My journey of learning Japanese has been finding new apps/resources/etc., using them, tossing them aside, and finding others… ad nauseum. So the ones I’ve found now are the ones that have stood the test of time (for the most part). Each one is a “part of this complete breakfast”, but none of them is a silver bullet, and none of them will get you towards the goal of N1 or C3 or fluency or whatever.
Also, these are the resources that work for me. Don’t get mad if they don’t work for you.
Wanikani
Wanikani has been one of the most useful, if frustrating, resources. It teaches you how to recognize kanji, their common readings, both kunyomi and onyomi, and words that use those kanji (which reinforces the readings of the kanji). It’s slow, because it’s spaced repetition, but I’ve found even at level 7 it really builds my vocabulary.
It has weaknesses, though, by design. It does not teach grammar. It does not teach how to write the kanji. And it doesn’t teach the context of the words. By which I mean, you can have a word that it says means one thing, but it means it in a different context than you might think.
It’s also really frustrating because most of the time I know what should have been typed, but I typo and it’s very unforgiving for that. But I guess on the flip side, that just means I commit them even more to memory. Plus, I’ve gotten good at using the native Japanese keyboard by inputting the readings using it.
Using this resource will put you in a better position, but don’t use it by itself. That will be an utter waste of time.
This resource is scattershot. By which I mean, it contains a lot of information, but it’s only loosely structured, and it’s hard to find what you need amongst the piles of information it contains. You kind of have to pick and choose. But it’s got a wealth of information in it once you find it, and it’s in easy to digest chunks. I highly recommend it, but not as your primary resource. Use it to brush up on stuff you either already know or know incompletely.
I found this one recently. I used to use Kanji Tree to practice writing kanji, but it hasn’t been updated lately, because the author is in prison for murder (!). Ringotan seems useful though, it’s spaced repetition for writing kanji, and it seems to work okay for that. I’m hoping this will plug the hole left by wanikani, because it actually teaches how to write it. Useful on a tablet.
Until recently, this has been a terrible resource. But it’s improving. It doesn’t actually teach anything, in my opinion. By which I mean you’re not going to learn many grammar points, the words are taught kind of scattershot, the sentence examples are correct but scattershot, and the gamification is actually annoying rather than useful. But it does help with listening. They give lots of sentences that are done at speed and with a nearly correct accent. So if you do a few lessons a day, you can actually pick some stuff up that might be difficult to pick up otherwise.
But as with the other resources, don’t use it alone. It won’t get you where you want to be, alone.
For some reason I have a hard time sticking with this one, but it gives you vocabulary using a similar spaced repetition as wanikani, but different words. It’s a good supplement, and it can use wanikani to determine what to teach you.
My sensei
Get a teacher. Seriously. Get a teacher. That’s going to help bind all the rest together. I use preply for that.
Anyway, these are the resources I currently use. Not that anyone cares. and the fact that I’m only N5 after six years is a pretty good indicator that you shouldn’t do what I do.