Riding Bean has an fascinating back story. Although it might seem that Riding Bean is a spin off of Gunsmith Cats it turns out that Riding Bean was the original concept and Gunsmith Cats is the continuation of the project. But when various problems that I have never seen clearly stated occurred everything was canceled and Kenichi Sonoda took Bean’s side kick Irene Vincent and altered her a bit to create the Gunsmith Cats manga. Bean Bandit would later show up in Gunsmith Cats as a reoccurring guest star but sadly this is the only piece of animation showing off the Road Buster himself. But what a ride this one OAV is.
I remember vividly from my youth trying to rent this from the video store on multiple occasions. When I did finally get my hands on it, I was overwhelmed with joy at its lovely 80’s OVA-ness. I didn’t really have access to much information at the time, so I was in denial that there wasn’t anymore of the adventures of Bean and Rally. Much to my joy years later I learned of Bean’s appearance in the Gunsmith Cats manga, but still there is a little hole in my heart that Bean was relegated to just a side character.
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 
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!
Reverse Thieves 