Rating: 
Summary: Wow, that was unexpected.
Review: I picked up this book at the library and i was highly skeptical. I was reading through it, looking at the pictures this guy uses to help you remember the kanji. I thought it was really stupid. I set the book down and started reading other books on japanese i had checked out. Poop on me, it works. I reluctantly learned from this book. I dont know why. I just remembered all the meanings because the explanations were so weird. Oh well, go with what works. I wish that he put more effort into the translations though. He needs to have it so we can look at the kanji, and instantly know what it means in english and the one wayto say it in japanese. Otherwise, very strangely good.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful Iconography
Review: I'm a visual designer, and I bought this book because it shows some amazing interpretations of abstract concepts in iconographic form. Both the actual Japanese characters, and the author's illustrations are superb examples of iconography. The fundamental topic behind the broader meaning for each character has been distilled into one succinct character or one illustration. The illustrations in the book are beautiful in their own right, for fans of graphic illustrations. I have never tried to memorize any of the actual characters, but this book is entertaining even without a stong desire to learn Japanese. If I did intend to learn, this would be where I would start, because I am a very visual learner, which is the focus of this book. This book is a great addition to a coffee table or night stand.
Rating:
Summary: also useful for Japanese
Review: Not only for non-Japanese but also for Japanse, Kanji is somthing strange, hard to understand and interesting. Many dictionary called 'Kanwa-Jiten (kanji dictionary)' have been published in Japan, but they don't have a good idea of displaing such Kanji's attractiveness. This book has done the great thing.
Rating:
Summary: READ THIS REVIEW -- University of Florida Student
Review: Please read this review. I say this only because I would like to recommend this book to anyone who is beginning Japanese and needs to memorize the cumbersome Hiragana and Katakana characters. This is, bar none, the easiest way to mnemonically retain both the characters and their sounds, period! All it takes is half an hour of trying to read any Japanese text while flipping back through Rowley's book and his ingenious pictures will begin appearing right before your eyes, instilling instant gratification of a sense of progress. However, Rowley's main focus is on Kanji, which he does just a magnificent a job of illucidating and entrenching their definitions upon anyone who reads this text. I would suggest to any student, including those who do not need any knowledge of Kanji, to give this text a try for the sheer brilliance in which Rowley has takled these most formidable phonetic syllabaries, Hiragana and Katakana.
Rating:
Summary: Picture Perfect (almost)
Review: The first thing you will notice about Rowley's book is his creativity in language study. Some will surely say, "What creativity?! Kanji are already word pictures...he's just doing what's been done for thousands of years!" True. However, this book is definitely geared toward the Western reader, and Rowley's methods of memorization are sure to make Japanese study significantly easier (especially if you are American, British, Australian, etc.) More "serious" scholars will undoubtedly turn up their noses at such sophomoric scholarship. But I say: whatever works. I lived in Japan for almost two years, and this book helped me to start recognizing kanji [if you're not familiar, there are three major ways to write Japanese: hiragana = a rather easy alphabet for words native to Japan; katakana = another alphabet (with less curves and more "sharp" characters) for foreign words (mostly English words); and kanji = a group of thousands of Chinese characters that each represent an IDEA, rather than an alphabet that represents SOUNDS.]. Memorization doesn't have to be dry and boring...it can actually be fun, and Rowley definitely makes it fun. Unfortunately, a couple of the pictures/explanations are definitely off-color...but then, so is much of life.
Rating:
Summary: Picture Perfect (almost)
Review: The first thing you will notice about Rowley's book is his creativity in language study. Some will surely say, "What creativity?! Kanji are already word pictures...he's just doing what's been done for thousands of years!" True. However, this book is definitely geared toward the Western reader, and Rowley's methods of memorization are sure to make Japanese study significantly easier (especially if you are American, British, Australian, etc.) More "serious" scholars will undoubtedly turn up their noses at such sophomoric scholarship. But I say: whatever works. I lived in Japan for almost two years, and this book helped me to start recognizing kanji [if you're not familiar, there are three major ways to write Japanese: hiragana = a rather easy alphabet for words native to Japan; katakana = another alphabet (with less curves and more "sharp" characters) for foreign words (mostly English words); and kanji = a group of thousands of Chinese characters that each represent an IDEA, rather than an alphabet that represents SOUNDS.]. Memorization doesn't have to be dry and boring...it can actually be fun, and Rowley definitely makes it fun. Unfortunately, a couple of the pictures/explanations are definitely off-color...but then, so is much of life.
Rating: 
Summary: Mistakes
Review: There are so many mistakes in this book. Mis-numbered cross referential numbers and kanji is just wrong are some of the most glaring examples. It is difficult to learn anything when you are second guessing the material. The most embarrassing oversight is the kanji for noisy which is made up of three little kanji women. That kanji is only really used with a power kanji in front to mean rape. Not only is the Kanji useless by itself (assuming you are not living in the Heian period), but it is offensive when you try to use it.
The idea of the book is great epically with my learning style, but get a Japanese editor.
Rating:
Summary: Mistakes
Review: There are so many mistakes in this book. Mis-numbered cross referential numbers and kanji is just wrong are some of the most glaring examples. It is difficult to learn anything when you are second guessing the material. The most embarrassing oversight is the kanji for noisy which is made up of three little kanji women. That kanji is only really used with a power kanji in front to mean rape. Not only is the Kanji useless by itself (assuming you are not living in the Heian period), but it is offensive when you try to use it.
The idea of the book is great epically with my learning style, but get a Japanese editor.
Rating: 
Summary: BUYER BEWARE!!!
Review: This book is GREAT if you don't plan on learning Japanese and you just want to gain some interesting random information. However!!!!- do not look at the kana pictures if you want to be able to read katakana and hiragana! I can't look at the hiragana symbol for "mi" and NOT think in my head "me? i'm 21" because that is the mneumonic used to remember the symbol. It has been difficult to train myself to read hiragana naturally, and I have spent hours with flashcards, computer hiragana-romaji recognition for speed intentions, and reading hiragana aloud. I will major in Japanese in college and when I take Arabic and portuguese, I hope that there aren't any mneumonic schemes like this out there to help me remember things that can be memorized by rote! In my personal experience, songs make the best way for non-memorizing learning (since memorizing a song to a familiar tune is much simpler than memorizing facts). Consider writing songs if you want to teach yourself something. Example: DNA (to the tune of I've Been Working on the Railroad) Deoxyribonucleic acid, they call it DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid, makes genes that turn hair grey
Each little part is called a nucleotide
Made of sugar, phosphate, and a base
Adenine combines with Thymine
Cytosine with Guanine picks up the pace. (credit goes to Kathleen Mangion Mofield for lyrics) The book needs a separate section on radicals, instead of telling the reader to flip through to find them (it says this in the introduction). Also, the kanji need to have furigana.
Rating:
Summary: BUYER BEWARE!!!
Review: This book is GREAT if you don't plan on learning Japanese and you just want to gain some interesting random information. However!!!!- do not look at the kana pictures if you want to be able to read katakana and hiragana! I can't look at the hiragana symbol for "mi" and NOT think in my head "me? i'm 21" because that is the mneumonic used to remember the symbol. It has been difficult to train myself to read hiragana naturally, and I have spent hours with flashcards, computer hiragana-romaji recognition for speed intentions, and reading hiragana aloud. I will major in Japanese in college and when I take Arabic and portuguese, I hope that there aren't any mneumonic schemes like this out there to help me remember things that can be memorized by rote! In my personal experience, songs make the best way for non-memorizing learning (since memorizing a song to a familiar tune is much simpler than memorizing facts). Consider writing songs if you want to teach yourself something. Example: DNA (to the tune of I've Been Working on the Railroad) Deoxyribonucleic acid, they call it DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid, makes genes that turn hair grey
Each little part is called a nucleotide
Made of sugar, phosphate, and a base
Adenine combines with Thymine
Cytosine with Guanine picks up the pace. (credit goes to Kathleen Mangion Mofield for lyrics) The book needs a separate section on radicals, instead of telling the reader to flip through to find them (it says this in the introduction). Also, the kanji need to have furigana.
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