What is hiragana?
Hiragana is one of the writing systems used in Japanese, alongside katakana, kanji and rōmaji. It is the closest thing Japanese has to an alphabet: every Japanese sentence can be written entirely in hiragana, because every sound in the language has a matching hiragana character.
There are 46 basic characters, plus a handful of marks and combinations that extend them to cover every sound. Each character is pronounced only one way, which makes hiragana the perfect place to begin — master it and you can read the pronunciation of almost anything, including the readings printed above difficult kanji. Try it on the tab.
What is katakana?
Katakana covers exactly the same set of sounds as hiragana but uses a different, more angular set of characters. If hiragana is cursive and rounded, katakana is sharp and blocky.
It is used mainly for foreign loanwords (コーヒー = “coffee”), foreign names, onomatopoeia, scientific terms and emphasis — a bit like italics in English. Because the sounds are identical to hiragana, learning it is mostly a matter of recognising new shapes. Practise it on the tab.
What is rōmaji?
Rōmaji is the romanization of Japanese text using the Latin alphabet — the letters you are reading right now. For example, なに is written in rōmaji as “nani” (な “na” + に “ni”), meaning “what”.
Rōmaji is how most learners first connect Japanese sounds to something
familiar. During a
session you type the rōmaji for the character shown on the card. Hikakanji
accepts common variants too, so si is treated the same as
shi and tu the same as tsu.
What is kanji?
Kanji are characters borrowed from Chinese that represent whole words or ideas rather than single sounds. A single kanji such as 日 can mean “day” or “sun” and be read several different ways depending on the word it appears in.
This is what makes kanji the most demanding part of Japanese: you learn not just a shape, but its meanings and multiple readings. In Hikakanji each kanji card accepts its common readings, and you can reveal the English meaning with Show meaning if you get stuck. Browse them on the tab.
What are the JLPT levels?
The JLPT (Japanese-Language Proficiency Test) is the standard international exam for Japanese. It groups kanji and vocabulary into five levels, from N5 (beginner) up to N1 (advanced). N5 covers roughly the first hundred everyday kanji; N1 expects a couple of thousand.
Hikakanji organises its kanji the same way, so you can study one level at a time or select several at once from the Kanji level picker. Working level by level is the most common way to pace kanji study.
How does Learn mode work?
Pick some rows on the Hiragana, Katakana or Kanji tabs, then press . Learn mode walks you through your selected characters one at a time, showing the character, its rōmaji and (for kanji) the English meaning — with no scoring and no time pressure.
Use the Prev / Next buttons or the ← / → arrow keys to move, and Play sound (or press P) to hear how a character is pronounced. It is the gentlest way to meet new characters before testing yourself.
How does the Quiz work?
Pick some rows, then press . Each selected character is shuffled into a deck. Type the rōmaji and press Enter — correct answers build your streak, while a wrong answer reveals the correct reading before you continue.
You can flip the direction (see the rōmaji and recall the character), and answer either by typing or by choosing from buttons. Your selection is saved in your browser, so it is still waiting for you when you come back.
How does Ani-Names work?
is a guessing game: it shows an anime's title in its native Japanese spelling, and you type the title back in rōmaji. Titles come from the AniList database, so there is a fresh mix every time.
Your answer is matched loosely, so minor spelling slips and skipped long vowels still count. Stuck? Use Show English for a hint, or Skip to reveal the answer without a penalty.
Ani-Names is still in beta, so a few titles may not match perfectly yet.