It’s early in the morning and insomnia has hit me quite hard so might as well pick the latest “AMV of the Day”.
The latest pick is a fan-service lover’s wet dream as it highlights the more pervy side of anime. This is all in fun and another reason why anime has continued to rise in popularity. All the anime chosen by the multiple editors in this video are not what you call hentai, but all of them typical teen-focused series that just happens to have an over-abundance of panty shots and over-reliance on boobs.
There’s no other way to describe this video other than it will either sell the entertainment that is anime or swear people off of them for good. In my past experiences I’d bet on the former than the latter.
Anime:Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari, Sora no Otoshimono, Bakemonogatari, Kamen no Maid Guy, Working!!, Hyakko, Futurama, Rosario + Vampire, Needless, Maria+Holic, B Gata H Kei, Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu
I’ve been looking for a new AMV that was very recently made (usually means in the last 3-4 months). Finding a good AMV is looking looking for anything creative. One must go through the dreck and dross before finding that diamond in the rough. One of the more recent ones that definitely qualifies as a gem makes it as my latest “AMV of the Day”.
“Remember My Name” is a Sheryl Nome-centric anime music video. Sheryl Nome is one of the main characters in the Macross Frontier series of anime (both tv series and OVA) and who also happens to be one of the most popular female characters in anime of the last couple years. At first I wasn’t too keen on the music used when I heard the first few moments then I realized the song used by the video’s creator (VivifxAMV) wasn’t just titled fame, but was actually a cover of the classic theme song from the film and tv series of the same name. This time around the song was covered by Naturi Naughton (have no idea, but she definitely killed it) and as I watched the video more to its conclusion the more I ended up really loving it.
The song really fits the character of Sheryl Nome very well. Sheryl is what one would call an idol in Japanese pop culture. Meaning she sings, dances, models and does everything else entertainment-wise while being managed by a powerful figure behind-the-scenes. Idols are huge is Japan and the only Western comparison I can make will be someone like Britney Spears and her ilk but ten times bigger in popularity in their home region.
“Remember My Name” is a great AMV of 2012 and my choosing of it for this on-going feature means I’ve also discovered a new AMV artist who I plan to follow closely with each new video made.
It’s been almost a week since my last “AMV of the Day” entry and it’s time for a new one. My latest pick is short but it’s a really good one. To better tie it with pantsukudasai56 and his last post about how everyone should be watching the anime series Bakemonogatari this video is all about that anime.
It’s interesting how songs from singers and bands I usually wouldn’t be listening to would end up being ideal for making anime music videos (AMV). One such singer is Katy Perry whose songs remain quite popular with AMV creators. I’ve already profiled two AMV’s that uses Katy Perry songs with I Heart Tsundere and Fairy Tail Teenage Dream. This time around it’s a less pop sugary Katy Perry song with “E.T.” being used by creator OkamiRvS for the video “Futuristic Lover”.
The video is barely over an minute in a half and only uses part of the song used, but the overall effect of the video doesn’t suffer from it’s short length. In fact, I have a feeling extending the video to the length of the song’s full playtime would’ve made the AMV not as awesome. I like how even in the video’s short runtime OkamiRvS was still able to convey the supernatural theme of Bakemonogatari not to mention the weird harem-like relationship the series’ protagonist, Araragi, have with the different girls he encounters under some weird circumstances.
Definitely one of my favorite videos of 2011 (even though I only discovered it recently).
Honestly, I try to keep this column a surprise to Arleigh. I hate when the owner of this site knows exactly what I’m going to post. However, with the recent announcement from Aniplex USA that they will be releasing this title on BluRay, I can’t very well ignore this awesome title any longer.
The problem with this title is, it’s very hard to talk about without spoiling things. Every girl here has a very important story to tell. The overarching story here is how our protagonist, Koyomi Araragi, interacts with the various girls in the series. The thing is, every girl has her own problem that he must solve. Since I hate spoilers as much as the next guy or girl I’ll refrain from going too in depth to what everyone has to overcome. The best parts would have to be Mayoi Hachikuji and Suruga Kanbaru. Luckily for all, the BluRay of this series will be available later on this year from Aniplex America. Really, nothing else could do this series justice than a BluRay release, so I cannot help but be thrilled for this. What I can say about this is that you need to be prepared to do a lot of reading. People say that this is a very wordy title, and while I don’t necessarily agree with them in the fact that they think the dialog comes fast and furious, I do agree that the dialog is the most important aspect of the show. There is a lot of Japanese puns and wordplay involved, and this title is not for the newly initiated to the anime scene. Those that are used to reading subtitles won’t have too much trouble keeping up, but this is certainly not a title one can passively watch and expect to fully understand.
The thing to keep in mind is that if this show seems strange, by anime standards, it probably has a lot to do with the director. It’s directed by Akiyuki Shinbo, who also directed the very unconventional Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and his influence is easily seen in both. There’s not a lot of action in Bakemonogatari but the visual imagery is classic Shinbo. He makes full use of a lot of surreal backgrounds during long conversations, so instead of letting things get stale with long stretches of just the characters standing around talking, which as I said before they do a lot, he’ll at least have the background flashing by and changing often during those times. On one hand, it’s certainly a cost saving measure since they didn’t have to animate the characters, but more importantly it makes it seem like something is actually happening, even when it’s really not. In a visual medium like anime, nothing bores people more than just staring at the same thing for long periods of time, so this helps keep any feelings of boredom from setting in. For a show without a lot of action, to be able to keep it from feeling dull is where you need a talented director, and Shinbo truly shines in this case.
So what worked with this anime? Well, it has attractive and interesting characters. Each story draws you in and makes you want to see what happens next. While you assume that each girl will have her problem solved, this is a Shinbo show, so there are no guarantees that the problem will be solved, or even if it is that it won’t create further problems. And that’s part of the fun of this series, expecting the unexpected.
What didn’t work? Well, if you want lots of action and explosions in your anime, you’ll find little to none of that here. This is a very character driven show, so if you find you dislike or don’t care about some or even all of the characters, then you won’t find much here of value.
All in all this was a pleasant surprise to me when I watched it. The light novels it was based on have been very popular, but since I don’t follow the light novel scene very closely, this was unexpectedly good. If you want an anime that draws you in and keeps you hooked with a compelling story, then look no further than Bakemonogatari.
To say that 2010’s Highschool of the Dead was the hit anime series for that season would be an understatement. It’s a series that about a bunch of Japanese highschool students trying to survive the sudden onset of the zombie apocalypse. You’d think that would be enough to pull in the audience, but no the Japanese anime studios needed to really hook the audience and they did so by turning it into an ecchi-fest that’s just a couple steps lower from turning into hentai.
What better way to mark the latest “AMV of the Day” that makes perfect use of LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It” song than using an anime that’s got an overabundance of sexy in your face. There’s nothing else to say other than just sit back and enjoy the finished work of Mystic Shaek.
The latest “AMV of the Day” is another in a long line of videos using one of the more popular anime series of the past couple years. Toradora! is one of those romantic/comedy slice-of-life anime that always tugs at the heart strings. It’s no different with this anime as we see with the series’ two main characters in the tiny Aisaka Taiga and Takasu Ryuuji.
This time around it’s a straight up ballad of a video from the point of view of Taiga as she contemplates her true feelings for Ryuuji during the holidays. AMV creator HiddenFlowerDesi picked a very appropriate song to convey Taiga’s feelings with the song “Everytime We Touch” by the German Eurodance group Cascada. Instead of using the more upbeat version of the song the Yanou’s Candlelight mix of the song was used to better use the slower tempo to fit the video and also to put the focus on group singer Natalie Horler’s evocative singing.
Time for a new “AMV of the Day” entry and this time I found one that combines one of my favorite songs of the last couple years with an anime series that I’ve grown to like very much.
“War” is the title of the song and the AMV created by saberslayer. I grew to love this song after I first heard it play during my play-through of Remedy’s Alan Wakepsychological-horror game. As for the anime series Valkyria Chronicles this was something that I wasn’t sold on when I first found out it was based on the PSP strategy rpg of the same name. Not being a major fan of anything Sony gaming-related I just dismissed the series as just another attempt by Sony to push the PSP since it wasn’t selling as well as it’s rival the Nintendo DS. Well, to my surprise I tried the series and ended up really liking it.
The video really captures the feeling of the song with the backdrop of a world that’s a mix of World War II Europe with anime-style techno-magic. Saberslayer does a great job in keeping much of the hyper-editing cuts that many amv creators have fallen in love with. While the video still uses some graphical flourishes like making certain scenes play out in sepia-like tones the rest of the video is pretty straightforward in terms of editing and it allows for the song’s tempo to match the video’s pacing. Saberslayer could easily have sped things up but to the detriment of the song and the video’s overall emotional impact.
This is one AMV creator I shall keep my eyes open for whenever they release a new video.
After finding a whole database full of some of the best AMV’s ever made in the last couple years I have another new AMV to post as the latest “AMV of the Day”. The latest one actually uses a song that is near and dear to my heart.
“Hold On To That Feeling” is the AMV in question and was the collaboration effort of two creators, Ileia and PWolf. I’ve always admired the videos that actually have more than one editor involved in it’s production. When both editors are on the same wavelength as to how the video should look like and play out the ultimate result ends up being quite good to great. This latest AMV is one such example of two creators whose joint collaboration doesn’t even show in the final product and that’s a good thing.
Another reason why I love this video so much is the song the two picked to base the video on. It’s Journey’s classic rock anthem song and one my San Francisco Giants used as their official rally song during their 2010 World Series run. Everytime I watch this video I can’t help but sing along to “Don’t Stop Believin'” and any Giants fan would do the same, but with the extra bonus of great anime scenes from a boatload of great anime.
Ok, enough talking, back to watching and singing along to the AMV.
Anime: 5 Centimeters per Second, Ah! My Goddess, Ah! My Goddess! Always Together, Ai Yori Aoshi, Ai Yori Aoshi ~Enishi~, Birdy the Mighty Decode, Chobits, Cowboy Bebop, Ef – a tale of memories, Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu, Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Hōkago no Pleiades, Kimi ni Todoke, Macross Frontier, Macross Frontier MUSIC CLIP Collection – Nyankuri, NANA Neon Genesis Evangelion 2.22 – You Can [Not] Advance, Neon Genesis Evangelion: 1.11 You Are [Not] Alone, Romeo × Juliet, The Sky Crawlers, Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu, Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, Towards the Terra
For the latest pick for “AMV of the Day” I went into moe-overload. The latest amv chosen is “Disco Heaven”.
I am not what you would call a fan of Lady Gaga. The fact that I actually picked this particular has less to do with Lady Gaga’s song “Disco Heaven” being used but more on the anime the creator used to make his video out of. JudgeHolden does a great job in picking the right scenes from so many different anime titles. Even the choreography from each chosen scene matched almost in-synch with the song’s tempo and beat.
Interesting how a song I would never catch myself listening to actually ends up being catchy when married with so many moe-related anime scenes.
Anime: Amazing Nuts! (OAV), Angel Beats (TV), Baccano! (TV), Birdy the Mighty Decode (TV), Excel Saga, K-ON! (TV), Lucky Star (OVA), Lucky Star (TV), Macross Frontier (TV), The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (TV), Mnemosyne – Mnemosyne no Musume-tachi (OAV), My HiME, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (TV), Princess Resurrection (TV), Rosario + Vampire Capu2 (TV), Sekirei (TV), Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Parallel Works (MVs), xxxholic
So, I’ve noticed that with the few anime recommendations I’ve posted about, I’ve actually kept it quite classy, or at the very least the shows have merit. Aria, classy. Higurashi, well written. Ika Musume, good clean fun. High School DxD is the exact opposite of all those. Hey, I’m a guy with an avatar of a girl flashing her panties. It would be very remiss of me if I didn’t write about a fanservice anime once in awhile!
So, the general premise of High School DxD is that the protagonist, Issei, enters high school with one goal in mind. It’s not to be the top student, or a star athlete, oh no, he has far more loftier goals. His desire is to be the Harem King. And his goal is off to a good start when a beautiful girl asks him to be her boyfriend right away. Then the goal gets sidetracked a bit, because on their first date she reveals that she’s a fallen angel and promptly kills him. Sounds like the shortest anime ever, I know, but that’s where the story really starts. See, he is then revived by the president of the Occult Club, a buxom redhead named Rias Gremory, who also turns out to be the daughter of a prestigious demon clan. How prestigious? Well, her brother is Lucifer. Yup. Anyways, Issei is apparently important because he contains some lost relic or something or another in him. His arm can turn into some kind of device. Whatever, that’s not terribly important. What is important is that Issei was revived, but not as a human, rather he is now a demon too. And while he may have lost his humanity, he’s gained something much more important. His harem! You see, in addition to Rias, there are also the lovely Akeno Himejima, the delicious Koneko Tojo, and the later addition of the kind, but a little dim Asia Argento. Also, there’s another guy, but he’s about as important here as Itsuki Koizumi is in the Haruhi Suzumiya series. Each character represents a piece on a chess board, which also indicates their abilities. Rias is obviously the King, Akeno with her overwhelming magic power is the Queen, Asia with her healing powers is the Bishop, Koneko with her super strength is the Rook, Yuto (unimportant dude) is the Knight, and Issei is the Pawn.
So, what works in this series? Well, there’s the panty shots and the boobs. What more is needed? The budget for this, while not of the Studio Ghibli variety, was certainly consistent at least, since the character models don’t suffer from episode to episode in quality like a lot of series tend to. It seems a lot of care was taken to make the characters look appealing, and it shows. Yes, there is a lot of cheesecake here, but it’s good cheesecake. Sometimes that’s all you need to have a fun series, and in this case it works. Also, I found it very refreshing that the protagonist in a harem anime comes straight out and declares that he wants a harem. I love my harem anime as much as the next guy, but I do tend to get tired of bland, milquetoast males who flounder about and act all scared to death when a member of the opposite sex even talks to him, let alone accidentally flash her breasts. Here, Issei makes no bones about the fact that he’s a pervert and proud of it. And most of the girls are fine with it too! Surprisingly the only one that really isn’t is the kuudere, Koneko. Usually that kind of character is rather indifferent, but she’s very much against Issei’s perverted ways.
So what didn’t work? Well, the story, or rather the fact that it’s like the show had ADD and couldn’t decide what it wanted to do. First off they’re fighting fallen angels. But they kind of stop that midway without really a whole lot of closure and suddenly switch to going after the Church. Then that kind of gets pushed aside for another crack at the angels. Then without really being done with either, they’re fighting another demon clan. This was based off a light novel series that’s still ongoing, so I’m more forgiving towards that, but it still makes it tough to get any continuity going, nor is the ending very satisfying. I don’t pay attention to viewing numbers or DVD/BD sales in Japan, so I’m not sure how well received this show was, but it’s definitely set up for a second season. The light novel series seems to be popular enough, since there are 12 volumes out since it started in 2008, and it’s still ongoing. So, perhaps enough fans will have tuned in to get it the second season I feel it deserves. If this is all we get, well it’s good pervy fun, but I feel it could be a bit more than just that if allowed to continue on.
Finally, this show has probably the best ending sequence I’ve seen in an anime in a very long time. The song is typical upbeat Jpop, but the accompanying video is something that one must watch to fully appreciate.
With that in mind, I’m sure there’s little doubt as to why I felt compelled to post this up and give a recommendation for a show to watch when you just want to see some panties flashed and some boobs jiggle. Because hey, who hasn’t had a day like that?
Through the Shattered Lens 