My Top AMVs of 2023, 50 - 41
Jan. 2nd, 2024 08:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katranatHello everyone, and welcome to my top 50 AMVs of 2023!
I’ve made quite a few changes in how I’m doing this end of year process this time around.
First of all, normally by now I would have also posted a year end list of AMVs I found via reddit - I am not doing this, 2023 was a terrible year for reddit and I feel quite worn down by the website honestly. Even though my reddit AMV posts never really had anything to do with the website itself, I still feel awkward about it despite the website never being the greatest of places, most recently it has become rather terrible (unless you very strictly stick to specific hobby subreddits). Additionally I have been posting AMV Roundup posts throughout 2023, and a high number of AMVs I found from reddit were included in these posts, so I would mostly be reposting videos I’ve already spoken about if I made a reddit specific post and that seems rather redundant.
Secondly, due to the aforementioned AMV Roundup posts, I will also not be including any honourable mentions before we get into my top 50. I did some soul searching and I came to the conclusion that if a video were to not get into my top 50, and it was one I really wanted to mention or speak about it some way, then I would have already done this through my Roundup Posts. So again I would mostly be reposting videos, and it would be redundant.
For anyone who missed them who would be interested in watching lots of AMVs, here are quick links to these posts from throughout 2023 - April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
Thirdly, I am not doing write ups. At least, not in the usual way. I’ve spent most of this year writing about AMVs and even though those posts weren’t the most verbose, it still was a lot of writing and I don’t really have the energy for 50 more of those.
Instead I was inspired by the way both Synæsthesia Productions and MegaAMV went through their end of year AMV lists last year, and I foolishly decided it would be a good idea for me to try talking about the AMVs rather than writing. The end product of this idea is every single AMV on my list now has an accompanying hyperlink to an unlisted YouTube video where y’all will get to see me talking about the AMV while I watch it. Yeah.
I don’t get to see IRL people reacting/talking about my AMVs very much, and I find it awesome when it does happen - I suspect other editors also don’t often get to experience this, so I thought this might be nice hopefully for any of the editors on my list who may come across this.
Additionally I have written out a transcription of any comments I have on the video in these blog posts so you can still enjoy the list without the need to watch me talk if you so wish.
I haven’t done an exact 1 - 1 transcription, as I say a lot of filler words and while those are fine during actual speech, writing those out for people to read seemed unnecessary. Anything in parentheses () are not comments I’ve said during the recording - I’ve added these when typing this up to give any additional information and context to anyone who may read the transcription without watching the video, and in a couple of cases, shoehorning in something I may have forgotten to say initially that I really want to mention about an AMV.
The structure of what I say is obviously completely different to how I would talk about these AMVs if I were doing a write up, so I’m unsure how well it comes across. I definitely could have come up with potentially more meaningful words if I had decided to write, however despite the unfocused rambling of anything I say in these videos, I hope there’s a raw authenticity in communicating how I feel about these AMVs versus whatever I could have come up with via overthinking and trying to write that down.
Now we’ve got all that out of the way, a bit more information about how this is going to work this year generally.
As usual I will be posting 10 videos per day starting today from numbers 50 - 41 culminating with the top 10 on Saturday. I have no specific time of day for posting these, but my best guesstimate will be around 9PM GMT time.
2023 was honestly a crazy year for AMVs, y’all make some amazing stuff, seriously.
I always start my ranking process off by going through all the AMVs uploaded in 2023 in my YouTube Liked list - this year that number was 338. It was a lot, and to get through it all I ended up being incredibly harsh. Usually when I do my ranking process, I include every video from the start, because I often have a hard time choosing what I want in my top 50 (because I love all the videos) and the ranking process helps shape that for me. However this year that would have been ridiculous, so instead I went through the list of 338 videos and very sincerely asked myself the question, “would you genuinely be upset if this AMV weren’t in your top 50?” and made note of all those videos. I ended up with a list of 75 after that (spoilers it was technically 78 - you’ll find out why later), which I then put through my ranking process. My ranking process is a variation of what Tom Scott describes in this video - I’m too lazy to try and type out how it works, and he’s already explained it for me. My version though is just me, a spreadsheet and a buttload of time. This then got me my final top 50 for 2023.
I’ve never been shy about including videos which absolutely do not have mass appeal on my lists, but I feel like there are more than ever this year. Interestingly, I think that’s due to having such a large number of videos to choose from, it seems to have helped me fill my list with videos which cater to my specific tastes.
I left the filming of my comments until the week between Christmas and New Year because I had time off work. Unfortunately I developed a cold during this week which did throw a spanner in my plans slightly. It means I’m rather congested and a bit brain foggy during these, so what I say is sadly not the quality I was hoping for. I went ahead with the filming though, because even if I pivoted at that point to simply doing write ups again, it still would not have been good quality. At the end of the day it is what it is.
One final note about my comments this year - please, please watch the AMV before watching/reading my comments. Because of the way I talk about these videos while watching them, I make several references to things that happen in the video, which won’t make much sense if you don’t watch it beforehand. Watching my recordings straight up is also not a good way to watch the AMV itself - I’m talking for most of the video, and they are somewhat edited so chunks of the AMVs will be missing, plus a whole host of other things meaning they’re not an optimal viewing experience for any of these AMVs.
Please make sure to watch the AMVs themselves.
Also don't think it should have to be said, but I will anyway - there may be videos on here which you might not agree with the inclusion of, or disagree with the ranking order, but ultimately this is my own personal list, and I've included each of these videos because I love them for whatever reason. So for me, these are the top 50.
We’re almost to the list, but before we get there I want to shout out CrackTheSky and seasons as usual, who got me into doing this whole list business in the first place and who are making their own end of year lists which you can check out.
And one massive shout out to my wife who very kindly let me use her computer to create the recordings this year (her computer had things set up already for this type of thing) and who also helped me type out the transcriptions from the recordings and just generally supporting my cold ridden self these past couple of weeks.
Here we go, my top 50 AMVs from 2023, counting down from 50! I hope you all enjoy!
50
Video title: Electric Poetry
Editor: Animetrash AMVs
Anime: G Gundam, Eureka Seven, Darling in the Franxx
Song & Artist: Binary Love - Blake Lewis
VPR: All (intermittent major flashing)
Video comments: (this was in fact the first video I made for this list - apologies there are moments where you can’t hear me very well so you might need this transcription. I promise I do get slightly better at the filming process as I continue)
We’re starting this list off with a video from Animetrash AMVs, who is probably one of my favourite editors at the moment - I am very much addicted to their stuff. And this video’s called “Electric Poetry”. So, “Electric Poetry” was only uploaded about a month ago, I’ve only had a few weeks for it to permeate my psyche. I feel like if I’d had it for longer and had watched it for longer it probably would have ended up higher in my list, but as it is, it’s still mingling in there and I haven’t quite yet gotten to the point where I appreciate it fully. Animetrash has mixed three different anime here, all gundam/mecha series, and is doing a very obvious comparison between them of these pilots and their love interests and it’s very fun to watch.
As usual Animetrash is speeding up the pace of the video source quite a lot in their editing - it’s something they do in pretty much every single video of theirs that I’ve seen, it makes for some very interesting sync moments.
I do love how they’ve managed to capture the same emotions throughout these series even though all three of them are very far apart in time. Something else Animetrash is very good at is finding those types of connections and match cuts, and making it all fit together in a cohesive video.
49
Video title: in memoriam
Editor: 平成
Anime: Violet Evergarden
Song & Artist: Good Days - SZA
VPR: Flashes to black, flashes to white
Video comments: Okay so, first off, I’m going to call this editor Nakana, because I don’t know what these characters mean (in their YouTube name), and they have an animemusicvideos.org account where their name is Nakana - so that’s what I’m going to be calling this editor for the foreseeable future. And this is “in memoriam”, which is a Violet Evergarden AMV, which is an anime that I haven’t seen and don’t really have much interest in seeing. But “in memoriam” is a very, I dunno if I want to say unusual, interesting video in that Nakana has made it, the aspect ratio of the video as 4:3, so it’s square. Violet Evergarden is a fairly new anime which is in widescreen - so this decision is a little bit strange, but it’s one that I appreciate very much because it makes, it instantly gives the video a sort a nostalgic feel, or even like a, making it seem like it’s from an older time.
Something else that Nakana has done, is the video quality is only 480p, so they’ve obviously rendered the video in a lower quality than the Violet Evergarden anime is actually available in - which again, is slightly unusual, and it’s given the video a very, slightly grainy look. It’s possible this could be a filter, but I have a feeling it’s literally just the quality of the video that’s making some of these artefacts. It is also possible there is some kind of colour filter going on here, I don’t know the actual colour of this particular episode of Violet Evergarden. Which is another thing that is very interesting about this video, is I’m pretty sure it’s only using one episode, and is very specifically focusing on this particular interaction between this little girl and what appears to be her mother, who is obviously sick.
And then another thing that I find very interesting about this video, is that it’s using a song by an artist called SZA, who’s music is not something I would ever associate with this kind of heart wrenching editing, which is very simple Nakana is keeping things very simple and is quite slowly showing us the story of possibly what’s going on in this particular episode of Violet Evergarden, where the girl is going through the grief that her mom is sick, and possibly dying, and possibly is dead at this point, I really have no idea what’s actually going on in the anime unfortunately.
Yeah this part is just, yeah that bit (03:11) where she slaps her fist against Violet and it’s timed to the music - it’s all very poignant and Nakana has, I’m really not quite sure how they’ve managed to capture the mood, but they have, all of the different elements together has made this very, even like a snapshot of a moment in time. But yeah. Very simple, very pretty, very effective. I still can’t believe I am the only person who has liked this video - please show it some love, it’s very good. Thank you.
(I had a lot to say about this AMV, so I completely forgot to also mention that I get the feeling this is a highly personal video for the creator. There’s nothing concrete to indicate that though, it’s simply the vibe I get from it.)
48
Video title: Drop
Editor: BoxJoe
Anime: Various
Song & Artist: Drop - Conner Price
VPR: All (major motion)
Video comments: So this is “Drop” by BoxJoe, and let's go straight into it, this is just a very slick sakuga action edit AMV, and BoxJoe has done an impeccable job really of matching all these scenes and keeping momentum going throughout the whole AMV. It’s especially impressive as he says these are just random scenes he downloaded from Sakugabooru, and he’s just put them together and it’s just effortless flow. His mastery of flow is very impressive, it’s a delight to watch every time.
There is a lot of satisfying sync throughout this video, and it makes my brain happy. Sometimes the reasons I enjoy AMVs are that simple, what it all kind of just boils down to - oooo, the movement of these pretty images matches the sounds of the song really well, this just is perfect. We love it.
47
Video title: Lindo lago do amor
Editor: Lobo Lualua
Anime: Various
Song & Artist: Lindo lago do amor - Gonzaguinha
VPR: Minor motion, major water ripples, peripherals, flickering, flashes to white, particles
Video comments: Lobo Lualua is a very interesting editor, they excel at being able to harness an almost indefinable mood in quite a lot of their AMV works. And this AMV, I am going to butcher this title, “Lindo lago do amor” is one of those videos. It’s a mixture of all sorts of completely different anime and seemingly random shots, some of which you wouldn’t think make sense thematically side by side and yet somehow, somehow Lobo Lualua has made it all cohesive - it’s quite the feat honestly. It’s one of these videos that I appreciate more, the more I watch it. You definitely have to watch it more than once to catch all of the little bits and pieces of nuance to fully understand why what you’re seeing works the way it does and how it captures this interesting mood. Honestly I don’t even know what the mood is, I wouldn’t even necessarily call this nostalgic, it’s almost a yearning for something, but I really know what - even without knowing, the video has vibes galore. I also have no idea what the lyrics mean, there could be some kind of lyric sync going on that I am completely unaware of. Regardless it’s captivating even without having that level of understanding.
Yeah, like here (02:12 - 02:15 this is bringing up an example of the seemingly random shots), it’s a very interesting choice and somehow it works. We’ve obviously, we’ve got this hand going up to the moon and then you’ve got another shot of the moon, that all makes sense - and then there’s this random happy girl! Very quickly. It’s a very quick shot of this random happy girl before we then go back to this girl in a boat, but somehow it works! Somehow it makes sense! Lobo Lualua is just that magic.
46
Video title: New Gold
Editor: BoxJoe
Anime: Chainsaw Man
Song & Artist: New Gold (Dom Dolla Remix) - Gorillaz
VPR: Flickering, Major Motion, Peripherals, Flashes to white, Red Emphasis, Quick cuts
CW: Gore & Violence
Video comments: Chainsaw Man AMVs kinda exploded in 2023, this one, “New Gold” by BoxJoe was probably one of the very first AMVs I watched this year, as well as being one of the few Chainsaw Man AMVs that had a lasting effect on me - and I continue to enjoy this video very much to this day.
During the beginning segment there is an interesting choice by BoxJoe to have some of the audio from the anime bleed through into the music track - I’m not quite sure why this is, but it’s kind of whatever. It is a little distracting but ultimately the song hasn’t really ramped up yet, so it doesn’t really detract from the overall experience.
I’m trying to think of a good way to describe my feelings of this AMV that doesn’t really just boil down to *the sync makes me happy*. Which honestly is pretty much what this AMV does for me ultimately. The song is really cool but there’s not really any connection between the source and the song in any way that I’m able to discern at least (please correct me if you think I’m wrong about that peeps). It’s more just a vessel for BoxJoe to sync all these fun scenes from Chainsaw Man to - which is absolutely fine and it works very well! And I enjoy it very much. There’s almost a lazy (laidback) effortlessness to the way BoxJoe has synced in this AMV - obviously I have no idea how much work he did or did not put into editing this AMV I have not watched Chainsaw Man. So I have no idea how much he had to edit these action sequences for them to obviously flow as well with the music as they do. And flow they do! They flow very, very well.
I actually kind of wish more action AMVs were edited like this, where it’s just, you’ve got this massive chunk of an action scene from an anime and yet somehow it all flows really well to the music and all of it fits perfectly. BoxJoe somehow manages to do this a few times throughout this video and it’s really fun to watch - the music and the movement in the animation start to become one and it becomes this very riveting viewing experience. At least for me it does.
That bit right there (03:31) where suddenly the gun comes out and it all starts moving to the low bass hum bit in the song - that bit of sync just makes me so, so happy and it works so, so well, it just yeah (thumbs up).
45
Video title: i’m an alien
Editor: perks of being an alien
Anime: Kill Me Baby
Song & Artist: Alien - Mommy Long Legs
VPR: Peripherals, flashes to black, motion, patterns/particles
Video comments: So now we’ve got a video by an editor called perks of being an alien, they’re an editor who I’ve only come across this year and I’ve enjoyed quite a lot of their videos actually - they’re very slightly off the wall and a little bit different from AMVs generally these days, which I enjoy. This video is “i’m an alien” it’s probably one of their slightly more unusual videos. They also say it’s heavily personally inspired, what were their exact words, yeah this video is personally inspired - I have a feeling obviously it ties into their channel name perks of being an alien. And I don’t know for sure but I get the feeling that it’s kind of about feeling out of place in society and feeling like you’re an outsider, and feeling like an alien, which I can to an extent somewhat empathise with - I also kind of get that feeling sometimes in various different situations.
perks of being an alien has made I would say a few objectively better videos than this one, not that this one is bad in any way, but the editing in it is slightly awkward - I do think that is part of the point of the video though, and I find the whole thing very authentic and endearing in that way, that this person has shared that part of themselves with the world. Which is quite cool! Something about it, the energy to it, has captured it as a video that I’ve found quite compelling this year to watch.
This bit at the ending is interesting - after the music has finished they still continue with a couple of silly scenes which is fun. So yeah that was “i’m an alien”.
44
Video title: Bad to the Bone
Editor: sasaina-san
Anime: Naruto
Song & Artist: Bad to the Bone - George Thorogood & The Destroyers
VPR: Quick cuts, strobing, flashes to black, red emphasis scenes, flickering, motion, flashes to white
Video comments: (I left this video relatively unedited due to how much fun I’m having) Okay, here we’ve got Bad to the Bone, by sasaina-san I have no idea how to correctly pronounce that, but I’m sorry if I butcher it, but whatever. This is a Naruto AMV, all about Sasuke. It’s probably the only, I would say outright comedy AMV that’s made it into my top 50 this year. I do enjoy comedy AMVs a lot, but on the grand scheme of balancing things, they tend to not stick with me as much as other more serious videos. There are a couple videos later on in this list which are very silly, but I’m not sure they would qualify as outright, actual trying to be comedy.
So let’s go. We've got memes. We have. We’ve got memes all about Sasuke.
I’m going to be revealing myself a little bit too much here, but I think one of the reasons I love this AMV so much is that fan fiction has absolutely rotted my brain this year. For whatever reason I have been reading mostly nothing but Naruto fan fiction since the start of 2023. I don’t even like Sasuke that much as a character, and yet this AMV is just endlessly amusing to me. Just because it is so, so right. It’s all so, so right. I think that’s all I’m going to say on that.
I mean, what can I say about the actual video here that isn’t talking about the meme-y-ness of it, sasaina-san has obviously picked a great song to edit with and…
Sorry, just laughing at the addition of the audio of Sasuke’s laugh. This is one of the few instances where I don’t mind the audio creeping in from the anime because it just adds to the absurdity of it. Even the way. Even, especially the way, sasaina-san has decided to edit the video adds to the absurdity of it. There’s also some bits that are downright really cool, like this fight here, it’s like two different fight scenes between Sasuke and Naruto. And sasaina has done lots of match cuts to make it seem like it’s one fight. It’s actually really damn cool. It doesn’t really belong in a comedy AMV, it’s too badass. But, anyways, yeah.
The ridiculous character that is Sasuke Uchiha and the ridiculous anime that is Naruto. All kind of distilled into one AMV and it just never ceases to amuse me and just makes me very happy whenever I watch it. I probably don't need to say much more, you guys can probably understand why.
Little montage of the forehead poking (03:15), it’s really adorable.
There’s just so much over the top stuff in this, sasaina-san really out did themselves with just hamming this up. So much. It’s just wonderful.
In some ways this goes so far into comedy it circles right back round into being completely serious.
I adore the end credits of this video as well. This clip of Sasuke from Fortnite. It’s just so stupid. Especially with the really cool song in the background and Sasuke just kind of, you know, slightly inanely happy expression on his face while rocking back and forth. It’s comedy gold!
43
Video title: Monster
Editor: SeNniN
Anime: Chainsaw Man
Song & Artist: Godzilla - Eminem ft. Juice WRLD
VPR: All
CW: Gore & Violence
Video comments: It’s another Chainsaw Man AMV, this one is by SeNniN, and it’s to the Eminem song “Godzilla”, which is a good choice. It fits really well with the anime of Chainsaw Man. I really love the flow that Senan achieves throughout the video.
I think they manage to ride the edge of editing for a rap AMV it can be really tempting when editing to rap to try and match the lyrics very closely, but in rap it goes very quickly so if you match the lyrics very closely the pace of your AMV is just going to be too much. And I think SeNniN manages that very well in this video - they managed to keep things moving and keep it feeling cohesive whilst not going completely off the rails.
I think one of the things that helps it is SeNniN choses some key lyrics to do the lyric sync with, that helps propels the rest of the scenes, even though they’re all not necessarily matching the lyrics, but are also matching other elements in the music as well, it fits all very neatly.
Like that (02:27), where it’s obliterating everything and, yeah, the house falls apart and the dude gets stabbed. I have no idea who these characters are. It’s a very cool way to use all of these action scenes in “Chainsaw Man”.
Fun, fun video!
42
Video title: The Curse Of Haruhi Suzumiya
Editor: JamesBlond
Anime: The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya, The Disappearance Of Haruhi Suzumiya
Song & Artist: Summer Is A Curse - The Faim
VPR: Motion, peripherals, flickering, fades to black,flashes to white, flashes to black, glitch effects
Video comments: I have not watched Haruhi Suzumiya, but I do know vaguely enough about it to at least somewhat understand this video, I think. I hope.
This is the Curse of Haruhi Suzumiya by JamesBlond 007, except 007 is not his name these days, anyway. From what I understand this AMV is using only a particular part of the Haruhi Suzumiya Series - specifically focusing on one arc of the anime and it’s just very, very clever. The whole idea is clever and JamesBlond’s execution of the idea is also clever. Not only is there a lot of very satisfying sync, but also the scenes are very well chosen and placed in the timeline of the AMV with a lot of care, as to how to develop the story of what’s happening in the video.
JamesBlond also does a lot of fun little easter eggs throughout the video in reference to time, and time pieces like that clock wipe that happens. Lots of meta going on in this AMV which is cool, and meta of itself as well.
41
Video title: Salirò
Editor: roberto ferri
Anime: Bocchi the Rock
Song & Artist:
VPR: Textures & patterns, peripherals, flickering, motion
Video comments: There are a lot of really good Bocchi AMVs this year and this one “Salirò” by Roberto Ferri is one that managed to worm its way into my heart very quickly this year.
It’s very special in that it uses an Italian song, and I obviously don’t understand Italian, but even so, Roberto has edited it in such a, in a obvious way, with such impactful sync. Like all the time. He’s always syncing something to the elements of the song, or to the way the singer's voice sounds. And not only that, he very kindly added some English captions to the video so you can watch it and understand it if you wish. And after watching it with captions, I’ve realised he’s also doing lots of lyric sync too. So he’s managed to pack all of the different types of sync into almost every single scene in this video, whilst still making it very cohesive and a lot of fun. It’s quite something!
Even though I don’t, yeah, like that (01:50), like that little noise that sounds, it’s a musical instrument but it sounds a little bit like a quack and he shows a duck and it’s just so endearing and, just, so wonderful and heartwarming and even though I can’t understand what’s happening, that doesn’t necessarily even matter just because it meshes so well. He’s created something that just exists on its own as it is, I don’t know what I mean. Hopefully you guys know what I mean!
That bit is so cute (03:33). It’s like she’s, you know, she’s singing and she’s moving to the song. And the noise at the end, and the, their bits of hair wiggling to it, it’s really fun.
Thank you for posting my AMV here! really happy it stood out for you
Date: 2024-07-22 11:05 pm (UTC)I'm really happy to read that you found it endearing, as it was precisely my wish and I'm really happy that you found all those little details amusing, it was a heck of a lot of fun for me too,
Seeing that somebody with a lot more experience subscribed to me gave me a really big confidence boost and I was able to push through with some more edits, in the end it's about having fun and I have to say it feels great to excercise those creative muscles after being someone who never believed they could even have them for real, but I hope I can share that feeling with somebody else too, thanks again for checking my AMV out :D