My Top AMVs of 2023, 40 - 31
Jan. 3rd, 2024 08:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katranat40
Video title: Showdown
Editor: JCD
Anime: Various
Song & Artist: Showdown - Pendulum
VPR: Major all
Video comments: JCD is back and they’re making some absolutely amazing videos as usual. This is “Showdown - a Hiroyuki Imaishi tribute" and, well, let’s just get into it because this AMV is just kind of bigger than life from start to finish. It’s a rip roaring adventure, as they used to say in the old days, and it never really stops once it starts, really!
It also manages to be somewhat educational, to me at least. Because I had no idea that this particular person worked on all these series, I was always kind of cognizant of the fact that this bit in particular of FLCL looked like Dead Leaves, but I never really made the connection there. So, yeah, going through this video seeing all these different anime that have been included it kind of makes sense now! It would make a lot of sense that these are all animated or directed by the same person.
I do really love the way JCD has integrated all of these together kind of seamlessly, going through the eras of these different anime. I believe it’s mostly in publication order of when these different anime were initially released, going from the oldest to the newest - there might be a couple of exceptions to that, but it’s mostly in that order. Which is really cool! Yeah, they all flow really great into one another and it all fits wonderfully with the music which is Pendulum. Which used to be a really big music artist for AMVs back in the day and JCD bringing it back is, yeah. This is just a very, very fun, very well edited AMV.
I love this bit (02:21), this is one of my favourite bits. It flickers between Inferno Cop and Ryuko from Kill la Kill for that brief moment. That’s really fun.
I don’t know why, but it’s really stupid of me in hindsight, but I knew this was Trigger. I knew Cyber Punk Edgerunners was Trigger. But it didn’t occur to me that it was also the same animation director as Promare and stuff. Which also makes sense!
Super badass video!
39
Video title: State of my head
Editor: Shark Tooth Goosie
Anime: Various
Song & Artist: State of My Head - Shinedown
VPR: Fades to black, flashes to white, flashes to black, motion, red emphasis scenes
CW: Gore, violence
Video comments: So, Shark Tooth Goosie is another one of my favourite editors, they make a lot of really fun, really cool AMVs. Something they do a lot in their videos is they are great at using match cuts, and they are also great at finding match cuts throughout a number of different sources. “State of my head” is one of these AMVs, subtitled “Badass Boys AMV”, because of course. It uses, I believe, seven different anime, and Shark Tooth Goosie has found just, so many parallels between all of these differing sources and just weaves them all together - it’s really wonderful to watch. The theme of the video is focusing mainly on these male anime protagonists, who all have this devil may care attitude to the point where it’s harmful to themselves.
Those match cuts there are just amazing (01:21), all the different projectiles going across the screen all cut together.
That’s another match cut I really, really like (01:51), between Attack On Titan and Chainsawman.
Yeah, I think it’s a very interesting thing for a video to focus on. It’s obviously subtitled “Badass Boys”, but ultimately it’s about how much pain and anguish these characters go through and that’s what makes them badass by the end of it.
38
Video title: 2020
Editor: purple bell
Anime: Genesis Climber Mospeada: Love, Live, Alive
Song & Artist: 2020 (Culprate Remix) - Mr. Bill & Skope
VPR: All (intermittent major flashing)
Video comments: So this is a video by an editor called purple bell. purple bell makes videos that were heavily inspired by another AMV editor called Truth Crab, and a lot of these videos emulate the style of editing that Truth Crab popularised. Which is mainly using older anime with newer songs to just make something very simple and effortlessly cool, in my mind.
This one in particular I really love for the way purple bell has matched the visuals to the electronic sounds in the song. Older anime tends to have, especially OVA’s, tend to have a lot of interesting movements and flashes and cool stuff in them and purple bell takes advantage of all of those moments in this mech anime. And it’s just really cool, this is one of those videos where it’s all about the synthesis between the visuals and the music, and satisfaction that comes from matching the sounds of what you’re seeing so perfectly.
It’s wonderful, it’s make brain happy videos!
Gosh yeah, there’s just so much sync, I have no idea how purple bell finds these just whole sections of anime scenes, and gets them to sync so effortlessly to all the wild sounds in this song.
37
Video title: Wired Psychosis
Editor: Bianca Exciana
Anime: Serial Experiments Lain
Song & Artist: Destroying Angel - Sneaker Pimps
VPR: All (major flashing)
Video comments: 2023 was an amazing year for Serial Experiments Lain AMVs, I saw loads of just absolutely great AMVs using this anime, and a number of them have ended up on my top 50 list. This is the first one, this is “Wired Psychosis” by Bianca Exciana - I will just call them Bianca.
This AMV is full of a lot of really interesting editing decisions by Bianca, there’s a lot of effects and external sync types that I don’t really see very much elsewhere. Most notably of which is, what I believe is a form of datamoshing that Bianca is doing - you can see on some of the characters on the edges of Lain’s periphery. It looks very interesting. It doesn’t quite match what I’ve seen of datamoshing before, it seems a little bit too uniform, but I’m not entirely sure what Bianca is doing there. What is most interesting about it is the fact that it has been localised just to certain elements in this video, which gives the effect that things around Lain are slowly crumbling down/she herself is at certain moments. It’s a very effective storytelling tool in that way, as well as just looking kinda cool.
There’s a lot of other cool moments like tilt shifting the image to go with the screeching sound in the song as well. Like I say, there's all sorts of cool interesting bits of tech and effects in this video which Bianca takes advantage of.
Ultimately I don’t feel this video does anything exactly new with the anime of Lain, it’s impossible to do that these days to be honest, there’s been so many people who’ve made so many Lain AMVs and they’ve picked apart this poor anime and put it back together and tried to make sense of it and all of that jazz. But ultimately it doesn't really need to be anything new, I think just the fact that Bianca has still managed to get through this characterisation of Lain as the character but it’s in an interesting way, is in itself quite a feat. I do appreciate it very much.
There’s this little bit at the end here, where there's a bit of audio from the anime, which is not something I super enjoy, but in the case of this video it fits quite well. It is what it is.
Overall this is a really good Lain character profile AMV, and I appreciate its fresh new nuances to that.
36
Video title: You Make Me Live
Editor: Zeal makes vids
Anime: Inu-Oh
Song & Artist: You Make Me Live - Queen
VPR: Motion, star trails, textures, patterns, flickering, peripherals
Video comments: Here we’ve got a video by Zeal makes vids, this one is “You Make Me Live” which is using the movie Inu-Oh. Which I had never heard of before coming across this AMV, and I actually bought the blue-ray for the movie specifically because of this AMV - and if that isn’t high praise for an AMV, I don’t know what is! Because yeah. I happen to like this particular art director anyway, so I thought, “Ooo! New movie?”
I didn’t actually watch it until literally like just the other day, so I finally understand what’s actually going on in this AMV. Not that that really matters honestly. I don’t think my understanding of this video has really changed very much. Zeal makes vids has made this in a very clear and honest way, there isn’t really any mystery as to what’s going on here, it’s a friendship between these two characters. And it’s just really lovely and heartfelt. And using a Queen song really matches the tone of this particular movie as well, and also these characters in particular. Probably the only thing I was confused about when watching this AMV before actually watching the movie was keeping straight who exactly I was seeing on the screen, because the iterations of these characters change throughout time that passes in the story so it is a little bit hard to keep a hold on who you’re actually looking at in this video, but at the end of the day the theme of the video is still very clear.
I do love the way the artistry and the movements match the song, the movie was designed to match music anyways so it does naturally lend itself very well to becoming an AMV (honestly I’m surprised more people haven’t edited with it yet), but it’s still really lovely to watch and I really enjoy the way Zeal has put it together.
35
Video title: The Noise
Editor: vivafringe
Anime: Various
Song & Artist: Silence is Golden - The Baths
VPR: Motion, peripherals, strobing, flickering, flashes to white, particles
Video comments: Here we’ve got “The Noise” by vivafringe. So vivafringe is one of my favourite editors, they specialise in a style of AMV where it’s taking multiple sources and then forming it into a cohesive idea or theme throughout the video. And with “The Noise” it’s I suppose immediately apparent what this theme is, it’s all about the annoyance of things in everyday life.
The tone of this video is overall fairly silly which is something that is slightly unusual for vivafringe, it’s got this kind of frenetic energy to it, which I wouldn’t normally associate with his work. But he’s managed it very well, and a lot of moments in this video are very fun.
There’s also what I feel to be an underlying meta commentary in this video on society and how it intrudes into our everyday lives in different ways. This video makes me think it’s a somewhat of a spiritual successor to an AMV by an editor called VideoBeats - the video 6 AM which was all about the cycle of waking up and going to work etc. etc. (that is a very reductive description - 6 AM is an amazing video, if you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend) And “The Noise”, it gives me the feeling it’s more about generally how we’re just not left alone as people these days, there’s just always stuff happening and it’s crazy and overwhelming. Which is a bit of an interesting take for a video that is ultimately very fun and uplifting, it’s got this serious undertone to it. Especially when you get to parts like this (02:11), where the music notes are just clobbering people, it’s rather hilarious and very well timed. I do love that part of the video a lot.
Overall very interesting and fun video. Not quite sure ultimately how it makes me because of the dual nature of it.
Something else that is very interesting is this here at the very ending, where we finally get silence, it’s all post apocalyptic scenes, which is an interesting message in that we’re not gonna get silence until society falls apart. But I’m not quite sure what vivafringe intended with that journey there, but that’s what I get out of it anyway.
34
Video title: Dilemma
Editor: Legato2400
Anime: Serial Experiments Lain
Song & Artist: Fine Again - Seether
VPR: All
Video comments: Oh will you look at that, we’ve got another Lain video. This one is “Dilemma” by Legato2400, Legato is quite possibly one my all time favourite AMV editors, I do really like a lot of his AMVs that he’s made over the years.
This one is, I would say, possibly a fairly typical Lain character profile AMV. Legato is doing it in his usual style, very clean with some very effective technical editing at some points. One thing I really like about this video is even though it’s still a character profile for Lain, he really hones in on the anxiety that goes throughout the series. Rock music in general is underrepresented in AMVs currently these days, so that he’s used a Seether song is quite fun - and it really helps sell the edgy angst that’s coming through.
I do really love the way Legato edits when he does more technical effects heavy work. He was one of the first editors who really got me to pay attention to AMVs with effects in them, simply because it wasn’t a style I used to prefer when I watch AMVs. It’s interesting as some of what he does is very obvious, in your face, and then other bits and pieces are quite subtle and add a lot of interesting nuance to the video.
And this bit (02:10), this bit is really cool, where all the computer screens suddenly come into focus, and then there’s just all this chaos happening here, and things are fragmenting apart, just very cool.
33
Video title: You Can (not) Imagine Dragons
Editor: Synæsthesia Productions
Anime: Dragon Half
Song & Artist: Punk - Gorillaz
VPR: Fire, quick cuts, peripherals, flashes to white, motion,
Video comments: So Synæsthesia has made a Dragon Half AMV, and it’s absolutely wonderful, it’s incredibly silly.
Syn uses a lot of the ridiculousness from the anime to further enhance the video. He does so in very interesting ways as well - there’s some editing in this that I have never really seen anywhere else, like making little clones of Mink go across the screen. It’s very very fun and off the wall and very silly.
I do love that it’s 2023 and Syn’s using Dragon Half, that just makes me so happy.
32
Video title: Concrete Jungle
Editor: FoxJonesAMV
Anime: Cyberpunk Edgerunners
Song & Artist: Jungle Bill - Yello
VPR: All
CW: Gore, violence
Video comments: So Cyberpunk Edgerunners was undoubtedly going to end up in my list in some form or another, and “Concrete Jungle” by FoxJones is a pretty impeccable way I would say to have it show up. It uses a song by the band Yello and it’s such a weird choice of music for an AMV in general but FoxJones just makes it work so perfectly.
It’s one of these videos that’s got the type of sync that I still aspire to in my own editing, even though I’ve been editing a very long time these days, this is still the kind of thing I watch and it’s like, “oh yeah I want to be able to do that too! It looks so cool!” I love this video a lot.
It really fits, especially this bit where it’s you know nice and calm and it’s them bouncing around on the moon. That little back track there in those quick cuts was very nice (01:58) - all those lights syncing up to those weird sounds (02:11), it’s very satisfying.
31
Video title: What Was I Made For?
Editor: Akio1110
Anime: Violet Evergarden
Song & Artist: What Was I Made For? - Billie Eilish
VPR: Fire, flickering, minor motion, minor fades to black
CW: Violence
Video comments: Here we’ve got “What Was I Made For?” by Akio110, I'm not going to call them that during this, I’m just going to call them Akio.
This is a Violet Evergarden AMV, yes there are two of these on my list this, somehow. I’m going to preface this by saying I haven’t actually watched Violet Evergarden, it’s, I dunno the art style puts me off for some reason - I don’t like the overly shiny look of it.
Anyway, let's get into this. This is very obviously one of the songs that was from the Barbie movie, the soundtrack from the Barbie movie had a massive grip on all forms of culture this year, including AMVs. There were so many AMVs with all of the songs from the soundtrack, it was kind of ridiculous. Including this one, which is the soft introspective Billie Eilish song. And there are quite a few different characters that this song would be suitable for, Akio has obviously chosen Violet and I think has done a tremendous job of matching the song to her characterisation. Even though I haven’t seen the anime I do have some idea of what Violet Evergarden is about, so nothing is really lost on me here, it all kind of makes sense.
There’s nothing crazy in this video, it's very soft, very slow, it’s ultimately just a character profile for Violet. There’s not much obvious sync going other than lyric sync and just general tone of how it feels, but overall it’s, it’s kinda perfect. I don’t quite know if that word is quite right, it’s perfect for me at least.
I love the way Akio keeps cutting between these different moments in time for these characters, I don’t know if that’s something the anime does naturally and Akio is just taking advantage of that particular type of storytelling, or of that’s something they’ve done specifically for this AMV, but either way it’s very effective. And it keeps pulling you back to the idea that even though she’s in this place she’s still trying to reconcile all this stuff in her past and herself, and yeah, it’s a very good AMV, I really like it a lot, it’s my favourite one that came out for this song this year - it’s possibly one of the most simple but I really appreciate that it manages to show everything very strongly in that way.
no subject
Date: 2024-03-11 07:16 pm (UTC)I was thinking of stopping editing some months or not making more videos before you subscribed to my channel. To see someone with many years of AMV editing and watching subscribed to my channel encouraged me to make more videos. I think I wouldn't have made the Violet AMV if you hadn't subscribed to my channel. So thank you very much.
About the cutting between different moments in time, I did a version with much less cuts that I was going to upload. But, as it was too simple, I had to add them and luckily I'm glad you love that.
Edited: I see now that you have nominated on AMV.org the Violet video to best character profile, and the cowboy bebop video to most original and best use of instrumental music, thank you very much. Although I see that I'm not a semifinals. I will try to improve my videos for the next year :)