MaruMori Review: Complete All-in-One Website for Learning Japanese

For years I have been looking for an All-in-One website to learn Japanese and I thought that this was not possible. However, this new project on the market got me excited and I do want to share with you what my experience has been with it so far.

MaruMori is an All-in-One Japanese language learning website that tries to incorporate all the necessary language aspects for mastering Japanese; vocabulary, kanji, and grammar. The developer behind MaruMori should be already familiar to some Japanese learners out there because he also developed a (language) learning flashcard (SRS) website Kitsun. One thing that stood out to me immediately is that the developer is really invested in this project and takes feedback very seriously. There is a discord channel for further information about the website, where people are able to ask questions and leave feedback. The discord channel is also a nice place to find a Japanese learning community. Furthermore, the developer also released a Roadmap which makes it easy to check which content will come up in the future and when exactly this will be.

MaruMori is easy to navigate and looks clean. There is a ‘’home page’’ where you can find you’re stats, navigate toward your current study page, and also check the kanji and word of the day. Vocabulary, sentences, and kanjis are provided with native audio, which for me is an important quality. Then there is an adventure page that exists of different ‘’learning islands’’ that you can explore. The site is still in development, but so far, you have the following islands;

• Absolute beginner: focuses on the basics of the Japanese language, Kana study, and some foundational grammar points.
• Beginner: aimed at JLPT N5 level. Beginner grammar, vocabulary, and Kanji.
• Lower Intermediate: aimed at JLPT N4 level.

The other islands are not finished yet, but these levels are promised: upper intermediate, advanced, and master.

I am still working on the Beginner/ Lower Intermediate content since my goal is to pass the JLPT N4 level this year. Studying kanji and vocabulary has been my focus for the past three years, but I have been neglecting grammar. For me, studying grammar is a boring and tedious task. Yet, it is highly important for understanding the language. So, I was positively surprised after discovering MaruMori and doing a couple of grammar lessons. Every lesson is focused on one grammar point and explains the subject in detail without making it too boring. The way how the text is written (informal, casual speech) engages the reader in the learning material. The adventure map is mostly focused on teaching you the grammar points, and it feels like almost a game to unlock all the ‘’study tiles’’. Meanwhile, there are a lot of different fun achievements to unlock along the way.

Vocabulary and kanjis are only introduced in the adventure map ( you kind of unlock them as well) and later on you practice them with the spaced repetition system (SRS). Until now, I have been using WaniKani and I am pretty fond of the SRS type of learning. The developer of MaruMori keeps up with the improvement of the SRS platform and I dare say that I enjoy it even more than WaniKani now.

Further, there are also multiple tools like games and conjugation/kana trainer, to help you in your Japanese study. More tools will be added in the near future.

To sum up, I have a list of positive and negative aspects of the website. Keep in mind that the website is still in development (there are new updates weekly) and that this is just my opinion.

Positives (there are many🙂) :

• When the website is fully developed, it should be a proper All-in-One platform. Meaning, that it should contain almost everything you need to start out and learn Japanese; reading, listening, writing, grammar, kanji, vocabulary, etc. Of course, this is something that we still need to experience in the future. I think I will post an updated review at the end of this year to explore the new functions and content.
• It has a good kanji-spaced repetition system, comparable to WaniKani
• Grammar is explained in an easy and fun way
• It urges you to learn kana right away and provides tips for doing this. Also contains Kana SRS
• It provides the possibility to practice verb conjugations
• It makes it easy to check your statistics and see how many vocabulary/kanjis/grammar you have learned for every JLPT level

Negatives:

• An obvious one: the website is not for free. It can be used for a while without paying, but eventually, you must pay to keep using it. See the website for more information on the subscription options. I list this point under negatives because a subscription could be a deal breaker for some. However, I want to point out that a lot of work has gone into making this website, and judging by the released roadmap, just as much work (if not more) lies ahead.
• It is still in development, so you have to wait for additional content to be released. See the roadmap for content and time indication.
• You can only learn a certain amount of kanji/vocabulary every day ( and of course do the reviews), so the system limits your learning just like with WaniKani. This could be a downside if you already have learned some basic kanji/vocabulary and would have to wait until you learn new ones. However, if you study daily you could reach the new kanjis very quickly. Keep in mind, that the website only has lessons now for beginner and pre-intermediate levels.

At the end of this year (2023), I will post an updated review because I expect a lot of new content and changes to this website. If you are missing some information in this review or see mistakes, leave a comment and I will check it out.

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Update Summer 2025

Sorry for the long wait, but here are my final thoughts on the MaruMori website. Since 2023, when I first wrote my review of this study resource, the developers have changed a lot! The promises that were given in the roadmap are taken seriously, so many new functions were added to their website. Also, they have launched the app format! For me, that was the greatest game-changer. Study content for the JLPT levels N3 and N2 are also added, only N1 is still in development.

The Kanji and vocabulary SRS work fine, and now the Grammar SRS has also been added.

There are various statistics to view on your learning process. And a yearly wrap-up is provided to summarise the whole study process.

Overall, I think that this is one of the strongest resources out there for learning Japanese. It is beginner-friendly friendly but it does not linger only on beginner content.

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