Awhile back site editor pantsukudasai56 wrote that the term “epic” has been overused and lost all its meaning. Everything and everyone has been called epic when most do not truly deserved the label. He did say that if there was anything which truly deserved the label of being “epic” then it would be one of the longest running manga and anime series: Oda Eiichiro’s One Piece.
It’s from One Piece that the latest “AMV of the Day” comes from. To be even more specific it’s from one of the most epic story arcs in the series that the latest chosen AMV originates from: the Marineford Arc (aka Paramount War Arc). It’s a story arc that lasts as long as most anime series (30+ episodes) yet is just a fraction of the current total number of episodes already shown. No other piece of entertainment has had such a long-running success which it continues to this day.
Not much else to say other than watch why this series deserve the title of “epic”.
Anime: One Piece
Song: “Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom)” by Shinedown
I first saw a clip of this trailer at Anime Expo 2010. It was a just a pilot trailer that TOEI Animation released earlier that year at Kawaii-Kon to show people that they were indeed producing a 3D CG anime film of the classic Leiji Matsumoto space opera manga and anime of the late 70′s. Space Pirate Captain Harlock, in addition to Space Battleship Yamato, were the Japanese answer to George Lucas’ Star Wars (though some would say that these two anime series were original on their own). Still, they were huge hits and very popular both inside and outside Japan. Scores of kids who grew up during the 80′s saw their first major introduction to anime from these two anime.
It’s been awhile since there’s been any new Captain Harlock anime releases. With CG technology having improved exponentially over the years it looks like TOEI Animation saw it high time to release a new Captain Harlock anime. It’s been three years since the release of the pilot trailer over at Kawaii-Kon 2010, but it looks like the wait for the Space Pirate Captain Harlock movie is coming close to an end.
The 3D CG anime film will see a Japanese release sometime in the Fall of 2013.
Here’s an English-narrated trailer that Toei released for the international crowd. I prefer the original Japanese above even if I could only understand a tenth of what was being said.
Latest “AMV of the Day” is one that dodges any way to describe it.
“Affective Schoolgirls” is an amalgam of two very different styles of entertainment. Two styles that I’ve learned to enjoy and appreciate through the years. What this video has done is combine something akin to peanut butter and jelly. The slapstick comedy and slice of life anime series Nichijou provides the peanut butter while the song “Snüffel” by Equilibrium provides the jelly.
If one who watches this video thinks they have no idea what’s going on then they’ve come to an understanding of what Nichijou as an anime is all about. It is an anime series about chaos distilled. What better way to point this out than to pair it up with some German symphonic black metal.
The latest “AMV of the Day” pretty much was the hit of Sakura-Con 2013 a couple weeks back.
“RadioAkshun” by AMV creator IleaiAMVs won not just Best Technical, but won both Judges’ Best in Show and Audience Best in Show. It’s a rarity that an AMV in competition wins both Best in Show. AMV judges tend to vote on whats best in competition a little differently than the general public who watches the videos more as fans and not judging them on technical, artistic and creative merit. IleaiAMVs definitely earned her wins by creating one of the best AMVs I’ve seen.
Her work on this video uses scenes and sequences from the Rebuild of Evangelionanime films (three out with a fourth still forthcoming) and edits it around the Imagine Dragons song “Radioactive” and she does an excellent job. She doesn’t rely on flashy effects to make her video interesting and unique. She just does an impeccable job in timing the beats and tempo of the song with the appropriate scenes from the anime films. She also makes sure that she doesn’t just slapdash together the best scenes from the films. IleaiAMVs makes sure that each sequence fits not just the beats and tempo of the song but the lyrics as well. Best example of all three is early in the video when the character of Shinji takes a deep breath and then his Evangelion Unit exhales just as the singer in the song does the very same thing.
So, another day of resting up after a wickedly long weekend of doing nothing but working I came across this little video that brought back memories of not just my youth during the 80′s but also fond ones of discovering one of my favorite anime of all-time.
The latest “AMV of the Day” comes courtesy of TrepidationsFall and it’s combines that 80′s blockbuster of blockbusters in Top Gun and one of the best anime of all-time in Macross Plus. The video is simply called “Danger Zone” and the use of the iconic Kenny Loggins track for the Bruckheimer fighter-jock extravaganza fits the mecha anime to a “T”.
I’m less than 2 days away from freeing my purchase of a Kimber Raptor II .45 ACP from my local gun store. I think the fact that I’m very into firearms is another reason why I have come to see Rei Horie’s Black Lagoon manga and anime very much. Sure the anime and manga have great and well-written characters. It also has some of the craziest action sequences that doesn’t involve giant robot mechas, supernatual monsters and/or magical girls. It also shows’ Horie’s appreciation of the many different firearms available.
The last “AMV of the Day” detailed the origin of the super-assassin Roberta. This latest AMV now shows just how insane she’s become the more and more she appeared in Black Lagoon. The use of Infected Mushroom’s song “Becoming Insane” was such an appropriate choice for this video.
This video also ends in a hilarious note as the series’ two psycho ladies in Roberta and Revy end up fighting each other to the point that they end up doing a Rocky moment with simultaneous knockouts.
I came across this AMV while browsing youtube and quite bored. I know the song comes from that Twilight thingamabob so I think this latest “AMV of the Day” will pull a tear or two from my co-founder Lisa Marie.
The latest chosen AMV is called “A Thousand Years” and it’s from YouTube user 93RokuStepperZ. It’s a simple romance-themed video that pretty much takes two of the most romantic and sappiest romance anime of the last couple years and melds it with the ballad by Christina Perri for that long-running sparkly vampire and his girlfriend series.
There’s no super bells and whistles in how the video was made. It’s just a well-edited AMV that focuses on the two couple from the two series. There’s Toyomi and Nagisa from Clannad and Clannad: After Story (BAWWWWWWWW) and then there’s Ryuuji and Taiga from Toradora.
One thing we won’t find in this AMV would be vampires, werewolves or any of that sort. Just moe anime and a tsundere shorty.
For the first AMV entry for 2013 and the latest in a long series I’ve decided to go for nostalgia to dictate my choice instead of quality (though I will say the video does it’s job well in matching the song used). Anyone who grew up during the late 90′s and early 2000′s have heard, seen and/or obsessed over the Japanese pop-culture phenomenon simply called Pokemon.
I was already an adult and I was caught up in the hurricane that was Pokemon when it swept through the West in the late 1990′s. Hell, I pretty much played most of the different color editions of the game on the Game Boy and it’s subsequent handhelds. I’m even proud to say that my two favorite Pokemons were Pikachu and Togepi. But that’s a different matter altogether. Today it’s all about the AMV titled “Ash vs. Gary”.
The video uses the very fight-like song “Remember the Name” by Ft. Minor to highlight the Pokemon battle match between the two rivals. As we can see in the video the two use many different Pokemons in their collection to battle it out. Their battle lasts until they each just have one Pokemon left and it’s a sudden death match that many fans of the show fondly remembers. In one corner is Gary’s fully evolved Blastoise (which is the final evolved version of the starter Pokemon Squirtle) and in the other corner is Ash’s tempermental Charizard (the final evolved form of the starter Pokemon Charmander).
Really, there’s nothing left to say other than enjoy the video and take a glimpse into a nostalgic trip down my own memory lanes.
Anime: Pokemon
Song: “Remember the Name” by Ft. Minor feat. Styles of Beyond
I must admit that in 2012 I didn’t get to listen in full many new albums outside of soundtracks. My Fave five of 2012 Songs will reflect this fact, but still with the lack of variety in my past year’s listening habit I thought the songs I came up with for the list I still would’ve put on a much bigger favorite 2012 list if I had need to come up with one. Without further ado he are the Fave Five (though it’s more Fave Six but I decided to combine the first entry’s two as a tie).
The Fave Five starts off with a tie that comes from the same film. Both songs come from the soundtrack to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. While the film may not have been up to some audiences’ high expectations the soundtrack itself by Howard Shore (and for “Song of the Lonely Mountain” as sung by Neill Finn) continued the high-quality of the Tolkien soundtracks which began with the original Lord of the Rings trilogy. “Song of the Lonely Mountain” is a much more folk rock addition to the soundtrack while the “Misty Mountains” was actually part of the film itself when the character of Thorin Oakenshield sings it with his band of dwarfs while at Bilbo Baggin’s hobbit hole in the beginning. Both songs so a great job of telling the story of the quest that begins with this first film in the new trilogy.
The theme song 2012′s Skyfall was a throwback to the classic James Bond theme song’s of the Sean Connery and Roger Moore Bond eras. In fact, I thought it’s one of the best theme songs the long-running spy thriller franchise has had these past 25 years. It helps that you have Adele singing the theme who seems to be able to hit the right proper emotional notes during the song. It’s really hard to think of Skyfall the film being as good as it is without making sure one mentions Adele’s theme for it. I’d take the leap and say that the song itself may even be better than the film itself.
Mass Effect 3 was the epic conclusion to what was this gaming generation’s version of the original Star Wars space opera. It was a story that spanned the galaxy with memorable characters, thrilling action and some very good writing. There will always be the vocal minority who seem to think the ending to the trilogy was bungled by the writers over ta BioWare. That’s a whole different debate altogether. One thing that doesn’t seem to bring out the pitchforks was Clint Mansell’s score work for the game and it all culminates with the song simply titled “An End, Once and For All” which in it’s extended version more than makes up for whatever deficiencies the ending it orchestrally-scored may have had.
Another game’s music makes itself to my Fave Five list and this time it’s my second favorite song for the year of 2012. It’s from Halo 4 and it’s a song that brought new life to the venerable franchise. It didn’t just make the end credits more than just memorable, but also surprised many fans of the franchise’s music since the song wasn’t composed by the franchise’s original music composer, Martin O’Donnell, but by Kazuma Jinnouchi. It’s the one song in 2012 that I must’ve listened to on repeat for hours on end and probably in the high hundreds by now. It’s a song that brings back memories of the scifi soundtracks of the 80′s. It’s a work that I easily can compare to the best that’s ever been composed by luminaries in the genre like John Williams, Alan Silvestri, Michael Giacchino and others.
What can I say. The song speaks for itself. How can one not say this was the best song for 2012.
The title I’m writing about today has been featured in an AMV of the Day post by site founder Arleigh in the past, and it’s one that I’ve been meaning to write about ever since its licensing announcement back in October. But with that month being a horror-centric month, and last month…well, I was just really lazy last month. However, today I’d like to give my personal recommendation to one of the current biggest hits to come out of Japan, Sword Art Online.
The premise of the show is this: In the future gaming is done by immersing your consciousness completely into the game with a headset that’s pretty much the kind of virtual reality that some of us dearly dream was real. All senses are simulated so you can even eat food in the game and it tastes and feels like you’re eating real food. The newest, most sought after game in this time period is an MMO called Sword Art Online (what a coincidence, because there’s this anime with the same name that’s really good too! They should watch it.) and it’s a very exclusive game. Only 10,000 copies are released to the general public so getting the privilege to own a copy is like a status symbol. The main protagonist in the series, Kazuto Kirigaya or Kirito as he names himself in the game, is not only one of the lucky few who got a copy, but he was also a beta tester for the game. When the game goes live, he and the rest of the 10,000 log in and begin playing. I’ll admit it’s kind of amazing that all 10,000 supposedly all logged in at roughly the same time, but this show does require a few suspensions of belief. Anyways, after playing for a few hours and training another person on how to play, Kirito attempts to log out only to find that there is no option to log out of the game. Then all players are force transported to the square of the starting town where they are stripped of their avatars and their true selves are shown to be in the game. Then the creator appears via hologram announcing to them all that they are now trapped in the game until someone manages to clear all 100 levels. The real downside to this? If you die in the game, you die in real life. If your NervGear (the headgear that brings the virtual world to life) is forcibly removed, you will die. The only way to get out of the game alive is to clear it. And thus starts the adventure for Kirito and the people trapped in SAO.
The first thing to say about SAO is that the backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous. This was obviously meant to be a big budget hit, and from character designs to backgrounds it sure doesn’t seem as if they went the cheap route. The boss battles are particularly noteworthy. This is one of the later boss battles, and this should give you an idea of the quality of the show, since often times the longer a show runs, the more likely the animators are to start cutting corners since their budget might be running low. This has not happened with SAO. (The subs are in spanish since I couldn’t find what I wanted in English, but you don’t really need to know what’s being said to appreciate the action)
Now I’m not big on playing MMOs myself. That whole teamwork thing isn’t for me, but this does give a good representation on what some of the tougher boss battles in MMOs are like. Now just imagine that your life was actually on the line and you can get a sense of the intensity in the battle.
Now, for the characters, your mileage may vary. Personally, I’ve liked the majority of them, even the “bad guys” so to speak, as they’ve done a good job of keeping them interesting. The main two are Kirito and Asuna, the girl in the picture and in that video, but there are others that make regular appearances, and then we also have one time showings from characters that become fan favorites like Silica Fett. Ok, she’s just called Silica, but she has the Boba Fett syndrome where she makes a lone appearance yet becomes a huge fan favorite. A couple seem like they were pointless additions, but mostly they’re there to show Kirito’s progression from uncaring loner to basically the hero of the game. This has led some detractors to label him as an MMO Jesus, in that he goes around saving people for no real reason other than to perhaps make himself feel better for past failings, but I liked seeing him grow up as it were and actually become a better person through the game.
As I write this, the show is still ongoing, so I’m taking a risk in recommending it. The show has switched gears a bit, and while I’m fine with where it’s going, since I haven’t read the light novels that this is based on, which I think are still ongoing themselves, the ending could very well shit the bed. At the very least it’s likely that the animation staff will have to make up their own ending, and even when that has the approval of the original creator, it tends to have mixed results. The tonal shift from the first season to the second is a bit jarring, and it kind of takes you out of the world that it worked hard to craft, but from what I’ve seen of the second season thus far it should transition well.
The musical score is also quite fantastic. It is largely composed by Yuki Kajiura, whom Arleigh and I had the pleasure to see in concert with Fiction Junction at this year’s Anime Expo. Each piece is well crafted to fit the mood of the scenes, from grand epic pieces to fit major battles, to slow paced, gentler sounds to complement quiet, everyday life. Music is essential in setting the proper mood in shows, and this is done beautifully here.
A major concern I have is from the licensing side. It’s been announced for release in the US & Canadia by Aniplex of America, and their prices tend to run a bit on the high side. I recently purchased Bakemonogatari from them, and that cost $150 for half as many episodes as SAO is going to be. The only comparable release that they’ve done as far as episode count would be their Blue Exorcist release, and that was only released on 4 DVDs which can be had for $100 now. But, at the risk of sounding like a video snob, this is a release that demands a blu-ray version. With Japan constantly crying about reverse importation, either it’s going to be a DVD only release or it will be an incredibly expensive BD release, possibly even along the lines of the infamous $700 Fate Zero release. Only time will tell on this, but fans will just have to cross their fingers that our Japanese overlords will be reasonable. Regardless, if the show can keep up the kind of energy and drama that it presented in its first half, then I’ll be hard pressed to pass by the eventual release.
