My Top 50 AMVs of 2024: 20 - 11
Jan. 26th, 2025 09:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katranatApologies for my brevity with some of these - I've been recovering from covid over the past couple of weeks and my brain feels like molasses but I just want to get these done.
20
Video title: Speed Demons
Editor: SFPhoenix AMV
Anime: Various
Song & Artist: Deja Vu - Dave Rodgers
VPR: All (major motion, major blurs)
Comments:
“Speed Demons” is criminally underrated. Seriously, this is the kind of high octane multi source editing I would expect to see in contest winning AMVs, and this video has hardly any attention whatsoever. SFPhoenix AMV has put so much effort into amazing sync, fun match cuts and just downright awesomeness everywhere in this video and it’s kind of heartbreaking that I’m basically the only person witnessing it. I’m aware Eurobeat is memed on a lot and can be a bit of an acquired taste, but even disregarding the music you cannot deny that “Speed Demons” is incredibly badass, and probably most importantly of all, it’s a whole lotta fun.
19
Video title: FLY
Editor: Caribou-kun
Anime: Inu-Oh, Heike Monogatari
Song & Artist: Question! - System of a Down
VPR: All (major strobing and flashing)
CW: Violence
Comments:
For the benefit of anyone unfamiliar with either of these sources, I’m just going to roughly explain both of them so you can understand what Caribou-kun is doing with this AMV.
Inu-Oh is a movie about two people who use musical performances as a storytelling medium - specifically they are telling stories from the dead spirits of the Heike clan who perished in a famous battle (Inu-Oh is about a lot of other stuff as well, but for understanding this AMV, that’s the jist of it). Heike Monogatari, as you might have already guessed, is an anime about that same clan’s story. Caribou-Kun brings these two together to weave the tale of the Heike clan through the medium of Inu-Oh’s performances and Heike Monogatari’s striking scenes.
It’s also somewhat of a surprise to hear a System of a Down song in an AMV in 2024 - and it works incredibly well considering the subject matter. I’ve heard this song so many times before, but I’m ashamed to say I’d never really paid attention to the lyrics - this video has rectified that.
Caribou-kun’s editing is wonderful and experimental here. He’s someone who’s often trying new things when he edits, and that’s also the case here. There’s an abundance of overlays and masking and strobing, and it all comes together in a very gratifying way.
When I was writing up the VPR’s and CW’s for these videos, I got to this one and I felt like this needed a “violence” warning but I couldn’t really pick out any particular clips that warranted the warning. Yes, there’s a lot of war and death in the story being told, but it’s very much on the sidelines and isn’t very explicit. Then I realised that the majority of the violent feeling I get from the video, is the video itself. It’s an assault on the senses, almost unpleasantly so. It’s an interesting, almost allegorical portrayal of the violence in the story, using harsh editing as a proxy for any actual visible bloodshed, and I think it’s incredibly clever of Caribou-kun to have put this together.
18
Video title: The Phantom Cuts
Editor: JamesBlond
Anime: Noragami, Noragami Aragato
Song & Artist: Golden Touch - JAXSON GAMBLE
VPR: All
CW: Violence, blood
Comments:
“The Phantom Cuts” was one of the the darlings of the 2024 RICE contest, and for good reason. I’ve only seen a handful of Noragami AMVs before and none of them have ever made the anime appear awesome as “The Phantom Cuts” does. JamesBlond adheres to the syncing so tightly throughout the video, loading every moment with satisfying motion and cutting so precisely (heh). It’s an all around top tier showcase of editing and results in such a fun and adrenaline pumping video.
17
Video title: Binary Superstars
Editor: Animetrash AMVs
Anime: Carole and Tuesday
Song & Artist: Cinderella (feat Magic Man) - The Knocks
VPR: Motion, light leaks, flashes, fire
Comments:
My thoughts on “Binary Superstars” can mostly be summed up as, these kids are just so gosh darn cute! Animetrash picked the perfect song to showcase these two adorable girls and their shared love for music - it’s so uplifting and carefree. Animetrash of course also packs in a lot of fun and satisfying sync, including the ever popular syncing with instruments which is always enjoyable to see. If I ever need a pick me up, I put this AMV on and it never fails to put a smile on my face.
16
Video title: I Wanna Go
Editor: skrrt
Anime: Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt
Song & Artist: I Wanna Go - Britney Spears
VPR: All (major motion)
CW: Sexual imagery
Comments:
Skrrt has made a lot of really good AMVs, including an amazing series of Utena AMVs set to songs off of Charli XCX’s album BRAT, but it’s their Panty and Stocking video “I Wanna Go” which I have personally found to be the most addictive. Not only is this an AMV which uses Panty and Stocking in 2024 it’s also using a Britney Spears song from 2011! The nostalgia factor is off the charts here and “I Wanna Go” feels like it would fit in perfectly with the AMVs from the early 2010’s. Where the video really shines for me, is during the pre-choruses and choruses, the way the song flows at these moments and how skrrt has matched this with the editing is utterly magical - it feels kinda like flying.
15
Video title: 50 Shades of Blue
Editor: Speksi AMVs
Anime: Various
Song & Artist: Blue - Eiffel 65 (+ remix by AwesomiZer + Hatsune Miku)
VPR: All
Comments:
I will admit I am a person who very much enjoyed Blue by Eiffel 65 when it first came out (in my defense I was 10, so like, the perfect target audience), so I have a soft spot for the song and any remixes of it. Speksi appears to have created their own mix of the song for this AMV, using a combination of the original, plus a remix from an artist on Soundcloud, plus Hatsune Miku! It’s all put together really well and is a fun twist on simply using the original song.
The concept of “50 Shades of Blue” is stupidly simple - find all the blue things and stick them in the video together. Even though the concept kind of hits you over the head over and over again with “look, another blue thing!” it’s still a lot of fun to watch and is downright beautiful at some moments. It’s also really neat to see what different sources Speksi chooses for the song throughout the video. My only nitpick is the clip that starts at 03:15 - I firmly believe that this is purple and not blue.
14
Video title: SPECTRUM
Editor: Elfeni
Anime: Various
Song & Artist: City Boy - Donkeyboy
VPR: Major all
Comments:
I was slightly obsessed with this AMV when I first came across it. I have a bit of a soft spot for AMVs where it’s visually difficult to discern what the images even are (partly because I made a video like this myself). I believe there’s something to be said about the video making process for the absence of something in a video - I feel this can be as important as what is in a video, but this is a topic I might do as its own write up one day. Elfeni did upload an alternative version of “SPECTRUM” which includes the original clips as greyscale underneath the light show, but while this version is easier to watch, bizarrely I feel even though it shows more it actually loses something in the process. The draw of this video for me is the way the “find edges” light show gradually reveals different parts of the image due to the motion in the anime - it’s incredibly mesmerising and fascinating to watch. It’s also fun how the colours change constantly in the same order and I believe (but haven’t verified) that each clip is the same length - so there’s this insistent rhythm that the video adheres to throughout.
13
Video title: Inner Light
Editor: HDV AMV
Anime: Jujustu Kaisen
Song & Artist: Inner Light - Elderbrook
VPR: All
Comments:
This was a highly anticipated AMV for me - HDV very graciously and slightly randomly let me see a beta version of this video and I instantly fell in love with it even though it wasn’t yet finished. I was super happy when a couple months later HDV released the finished version.
It wouldn’t be an HDV video without some slightly off the wall goofy ass editing - and yet there’s also an abundance of intensely atmospheric and downright awesome moments. There’s something about the music that feels slightly magical and HDV matching this with Jujustu Kaisen gives it an oddly ethereal feeling.
12
Video title: Change
Editor: GIFTEDASF
Anime: Various
Song & Artist: Change - Tears For Fears
VPR: All (major motion, shapes/patterns, psychedelia)
Comments:
I’m going to be honest - this is a weird AF video where I don’t know why it works, it just does. Not only is it multi source, it’s also multimedia, combining anime with western animation and live action - even going as far as including clips from the original Tears For Fears music video for the song! Most of the sources are old-school 80’s but not all of them fall into this category, which is quite interesting, because you’d think to keep the aesthetic flowing throughout the video the sources would need to all match, but this isn’t the case, and yet the vibe is impeccable anyway.
11
Video title: crush my head like a watermelon
Editor: SadSack
Anime: Precure
Song & Artist: RATATATA - BABYMETAL, Electric Callboy
VPR: All (major motion)
Comments:
Babymetal and magical girls - so hot right now. In all seriousness, “crush my head like a watermelon” is actually super hot. The energy SadSak has packed into the video is outstanding, it’s some of the most fun I’ve had with an AMV all 2024. I could go on about the sync and the match cuts and the motion, but at this point in the list I feel like a broken record, and you all have eyes and ears. “crush my head like a watermelon” is an absolute triumph and you don’t need me to explain why.
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Date: 2025-01-27 12:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-11 03:41 am (UTC)