Rent A Magician - A recommendation

Rental Magica - Fall 2007 series.

Its funny really how some people find nothing to do on holidays. I for one find that I actually don't have enough time to do all the stuff I wanted to do during my holidays, and here I have annoying parents nagging me to get a job quickly. Hell no! I'm bumming for at least another week or two before I'll even think about applying for a job. Once stuck with one there will be no more holidays.

Never mind the annoying stuff, today I thought I'll do what I said I would do a few posts back. Recommend anime. More than anything else, (yes strangely even more than Gundam 00 and Shana II) Rental Magica has been the surprised package of the season for me.


In my own words, what is Rental Magica all about? Set in modern day Japan, magic seems to still be a secret society thing, but have also started offering their services to normal people in dealing with supernatural occurrences. These services are offered by companies employing mages, and everything is strictly scrutinized by a magic association.

Other than that, the magic association may post something along the lines of a contracted mission to deal with what is called "spell wave contamination" in the story. Basically its to get rid of high concentration of residual magic, which could spell all sorts of problem were it left alone.

That's the setting, but I realized I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's talk about its creation and stuff first. Originally a series of light novels (which are a lot more popular than heavy novels in recent years it seems) written by Sando Makoto. He's already written 11 books for this light novel series. I don't know about its popularity, but I for one would love to read the books if I could. I'm so going to start taking up Japanese classes once I can afford to.

Set in modern Japan, Iba Itsuki is the president of Astral, a Magician rental company. He takes over from his father, Iba Tsukasa, who disappeared mysteriously (though after a few episodes I have an inkling of what actually happened). Here's the problem, a magician has to face danger in the line of this particular business, but Itsuki is a coward, or perhaps coward is too harsh. Let's just say he's a little of a wuss. The other big problem is, the president of a Magician's company has no magic of his own. Oh the irony!!!

Now here's the cliche part. Like any other main lead, Itsuki has something that makes him stand out. He has the Glam Sight, a sort of mystic eyes. If you watched Tsukihime you'll know about them. Mystic eyes come in various forms, and they mostly require their owner to at least have some latent magic potential or a magic circuit in them. Some are permanently on, but some need to be switched on with a magic circuit. Anyway, Glam Sight is said to be able to perceive the nature of everything unusually impossible through any other means. But it puts a huge strain on the user and prolonged use is detrimental even to its user. Very much similar to Tohno Shiki's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.

Oh yes, small trivia here. Itsuki is voiced by the same person who voiced Lelouch in Code Geass. Quite the difference huh? But you'll recognize it when he goes into "superpower" mode as I like to call it, for lack of a better word.


Glam Sight is permanently on however, most probably due to the unnatural manner that Itsuki obtained it so he has to wear an eye-patch over it to hide his eyes from other normal people. During an incident when he was a kid, a demon/spirit/whatever possessed and fused with Itsuki's eye, granting him Glam Sight.



His company is considered small, with only 4 employees. There's Honami Takase Ambler, actually his childhood friend who for some reason he has forgotten, most likely because of that incident. She's highly protective of him actually though she doesn't show it (typical tsundere). She's a Celtic magic user and rides a broom that somehow seems to be rocket powered. I'm not very familiar with Celtic myths and stuff, but when I hear Celtic I think druids, so Celtic magic probably has a lot to do with nature and healing. Honami is voiced by Ueda Kana, one of my favourite female seiyuus!


Nekoyashiki Ren, the only senior member of Astral, is an onmyodo. He's a cat lover that specializes in paper charms and shikigami spirits. The four cats that are always around him are his shikigami spirits named Seiryu, Byakko, Suzaku and Genbu respectively.



There's also the loli shinto miko (priestess), Katsuragi Mikan. She's an expert in shinto magic, specializing in purification rituals and erecting barriers. She's the youngest member of the company at 9 years old, is cute and clingy (towards Itsuki), and is voiced by Kugimiya Rie! Finally a role for her where she isn't a tsundere I suppose, there's still the loli part though.


Lastly, Kuroha Manami, who is also a ghost. But the funny thing is it seems normal people can also see her, though maybe its just a few people. She can use poltergeist, which is kinda like telekinesis, quite fitting if you consider that she's a ghost. XD Also it seems that she has amnesia, and can't remember anything about her former life other than her name.

Well I think there really isn't much else I can say about it. Watch it, and judge for yourself.

P.S: I found out today that you can't post this (<3) in a blog post due to the shitty blogger parser recognizing the syntax for who knows what f**king reason. Dealing with this kind of crap really pisses me off. Wonder if I should change to another blog host.

Free from education?

Its all over. Years of studying, though not that I was interested enough to do well, all over. My FYP schedule came out today, however call me crazy but I don't feel like attending it. Why? Because I have absolutely no idea how I will be able to present my system, seeing as there is what? Absolutely no system? Yes, be horrified. My system is so terrible it is as good as none. And having being told that FYP presentation doesn't garner any marks, I doubt attempting it will be any help. I'm running out of time to consider that though, seeing as its on Monday.

After 4 years, how do I feel? Well firstly I feel like I got conned, though by no one but the false promises of an easy way out. Its hard to not shoulder any responsibility myself, and say that it wasn't my fault. Though truth is it is partially my fault. I didn't know better, never had any sound advice nor judgment, and never did any research on my own. I've probably said this one time too many so I'll digress.

Still I ask myself, what now? People say get a job, but while I've kept that in mind, once again I haven't truly sat down and think about the implications of it all. What kind of job? What should I expect? What could I do that would suit my measly skills the most? Am I ready for the working environment? Would I be motivated enough to work hard? Its all a big question mark, and I believe this time I really should step back and take a good look before jumping into the frying pan.

It feels really unreal really, and somehow, surreal. Here I am sitting in front of my PC as usual, doing random things. Its already routine, though its a routine of randomness (I know it sounds contradicting). But life just lost all sense of urgency. There's no need to worry about assignments and stuff anymore, and I relish that. Other than all the uncertainties that I'm facing, I also feel that I want to enjoy this short moment of respite as long as I can. Once I start working, I just won't be able to have the kind of time and leisure I have enjoyed all this while. Its kinda scary when you think about it, education for over 10 years felt really long, but ultimately pales in comparison to the time you'll spent in a working environment.

Now that I have it behind me, I just keep looking back, and I constantly wonder and think of all the "what ifs". Regret is an unhealthy feeling, but despite realizing that it doesn't stop me from wishing that I had being wiser and just pick journalism or something related. So I'm not as good as some writers out there, but at least I'm interested, and I've come to become a believer that interest leads to motivation. Why is it that no matter how I force myself, I just couldn't do well in IT? Because I lacked the interest. Harsh though it may be, my mum was right in accusing me of not taking my course seriously. I wasn't, I realized that, all because I realize that I came to hate studying IT to the point where I just gave up on putting any noticeable effort in it.

Years ago people left and right were saying, "hah! IT is so easy, we are getting an overload of graduates". Today, that is no longer true. IT is the industry where things evolve faster than you can blink. The moment you buy a new PC, another is being developed or released. Two weeks later your mum who doesn't realize the amazing scope of this evolution will complain and say "see? I told you to wait a few more weeks." not knowing the fact that even if you had waited, another two weeks later the same thing happens. Is IT easy? I believe its no easier than Business, Engineering, or Law. Its just one facet of a diamond, one leaf on a tree.

Hardware only? Hardly. (pun intended) With the implementation of the law on piracy of software, which is strictly enforce on corporate companies, these companies are now pushing for alternatives. Free source software are preferred now, or they hire programmers to develop a system specifically for their company. The bigger companies attract more scrutiny, and buying original software also entails huge expenses for these companies, they would be the ones who are most likely to employ IT personnel just to work on these projects. They pay less, and can potentially benefit more, what's there to lose?

You'd think that with the situation like this, it probably isn't hard to get a job, and that's probably true, to a certain extent. However I don't believe that to be the case, and working life would probably be really taxing for fresh graduates like us in this era, what with living cost increasing left and right. "Make the best with what you have" is what a friend advised, and that's how I probably how everyone should see things in life.

Ahhh I'm going no where. I'm going to enjoy my break for the hectic schedules of life and take it easy.

P/S: If you are weird enough to want to read this and can't make any sense of it, its ok because it isn't suppose to be with my fog-addled mind. If you do understand it somehow, congratulations, you are probably in the same boat as I am.

Because I have writer's block again

Yeah not like I don't wanna update or anything, but I just can't seem to put what has been going on for the past month or so into words. Suffice to say it wasn't a pleasant experience. Assignments ended, FYP ended, exam is next week, and FYP presentation should be after that.


Assignments weren't a whole lot of problem, except that AWMM just spelled FUBARED for me since I know nuts about My SQL, PHP, or Flex for that matter. Is that an excuse for not being able to do my part? Well some people will always be inclined to think of problems like these as excuses, so me telling you would be really pointless. Never mind that, I still got FYP that I believe I seriously FUBARED too. So what's not? Anything that is not related to my studies I guess, even some of those can get pretty screwy at times. But hey why complain? Life isn't meant to be a fluffy bed of flowers, and will never be.


Err what else...oh let's talk about the writer's block. Some people are wondering, what on Earth I'm writing? I think I explained a few posts back but never mind I'll just recap here. I've been involving myself in the writing scene again, particularly writing original characters and fanfiction on the Nanoha series, some of my friends would know what that is. Check Starry's block for an intro on the Nanoha anime series. That being said I've been working on a 4th character and I got stuck writing her history, of course everything is made up la despite the fact that this char is based on another. I've been working more on my own cast of chars before I start going for the meat of my story, though PF has started working deep into his story. He currently has over 20k word count for all his chapters so far. *rolls eyes*


Is it fun writing stories you say? Its the same as asking a CS freak whether blowing virtual heads off everyday is fun. In other words, what works for me may not work for you, try it out yourself to find out if you like writing. But if you wanna know what I think then yes, I find it a lot more interesting than trying to figure out the ASP code for one shit or another. I think I said this before, but IT was seriously the stupidest choice of my life, not that saying that now is going to change anything.


Like I said really, I'm not really sure what I want to talk about. I've caught a kind of slump lately, and I just go on with the days not really knowing what I want to do, other than slacking all day. Exams don't even worry me anymore, thanks to "tips". I'll probably start introducing some of this season's new anime to my friends who don't really frequent anime blogs. For starters, if you don't mind watching mecha then do watch Gundam 00. It seriously kicks Gundam Seed in the butt with its superiority. Then if you like fantasy watch Shana II, though old time fans would be put off by the slower pace of the story build up this time. I know cuz every week yum cha I hear Starry complaining. XD If you are a fan of KyoAni and Key's works, you'll want to watch CLANNAD, slated to be even more epic than Kanon 2006. If you want something simple and fun, there's Ninomiya-kun, Rental Magica, and Night Wizard.


There's a lot more really, I have almost more than half of this season's offerings in my to watch list, and that's breaking a personal record. I'll be starting with Gundam 00 I guess, then moving down slowly down the popularity ladder. You just might find something you like that not many other people are watching. ;)