanji no kamisama XD!

If you’re someone truly serious about learning Japanese as a second language you’ll need to learn kanji at some point in time. Have any of you ever seen those anime that make fun of Japanese kids who can’t read kanji? There’s always that kid who makes F’s because she can’t read the problems on her homework since they’re in kanji. You will have to learn kanji, you can’t escape it unless you decide you’re never going to take the JLPT or you’re never going to be reading anything in Japanese. It’s very essential because there are so many of them, and Japanese people do use them. Very often.

Now that you know there’s no getting around kanji I’ll tell you what makes this program is a real helper. The greatest feature in my opinion is being able to actually draw the kanji you’re learning on your DS with the stylus. It’s a great feature, especially when your someone like me who’s wasted binders of notebook paper just by copying down the little letters hundreds of times. The con of this feature though is when you actually want to redraw that same kanji. Once you grade you’re kanji it takes some time before you can press the back button, which always gets on my nerves. The best way to get around this though is simply to not grade your kanji and just keep erasing what you’ve drawn so you can instantly draw it again.

Another nice feature that I’ve heard that they just added to this version of Kakitorikun, seeing as there’s a previous version, is that you can look up the on and kun readings of the kanji along with sample words using these kanji. This was essential if you ask me. If I just learned how to write a kanji and never knew how to read it what would be the point of learning it? This is a must feature for people learning Japanese. Make sure you’re buying the correct version in this case. I did. Several times.

The last feature I can think of explaining is the test feature. This feature leads you through bodies of Japanese texts were a few kanji have been omitted. As you’ve probably already guessed you’re going to have to be able to read the word in hiragana and be able to decide on your own what kanji belongs in it’s place. It was difficult for me at first but as you practice you’ll get better at filling in the blanks.

Other than things I’ve mentioned above there are a few other buttons I haven’t quite deciphered yet so I couldn’t tell you any more about it. But, seriously I think this is a worth buy if you’re looking into studying kanji. The game will teach you the most commonly used kanji in Japan, a little over 2000 I believe, and when you don’t have paper or a pen on you just flip out your DS. This game is definitely not a necessity though so if you’re low on cash I suggest just doing it the old fashioned way and using paper and pen. It’s fun nonetheless and if you’re serious about learning the language I’m sure you won’t be disappointed with it. Happy shopping people!