Nazoru vs Trace & Play

Nazoru is a Japanese handwriting practice app for learners working on kanji, hiragana, and katakana. Practice moves from full character outlines through dashed stroke cues and direction hints to a blank canvas, supporting progress from tracing toward writing from memory. When a learner misses a stroke, the guide and direction cue return; the next session starts at the level indicated by their memory. Built-in paths cover JLPT levels N5 to N1, Japanese school grades, frequency, and Heisig ordering. Learners can browse categories and custom lists, search kanji and words they have seen, and practice confusable kanji side by side. Nazoru can suggest practice based on kanji studied in WaniKani, Bunpro, and MaruMori. Those integrations use a read-only API key kept on the device, and practice here does not count as a review in those services. The app works offline and offers optional Google Drive backup for progress, history, and settings. Free allows two full practices per day; Unlimited costs $3.99 per month. The app has no ads or tracking.

Trace & Play has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.