ShinKanji

I'm using this frequently to help learn about 10 kanji a week. It simply does what you need it to and it's now one the more useful apps I have.

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.

Does everything right, simple multi engined search, hand drawn kanji recognition excellent, indespensable for any Japanese learners

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

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

For me, the highlight of this app is its handwriting recognition: it can recognize all of the jouyou kanji and then some -- unlike other iPhone/iPad apps, which rely on the device's inherent handwriting recognition, which is limited to certain Chinese characters. That's great -- but this app can only recognize one character at a time, which means I can put in only the first character of a compound. Then I have to scroll through a long list of compounds and hope I find the one I'm looking for. If the developer could let me input a string of characters in a row, so that I could look up an entire compound instead of just a single kanji, then this would be a 5-star app for me. (Or is there a way to do that already?) One other note: I bought the iPad version for my iPad. I almost prefer the low-res demo version because it offered a larger space for handwriting recognition. Could you make the handwriting recognition window larger, or at least offer a larger window as an option? Thanks! All in all, I'm pleased with this app. Thanks for making it.

I've used the iPhone/iPod Touch version of ShinKanji almost since it was released. The dedication of the developer is admirable. He has constantly improved this application since its initial release (this is a review of version 3.3.0.6 - to give you an idea of how actively he maintains it). Now that he has made it a universal app, it takes full advantage of the increased screen area of the iPad. In my opinion, the best thing about the increased screen area is that it allows you to increase the font size on the compounds so you can really see the fine detail of their Kanji when browsing them. Also, for those who might be disappointed by the romaji in the screenshots of the readings, that is an adjustable setting. I have it set to display the readings in Kana. A great feature that I use all the time, is the ability to break down and explore the components of a Kanji. I have found that to be a big help in studying the more complex characters.

Wow!!! What was once my favorite Japanese app for the iPod Touch, is now my favorite Japanese app for iPad (and at the moment the FIRST & ONLY quality Japanese app available for the iPad). Whatever device you own, buy this app ASAP, you will not regret it! The developer continuously improves this app for an absolutely unbelievable value (and it still would be even if the price were to double). To the developer: Thank you for years of dedication, I love this app and have recommended it frequently to my fellow students of the Japanese language! As always, I remain looking forward to future updates. (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 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.

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.

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.