I got both (in addition to Kanji Pictographix) of these prior to discovering Heisig. For awhile, it seemed like a waste of cash, but I've been thumbing through it today. It looks like a nifty resource post-RTK1. It uses Kana, has On yomi and Kun yomi. You get to review, test and place your kanji in context to Japanese life. There are some good sentences to mine for an SRS. Plus, it lists various compounds for the 500 Kanji with a seperator between "important" and "nice to know". What you can do is look up the compounds either online or in a J-E dictionary and input the appropriate sentences into an SRS.

Anyway, it's not essential despite the title, but it may be a useful resource to think about if you're able to get one cheap.

I bought this a few years ago, hoping that the mnemonics would cure my studying slump. On reflection, it's a pretty bad book: the kanji are supposedly presented in order of importance, but this gives you no tools to remember the writing order in any logical manner. I've also come to think that mnemonics are basically useless in the grand scheme of things.

In combination with something like Heisig, much more highly recommended are books that teach kanji in the context of sentences, like the appropriately named "Kanji in context".

I agree that the books are not useful to learn how to write or memorize kanji. What I was pointing out was that these show kanji in the context of everyday common aspects of Japanese society (schools, restaurants, trips, using the air conditioner, getting a house, etc.). It has some useful practice areas to put your knowledge to use. This helps increase your ability to function in Japanese society, where you can play the kanji word game on paper instead of when you're in queu at the train station.

In addition, it does list some common compounds which you can use to in conjunction with a furigana or j-j dictionary to make sentences for your SRS. Like I wrote on Amazon review, it's ok to get if you can get it cheap, but don't be in a rush. It's a nicety not a necessity, despite what the title implies.

I'll be on the look out for Kanji in Context, but I don't think it's available on Amazon at the moment.

I tried to use this book in my early Japanese studying days and it led me to dead ends again and again so I eventually abandoned it. Might have been good post Heisig if I'd done RTK right away but by the time I finished RTK I was already beyond the scope of 250 Essential Kanji.


As a side note - Kanji Pict-O-Graphix - a prime example of a useless kanji gimmick. What a waste of money! The people who rave about its excellence are invariably people who haven't actually tried to use it.

Cosign on that Pict-O-Graphix. Aside from that $85 blue LED belt I bought on Sunset a couple years back, that was the dumbest purchase I've ever made.