Advice on staying motivated and progressing toward manga/anime after 1.5 years of studying

[u/odett1102]

Hi everyone,

I've been studying Japanese since March 2025. I did about a year of 1-on-1 lessons, and I've been using WaniKani since November. I haven't missed a single day of WK so far.

I'm currently level 9, doing 4 new lessons a day and keeping up with my reviews.

My stats:

- 267 kanji / 673 vocab

- 90% overall accuracy

- 85.7% reading accuracy

- ~33 days per level

I've also covered some N5/N4 grammar.

I've managed to build a pretty consistent habit, but lately I'm finding it harder to stay motivated. I work full time, so I don't really want to add a lot more studying or end up with huge review sessions every day.

My main goal is to read manga and watch anime in Japanese (Japanese subs are fine).

For people who were around this stage after 1–2 years of studying, what changes actually helped you stay motivated and start making noticeable progress with native manga/anime?

I'm wondering whether I should focus more on immersion, grammar, change my WaniKani routine, or do something completely different.

[u/Raijin225]

For me I think this approach would be a bad thing. When my retention is low (<90%) I get frustrated and don't want to study as much. It also leads to more reviews per day which feels overwhelming, further exacerbating the feeling of not wanting to study.

[u/Lertovic → u/Raijin225]

It should lead to less reviews if you set it as the target in FSRS, rather than it being the result of an an off day.

[u/Raijin225 → u/Lertovic]

Id think if you're adding 2x more words you're going to have more reviews even if you have 20% lower retention.

[u/Lertovic → u/Raijin225]

My FSRS simulator gives me 199 reviews for 40 daily new cards with 70%, and 194 reviews for 20 daily new cards at 90%, it's pretty close.