January posting: anime music videos

[oyceter]

For lovepeaceohana

AMVs! They were actually my first introduction to the fannish vidding tradition. The very first one I ever saw was an Utena vid to Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn," and it took probably two full days to download and was the size of a postage stamp. Oh dial up...

In retrospect, the song choice was probably not quite right, and there was a lot of literalism, but hey, the literalism made it much easier to figure out what was going on! And I suspect the vidder picked the song based on "Illusion never changed / into something real."

I don't remember if I found more after that, but by my sophomore or junior year of college, I had started up an anime club, and some of the people there had entire tapes of AMVs from cons and the like. Also, thanks to college ethernet, I had begun downloading a ton of AMVs, most of which were based on Evangelion. I think there was a very big focus on lip syncing at the time, as well as a lot of technical effects. And a lot of audio from trailers of popular movies (a lot of Star Wars Episode II) with footage from various anime series. Because I came from AMVs, I was really confused by Western media vids when I first watched them, though nowadays I have probably seen much more of the latter than the former.

This is also reminding me that I wanted to catch up on AMVs prior to Wiscon, so maybe I will go off to do that!

Also, on a funny note, when CB and I were first emailing each other off OK Cupid, I mentioned vids, and he was kind of skeptical, because all he knew were the bazillion Dragonball Z vids on YouTube done to some specific dramatic song I don't quite remember right now. Then I showed him the Princess Tutu AMV as an example, and he was blown away by the fact that people timed things! To the music! And had narrative! (I have sicced a lot more on him since, bwahaha.)

(I know I always say this when I talk about AMVs, but more recs are always welcome!)

Comments

[shati]

OMG I REMEMBER THAT UTENA TORN AMV, it was one of my super early favorites. /nostalgia

I'm pretty sure I saw it before I even saw the end of the show, so I definitely didn't mind the literalism.

[oyceter]

I still remember the part with the trio of candles going out one by one!

[gramarye1971]

Old-school Utena AMVs were fantastic. I got into October Project through the ones set to 'Bury My Lovely' and 'After the Fall'. And I still remember several other great ones from other series, like Caffeine Encomium (Kodomo no Omocha) and Tainted Donuts (Cowboy Bebop/Trigun).

I also like the MAD videos from Japan, particularly the ones that try to blend two canons together, either by recasting the opening or ending theme with opposing footage (as in this Saki/Railgun vid that uses the Railgun music and tries to match a lot of the character/action themes) or flat-out redrawing the entire thing (as in this Hetalia vid that parodies the Namco x Capcom OP). But I'll always have a weakness for the AMV.

[lnhammer]

Okay, that Saki/Railgun vid is hysterical if you know the serieses.

---L.

[lovepeaceohana]

I LOVED TAINTED DONUTS, OMG. *high-fives you for nostalgia*

[oyceter]

Tainted Donuts!!!! Oh man, I have to go rewatch that again, and the rest of the ones you linked!

[lady_ganesh]

"Bury My Lovely" is such an AMV-friendly song, isn't it?!?

And Tainted Donuts will, I think, always be my favorite.

[cordialcount]

Princess Tutu AMV! I remember being pointed at some Princess Tutu AMV over and over before I watched the series, and now I have no idea which it was-- do you have a link to this narrative AMV? :D

[estara]

If it's Princess Tutu, I bet it is Hall on Meg - Hold me Now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9197GTl1ASg

[genusshrike]

probably two full days to download and was the size of a postage stamp. Oh dial up...

*g* I recently went looking for some of the AMVs I watched as a teenager, and was horrified to realise they were only around 8 MB and tiny. But they took so long to download!

[lovepeaceohana]

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY AMVS!! <3 <3 <3

And I'm so glad you brought me back into them, because I have a truly ridiculous number of them now, it's gotten so that I've had to get an extra hard drive just for storage because I refuse to let any of them go. <3

I don't think I could rec any that you haven't already seen but I always hit up the animemusicvideos.org Viewer's Choice Awards; the nomination period for amvs that debuted last year hasn't even begun yet, but the results for the 2013 awards (so, amvs that debuted in 2012) is up. The link is here but I'm not sure whether you have to be logged in to see it? (And am too lazy to test, ahaha.)

Also yes to being confused by Western vids. They're so - different from amvs! The whole style! It felt/feels a lot like learning a new visual language. I'm still trying though!