I built Shirukan because I wanted kanji lookup to feel faster.. and retro :)
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Hey, I’m Maciek.
I built Shirukan because I kept missing a very small thing while learning Japanese: a quick kanji lookup that does not feel like opening a textbook every time.
The idea is simple: type kana or romaji or draw by your finger, get the kanji, furigana and meaning fast. Then, only if you want, open the deeper stuff stroke order, pronunciation, examples and what I call X-Ray, meaning a breakdown of the character.
I also wanted it to feel a bit old-school kind of 60thies retro style, so I made "mono chromatic cinematoskope display" .
It is a PWA, so it works in the browser and can be installed like an app.
I’d really like brutal feedback on one thing:
Does the “Kanji X-Ray” idea make sense to you, or is it unclear?
Thank you.
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I am always on go mode. Always thinking how to polish my apps.
My brain never stop thinking.. thats pretty annoying.
After posting Shirukan for a lounch I realised I miss something into this app, this would help me so much when I was in Japan.
When I wanted to write something or say saomething and my Japanese was back then N5 level i missed most of the words so, I realised pointing at some object and geting back its word in Japanese would be so damn awesome. This feature would help so much then..
That feature sounds so appealing I decided to implement it. its like adding something slightly off the main purpose of this app but still in the area of the same subject. Just widening the perspective. Still lookup but now more interactive.
Still want to keep its retro style.