I asked my German-speaking mother if she knew how old Reverse Thieves was and she said nein.

. . . I may have to quit now.

 The Reverse Thieves birthday post is where we look at the past, present, and future of the blog all at once. On the precipice on a huge milestone there is a good deal of accomplishments under our belts but I think they will pale in comparison to what the future holds for us. Nevertheless I think it is worth taking a little moment to reflect on what we have been able to accomplish to give ourselves a renewed sense purpose in the years to come.

If anyone knows me the will know I am hardly known as a Pollyanna so the fact that I can be rather dour about the state of the blog should be unsurprising. Despite all of that 2016 was actually very encouraging. Kate and I were invited to be featured panelists at Castle Point Anime Festival and full-fledged guests at Hamacon. Due to very pleasant circumstances Kate was not able to attend Hamacon but we both were able to dazzle the stage with some stellar content at Castle Point. I had a wonderful time a Hamacon and hope that a few years down the line we can both attend the event together. It really feels very affirming to be recognized as accomplished panelists and I appreciate both of the institutions that saw our previous work and felt it was worth rewarding.

We were able to finish the Cowboy Bebop Rewatch Podcast which I think was able to celebrate and analyze a classic of the medium. It was very rewarding to go back to such a watershed anime with almost two decades of perspective. It was shockingly eye-opening and comfortably nostalgic all at the same time.

After the success of Cowboy Bebop Rewatch Podcast we asked the readers what they wanted the subject of the next Rewatch Podcast to be and after some debate we all agreed on the Slayers Rewatch Podcast. At this point there are still episodes of the Slayers Rewatch Podcast coming out despite the fact that we have finished watching the show and even have all the episodes recorded and edited. While Slayers hardly reaches anything close to the lofty heights that Cowboy Bebop ever achieves I think the experience was rewarding and enlightening in its own way.

We once again tweaked the format of the Speakeasy. We have folded in the Ongoing Investigations into the Speakeasy. I think that the Ongoing Investigations section of the blog never felt 100% comfortable where we had placed it.  It works a little better as the “what have we been reading/watching/playing” part of the podcast.

We also had Patz on as the first guest co host for the Speakeasy. It was a really fun change of pace. I look forward to having other guest co hosts to mix things up in the future.

It is also worth mentioning that we have been still cranking out the SWAT Reviews, Case Closed Reviews, and various Awards Posts every season. While none of these are new features they are still praiseworthy accomplishments considering the number of new shows that come out every season.

And last but not least we finally hit the 2,000 post mark. No matter how you slice it 2,000 posts is quite a number of words crafted about anime and manga. Since I already have the title for the 3,000th post all set up all that is left to do is release another thousand quality posts.

Ahhh change is in the air. I’m always glad to say that the blog (and podcast) is an ever-changing endeavor.

Just a few weeks ago I changed up the blog’s design. It was finally time to admit that I was old. Or rather that the most basic coding I knew was wildly outdated and I had no knowledge of how to design with both web and mobile in mind. Something clean and fresh was necessary.

In addition, we’ve also updated the ABOUT page since we are oh-so-important actual featured panelists and guests at cons now.

The biggest change for me though was finally taking my first (and hopefully not last) trip to Japan. The planning, then the actual going, took up a lot of headspace for the first half of 2016. It was an incredible experience and while I don’t think it has changed me as a fan, I do feel like I learned some things along the journey.

 The Rewatch Podcast is going to go on a brief hiatus. We already a few shows in consideration for the next retrospective but for now we both want to catch up on a few older series we have been neglecting including the original Sailor Moon. In fact I would like to maybe look at some older shows on the blog in general. With almost every new show being simulcast it is easy to get caught up in the here and now and forget there are a good deal of neglected treasures still waiting to be discovered.

There are also a few interesting ideas we have been work shopping for a while now. After the hectic convention season is over I think we will test out one or two of them in the fall when we have a bit more time to breath. When we are closer to having something presentable to the public we will unveil what we have been working on.

Thank you so much to our readers and listeners! It is really humbling to think there are people out there who value our opinions, take them to heart, and (hopefully) find new and great things to watch and read from our ramblings.

If there is anything I want, I guess I’d say I wish the blog and podcast involved more cake.

 Next year should be a big deal for the blog and myself. I will be 40, we will have been podcasting for 7 years, and the blog will have been active for a full decade. It will be very interesting to see what we can accomplish in the next year before the big 1-0. I think 2017 will be an exhilarating year for Reverse Thieves so I hope to see you all here for the big celebration in 365 days!

-Alain
~ kate