Welcome to the Spellbook!

It was said that one day long ago, MagicConan14 stumbled across an ancient series of spells known as "anime". Anime has captivated MagicConan14 for almost as long as they've lived, and now they are hoping to analyse what makes them work. Categories you may want to peruse: archive: for posts imported to the Spellbook from...

10 Things That Bring Me Joy

Inspired by this post by Rose and this post by Crimson. 1) Planning I like to plan little outings every so often when I need something and then just go on them once the day comes - mostly involving hunting for specific things at the shops and/or library trips. However, I don't plan everything to...

Lost in Translation with Cipher Academy

When I was told even a professional translator found a cipher manga impossible to translate, I had to get in on the action. (Spoilers for Cipher Academy up to chapter 11 ahead!) Cipher Academy is definitely a difficult manga to tackle, for any translator. I mean, it's by Nisio Isin, he of Katanagatari and the...

Language Learning Goals for 2023

Typically, I'm quite good at maintaining set goals, as you could see with the resolutions in 2018, which I finished 3 months early. Meanwhile, I kept saying in 2022 I was hoping to get 100 days of anime watched, but I only hit that last week! So much for being an anime fan on main......

Learn Japanese with HypMic: Some Other Things

This is basically the part 2 of this post. These things aren't entirely compulsory for learning Japanese, but they pop up in HypMic and...maybe...if you want to learn how to translate things in general. Again, I accept any feedback on this, so long as it's not disrespectful or anything. Wordplay and rhyming being abundant are...

Learn Japanese with HypMic: The Very Basics

To be honest, I've been wanting to get something like this off the ground for a while. Just a preface: this is meant to be a guide specifically for people who want to get started with Japanese and know HypMic with these particular goals in mind: understand HypMic in its native language and/or understand anime,...

RobiHachi is Cleverer Than You Think It Is

...you didn't think the dumb mech show was actually an allusion to something, did you? (/jk) Meta context: This post was written mostly around when I was close to finishing RobiHachi in August 2022. I figured I'd clean it up while I don't have a lot of other posts coming out and while I procrastinate...

Looking Back and Moving Forward, Part Two (Update Post)

Inspired by this comment. (If you're new around these parts, part 1 is here, but that's not related to this post except for them both being update posts that came out at similar times of the year.) So, if you didn't look at that first link for whatever reason, I haven't totally gone off the...

How Cowboy Bebop Does Horror Well

Cowboy Bebop - a perennial anime classic which manages to span many moods, including horror. I've said before anime doesn't do a lot of horror and one of those reasons is because other genres of anime do it better. Cowboy Bebop nails this, particularly with Toys in the Attic but also with Black Dog Serenade....

Asexuals and Aromantics in Anime and Manga

...it's still the 29th of October where I am as I write this. It's the end of Ace Week, but depending on your definition of "where your week ends", you may still have more than enough time to read this. You were probably thinking, "Hey, no Halloween post this year?" There is one, if you...

I Am a Cat Barista: Short But Sweet, with a Bit of Whiplash to Serve

The main gripe I have about the series I Am a Cat Barista, based on its first volume, isn't its setup. (It's basically Rokuhoudou's with a giant cat-man, so don't fix what ain't broke, amirite?) It's the fact the chapters are too short, so they leave you wanting! Once the treat of the day is...