The downside is that, unlike Heisig in particular, this method will not allow you to even dream about mastering 1,945 joyou kanji: You might breeze through all kanji in this book, but you will still be only just over half-way there. And without Rowley's illustrative skill, you will find it difficult to use same method to press on and master rest.

This is a serious weakness compared to other methods mentioned in Part 1. Their advantage is not just that they take you through at least all joyou kanji, but that they also give you a method which you can continue to use for any obscure kanji you come across in future.

So, if you are a visual learner and you are thinking about using Kanji Pict-O-Graphix as your main kanji learning tool, you will probably want to consider whether you are serious enough to want learn more than 1,000 kanji before you get started. However, if you are simply thinking of using this approach as an extra additional resource, there is very little you can say to fault this volume.

At end of day, it still comes down to your needs and your preferred learning method: Will you opt for Heisig or Henshall's mnemonics, Rowley's visual approach or will you be a pioneer and create your own unique method? The choice is yours, but grinding, rote kanji memorization does not have to be your fate any more.

You can download pdf files of substantial sections of each of books in this series for review here:

James Heisig – Remembering Kanji Book 1

http://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/Remembering_the_Kanji_1.htm

James Heisig – Remembering Kanji Book 2

http://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/Remembering_the_Kanji_2.htm

James Heisig – Remembering Kanji Book 3

http://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/Remembering_the_Kanji_3.htm

Kenneth Henshall's A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters

Now, I should first state that, personally, I have not used this method in my own kanji study. However, while looking at ways to accelerate my kanji assimilation ability to joyou level (the 1,945 kanji set taught up to end of high school in Japan) and beyond, I came across Henshall's method as other major alternative to traditional repeat-until-you-go-mad methods.

Henshall also employs mnemonics, creating a sentence to plant image of kanji deep in learner's brain. The difference is that where Heisig takes a fast-and-loose approach with meanings assigned to individual elements of each kanji in reaching his goal of creating a memorable mind-picture, Henshall traces history of these elements in great scholastic detail.

In my opinion (and reason I personally chose Heisig over Henshall for my own study), academic strength of Henshall's analysis is its biggest weakness as a memorization tool: If you have an excellent memory, or if you already know kanji anyway and are interested in their etymological roots, then Henshall will give you a depth of knowledge that will impress even your native speaker Japanese friends. However, if you do not have an almost-photographic memory, and mastering kanji in a sensible time period is your priority, you will probably find that this detailed and obscure analysis does not provide compelling memory "hook" that Heisig's method does.

Other Mnemonic Kanji Study Methods

In addition to these two main players you may also want to consider 2001 Kanji by Father Joseph R. De Roo (although its availability is questionable) or Kanji ABC by Forester and Tamura as alternative approaches.

If you are a visual learner, skip on to Part 2 and discover methods that can work best with your learning style.