[delacroix01]

Well, I also use Anki, but I think it's best to build your own deck through reading and listening. When you have the context, it is much easier to learn the word, since you will have better understanding. And yeah, there is no need to learn single kanji at a time unless it is a word by itself. Repetition and overlapping will help you develop your vocabulary eventually.

Of course what important is your vocabulary size, not the number of kanji you know. However, knowing the most widely used kanji is a great advantage when learning new words. Right now my Anki deck has about 5100 words, containing around 2300 kanji, and I can learn vocabulary at a much faster pace compared to when it was only 1400. Also, aside from reviewing with Anki, reading a lot will help you store words in your brain better, just like with other languages.