AMV Roundup 02 - May 2023
May. 22nd, 2023 10:44 pmHello everyone, welcome to AMV roundup number two!
AMV roundup is where I’m highlighting any new AMV’s I’ve come across in the past month, as well as showcasing any older videos I may find that I’d never encountered before.
The videos featured here are mostly AMV’s that aren’t already well known in the AMV community spaces I’m familiar with (unless I particularly want to gush about them for some reason). So hopefully a lot of these videos will be new to anyone reading.
I have another 10 videos for you this month - the same amount as last month! I promise I didn’t plan it that way, that’s genuinely how many I had after I went through my list and picked out the ones I wanted to share/talk about.
I hope you find something to enjoy!
New for 2023
Video title: The Plagues
Editor: natsamv
Anime: Trigun Stampede
Song & Artist: The Plagues - Prince of Egypt OST
Comments: I’ve been wary of Trigun Stampede AMV’s as it’s an anime I definitely want to get around to watching, and if I see too much of it beforehand, I won’t feel like watching it. That being said, the title of this particular AMV intrigued me and I’m so glad I clicked on it. Hilariously it’s possibly the worst AMV spoiler-wise I could have chosen to watch, but I don’t care - it’s an astonishingly brilliant video, and absolutely not what I was expecting.
VPR: Motion, Zoom transitions, Red/Fire, RGB offset colours, Flashes to white
CW: Gore, Violence
Video title: a stream of consciousness, a warping of time
Editor: Dragoon0080
Anime: Various
Song & Artist: Various
Comments: Despite Dragoon0080 posting this AMV on the animemusicvideos.org forums, it doesn’t seem to have gained much attention so I figure I can include it here.
“a stream of consciousness, a warping of time” is a video composed of several smaller mini AMV’s. There’s been a few of these I’ve seen over the years. Most of the time they are either humorous in nature, or they’re simply a way for editors to dump abandoned projects. It’s not often I see AMV collections where these smaller videos are part of the overall concept and are (sort of) interconnected. I feel it’s a neat idea.
VPR: All
Each mini AMV is very different - some triggers are only present during some sections. Sections with major triggers: 00:20 - 00:37 has a rapid motion *sketchy* artstyle.
00:38 - 01:06 major motion and major flashing.
01:42 - 02:07 & 02:45 - 03:12 have major letterboxing & clip framing.
04:19 - 05:21 has major motion and major red/flashing flashing.
05:22 - end has major red emphasis.
CW: Nudity
Video title: All Night
Editor: Nearphotison
Anime: Call of the Night
Song & Artist: Levitating - Dua Lipa
Comments: I should hope most people who read my blog are familiar with Nearphotison, however I couldn’t resist including this gem of theirs.
There are a lot of excellent AMV’s out there which use this particular song. I think this one stands out to me because of how literal the interpretation is here. It’s super playful and a lot of fun. Nearphotison manages to hook me even though by now I’ve seen these clips from Call of the Night a bazillion times in AMV’s (seriously, does this anime have no other good footage or something?).
VPR: All
Major colour emphasis - mainly purple, occasional changes to green, peach, yellow, blue, red pink. Quick cuts and rapid dips to black at the beginning. The majority of scenes contain some motion. Occasional flashes spread throughout the video. A high amount of bokeh & light leaks.
Video title: running up that hill
Editor: mapledeyink
Anime: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Song & Artist: Running up that Hill - Kate Bush (Barton remix)
Comments: Evangelion is an anime that has been used to create AMV’s for decades now. It’s also a highly versatile anime, you could edit just about any type of audio with Evangelion and make the combination connect in some way. That being said, I’m not sure I’ve ever come across an Evangelion AMV that has the mood of “running up that hill” before - somehow mapledeyink has captured something new for me. Even though Evangelion is originally an anime from the 90’s, I never consider it in the same vein as other older classics - Evangelion to me has always been timeless, there’s no nostalgia associated with it, I barely even register that it’s from the same time period as anime such as Yuu Yuu Hakusho and Gundam Wing.
Seeing an AMV use Evangelion in the 80’s/90’s nostalgia vibey way is weird for me. No doubt there are several videos out there that do, but this is the first one I’ve come across. There are other aspects mapledeyink is focusing on here, but the feel of the video as a whole is just so different to any other Evangelion AMV I’ve ever seen. Mapledeyink hasn’t even done any specific editing to make the video seem more old-timey, there’s only untouched clips and hard cuts here, but somehow the bittersweet longing for things long lost is strong.
I think if mapledeyink had used the original version of this song it wouldn’t be anywhere near as effective. Even though Running Up That Hill is an 80’s classic, it still has a timeless quality, which would have been a more conventional combination with Evangelion.
VPR: All
Video title: Uzumaki うずまき
Editor: doub13w
Anime: Chainsaw Man, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Devilman Crybaby
Song & Artist: Uzumaki うずまき - Machine Girl
Comments: Another month and yet more Chainsaw Man. This time though doub13w has tempered it with the combination of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Devilman Crybaby. If there were ever anime with complimentary scenes, well it’s these three.
I adore the way doub13w has matched these clips to all the different sounds in this song. It’s incredibly satisfying. I also enjoy the inclusion of the Chainsaw Man promotional material, which a while ago, was absolutely everywhere, but seems to have been abandoned as soon as the real anime was available to edit with.
VPR: Major All (also volume warning)
CW: Gore, Violence, Nudity
Video title: After Dark
Editor: perks of being an alien
Anime: Chunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai
Song & Artist: After Dark x Sweater Weather - Mr Kitty & The Neighborhood (Cole Russo mashup)
Comments: This song and a couple versions of it have been relatively popular to edit with recently. “After Dark” has become my favourite of them. There’s something about the combination of this song with Chunibyou that I really enjoy, plus sometimes I crave simplicity, and this is a very straightforward and heartfelt video.
VPR: Flickering (+ white shinies), flashes to white, motion, peripherals (+ occasional peripheral framing), bokeh, particles
Video title: Nidelyo
Editor: Importan Joe
Anime: Jin Roh
Song & Artist: Nidelyo - TRIGAIDA
Comments: Sometimes in this hobby you come across things you never knew could exist. The combination of extremely obscure Bulgarian music with Jon Roh was one of these for me. “Nidelyo” is hauntingly beautiful - both the song and this AMV. There’s so much wonderful sync in this, including internal sync of the style I normally only get to appreciate in classical music AMVs. This is one I’m finding requires repeat viewings to catch all of the nuance.
VPR: All
Major red emphasis scenes. Quick cuts during the first 4 seconds of video followed by a strobe - there’s another strobe at 00:25 - 00:27. Frequent dips to black during the first quarter of the video. Major flashing during the last third of the video. Other triggers appear occasionally throughout.
CW: Gore, Violence
Older videos
Videos which premiered before 2023 that I’ve only recently found and have been enjoying.
Video title: STILL BREATHING
Editor: IDLEGLANCE
Anime: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Song & Artist: STILL BREATHING - HEALTH feat EKKSTACY
Comments: I found this when I was searching for any AMV’s which used music by HEALTH. “STILL BREATHING” is a wonderful example of a video that contains several editing elements I typically dislike, however there are moments in this video which absolutely blow me away, so overall I can’t help but love it. I did check out some of IDLEGLANCE’s other videos (they seem to be an editing group), and yeah, I generally really don’t enjoy their AMV’s at all, but this one manages to hit that sweet spot - things like the train effect on the window while matching the sound in the song is just *chefs kiss*.
VPR: Major All (additionally it gets excessively flashy in many ways from 02:20 - 02:40, I would encourage everyone to be careful)
Video title: Yuki’s Fresh Apple
Editor: Various
Anime: Various
Song & Artist: Bad Apple!!! - Masayoshi Minoshima
Comments: I’m a bit ashamed I never thought of searching for AMV’s which use the song Bad Apple before, the animated music video was such a sensation in the late 2000’s early 2010’s. It’s recently gained a resurgence in popularity thanks to memes, so I finally had the idea that it might be fun to see if anyone had ever edited an AMV with it.
“Yuki’s Fresh Apple” is absolutely everything I was hoping for and more. The editors managed to recreate the Bad Apple music video using various different anime characters. It’s so damn perfect - don’t believe me? Play it side by side with the music video, they completely nailed it. It makes my little weeb heart incredibly satisfied.
VPR: Major All
Video title: Anime is the Remedy
Editor: Graceria & Songbird21
Anime: Various
Song & Artist: The Remedy - Jason Mraz
Comments: “Anime is the Remedy” is a really cute and nostalgia filled multi anime AMV from 2003. Not much else to say, there’s a lot of happiness here.
VPR: All
This is a heavily mixed source video, as such all triggers are fairly frequent throughout. The only one that stands out as potentially major is patterns - there are several clips featuring ripples/magic shapes.