Report #156804000: Aniblog Tourney Round 3
June 7, 2010

TOP SECRET – FOR GIN’S EYES ONLY
Subject: The Progress of the Detective Duo known as the Reverse Thieves in the Aniblog Tourney.
Briefing: It seems that despite the combined efforts of various low-level agents of the Organization, Hisui and Narutaki have progressed to the third round of the Aniblog Tourney. Our attempt to kidnap Kohaku in hopes of using her as leverage to force the Reverse Thieves out of the tournament merely lost us the lives and more importantly the resources of ten skilled agents. The three assassins we sent after Narutaki were equally ineffectual and have aroused his suspicions more than before.
My cover is still intact despite a close call in Berlin. I cannot observe them too closely or I will surely compromise my surveillance. I have filed the following information on their former cases in hopes that there is some clue to their weaknesses within: The Reverse Thieves Dossier for the Aniblog Tournament
Conclusion: I fear that every report puts them one step closer to uncovering the truth. It is my opinion that only you can dispatch these two meddlesome gumshoes. The longer they are in the tournament the greater the chance they will discover our involvement in the proceedings. We cannot assume that no matter how well camouflaged our involvement that detectives of their prowess will not discover something that would be detrimental to our overall goals.
Until your response I will send as many agents as possible to the Aniblog Tourney in order to thwart their efforts.
Here is the link to the voting for Round 3.
“Crash Sayla Mass” is the creepiest thing ever.
May 24, 2010

We already did an overview podcast of Mechademia which included the third volume but we didn’t get to every little thing that we found interesting. Since this collection included the first Gundam essay so far, we thought we would pull it out for discussion (plus there is no way we couldn’t take a minute to say how creepy that sculpture is). It features a translated essay, Gundam and the Future of Japanoid Art by Takayuki Tatsumi, and then a response from the translator, Christopher Bolton.
When we were on the Manga Out Loud podcast Ed Sizmore discussed the idea that in academia the progress and exchange of ideas is facilitated by follow ups on establish papers. In the spirit of promoting an academic mindset in the anime and manga communities we decided to take a stab at writing out own response to one of the articles instead of just doing a review of the third book. Gundam and the Future of Japanoid Art discusses how the novel Starship Troopers influenced Gundam and in turn influenced the way authors view the relationship between man and machine in fiction. The translator then wrote a response in which he talks about his recollection of the Gundam Generating Futures exhibit where Tatsumi’s article originally appeared in the catalog for.

Old School vs. New School Anime Rap Battle
May 23, 2010

Continuing our whirlwind of guest spots on podcasts we made an appearance on the Animeshon Podcast. We discuss one of the most personal and controversial topics you can talk about in anime (that is not fan-subs): which era of anime is the best. We proposed our known belief in the importance of all eras of animation, each having something amazing to offer and things best forgotten in equal measure. All though we do talk quite a bit, we barely scratch the surface of the questions that were asked of us despite everyone on the podcast making some really insightful points. As always these type of discussions are interesting because everyone seems to have their own take on everything.
Animeshon – S2 Ep8 – Nostalgia

Considering this is a lazy Saturday we assume that a majority of our traffic will be from the Aniblog Tournament with the rest being people looking for pornographic doujinshi and Berserk season 2. If you haven’t heard of the games, it is a little something being put on by Scamp, you can get full details here. It’s a gathering of all kinds of anime blogs, variety abound, and it’s a great way to find something new or different to read. For those kindly souls checking out Reverse Thieves for the first time, we give you this handy guide to this humble detective-themed blog.
- We like a variety of genres, decades, and series from Original Gundam to Aishiteruze Baby and everything in between, sample it in our IN THE YEAR 2000(…through 2009)! post.
- There are some meaty editorial articles like our bit about death in anime, the movement towards realism, and some posts on visual novel logos or more recently a little piece about Shinra in Durarara!!
- This is a tag-team blog, but we do go solo on occasion like Narutaki’s post about screentone use in OEL and Hisui’s thoughts on the popularity of childhood friends and incest in anime.
- We cover cons and special events like Otakon 2009 (be warned of its lengthy nature) and the New York International Children’s Film Festival’s theatrical screening of Summer Wars.
- Fandom experiments like the Otaku Diaries crop up in our pursuits to know our fellow fans better and we enjoy the random cross-blogging project like Secret Santa.
- We recently started a podcast, The Speakeasy, our first episode was about strong female characters.
- You shouldn’t be surprised to know that we like to check out detective related series, we have a listing of detective anime and manga, and a feed dedicated to all our detective related posts.
- If you are curious about anything else we have a meticulous filing cabinet in the sidebar plus archive and index pages for you to peruse.
Other than that we hope everyone involved with the tournament finds some great new blogs to read and maybe a new appreciation for the anime blogging community.







