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.

Manga of the Month: July

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Key to the Kingdom by Kyoko Shitou

Anything that even remotely looks like it could be high fantasy gets picked up by me this happens with varying results. However, with Key to the Kingdom it couldn’t have been a more worthy venture. This story starts perfectly and continues on with great vigor. Asta is the youngest prince, who has no desire to rule nor to hold a sword. So when the country’s rule lies in the hands of whoever can find the “key to the kingdom” it seems he will be able to leave his troubles in the hands of others. However, fate has other things in store as Badd, a retainer, drags him into looking for clues to the key’s whereabouts. Just as they start on their journey, arguing all the way, a Dragon Man appears on their path. It soon becomes clear that everything is not as it seems. A diverse cast emerges along the road as Asta resists but gets caught up in the complexity of the country’s history. The art is fluid even if it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. It is a wonderfully put together shojo fantasy filled with action, politics, dragons, mystery, and friendship. And at just six books it is a great read!

Touch by Mitsuru Adachi

I always had an interest in reading the works of Mitsuru Adachi. He is one of the great artists of the manga community that everyone talks about but rarely see any mainstream love for in America. I was waiting for some spark to give me the motivation to take the plunge into one of his manga series. That spark was the Cross Game anime. After seeing a few episodes I was sold on Mitsuru Adachi’s abilities as a storyteller. I decided if I was watching Cross Game I would go into Adachi’s back catalog and read through Touch to compare and contrast the two.

Kazuya and Tatsuya are twin brothers who seem as different as can be. Kazuya is the younger, upstanding, responsible, and focused young man who excels at everything he does including baseball. Tatsuya on the other hand is a perverted, irresponsible, slacker who does not really excel at anything. Kazuya is extremely popular with the girls while Tatsuya is much like Ataru, he hits on any pretty thing that moves but always strikes out. They are both in love with their next door neighbor Minami Asakura but everyone feels that Minami only has eyes for Kazuya. After Kazuya makes a promise to take Minami to Koshien and seems a lock in to deliver it seems that Tatsuya does not have a chance. But there are hints that Minami cares for Tasuya and possible more than his brother. But it often seems Tatsuya is his own worse enemy in developing their relationship.

Adachi is a master of melding the highs and lows of sports manga with the highs and lows of a well-crafted shonen romance. He is extremely skilled at making likable and instantly engaging characters. Tatsuya comes off as someone to root for right out of the gate. As the series goes on he we see he is a much more complex character but keeps the same energy from when we first met him. Shohei Harada is without a doubt the best character in the series. I will bring up the fact that Adachi’s simpler and somewhat traditional character designs might turn some people off. That is a shame, Adachi is able to draw out powerful emotions with his designs whether it be joy, sadness, anger, or passion. Easily worth checking out by anyone who wants a solid shonen romance. Hopefully one day someone in the U.S. will pick up Adachi’s manga and let people see how good he can be.

Keepin’ it REAL!

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There is a belief most people have even if they do not realize it: The grittier and more hopeless something is the more representative of life it is. Stories that are happy and bright are fake because the world is full of pain and suffering. While only the delusional believe that the world is always a cheery place, it does not mean that bright and cheery stories can’t be realistic. However, for some stories tortured characters who have horrible lives filled with misery ring more true to many people. This topic came up when Narutaki and I were discussing Genshiken. We both agreed that most people liked Genshiken. I mentioned that a major qualm people had was they felt it became increasingly unrealistic. Essentially people who did not like Genshiken accused it of being a candy-coated otaku pandering fantasy. Why can’t people accept a positive image of otaku? Why do people more readily accept a negative image of life than a positive one?

Being an optimist by choice (nature?), I often get into conversations about the state of the world and people’s view of it. When discussing Genshiken I was floored to hear that some found it wildly unrealistic. It has become some sort of life trope that the important and memorable moments are all made up of drama. If you look at the news, at celebrities gossip, or so-called reality television this is what it is chock-full of. More importantly people seem to emphasize the tragedies in lives as the pinnacle and that a happy ending is fictional. As I see it, most of our lives are made up of hilarious incidents rather than never-ending hopelessness. That is not to say nothing heartbreaking happens to people, we all have those times in our lives, but I’d argue for most it is not the common part of their everyday existence. My philosophy aside, the major qualm here is whether or not something sad is more true to life than something happy.

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