Kakehashi vs NihonMaster

Bridge the gap between learning kanji and using Japanese in the real world. Kakehashi is the ultimate unofficial third-party app for WaniKani - designed to take your Japanese beyond flashcards and into authentic content. Practice with anime dialogue, read NHK news articles, learn through song lyrics, and see exactly how your knowledge maps to JLPT and Joyo levels. REVIEWS & LESSONS, YOUR WAY - Customizable batch sizes and question ordering - Meaning-first or reading-first modes - Critical item prioritization for struggling vocabulary - Detailed statistics after every session LEARN FROM REAL JAPANESE - Listening Practice — Study vocabulary in context with real anime clips - NHK News — Read current events with kanji readiness indicators - Song Lyrics — Learn Japanese through music with Spotify integration - Camera OCR — Point your camera at Japanese text and learn instantly POWERFUL STUDY MODES - Recent Lessons — Reinforce newly learned items - Random Tests — Quiz yourself on any level range - Vocab Reading Practice — Master kana readings - Custom Reviews — Study exactly what you choose TRACK YOUR PROGRESS - JLPT Breakdown — See your N5 to N1 progress at a glance - Joyo Grades — Track school-level kanji mastery - Frequency Analysis — Know which kanji matter most - Review Heatmap — Visualize your study consistency - Constellation View — Explore kanji component relationships THOUGHTFUL DETAILS - Multiple Japanese voice options for audio - MyAnimeList sync for personalized anime content - Review notifications so you never miss SRS timing - Offline caching for study anywhere - Beautiful dark mode interface Kakehashi means "bridge" in Japanese — and that's exactly what this app is. A bridge from WaniKani's world of radicals, kanji, and vocabulary to the Japanese you'll encounter in manga, anime, news, and everyday life. Your journey to fluency deserves more than flashcards. Build your bridge with Kakehashi. Note: Kakehashi requires an active WaniKani account. This is an unofficial third-party app and is not affiliated with WaniKani or Tofugu LLC.

I'm Joppe. I built Nihon Master because I was learning Japanese and the apps I was using were not doing it for me. Duolingo got me started but I was not really learning past hiragana. Anki is great if you build your own deck. Wanikani is great for kanji. I wanted one place that actually teaches the language. So I built it for myself. A few friends started using it. Then strangers. Now it's here. This is not a flashcard deck, and it is not a gamified drill machine. It is a real curriculum backed by real tools, built specifically for Japanese, where kana and kanji are first-class instead of a language pack bolted on the side. What's inside. A guided journey from absolute beginner through JLPT N1. Hiragana, katakana, kanji, vocabulary, grammar, reading practice. Every lesson has a clear point and you finish it knowing something you did not know an hour ago. Around 2,000 kanji with stroke animations, writing practice, and readings ordered by what you actually need first. Spaced repetition built on FSRS (the same algorithm Anki adopted in 2024) instead of the 1987 SM-2 formula most apps still ship. Twelve sub-skills tracked separately, so you can see whether your particles are fine and your kanji readings are the problem, instead of one meaningless overall number. Mock JLPT tests for every level, in the same shape as the real exam. Useful for the test itself and for figuring out where you actually stand. Native-quality Japanese audio on every vocabulary item, generated by VOICEVOX, an open-source Japanese TTS that does not sound like a robot. A sentence generator that builds sentences only from words and grammar you have already learned, so you never get jumped by kanji you have never seen. What's not inside. Streaks engineered to guilt you into opening the app at 11:59 PM. A heart system that locks you out until you wait or pay. A subscription that holds half the content behind a paywall. Ads of any kind. Everything works offline. No sign-in. No account. Your progress lives on your device. There are no servers, and that is intentional. I am one person making this in my spare time. If you have an idea, a feature request, a bug to report, or you just want to tell me which kanji is annoying you this week, please do. There is a Discord linked inside the app and an Instagram at @nihonmaster.official. I read everything. If Duolingo is working for you, honestly that is great, keep doing that. This app is for the people who tried Duolingo, kept the streak alive for six months, and realised they still could not read anything. Have fun with it. Let me know what you think. nihonmaster.com