ShinKanji

(October 2008) I am shocked at how great this program is! It is the App Store’s BEST KEPT SECRET!!! 5 stars for the program and another 5 stars for the service!

Perhaps the most important thing about this program is the dedication of the creator. I received a reply to my question about future updates within a few hours. To my delight, I discovered that plans are in the works to include compounds for the current kanji and a full dictionary (not just kanji)! The dedication of ShinKanji’s creator speaks volumes. Speaking of which, the creator actually requests input; “And if you have usability issues, suggestions, or if you find a bug in the application or the data, please don't hesitate to inform me.”

ShinKanji features accurate readings and stroke order for kanji with definitions in multiple languages. The stroke order can be viewed step by step or in an animation and either way it is clear where the starting point for each stroke is (a very rare feature)! In addition you can sort the kanji lists by Radical(s), JLPT level, Jouyou Grade or word category (Animals, Body, Colors, Elements, Numbers, Elements, and even Counters). Personally, I prefer to sort them by grade and this feature makes my life so much easier! Because of that feature I can easily look up the meanings of the kanji I write in Kakitorikun handwriting practice for the Nintendo DS. ShinKanji is a fabulous reference at home and on the go. The program is easy to use and runs fast! ShinKanji is better than any of the Kanji books or applications I own and I have dozens. Although I own other Japanese reference applications, this is the only one I use often. If an excellent Japanese resource is what you want, you will certainly be happy if you purchase this program.

I've had ShinKanji since its release. It was very good to start with but it has really become one of the top Japanese learning apps. The recent release includes its own Kanji drawing tablet which I like much more than the iPhone's native input mode (more area for drawing, and it seems better at finding what I'm looking for). Benoit is really responsive, listens to all suggestions, and his track record of improvements indicates a great future for this app.

I live and work in Japan. Shinkanji is excellent for looking up Kanji quickly and for study. My Japanese co-workers even ask to borrow it sometimes (nobody remembers all the kanji, all the time.) I highly recommend it.

This is still my favorite Japanese app, and I use it everyday to look up characters and how to write them. It is a very convenient way to see a character written LARGE for learning purposes. The developer has increased the font size of input kanji if you just want a reminder of what a specific character looks like. That's very helpful! The new "draw" feature is a nice bonus that offers a much better alternative to the iphone's chinese keyboard "draw" feature.

1. I'm still looking for a feature that would display two kanji at the same time (since most Japanese vocabulary use two or more kanji), or at least one that would allow one to toggle back and forth between the first kanji and second kanji without having to input a two-character word all over again and then delete the first character to see how the second one is written...!
2. When entering the hiragana for Direct Input, sometimes a lot of kanji appear. It is difficult to scroll through the group of kanji looking for the kanji I want without accidentally pressing on a kanji that I don't want. Also, if there's a way to make these kanji larger and more readable, that would help a lot. This is a probably a limitation on Apple's part.
3. Having to press "direct" first and then wait for the direct input to descend and ascend before inputting is time-consuming--it would be nice to have the input field come up directly in the home page when it opens so that I do not have to go through that extra step.

I would recommend this app to anyone who is serious about learning how to write kanji, and for all others who just need to look them up from time to time...

enough said

Although the price of this application isn't cheap, I have to say that after trying many other Japanese apps and struggling to find the very best one, this is it. In fact, I would say that it is far and away the very best Japanese application available on the iTunes store today. Not only does it have the most comprehensive and up-to-date dictionary in the market, but it has automatic updates to keep the content on the cutting-edge, it has lightning-fast searches, features a wonderfully intuitive and user-friendly interface, etc. Simply put: this is a learner's dream program. Whether you're just starting out and thinking about maybe learning some Japanese, or whether you're a heavy user like I am, you'll really appreciate the wonderful speed, depth and simplicity of this application. You can search using English (as well as French, and other languages) for the Japanese word you're looking for. You can search by Japanese word for the English (or other language) meaning. You can look up kanji by radical. And you can hand-draw unfamiliar kanji that you see around town or in your books. And everything is so easy to navigate. Just touch the screen and pop-pop-pop everything you're looking for is right there. You can use all of the JLPT and other common lists of kanji, plus there are other pre-set groups of kanji for convenience and entertainment. You can even write notes to yourself on each kanji page to help you remember things about a particular character, and best of all, you can select whether you want just the most common words associated with a kanji to appear or whether you want the full, comprehensive list of examples. Using this program never gets old. It's a combination of beautiful design and a great layout that is balanced nicely with form and function. Kind of zen-like in terms of function and speed balancing. It's ultra convenience keeps learning for me fun and exciting. I feel that you could spend several hundred dollars on a top of the line Japanese-English electronic dictionary and you'll probably find that this app is superior. I learned that the hard way. My new Sharp and Casio dictionaries now sit collecting dust. They are two heavy and bulky to drag around, but my iPhone is always with me, and this program is superior to those hardware dictionaries anyway. By the way, despite my glowing words of praise for this program, I'm not in any way associated with the developer. Just a genuine fan of this app after hundreds of hours of using it and comparing it to nearly every other app that hits the iTunes store for Japanese. I always come back to this one. If you're only gonna buy just one app. This is your best choice. Feel free to write to me to share your experiences using the app and I can provide insightful tips if you like on how I have learned to get the very most out of it! FYI, Zen Nihongo, by an entirely different developer is also quite a fine product.

as a Japanese student visiting Japan, I find this app invaluable. In particular the handwriting recognition and radical search helps me to find the meaning of unknown kanji which I encounter.
I find the animation and the way one can find related kanji really usefull as I find it easier to learn several kanji with similar radicals in one lesson

I bought this hoping it will help me with the JLPT but the lists do not show up on my V2.0

Good luck looking up words like "atsui" or even "kazoku." LOL. Don't waste your money on this.

This is a really poorly made unfinished product that is very unpolished. The writing methods are just sticks that take forever to draw, the seach feature is combersome, and paging through the kanji is difficult since the arrows are near the edges of the screens. I should have saved my money. I want to return this as just about any other of the free kanji software is better. Major disapointment yet again of iPod software.

I used the app for a few minutes the first time, just quickly scanning it. Every time I use the app now of crashes within seconds. I've tried everything. I honestly get much better apps that are free. Don't waste you're money.

The program is not compatible with iPhone 3.0 software. Worked fine before I upgraded, but once I did, the program would only crash each time I tried to open the app.

I'm surprised that this app doesn't have more reviews; this is a very solid kanji dictionary. There are three times the kanji as the standard joyo list, and the interface is very intuitive. Overall, a very, very solid app. There are many solid features planned for the next revisions as well, so the app will continue to improve. And in response to a previous review, atsui is definitely there. It's listed as atsu.i, based on the romaji of the kanji. Just enter hot under meaning and it's right there.

This is a must-have app if you're studying Japanese.