What to use after Genki

After Genki, the bottleneck is usually volume, not a missing beginner app. You need Japanese you can finish, and a way to retrieve grammar when a sentence asks for it.

If you only finished Volume 1, the next step is Volume 2 and the matching workbook, not a new brand. The official course is two volumes. Restarting with Minna no Nihongo as “coverage” is a second beginner series.

If kana in Lessons 1 and 2 never stuck, fix that with the two-week kana guide before you buy an intermediate book.

The decision

Situation	Next step	Skip
You will do textbook chapters	Tobira	A second beginner series
A heavy book would sit closed	Satori Reader or NHK News Web Easy	Buying Tobira as a personality upgrade
You recognize grammar and cannot produce it	Bunpro after input exists	Bunpro as a new identity with no reading
Kanji order is the remaining hole	WaniKani as one sequence	Three kanji methods at once

Tobira is the usual next book after Genki or Minna. It is useful if chapters happen. It fails as a purchase that represents the person you meant to become. If the other candidate is Quartet, decide on Tobira vs Quartet instead of owning both.

The intermediate hub keeps the shortlist. How to move from beginner apps to intermediate Japanese is the wider exit if Genki was never the spine.

Keep one review loop

If you already review Genki words in Anki or a course SRS, keep that queue at a weekday size. Do not add WaniKani, Bunpro, and a new deck in the same week.

WaniKani can own kanji order. It is not the whole language. See Is WaniKani enough? before it becomes the only remaining study.

Input is the new course

Put one finishable source on three weekdays:

• NHK News Web Easy for a short article with audio.
• Satori Reader for notes on a story.
• Tadoku if you will finish easy books.

Yomitan can sit on the page once lookups follow a rule. Cap the lookups. The reading shortlist explains the jobs.

Grammar retrieval comes third

Bunpro helps when a Genki pattern is familiar and still will not come back. Add it after reading is happening. A reference such as A Dictionary of Japanese Grammar is for looking up a point you met. It is not a reason to stop reading.

Wire the week with How to combine a textbook, SRS, reading, and listening if the new stack is already crowding the calendar.