My Top AMVs of 2023, 10 - 01
Jan. 6th, 2024 10:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katranat10
Video title: “Fantasy”, “Amnesia” and "Us and the Rest"
Editor: Synæsthesia Productions
Anime: Leda: The Fantastic Adventures of Yohko
Song & Artist: “Fantasy”, “Amnesia” and "Us and the Rest" - M83
VPR: All
Video comments: Hear me out. Yes, this is three separate AMVs in my number 10 spot on my list.
In my defense Synæsthesia did design these as a trilogy and I didn’t really feel fair including these in my top 50 and for them to possibly end up in different spots throughout that top 50. They are complete AMVs by themselves and absolutely do stand on their own merit as a video you would go and watch, but I don’t feel they’re necessarily complete without all 3 of them. Just because they are designed as a trilogy. So that’s why we’ve got 3 videos in my number 10 spot!
So the 3 parts are: “Fantasy”, “Amnesia” and “Us and the Rest”. And all 3 of them are to different songs by the band M83 And all 3 use the anime Leda: The Fantastic Adventures of Yohko. And essentially, I don’t know for sure because I haven’t seen this anime, but I’m pretty sure Synæsthesia is taking us on a story of the anime through these 3 different AMVs and they each show a different mini arc in the anime. They all have different feelings to them.
And yeah, they’re a lovely magical journey. Synæsthesia has very helpfully put them into a playlist, just the 3 of them, so you can easily access and watch them one after the other to make for the ultimate viewing experience. All 3 of them are edited in slightly different ways I would say. The ultimate goal of them does seem to be to induce that sort of sense of fantastical wonder of going to another world, and having a magical adventure and doing all this fantastic stuff. Syn does do a wonderful job of that. Especially when there are moments like that (“Fantasy” 01:22 - 01:25). And yeah, this video fantasy is mainly about Yohko, I assume her name is Yohko because the title of the anime makes it seem like that. Yohko falling into this world and getting used to all this crazy stuff and we’re along for this adventure with her. And, oh no, her cassette player has been taken. I don’t know the significance of the cassette player, but she’s got a doggo. This is definitely one of those videos that feels like it was meant to be. All three of them really, Synæsthesia manages to make things fit so perfectly to help tell the story. Such a magical way - I can’t stop saying magical. It is what it is. It’s magical.
New character unlocked (“Fantasy” 04:12)! and now we’re into “Amnesia”, which is arguably a more magical sounding song. The first video in this trilogy was all about adventure, and now we’re getting into, not quite sure how to describe it.
Yeah. You can see it’s, we’ve got, we’ve got all this fun stuff happening (referring to the colour wipes that happen in “Amnesia” at 00:32). Syn is doing some very interesting overlays and things to the sounds of this song. Got a lot of action in this one. I want to call that a motorbike, hover bike, whatever, chase scene. It’s fun. I don’t think I have to say it, but I will anyways. The sync in this one is a lot of fun too.
Now we have a mech. And the final video is “Us and the Rest”.
Not sure what I can say about this specifically that I haven’t already said about the other two. It’s a great trilogy. It’s, yeah. This beginning bit is really pretty, Syn has really out done himself with the overlays and some other technical things. It’s all very dream-like and subtle. That bit’s really cool (“Us and the Rest” 02:57). I mean there’s quite a few bits that are really cool, to be perfectly honest. Syn really knows how to pack cool into his AMVs.
We’re finally back! We’ve finished our magical dream journey. And she’s got her cassette player back.
09
Video title: Booming Hearts
Editor: vivafringe
Anime: Various
Song & Artist: Sonoma - Simon Doty
VPR: Major patterns & particles, major flashes to white and all other colours, flickering, peripherals (this video is 90% visuals of fireworks)
Video comments: so this is “Booming Hearts” by vivafringe, and it’s a fireworks AMV! Sometimes vivafringe makes videos where there’s some overarching theme or concept and he’ll use all sorts of different kinds of clips to get those feelings across - this one is literally just super on fireworks, and it’s absolutely glorious, as an AMV about fireworks would be. I had no idea there were this many fireworks in anime, I think I’m watching the wrong kind of anime to come across clips of fireworks to be perfectly honest.
The sync in this is just absolutely phenomenal, the way, yeah. I really, yeah, I have no words, just the tiny little bleeps and bloops in the background of this electronic song, and all the lights going off in sync to those sounds is just really lovely, it’s so gosh darn lovely. And then the video is also not just focusing on the the literal reality of fireworks, of lights going off in the sky, it’s also focusing on the fact that people get together to watch fireworks and it’s an event, and it’s sharing time with people and even romance and yeah, it’s very heartwarming and very lovely. It’s probably why it’s called “Booming Hearts,” because ultimately it’s about fireworks bringing people together.
This bit of the video is my favourite (02:50 - 03:30), where the song starts to go really really quiet, and then we’ve got all these really pretty slow scenes and then the music just starts to perk back up a tiny bit and it’s very delicate and it’s matching very perfectly with all of the different lights and it’s just it’s really lovely.
And then here’s where the romance subplot of the AMV really starts to take shape and it’s so cute. Well it may not be the subplot, it may be the ultimate goal of the AMV in the first place - it wasn’t about the fireworks all along, it’s actually about the romance.
08
Video title: Chasing Moments
Editor: vivafringe
Anime: Various
Song & Artist: Naama - Sultan + Shepard
VPR: Flickering, motion, textures, patterns, particles, peripherals, bokeh, flashes to white
Video comments: I’m aware I’ve got two vivafringe videos in a row here on my list. I find it very interesting how that happened, so when I make these top 50 lists, I go through a bit of a convoluted ranking process but essentially by the end of it every AMV has a numerical value and the higher that value is the higher up on the list it ends up, and these two videos by vivafringe “Chasing Moments” which is the one I’m on at the moment and “Booming Hearts”, which is the one just previous to this one, they ended up with the exact same numerical value, so I ended up bumping “Chasing Moments” up to the higher slot in my list mainly because it’s been around for longer, it was part of the RICE competition at the beginning of 2023, and so it’s had longer to embed in my brain even though I pretty much enjoy these two videos almost exactly the same, so, but that’s why it’s one number higher in case anyone was wondering.
“Chasing Moments” is a vivafringe video where he’s using all of these different clips from different series as he tends to do, in this video he’s creating the idea of going on a journey, or a journey through life, and the ups and downs of that and it’s a very uplifting video.
And it obviously has some very beautiful clips that have been chosen specifically to evoke a certain set of emotions but it doesn’t feel disingenuous in any way. Even though it has been chosen to elicit a certain kind of emotion it’s not necessarily saying, “oi you, you’ve got to watch this video in a certain way and get a specific message from it”. It feels like there’s a few different ways you could potentially take this video, and I really love it for that because everybody’s journey through life is personal to themselves, and it’s cool that it evokes that slightly.
And there’s also this idea that we are all on this journey together through life and the cosmos trying to become better as human beings, at least most of us, I would hope.
07
Video title: Pendulum
Editor: HDV AMV
Anime: Various
Song & Artist: Intro (No Power) - Isosine (Mashup of - The xx, Kanye West, Pendulum, Metric, Eminem)
VPR: Major all
CW: Violence, gore
Video comments: I’m gonna call this AMV “Pendulum” because it’s the only word in the title that’s not in brackets and I don’t wanna call it “Anime Mix”, cause that’s just silly. I’m pretty sure “Pendulum” should be in brackets because it’s just another music artist that is part of this mashup of a song - as you’ll hear in a moment. But I also feel like calling this video “Pendulum” because it just never stops moving.
HDV is one of my favourite editors, they also make some really off the wall bizarre videos that never fail to keep me on my toes. “Pendulum” was my favourite video of theirs from 2023 for a few different reasons, first of all because if you’ve watched as many other HDV AMVs as I have, there’s a lot of throwbacks to their other editing. Something that HDV does in their videos is they will sometimes come up with an interesting editing idea and then build on it and then in a newer video they’ll take that idea and do something different with it, and “Pendulum” in particular, it’s got so many different things that HDV has done in the past and they’re ramped up to the extreme in this video, it’s almost a, not quite a showreel but like a showing off of “hey! This is everything I can do now! This is like an ultimate AMV for me.” Which I really enjoy (a good analogy would be this is the Avengers movie of the HDV verse).
Another thing about this video is, obviously it’s a mixture of several different anime and it’s also a mixed song, so it’s a remix of several different songs all combined into one, and there’s three different arcs to the song, and HDV well their editing they, each arc of of the song has its own specific feel to it, but also like I said previously it never really stops moving. This entire AMV is almost completely composed of sakuga action scenes from these different shounen anime, and HDV pieces them all together absolutely brilliantly throughout this AMV, there’s match cuts galore, I know you guys are probably sick of me talking about match cuts but, hey, they really do work some absolute magic for your eyes when you’re watching something, and just all the different parallels in the motions and the movements of these different shounen anime is just really wonderful to see when it’s all cut together like this.
And something else that this AMV does for me is it’s actually made me appreciate shounen anime a little bit more, it’s given me a better understanding of what’s truly awesome about these scenes and why people love them so much. Not necessarily just the artistry of it and how obviously, oh this is a badass action scene it’s all smooth and swoopy and woo! It’s more about the attitude that comes across through these scenes, the tenacity behind it and that’s what's actually driving these characters and these scenes and motions. There’s a certain energy to these scenes - I don’t think I really appreciated before, I was just kind of like “oh it’s pretty animation”, but no it’s just kinda more like grr… I dunno if I’m describing it very well.
There’s something about the way HDV has edited this, that really comes through. I feel this video is less about the pretty animation and more about, just look at this, this is badass, these people are just being like, yeah, and it’s all good. I probably didn’t describe that very well, but I hope you all know what I mean.
And I haven’t even had a chance to talk about any particular bits I really enjoy - but there’s lots of them, if you all watch this for yourselves you’ll see why. It is just quite simply very stunning all the way through, and highly enjoyable.
06
Video title: Reaping Regrets
Editor: Animetrash AMVs
Anime: Mnemosyne
Song & Artist: Bells in Santa Fe - Halsey
VPR: Blurs, particles, motion, fades to black, textures, flashes to white, peripherals
CW: Violence, gore, nudity, torture, sexual violence (this one’s heavy folks)
Video comments: (I had a hard time finding the right words for this one unfortunately. I’m not sure I adequately managed to explain how I feel).
Final Animetrash video. Before we get going on this I would like to draw your attention to the content warning I’ve written out for this video - please read that, and make sure you’re comfy. This is a rather intense video, so I would recommend not watching it if any of those things could potentially cause you harm.
Next thing I want to mention, it’s just a little bit of fun, this has ended up at number 6 on my list, and interestingly last year when I made my top 50 list I also had an Animetrash video at number 6 - I did not plan this, it’s how the cookie crumbled somehow. But anyway, I thought that was rather amusing.
Okay, so we’ve got “Reaping Regrets” and it’s using an anime that I cannot pronounce, “Mnemosyne” - I have no idea how you’re supposed to say that. I have never come across this anime before apart from in this one particular AMV. This is not a cute video, it’s also not a fun video, it’s completely different from almost anything else Animetrash has ever made. And yeah, it’s become my favourite of theirs from this year.
So, let's watch it. Immediately we’ve got some pretty dark stuff going on with this poor lady. I admit I did have, well I didn’t have to, I decided to look up the synopsis of this anime - when I watch AMVs with anime I’m not familiar with, normally I don’t care when things are going in the AMV, I’m happy for whatever understanding I have of what’s going on to be simply conveyed just in whatever video is playing, and it’s fine. But with this one I did want some extra context because it is rather wild. So I did look up the synopsis of the anime at least, and that did actually help in my understanding of the video slightly and I think overall improved my viewing experience to an extent.
I don’t know how the anime itself presents itself, there’s obviously a lot of violence a lot of nudity, a lot of gore, and this lady is getting tortured and all of that, just lovely stuff. Even though it’s overly grotesque and unnecessarily voyeuristic with the content, there’s a level of emotional intensity which I appreciate in the video, and I think Animetrash has struck a balance in these elements very well. They’ve made all of this content relevant, it's not just, oh shock, all of this over the top stuff, it’s not just for shock factor, there is a genuine reason for it in the context of this video.
I think one of the reasons I really love this video so much is Animetrash has done a very good job of characterising this woman who, from what I understand from the synopsis of the anime, is immortal and has gone through a lot of crap in her life, and continues to go through a lot and is endlessly, I don’t know if tortured is the right word, but endlessly hurt by the fact that she’s still alive and still interacting with people and all of that garbage. And yeah, I love the way this video captures that feeling of being endlessly tormented and being haunted by the people in her life who are no longer with her - which is represented by a lot of these scenes I’m pretty sure with the hands on her.
(something I forgot to mention is how the video is bookended with clips from the same scene, which adds to this idea of eternal torment).
05
Video title: Naloxone
Editor: F-Zero TV
Anime: Serial Experiments Lain
Song & Artist: Ain't it Funny - Danny Brown
VPR: Major all
CW: Gore
Video comments: So I don’t think I can talk about “Naloxone” without first quickly mentioning F-Zero’s other video that I had earlier in my list, “Crashing”. “Crashing” I dunno if it was, feels a little bit like a proof of concept video or like a precursor to these things that F-Zero is playing around with in AMVs but I find it an interesting progression to go from “Crashing” into “Naloxone”.
“Naloxone” is a Serial Experiments Lain AMV because as I said there are lots of amazing Lain AMVs this year, this one ended up being my favourite, for a few different reasons. First of all obviously we’ve got datamoshing everywhere, this whole video has a lot of datamoshing throughout it. It also has this constant, it’s not pixelated, but it’s like old CRT maybe TV screen filter overtop of the whole video. And the way it’s edited just sucks you into this late night disturbing TV mindset, is the only way I can really describe it. And there are a lot of fun things that F-Zero does, like the syncing of the lips from Lain throughout the video to bits of the lyrics. And I adore the way the datamoshing makes things fall apart and makes scenes bleed into each other, I love love love it. Even if sometimes it’s not necessarily synced to anything, it doesn’t have to be because the song is just so crazy and sounds a certain way that the fact that things are melting - it fits very well.
The way the video is relentlessly edited constantly with the music, almost keeps you trapped and keeps you focused. It’s a great video to watch in the middle of the night in a dark room on a full screen. I don’t really like watching AMVs full screen, but this one I make an exception, I just like to sit back and just let it come at me - don’t do that if you have any hint of photosensitivities please, that would not be a good idea.
04
Video title: KWAK
Editor: VideoBeats
Anime: Alfred Jodocus Kwak
Song & Artist: A dada - Ruby My Dear
VPR: Major All
Video comments: So this is “Kwak” by VideoBeats, and it’s just off the wall, completely crazy fun. Yeah.
It’s using a series I’d never heard about - very distantly qualifies as an anime so I felt justified including it in the list.
But yeah, I really don’t know what to say about this one. It’s a ton of fun VideoBeats has really outdone herself making it super weird and super crazy and super trippy, yeah it’s a ducking good time (yes I know I’m a dork), and very endearing, even with how off the wall some of the editing in it is. And ya think it’s gonna calm down and then it just gets even crazier!
The end credits are adorable.
03
Video title: “bloody mary” and “judas”
Editor: ori
Anime: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Beserk
Song & Artist: “Bloody mary”, “Judas” - Lady Gaga
VPR: All (major flashing, strobing and red)
CW: Violence, gore
Video comments: Before we get into actually watching either of these videos I’m going to talk a little bit about why I have decided to put them together as one entry on my list. Even though unlike with Synæsthesia’s videos earlier, I don’t believe these were intended by the editor to be part of a series, they just happen to be similar projects that they created - I don’t know for sure obviously. But the way I watched them and initially came across them, and the way they’ve gone into my brain, they are together. They are a double bill of AMVs, I can’t watch one without the other and they make a lot of sense together.
So this editor, Ori, is someone who I only came across about a month ago and these two videos of theirs have instantly climbed up my favourite AMVs ladder for 2023. These two videos, they were both uploaded on the same day by Ori, they both use Lady Gaga songs, and they are both using anime from the 90’s. There’s some very obvious similarities between them. A couple other things, the Lady Gaga songs and the videos in general, have a religious undertone to them, or should I say overtone really, it’s not exactly hidden. And there also both character profiles for characters who are, not exactly villains but I would say maybe antagonists to a certain degree. Another thing is I haven’t seen either of these anime, one of them is Revolutionary Girl Utena and the other one is Beserk, I’ve seen bits and pieces of both of these anime but I have not fully watched either of them. So I don’t necessarily understand the exact nuance of what’s happening in these videos.
We’ll watch the Utena one first because that’s how I watched them initially when I came across them, and I don’t know if that’s the best way to watch them, I believe the Beserk video was uploaded first, so it might be Beserk and then Utena. But like I say this may not necessarily have been intended to be a double bill of AMVs, that’s just how my brain has decided these videos are two halves of a whole for me, that’s just the way it is.
Another thing that these videos have is that they have a very similar editing style to them, which obviously they’re made by the same editor, but they have a very, the energy to them is quite similar, which is possibly due to the subject matter of the songs and the fact that they’re focused on this deep characterisation.
I love this bit - where it’s “dance dance dance with my hands above my head” and obviously the lady’s getting pierced by swords and it’s all very dramatic, and it’s doing the motions of what the song says, and yeah, it’s great.
Both these videos have a lot of strobing in them, I guess both the anime possibly have a lot of strobing in them naturally, I know Utena does for sure, and Ori uses all of that to great effect. They also do some really cool editing bits like right there with the cut outs of the eyes. The drama of Lady Gaga here perfectly matches the tension in Utena, and the interaction between Anthy and Utena in the series, from what I understand.
This bit is so dramatic, just the constant switching scenes between the bit of the highway and the other scenes, it’s a very effective way to ramp up the tension and then you got this crazy bit of strobing to the music and it’s just, it’s glorious. I really love this video.
There’s something very tragic and cold about the way this video ends. And then you go into “Judas”, and you instantly get hit by this crazy drama that’s happening in Beserk. Yeah, it hits you kind of around here to the beat. The editing here is just, it’s so dark and impactful.
Something that’s interesting about this one versus the Utena video, is because of the lyrics, the framing of this video is more about the way Guts views Griffith (why do they both have to have names beginning with G?), rather than just being a straight up character profile of Griffith it’s told from Guts’ point of view. Whereas in the Utena video it was straight up about Anthy - or it seemed to be more equitably straight up about Anthy, and this one is very much Guts’ gaze on Griffith for quite a bit of the video.
I also just wanna sing along when I watch these videos. Lady Gaga songs are very singalongable.
I didn’t really get into it earlier but like I said I have not fully seen either of these anime, and I’m pretty sure Ori is doing some absolutely wonderful storytelling here, and I just, none of it comes across (that’s not quite what I meant, it does come across, but the potential weight and meaning it has when linked to the story of the anime is lost on me), but everything else does, and everything else is so good. I can only imagine how much better these are if I had the full context!
I really love this bit as well, this breakdown where we’re now in Griffith’s point of view.
I really love both those videos, and they are both kind of one.
02
Video title: Go Off
Editor: purple bell
Anime: Sukeban Deka
Song & Artist: Go Off - M.I.A
VPR: Particles, textures, peripherals, motion, flickering, flashes to black, flashes to white
CW: Violence
Video comments: So Purple Bell is absolutely spoiling me with this particular video, this is “Go Off”, which is a Sukeban Deka AMV. I didn’t even know Sukeban Deka had an anime, the only thing I knew about it previously was via a fan video ObsessiveBookworm made a couple years ago which used the live action version of Sukeban Deka - that’s a very good video by the way, you should all go and watch it: something about yoyos idk.
So this video uses a song by M.I.A also called Go Off, which is funnily enough a song, when I first heard it several years ago, I kind of wanted to edit to it cause it sounds really fun, but I had no idea how to do it because it’s also a little bit ridiculous like a lot of M.I.A songs are, and I had no idea what I would do. But Purple Bell. Purple Bell has made just the absolutely perfect video for it because Sukeban Deka is also a little bit ridiculous, and it matches so perfectly. There’s just so much over the top overblown drama, and so much wonderful editing putting it all together. Oh dear, I’m a little bit lost for words whenever I watch this, it’s so much fun.
The lyrics are so ridiculous and the scenes are so ridiculous, but when you put them together it’s almost sincere at how ridiculous it is - it works so well. I love that bit of sync there (01:29) where it’s to the noise and she’s collapsing. And this lady! (01:36) This lady! She’s so damn overly dramatic, it’s like she belongs in the anime Dear Brother, that’s what she makes me think of whenever she appears on the screen. And this bit (02:20) where she laughs at the piano. Oh boy. It’s just endlessly entertaining, I have a lot of fun every time I watch this video. And she jumps from a helicopter! (02:32) Like what the hell is going on with this lady, this is a highschool girl with a yoyo, why is she jumping from a helicopter to fight. Like what the hell is this anime. And then, and then this bit coming up in a moment it just adds to the ridiculous drama. The Bells! She chucks the bells at her (02:58)! The bells that she gets off of, I dunno, her dead friend at the beginning of the video, it comes full circle and she defeats her with the bells. It's just so so over the top ridiculous, and I love it so so much and I am very grateful that Purple Bell has made this.
01
Video title: The Shadow
Editor: Phew
Anime: The Boy and the Beast
Song & Artist: Let It Go - Dragonette
VPR:All
Video comments: We’ve made it! We’ve reached my number 1 AMV on this list. This is the last video that I’m recording, throughout this list I wasn’t really recording all of these in any particular order, just whatever order I felt I could manage at that point in time, but I have left the final video on my list as the last recording, possibly so that I can try and ensure I give it the amount of weight I want to - I’m not sure I’ll manage that, I really don’t quite know I have words for how much I love this video to be perfectly honest.
This is “The Shadow” by Phew, this is an AMV using the anime Boy and the Beast which is a movie that I have not seen. That seems to be a theme, there’s a lot of anime I haven’t seen these days, but it doesn’t really stop me from enjoying AMVs with sources regardless. I am very grateful to CrackTheSky for pointing out that this AMV exists, I don’t think I would have seen it otherwise, not many people have seen it, it’s only got 128 views and 4 likes, even though it supposedly was in an AMV contest - but possibly because it was a contest in Canada not much came from that for it unfortunately. But I personally believe all the views in the world, but that’s just me.
This is “The Shadow”, and it’s using a really fun, really lovely EDM song by Dragonette. Honestly there’s a lot I really love about this video. The way Phew has edited it is one of them, they’ve really drilled into the heart of the song and the anime and combined them together in a really dynamic way which is wonderful to watch. There’s something about the way the singer sings the chorus combined with the way Phew has edited the scenes that’s very impactful for me. I don’t know exactly what’s going on in the story of Boy and the Beast but I get the impression, at least from what this AMV is showing, that it’s all about overcoming something.
I’m just gonna go back because this bit of the video is just astounding (01:49). It’s such a simple bit of sync and possibly even a very obvious bit of sync, but it’s just, the sword hit it gives me literal shivers whenever I see it. I love also the tiny bit of running sync here as well - his feet are synced to sounds in the song (02:09).
And at the end. Well, this is near the end and this is obviously this guy powering up to defeat whatever this whale thing is, and then it’s all crazy, and the editing as you can see, it’s like, we’re ramping up and we’re getting ready to go - and then it changes to these scenes of potentially earlier in the movie, or maybe even later when everything’s okay. But it’s all like, it’s these happy normal scenes and it’s almost like a flashback interim in between where he’s powering up, he’s getting ready to do that thing, and this is reminding him of whatever reason that he needs to defeat whatever this big ass whale is - it’s a really lovely bit of storytelling, and yeah I really love this video a lot. Even if I’m sounding like a broken record when I say I really don’t understand exactly what’s going on, it’s just so heartfelt, and I am completely addicted to watching it.
(I pulled my 2023 YouTube history data, and as of the 13th of December, I had watched this AMV 29 times)
Finally, here is a YouTube playlist of all these AMVs for your enjoyment.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfarsCz7pWa3NDJrr7W5s8w15HHEtlTDE
