my filthy jp diaspora confession is that while I learned the hiragana alphabet when I was like 5, I was bad at studies and stalled without learning katakana at actual Japanese school, and only learned katakana as a teenager thanks to

vocaloid songs.

ri and ku are basically identical to hiragana ri and ku and that is how re(n as opposed to rin) and mi(ku) got drilled expertly into my brain

vocaloid taught me so much japanese.