About the Spellbook and Its Owner

Who the heck are you?/Why the heck are you called this?

I’m Aria Noyed (…that’s an alias born out of a terrible pun, by the way – I’m withholding my real name, in case I get doxxed, but my con report will tell you I exist in the Land Down Under).

My handle is MagicConan14 because I thought it was cool…in 2011…to have a handle made of my fandoms of the time (Magic Kaito and Detective Conan)…That probably tells you roughly how long I’ve been in the anime and manga fandom and how deeply I’ve loved anime, manga and its associated fandoms. It’s just that “MagicConan14” is the most consistent online identity I have and it’s easier to grab than my real name, if searching me on Facebook is anything to go by.

In my spare time outside anime, manga and the like, I like to read other blogs, read a copious amount of books and sell things online.

What brings you here?/What makes you qualified to talk?

To answer that, we need to go to the not-too-distant past:

I started blogging the year after the inception of the name “MagicConan14”. Originally, it was for a group project for class. However, I started a personal blog on a whim and didn’t blog a lot…until December that year, where I discovered Tumblr. Fast-forward about 2 years to the birth of Magical Girls…and Cerulean, around which I started to translate tweets of my own volition because there was so much Boueibu (Cute High Earth Defence Club LOVE! and Happy Kiss!) content that wasn’t coming across the language barrier. In the process, I fell in love with translation as a “thing to do on the side”.

Since then, I’ve graduated from a Bachelor’s specialising in modern culture, particularly the Japanese kind, and a Master’s specialising in Japanese -> English translation, but stopped after that because 1) I had a mountain of debt, 2) I’d gained a bunch of mental baggage about my translation skills during my Master’s – caused by almost a year of not studying Japanese in undergrad – and 3) my marks weren’t totally up to snuff for a PhD.

Aside from that, I spent about 5 years chasing simulcasts with the simulcast commentary.

…er, what the heck am I looking at?

This blog. It began on November 21st 2017, although it was in planning a few days beforehand so it wouldn’t be as haphazardly planned out as the launch of previous blogs. It’s named as such because I’ve tried – and so far failed – to theme the blog posts with a fantasy storyline of some variety.

What do you write about?/Why should I care about you?

• …well, anime and manga, obviously, but other topics crop up as well, including asexuality and aromanticism (until I decide otherwise, I’m asexual, sex-averse and demiromantic), posts that discuss the fandom of anime/manga/similar things and meta things like how to blog/review, among other topics.
• You can find the most content in the Weekly Wednesday section. For a while, I had the Ode to Anime Studios – posts dedicated to various studios where I also practised Harvard citations – and Must-read Monthly Mondays – which were link round-ups and life updates.
• You can check the Recent Posts page for a breakdown of some categories. My typical post revolves around breaking down Japanese puns or other cultural tidbits, such as this post, or analysing why series work the way they do, like this.
• My loves tend to change, but I tend to catch or otherwise spot “rising stars”, such as Spy x Family and Jigokuraku: Hell’s Paradise, well before they start seeing mainstream success in English-speaking spheres (English official translations, anime etc.). Series I can talk about at length are Boueibu and Hypnosis Mic.
• You can find out what I’m up to, anime and manga-wise, by checking the first link on the navigation above.

What’s with that sign-off?

“Keep seeking the magic, MagicConan14”?

As of mid-2023, this is a fairly recent development, inspired by the Aussie Firebug and other bloggers I was reading at the time. Despite my need to reinvent myself and my blogging space every few years, there is a fairly constant presence of some kind of “magic” here and there which gives away it’s me (MagicConan14, Magical Girls…and Cerulean, “Chesarka” – a short-lived identity that never really took off outside my anime lists – comes from the Cheshire cat and “Absarka“). The tagline of this blog, too, is about “seeking the magic in anime and manga” – sometimes I need to be reminded of that, haha…It remains to be seen if I can stick with it consistently, though.

What else do I need to know that isn’t in the footer?

• I occasionally have money-making methods in the posts somewhere. Affiliate posts are clearly marked as such and Manga March 2022 posts have Kofi buttons at the end. You can also find the Kofi link in the top navigation. Donations are straightforward, but if you buy something from affiliate links, I may receive a commission. You are not obligated to buy anything or select the links.
• I italicise series names and abbreviations (e.g. “HypMic“, “Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu“) and some standard italicisations (e.g. if it appears foreignised, such as “modus operandi“). If it is standard anime/manga fan speak (e.g. “shonen”), I typically don’t italicise it.
• My original avatar was made with a (now defunct) Picrew called the Strong Woman Maker. My current avatar is made with the RAVOM Maker.
• This page is subject to change without notice. It was last changed on May 11th, 2023.