N5 → N1 · 2,135 kanji
Learn the kanji.For good.
On Kanzen, understand each kanji instead of copying it out a hundred times, and review it right before you forget it.
The whole N5 level is free, forever. No card required.
- 2,135
- kanji, N5 to N1
- 25,000+
- vocabulary words
- 3
- skills tracked separately
- $0
- for the whole N5 level
The method
Understand kanji, don’t cram them.
Every kanji is made of small pieces that mean something. 明, “bright”, is the sun 日 and the moon 月!
On every card, discover those pieces, the readings, common words and stroke order. Spot the same pieces from one kanji to the next and learn faster and faster.
Memory hooks
A memory hook for every kanji.
On Kanzen, every kanji comes with a little story to help you remember it.
Read other learners’ hooks, adopt the ones that click or write your own!
休to rest
- 249250
A person 人 leaning against a tree 木 — they’re resting.
- 187
The worker takes their break in the tree’s shade.
- 94
Person + wood: a nap in the woods.
Three skills
Meaning, reading, vocabulary.
Knowing a kanji means knowing what it means, how it’s read and which words it shows up in.
Kanzen tracks those three skills separately and brings each one back right before you forget it. A few minutes a day is enough to keep it all in your head.
Meaning
2 memories
Kanji to meaning, and meaning to kanji. Two memories, not one.
Reading
2 memories
Recognising the readings, and finding the kanji from them.
Words
1 memory
The kanji inside real vocabulary, not alone on a card.
Your progress
Every kanji takes you higher.
On Kanzen, your progress is a climb. Learn kanji, clear levels and make your way up Mount Fuji!
A torii marks each JLPT level: look back at how far you’ve come and ahead at what’s left. And depending on the time of day, the mountain changes its light.
ReadingFrench version only
Read real Japanese.
Dive into thousands of real sentences and short stories, picked from the kanji you know.
At first, furigana help you read. The more you progress, the more they fade away, until you don’t need them at all!
Your goal
Get ready for the JLPT.
Pick your level and exam date: Kanzen works out how many kanji to learn each week and tells you whether you’re on track.
- 01
Set your goal
Pick a JLPT level and an exam date, or go freely at your own pace.
- 02
Learn every week
Kanzen tells you how many new kanji to learn and introduces them one at a time.
- 03
Stay on course
Compare your real pace to the plan and see straight away if you’re ahead or behind.
Duel Mode
Seven leagues to climb.
Have fun challenging other learners and your friends, review while you play, climb the rankings and become the mightiest yokai of all.
Tanuki
The start
Kitsune
70% of N5
Kasa-obake
40% of N4
Tengu
40% of N3
Oni
40% of N2
Ryū
40% of N1
Kami
80% of N1
Live
The Kanzen community, in real numbers.
Every review done in the app makes these counters go up.
- cards reviewed
- 12,065
- every question answered in review
- kanji learned
- 962
- meaning, reading and vocabulary moved on to review
- tips written
- 11
- by players, to remember a kanji
- duels played
- 70
- head-to-head or in the Daily Duel
Study the JLPT kanji
The 2,135 kanji you need, level by level and from most to least useful: meanings, readings, stroke order. N5 as full pages, with memory hooks and vocabulary. Free, no sign-up.
Test my level in 2 minutes →Guides
All guides →How many kanji do you need to know? The honest numbers, from N5 to reading a novel
There are 50,000+ kanji in the biggest dictionaries, 2,136 on the official jōyō list, and about 2,000 between you and a Japanese newspaper. Here is what the numbers actually mean — and which ones matter at each stage.
Spaced repetition: the science of remembering more, with less effort
How spaced repetition works, where it comes from, and why it let me learn 300 kanji and 1,000+ Japanese words in 18 months — with Anki for vocabulary and Kanzen for kanji.
A look inside
The app, screen by screen.
Explore the app through real screenshots.
Explorer 
Kanji card 
Review 
Mnemonics 
Dōjō
When you want to go further
Kanzen Plus
N5 is free forever. Want to go further? With Kanzen Plus, unlock every level up to N1, every game and all the reading. From $6.99 a month, with a 7-day trial.
Hear about the launchThe two questions we get asked most
Is Kanzen really free?
Do I need to already know Japanese?
Review anywhere.
On the bus, on a break or on the couch at night: on phone or tablet, your progress follows you!
Phone and tablet · iOS in the works
Be there on day one.
Drop your email and hear about it the day it’s out. The whole N5 level will be free, no card required!
The long version
Still weighing it up? Here’s the full detail.
- Kanzen vs WaniKani, Anki and DuolingoMethod, content, price: what each tool really does, criterion by criterion.
- PricingThe whole N5 level free, with no time limit. What Kanzen Plus unlocks, and for how much.
- Frequently asked questionsDo you need to speak Japanese, does it work offline, where does your data go: the answers.
The animated kanji strokes on this page come from KanjiVG © Ulrich Apel — CC BY-SA 3.0.