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

Aria's avatar.

I’m Aria Noyed (…that’s an alias born out of a terrible pun, by the way). My most common 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.

In real life, I go by the name “Kelly Dao” and am a licensed freelancer who focuses on Japanese to English translation…(Well, that’s what I would like, but I have to pay the bills somehow…) You can find me on LinkedIn here. Yes, I’m aware my avatar and I don’t look totally alike – that’s deliberate.

Outside anime, manga and the like, I like to read other blogs, watch reality TV (The Amazing Race is one of the only topics I know about as well as anime and manga), read a copious amount of books and keep attempting to save money/cut down my expenses while I shake off the mindset induced by my massive student debt.

Why are you an anime blogger?

  • For one thing, if you’re looking at the state of the anime fandom (from the temporal standpoint of where I write this piece of text in late 2023), the anime niche used to be a lot smaller than it currently is and the manga niche much smaller still.
  • I tend to like anime and manga which aren’t very loved by most, typically due to language barriers or other access issues.
  • I also like to go on about things lost, gained or otherwise messed up during translation a lot, which not a lot of other bloggers do.
  • If I were talking about my life and the Amazing Race as a blog by itself, I feel like I’d run out of steam eventually between seasons, but anime and manga always have more things to talk about.

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 popular culture, particularly the Japanese kind, and a Master’s specialising in Japanese -> English translation.

Through my translations and general involvement with certain anime fandoms, you could arguably call me the only “magical boy specialist” in the world…no, in existence…and I wear that badge with pride.

Aside from that, I spent about 5 years chasing anime as they aired with a series of posts called the “simulcast commentary” on Tumblr.

…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 the “Spellbook” 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), my journey with the Japanese Language Proficiency Test and meta things like how to blog/review, among other topics. Most of the time, if I can find a way to tie everything back to anime/manga, I will do exactly that, such as with the post on anime and manga budget buys.
  • 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 anime studios where I also practised Harvard citations – and Must-read Monthly Mondays – which were link round-ups and life updates.
  • 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 include, but are not limited to, Boueibu (Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boueibu LOVE!/Happy Kiss!), Fairy Ranmaru and Hypnosis Mic.
  • You can find out what I’m up to, anime and manga-wise, by checking my AniList profile.

What’s with that sign-off?

“Keep seeking the magic, Aria”?

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 “exploring 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.

How do I become a translator or interpreter? (Since I know you’re one.)

This is a tough question to answer generically (it’s easier to cater an answer to a specific recipient), but I would recommend you:

  • pour your heart and soul into studying, immersing and otherwise using your languages, plus translation/interpretation theory if that helps you. After all, you don’t necessarily have to have gone to a school for translation/interpretation or your languages if you just need to ace a translation test, although specific schooling can help to bolster your resume.
  • know what the difference between translation and interpretation is (hint: interpretation is spoken, translation is written). Most people don’t know the difference and you have to be ready to correct them on this…a lot.
  • make sure you’re not just doing it for the money, but also for a love of languages and helping people out. Becoming any vocation as highly skilled as translation or interpretation requires a bit time, effort and money commitment and you may have to translate/interpret for free.
  • work on communication skills and overall tenacity because you’ll need them, regardless of language.
  • check out what qualifications you might need, any fees and so on. For example, for a Japanese -> English translator in Australia like myself, having the aforementioned Japanese Language Proficiency Test N1 or N2 helps, as does a certification with the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI). Those tests don’t come cheap!

What else do I need to know?

  • 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.
  • While writing on WordPress, I developed a bit of a weird habit where 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.
  • If you ever have trouble accessing a page, cut out the date in the URL so you just have the slug (so it will look something like “animangaspellbook.com/the-title-of-the-post-you-want-to-access/”.
  • Everything written on this blog is done by a human and not AI.
  • This page is subject to change without notice. It was last changed on February 28th, 2024.

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