Rating: 
Summary: Only for the serious
Review: I bought the hardback edition of this book years ago. At the time I searched through the many Jap/Eng character dictionaries before I decided this was the best.
I can understand how difficult it must be to come up with a character dictionery format that is easy to use, but this looked like the one. It does take a bit of getting used to, but once you have understood the concept and layout of the book, I found it relatively easy to find the character you want.
But, you can only use it IF, first you know the stroke order of the character to find it in its proper place in the dictionery. Therefore, you must have some knowledge of writing or recognising Kanji, as the characters are organised in the dictionery under their stroke count and shape. Sometimes it is easy to get the stroke order wrong and be frustrated in not finding it in that section. You can guess, but you can waste time flicking through the pages before you find the character you want. Once there, it does give you examples of usage and all the other readings for the character.
Rating:
Summary: Only for the serious
Review: I bought the hardback edition of this book years ago. At the time I searched through the many Jap/Eng character dictionaries before I decided this was the best.
I can understand how difficult it must be to come up with a character dictionery format that is easy to use, but this looked like the one. It does take a bit of getting used to, but once you have understood the concept and layout of the book, I found it relatively easy to find the character you want.
But, you can only use it IF, first you know the stroke order of the character to find it in its proper place in the dictionery. Therefore, you must have some knowledge of writing or recognising Kanji, as the characters are organised in the dictionery under their stroke count and shape. Sometimes it is easy to get the stroke order wrong and be frustrated in not finding it in that section. You can guess, but you can waste time flicking through the pages before you find the character you want. Once there, it does give you examples of usage and all the other readings for the character.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding - A Great Learning Tool
Review: I couldn't have learned the Kanji I learned without this book. Not only is it an outstanding dictionary, it's a great learning tool and amazing for reviewing. I think you should also own the Classic Nelson, only because it has far more compounds, but trust me, you'll want this too, as I've used it far more than Nelson. I would recommend this to any student of Japanese.
Rating:
Summary: An Invaluable Resource
Review: In addition to its merits as a comprehensive Japanese-English character dictionary, students who are in the process of learning Kanji (like myself) will find the detailed stroke order displays (SODs) to be an invaluable resource. Rather than taking the easy way of just listing a character and embedding microscopic numbers in it to suggest how it is to be written as is most common, the characters are built, stroke by stroke, in a series of frames beneath each main entry. And a very detailed introduction should accustom the relative newbie to habit of parsing new characters into primitives systematically right from the beginning. Plus, definitions of words and phrases are nicely grouped into their own ON- and KUN- (and none of the above) sections on the basis of SENSE and currency which makes learning that much easier. Also, the font sizes and quality are quite good so you shouldn't feel need to resort to a magnifying lens all that often.
Rating:
Summary: What it is, and what it isn't.
Review: Look, I know it is a lot of money for some people. You can buy smaller hand held things for $$, or download EDICT for free. But if for no other reason, perhaps exposure to the SKIP system for looking up kanji is worth it. Radical indexes are fine for experienced users and not that hard for beginners either. But this is easier until you have memorized the 217 radicals.
Using this sytem, anyone can recognize the pattern, count the strokes, and find the reference page in this wonderful guide of over 3500 Kanji (with their compounds and common usages). If you aren't sure you can count strokes (?) there is a radical index in the appendix, as well as a "pattern index" sort of like a short version of the whole dictionary that makes finding "hard to count" (usually because the kanji is so small you can't see it) kanji easy to find too.
There are other great Appendices are great too. In addition to radical index, you have: a Synonym group table (useful for discriminating between similar meaning kanji but not really as an English look up); a joyo list (which organizes by which grade the kanji are taught); an On-KUN index (used if you know how to pronounce it but not how to write it); a description of the three principle romanization systems (hepburn, Nippon, and Kunrei) and their differences; and topics that a beginner and expert might find useful or interseting.
This one dictionary has everything I have ever needed except:
1. some indications of the "accent" system in Japanese
2. an English -> Japanese look up system for the compounds listed
3. exactly 1 kanji that I couldn't find in it: "Uso" (Lie)Finally, this is a dictionary and not a grammar manual. It is definitely not a resource to begin learning the language. But for what ever it is not, it _is_ worth the price.
Rating:
Summary: What it is, and what it isn't.
Review: Look, I know it is a lot of money for some people. You can buy smaller hand held things for $$, or download EDICT for free. But if for no other reason, perhaps exposure to the SKIP system for looking up kanji is worth it. Radical indexes are fine for experienced users and not that hard for beginners either. But this is easier until you have memorized the 217 radicals.
Using this sytem, anyone can recognize the pattern, count the strokes, and find the reference page in this wonderful guide of over 3500 Kanji (with their compounds and common usages). If you aren't sure you can count strokes (?) there is a radical index in the appendix, as well as a "pattern index" sort of like a short version of the whole dictionary that makes finding "hard to count" (usually because the kanji is so small you can't see it) kanji easy to find too.
There are other great Appendices are great too. In addition to radical index, you have: a Synonym group table (useful for discriminating between similar meaning kanji but not really as an English look up); a joyo list (which organizes by which grade the kanji are taught); an On-KUN index (used if you know how to pronounce it but not how to write it); a description of the three principle romanization systems (hepburn, Nippon, and Kunrei) and their differences; and topics that a beginner and expert might find useful or interseting.
This one dictionary has everything I have ever needed except:
1. some indications of the "accent" system in Japanese
2. an English -> Japanese look up system for the compounds listed
3. exactly 1 kanji that I couldn't find in it: "Uso" (Lie) Finally, this is a dictionary and not a grammar manual. It is definitely not a resource to begin learning the language. But for what ever it is not, it _is_ worth the price.
Rating:
Summary: Simply awesome
Review: My grandmother got me a copy of this from a library sale, and it's an awesome dictionary. The only complaint I have about it is that it's hard to find kanji if you only know the English term (not the Japanese term), but if you have access to any other Japanese dictionary the problem is easily overcome. He's got a good selection of kanji included (I make it a point to hunt down kanji he doesn't have *grin*), and there's plenty of room in the margins and above the entries to make notes.
Rating:
Summary: "Pretty Good, with limitations"
Review: The NTC dictionary is a good resource for beginning students of the Japanese language. Characters are found via a stroke-count lookup system that is (usually) pretty intuitive. Character entries are quite detailed, as well - character variants and handwritten forms are included, along with numerous definitions and usage notes. Eventually, though, the NTC dictionary will be outstripped by advanced users. Defined characters are half that of other dictionaries (approx. 3000 - compared to the 7000+ of the Nelson's), and the lookup system has no relation to that found in a (Japanese) Japanese character dictionary (i.e., once you advance to the level of using Japanese-language character dictionaries, you will have to re-learn the lookup system - something you won't have to do if you use Nelson's or similar dictionaries). Until the student reaches the advanced level, however, this is a good, informative and intuitive resource.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for beginners
Review: The NTC dictionary is a good resource for beginning students of the Japanese language. Characters are found via a stroke-count lookup system that is (usually) pretty intuitive. Character entries are quite detailed, as well - character variants and handwritten forms are included, along with numerous definitions and usage notes. Eventually, though, the NTC dictionary will be outstripped by advanced users. Defined characters are half that of other dictionaries (approx. 3000 - compared to the 7000+ of the Nelson's), and the lookup system has no relation to that found in a (Japanese) Japanese character dictionary (i.e., once you advance to the level of using Japanese-language character dictionaries, you will have to re-learn the lookup system - something you won't have to do if you use Nelson's or similar dictionaries). Until the student reaches the advanced level, however, this is a good, informative and intuitive resource.
Rating:
Summary: An indispensable guide for the serious Japanese student
Review: There are few things I know enough about to justify speaking about them definitively. Learning foreign languages, in fact, is pretty much the only one. Japanese is the fourth non-native tongue I am trying to stuff under my belt so I've been through all the dictionary shopping before. And, I can say, without a doubt, that this is a miracle book. A bible for Japanese learner, it makes looking up characters remarkably easy and quick. I have never spent more than 90 seconds flipping through this mammoth tome before finding what I am looking for. In addition to an intensely comprehensive selection of kanji listed by stroke order, this dictionary also lists by frequency, by radical, by joyo/non-joyo/names AND by on/kun. I was unfortunately not intelligent enough to have purchased this book at this site, so I paid the full $$ for it. Three years later, I can say with 100% that it was well worth the investment. Jack Halpern is a genius for coming up with the SKIP method. If you're serious about becoming fluent in Japanese, buy this dictionary and the Random House English/Japanese dictionary. Both are fantastic investments.
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