Category: Events

Contest + Happy 2nd Birthday, Reverse Thieves!

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Year number two. I am impressed that we made it this far. It is hardly the most momentous anniversary. I am certainly going to save the major theatrics for atleast the 5 year anniversary.  Still I’m majorly overjoyed that we have made it this far. We have had a lot of major changes over 2008 and 2009. We started the Ongoing Investigations, which I like a lot. We shook up the current look of the site well. I know Narutaki wants to change to look of the site again but I don’t think he is in a major rush. We started participating on Twitter. This has not only grown interest in the blog but I have met a good deal of cool people thought it, too. We are steadily gaining more of a readership but I don’t think we will ever be cool enough to be in the top 10 anime blogs. On the other hand, as long as we continue we will always have a steady readership who likes what we bring to the table. We are also just getting better at doing the blog all the time. Back in the day it was many times a rush to get articles up on time. Now we have a good stockpile in advance. The fact that Narutaki can take a vacation and nothing appears to change is a major success. We also have a clearer voice and a better vision of what we want to do. The blog is a piece of art that is in constant revision. I am curious what we will add this year. I am personally hoping for more Saber and Galaxy Angel.

Happy birthday, us! Maybe two years is still a baby in blog years but it sure feels like an accomplishment to me. I have no intentions of stopping here. I have worked through anime burn out, writer’s block, sleep deprivation, and sickness. I am committed to this and the best part is I enjoy it! There have certainly been big changes over the year. I think the biggest has been our consistency of putting out blog posts, the schedule is really strict these days! Also we have stepped up to the plate and pursed events as press. We have even conducted some interviews! We conducted our first giveaway contest on the blog (and this is the second one!) We’ve also added guest writers, who appear infrequently, but always have something fun to add to the mix. Gosh, thinking on it now so much has happened, so many words have been written, and so much has been watched/read that it’s almost dizzying looking back! And by the way, I’m not planning on the changing the blog look anytime soon. As a designer I think I always play with the idea but I am pretty happy with the format at the moment even if I do have fits of creativity. I have no idea what is in store for the coming year, perhaps I just haven’t thought it over too much. Hopefully there are more toys!

CONTEST

The best part of any birthday party is presents! So we are giving you, our awesome readers, a chance to get some excellent gifts. We are giving away 3 prize packages all you have to do is e-mail us (reversethieves@gmail.com) your answer to this simple scenario:

You are a world famous thief, what was the caper that made you famous? Who is the rival that is always trying to foil your plans?

Entries are due by Sunday, July 5th. The winners will be announced on Friday, July 10th.

This contest has ended.

Anime Expo, Fake out!

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I have never been to Anime Expo. It would cost me a good chunk of change to make such a trek and honestly it seems an unlikely venture, maybe ever. Beside the fact that it would mean giving up east coast conventions which is so hard to do! So, Expo and their amazing guest list will remain a dream for a while longer. However, instead of crying over how much it sucks that we won’t be in attendance for Anime Expo 2009, we decided to pretend we ARE going! I am not sure if this is actually helping but hey it’s a way to pass the time! So it goes without saying, don’t look for a con report from us about Expo!

Someone I was following on Twitter posted about that the schedule for Anime Expo was out. After glancing through it I was inspired; I wanted to make a schedule like we usually do for conventions we attend but for a convention we aren’t going to. Making this schedule was much like a fantasy baseball team. The post is sort of random and pointless but also sort of fun. Plus, I hope it makes some people go to the panels I wanted to go to and report back how interesting they are. Anime Expo seems like a great con this year. If I had the cash I would attend it without a doubt. So I hope people ask good questions of Yasuhiro Nightow and all the other guests in my place. Oh, and have an awesome time! 

Our dream schedule is as follows:

Thursday
Yun Kouga panel
Toshiyuki Morikawa panel
Morning Musume panel
Hiroyuki Imaishi and Atsushi Nishigori Panel
Right Stuf panel
Anime News Network panel
Gundam Model Building panel
Rocking Android Inc. Presents: Japan’s Hottest Doujin Videogames panel
Gainax Focus panel
JAST USA PC Dating Sim Games panel
Making of Gurren Lagann Documentary screening

Friday
Dreams to Reality: You Too Can Travel to Japan! panel
Bandai Entertainment panel
CMX Manga panel
Seiji Mizushima panel
Aniplex panel
Gundam: The 30th Anniversary Year panel
Manga as High Art panel
Morning Musume concert
Viz Media panel
Resin Anime Figure Building panel
Without Watch the Anime: OPs and EDs panel
FUNmation Sneak Peek
Giant Robot Rumble panel

Saturday
Yasuhiro Nightow and Satoshi Nishimura panel
Digital Distribution of Anime and Manga panel
FUNimation panel
Jet Program panel
Anime and Manga in Academia panel
Mirai no Neiro VOCALOID: The Sound of the Future panel
Gundam Model Building workshop

Sunday
Artists panel
Directors panel
Crunchyroll’s Offical Anime Expo 2009 panel
The Problem with Otaku panel
Production IG panel
Get Paid to Work in Anime panel
Gundam oo Focus panel

AnimeNEXT 2009

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Narutaki and Hisui’s schedule:

Friday
Anime Through the Generations Panel
Anime’s Pirate Legacy Panel
Anime Princesses Rule Panel
Japanese Crime Fiction in Anime Panel
My Stereotypes are More Offensive than Yours Panel
These are a Few of My Favorite Scenes Panel

Saturday
I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This! Panel
Psychology of Anime
Vertical Panel
ParaPara Dance Workshop
Directing! Panel
Funimation Panel
Bad Anime, Bad! Panel
As the Otaku Grows Panel

Sunday
History of Manga Panel
Otaku Perceptions and Misconceptions Panel
Anime Blogging Basics Panel

Aren’t cons exciting? No matter how many I go to, I always look forward to another one. This has become especially true in recent years as I meet more and more people from blogosphere and other outlets. AnimeNEXT usually kick starts my con season every year and this time around is no exception. It was one of those inbetween conventions that holds a special place because of the dates it usually lands on. There was a major location change this year so it the con had a bit of a unknown factor going in.

I have to agree with Narutaki. As I am more and more a part of the menagerie that is the anime community, I look forward to going to conventions more than ever. It is a great opportunity to see old friends, meet up with people you have only talked to on the Internet, and discover awesome people you have not yet met. I know people are always disappointed that I am not actually an emotionally dead red-headed magical maid when they meet me. Then again I am actually emotionally dead so that is something, right? AnimeNEXT also has very good panels thanks to some very knowledgeable old time fans attending every year. There is also a strong and growing blogging presence. Since the thing I like the most about anime conventions, besides Japanese guests, are the panels it is always nice to seem some quality lectures about fascinating topics.

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