The fact that the Reverse Thieves is five-years-old is an odd sensation. On one hand it feels like the blog is just coming into its maturity. It can vote, drive, and maybe even go out drinking without a fake ID. On the other hand, given the turn over rate of most blogs it also seems like the Reverse Thieves is a senior citizen as well. It should be getting its geriatric discount on the early bird dinner special. In truth, the answer lies in between. The blog has definitely settled into a pleasant groove where we have a steady readership and a growing listener base to the podcast.
Despite the far more hectic schedule on the blog, we have kept the output fairly regular. We are often able to post at least four times a week. We started doing the S.W.A.T. reviews around this time last year as well as the All Points Bulletins. They have both been big hits! In fact, our S.W.A.T. reviews are generally our most popular podcasts by a wide margin.
We also started the Line-Up at the beginning of 2012 which was Narutaki’s brain child. With a convenient list of all the titles that get licensed for physical and digital distribution as well as new announcements from Japan, the Line-Ups are sure to be insanely popular when December rolls around and people want to do their year in review.
We don’t really have any new columns planned for the future. But that is hardly a horrible thing. The blog has gotten to the point where it is far more important to maintain the current pieces of output rather than constantly add new features. But the blog is always evolving so don’t be surprised to see new additions as the muse dictates.
We are proud to have made it five years. Here is to five more and beyond!
All that said I know what everyone really wants to know is what are we giving away. Since a 5th anniversary is always a significant milestone, the prize package is equally impressive. We are giving away box sets of anime, plenty of manga, figures, a Kyo backpack, and more tchotchkes than you can shake a magical girl wand at. Don’t expect to see a giveaway on this site as nice as this until our 10th anniversary.
To enter all you have to do is wish us a happy birthday in the comments below. And if you want bonus points, tell us your favorite recent article or podcast. Please mention your age. Then you can win everything pictured above and maybe EVEN LESS! (There are one or two 18+ items pictured above. If the winner is under 18 we will remove those items and replace them with similar but more family friendly items.)
This contest is open until July 31st.
*U.S. residents only please. Sorry our abroad buddies we just can’t afford it.
Reverse Thieves 
Happy Birthday! Really enjoyed the LoGH episode… OK, I’m a bit biased :)
HAPPY BIRFDAY!
(Come back to the UK, it was awesome hanging out with you! Bring Hisui this time! :P)
Tanjoubi omedetou! (Happy Birthday!) My favorite recent articles have been the Fate/Zero S2 reviews. I was glad to learn the back story especially of the last few episodes, otherwise I would have interpreted them completely differently. I am a freshly minted wizard (just hit the age of 30 a few months ago).
Happy Birthday! Going to start giving American cartoon TV series a go staring with Korra and the new Scooby Doo because of your reviews. Out of curiosity do you guys have many New Zealand readers?
I’m really glad we’ve influenced you to look at some ongoing American cartoons! If you listen to the podcast, the next episode is all about American shows.
As far as New Zealand readers, not too many but then not too few. In the last quarter, New Zealand ranked 19th in hits for us.
-Narutaki
I don’t even need to bribed to wish you happy birthday. But I happily accept it anyway.
Happy Birthday. Stay awesome.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Thanks for all of your hard work these past 5 years :) And my favorite recent post would have to be the space brothers one about the space program dying haha
I’m not a U.S citizen but I still wanna wish Reverse Thieves a very big HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! It’s really incredible that I’ve been following this blog for the last five years. Awesome! Keep on rocking, you guys.
Happy Birthday! I’m old at 33 =P
I think my favorite article so far was probably the DC 52 coverage. I know, it’s weird and non-anime related but it’s always interesting to see how people who aren’t hardcore American comic fans react to American comics antics. The giant robots Speak Easy was fun too, but then again I like giant robots so hey.. biased.
Anywho, here’s to five years and hopefully five more! Congrats!
Happy Birthday, you two, and thanks for all the hard work. Recentish things I’ve really enjoyed are the Macross II episode because it’s the only Macross franchise entry I knew nothing about and now I’ve finally learned why it has the negative reputation that it does and that episode helped me come to the realization maybe, MAYBE, Kawamori took on that AKB4008 project so he’d have the funds for a super duper new Macross 30th anniversary project that’s yet to be announced. At least one can hope.
I have no choice but to say Happy Birthday to the site I started following when I got into blogging. Thanks Reverse Thieves and keep putting out your content.
Also, I’m going to cheat a bit. I know you said recent, but I’m going to go back to the S.W.A.T podcast you did for Ginga E Kickoff. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to enjoy the show too much, but you guys were fairly positive in your impressions so I watched it with a more open mind. 13 episodes later and toiling away writing it on my blog, I think it shows you guys do a great job with your S.W.A.T reviews. Looking forward to your upcoming ones :3
*climbs out of cake*
Happy birthday, Mr. Reverse Thieves~
My favorite podcast is the anime convention one staring my dude Greg (aka Digital Bug). I’m legal;)
Happy birthday Reverse Thieves.
Not sure how to define recent, but the latest Speakeasy ( #030) was fantastic. I’m 18+.
Happy Birthday! May your future be filled with nonstop life-shattering home invasions and grizzly murders for the two of you to solve! Oh, and plenty of that Japanese stuff to fill the downtime between crimes.
I’m not sure if six months ago counts as “recent,” but I think my favorite post of late has to be the Utena/Penguindrum podcast. It was my introduction to the site, which became one of the first anime/manga sites I started visiting on a regular basis. I was just about to give up on reading anime blogs after my initial searches kept turning up… let’s just call them “less promising results” that tended to focus on… let’s just call them “awful fanservice moe crap shows.” But then I found this site, and you were talking about Penguindrum (the show I was obsessing over at that very moment!) AND Utena (the previous obsession show)! And a detective theme to boot? SOLD! The fact that that same show led me to the entertaining curmudgeonry at AWO was an added bonus.
Keep up the good work :)!… oh, and I’m 28 and I live in the US. I also like long walks on the beach, candlelit dinners, and committing the perfect crime and gloating from afar at the pathetic attempts by the forces of law and order to follow my scent.
Happy birthday, Reverse Thieves! Been loving your specific style of sleuthing for years and hope to continue doing so :)
Happy Birthday. I really enjoyed the Macross 2 episode. It was informative and interesting. But the episodes that I enjoyed the most were ones where rants suddenly pop out of nowhere due to some tangent or thought that you two come upon. The emotion and hate that comes out is sweet nectar. I also found your podcast thru your association with AWO; one of your best episodes.
I’m 34 and in the US.
I was sure I’d already left a message, I guess it got et.
Anyways, congratulations on this milestone, I’ve been enjoying your stuff for some time. I especially enjoy when you do things other anime bloggers don’t, like the APBs and the talk about American comics and cartoons.
Here’s to many more years of successful blogging!
Oh, and I’m <18.
Thank you guys for every awesome episode! I discovered you through A3K and your Utena episode was one of my first. You guys made me squee because that was the first time I had heard anything of a new box set and I’ve been listening since.
Your recent episode on american cartoons was awesome for me because I don’t have cable. I catch things almost 100% word of mouth and I’ve missed a lot of new things.
Happy Birthday! I hope you guys are still around to point me to the best stuff for years to come!
Oh I’m Canadian btw.