I agree, and that's why I find wanikani so useful. After 7-8 years trying to learning kanji and always failing after 3-400, I have been using wanikani for ~ 6 m

I agree, and that's why I find wanikani so useful. After 7-8 years trying to learning kanji and always failing after 3-400, I have been using wanikani for ~ 6 months, and the system of building vocabulary on top of kanji on top of radicals really did it for me. I learnt 600 kanji in 6 months, ~ 2000 words of vocabulary, and I am quite confident I will reach 1000+ EOY. Even at the beginning, learning the simple kanji, having the vocabulary I knew/heard living in Japan associated to the kanji made it very useful from the start. For anybody learning kanji with anki, etc. and failing, I recommend giving wanikani a try. I am just a happy user. Disclaimer: I live in Japan, work in a mixed English/Japanese environment and speak simple Japanese w/ my wife every day