@InTheLittleWood @KaiNoMood You should 100% check out the Heisig method of kanji learning which I recently discovered (I passed the N2 back in 2008). I'm baffled I didn't discover it sooner, but here we are. It's a way you can learn the 2000 ish general-use kanjis in around 2-3 months. Also get Anki.
@InTheLittleWood @KaiNoMood The reason why you should learn to understand all the kanjis early is because it will make learning new words much much easier, because you can now associate meaning and association to remembering them.