Category Archives: anime

AMV of the Day: Hands Up! (Dragonball)

Posted on by Arleigh

I don’t think one has to a fan of anime to have even heard of and/or seen Dragonball. It’s like a prime introduction for kids on anime during the mid-90’s. The latest “AMV of the Day” takes things back to that era when most American kids were introduced to the anime series through Cartoon Network’s reruns.

“Hands Up!” is an amv produced and created by one Drabaz88 who did a great job editing together scenes from not just Dragonball but Dragonball Z. It’s great to see well-renowned manga artist Akira Toriyama’s character designs at any time and in this video they make for an action-packed and quite funny video.

The video has become quite the sensation in the anime conventions of 2012, so far. It’s won awards in pretty much every anime con it’s been entered in with the latest being at Anime Boston 2012 where it won in the Best upbeat category. If there’s one thing this video is all about is that it’s pretty upbeat. It’s hard not to have a big smile once the video has ended. For one thing it has my favorite Dragonball(z) character not made to look like a buffoon and idiot: Hercule!

Anime: Dragonball, Dragonball Z

Song: “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz

Creator: Drabaz88

AMV of the Day: A Little Late

Posted on by pantsukudasai56

Usually Arleigh handles this sort of post.  And he did just post one yesterday, so I’m glad he’s taking up the slack that I’ve made.  I mean, ostensibly I was brought on board to handle all things anime.  Anyways, for once I’m actually going to post up something anime related.

Let me say this about this video.  I’m as manly as manly gets.  I kiss puppies and kick babies.  Kill the women and children first!  But even this video brings me to tears.  Funny story, I was sitting in Burger King today, this song started playing over the speakers, and scene for scene I could recall this AMV.  Heck, you don’t even have to be familiar with this anime to get the emotional impact (ef – a tale of melodies.  Watch it now!)  But you know, it really wouldn’t hurt you to watch both ef- a tale of memories and ef – a tale of melodies (didn’t I just mention that?  Yes, yes I did).  Both would help you get the full impact of this AMV.  But either way, can you really watch this video and not feel anything?  If so, then you’re a stronger man than I.  And since there is no stronger man than I, then you are a liar.  And since you’re a liar, no one cares what you think or say!  My logic is flawless.  Enjoy the video!  Full credit goes to Dragon Roy and the AMV contest at Anime Boston.

Anime: Ef – a tale of melodies

Song: “You Found Me” by The Fray

Creator: Dragon Roy

AMV of the Day: Sexy

Posted on by Arleigh

The latest AMV of the Day is one I was recommended to by YouTube itself when I was checking my emails. It was a winning video at AKROSS Con 2010 by amv creator opiumVIDOK. The video is titled “Sexy”.

All I can say why I accepted this recommendation and used it as the latest “AMV of the Day” is how it perfectly exemplifies the reasons why some people love watching anime: Guns, Sex and Violence. Sometimes one or two in the same anime while at other times all three appear at the same time. It’s only reasonable that the creator of the video chose to use Marilyn Manson’s “mOBSCENE” track to score the video. If there was ever a criticism detractors of anime have it’s always that too much anime are obscene to the point of being pornographic.

I don’t know if I agree with that. I mean just watching “Sexy” it looks to be just 3-minutes of good, wholesome, animated fun.

Anime: Black Lagoon, NANA, K-On!, Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun, To Love-Ru (TV), Hatsukoi Limited, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Song: “mOBSCENE” by Marilyn Manson

Creator: opiumVIDOK

AMV of the Day: I Heart Tsundere

Posted on by Arleigh

This past weekend saw fellow site writer pantsukudasai56 attending this year’s Anime Boston 2012 convention. While I was unable to attend (I’ll be at Anime Expo 2012 this summer…hooray!) he was still able to give me some of the festivities during the expo. One thing he did mention was that the class of AMV’s during the expo wasn’t anything to write home about. This was a shame since one of the things I like about anime conventions are the creative videos AMV people come up with to put up during the conventions AMV contests.

While trying to find which AMVs did win the contest at this year’s Anime Boston I came across a couple that weren’t put into contention, but I thought one of them was a great AMV nonetheless. That video becomes the latest entry in the “AMV of the Day” column.

The anime music video in question is called “I Heart Tsundere” and it’s by tehninjarox who also made one of the best Puella Magi Madoka Magica AMV’s last year with “Mahou Shoujo Requiem”. This latest amv from tehninjarox takes on the theme of the well-beloved anime/manga personality class of tsundere (def. is a Japanese character development process that describes a person who is initially cold and even hostile towards another person before gradually showing their warm side over time.). The video even uses what I could only think of as the perfect song to describe a tsundere: Katy Perry’s song “Hot and Cold”.

Scenes from many anime series were used to make up this video and all of them show great instances of what a tsundere character does to earn such a title and the hell they put their potential love interest through. The one recent anime with a character who perfectly exemplifies a tsundere character opens up the video and that’s Taiga from Toradora! and the target of her “affections” in Ryuji. One doesn’t have to even like Katy Perry to see just how this video is all about fun the tsundere way.

Here’s hoping that tehninjarox decides to create an AMV sequel video but of the polar opposite of the tsundere: the dreaded and must avoid at all cost yandere.

Anime: Bakemonogatari, Nisemonogatari, Toradora, Mayo Chiki, C3, Evangelion 2.22, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Ore no Imouto, A Certain Scientific Railgun, A Certain Magical Index, MM!, The World God Only Knows, Zero No Tsukaima.

Song: “Hot and Cold” by Katy Perry

Creator: tehninjarox

Funimation to license The Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) for US release

Posted on by Arleigh

For anime fans there’s some very good news coming out of Anime Boston this weekend. Funimation has secured the home video rights for the anime series The Future Diary (Mirai Nikki). The series will get a US release through Funimation in addition to the further simulcast airings of any new episode of the 26-episode series which began airing this past October 2011.

The series has been a hit since it’s airing in Japan and it’s plot summary gives enough tantalizing details why such a series would appeal to anime fans…

“Yukiteru Amano (Yuki) is a loner who never really interact with people and prefers writing a diary on his cell phone with his only companion being an imaginary friend named Deus Ex Machina, the God of Time and Space. However, Yuki soon learns that Deus is not a figment of his imagination but real when Deus makes him a participant in a battle royale with eleven others. Within this “Diary Game”, the contestants are given special diaries that can predict the future with each diary having unique features that gives them both advantages and disadvantages.”

It’s not your typical magical girl or mecha series. It’s not slice-of-life drama or comedy. It’s not even of the fan-service variety. It’s a series that’s more rooted in some of the more mature and darker-themed anime that goes heavy on the psychological and the thriller aspect of the story. It is also a series with one of it’s main characters playing the role of yandere (def. a Japanese term for a person who is initially very loving and gentle to someone before their devotion becomes destructive in nature, often through violence.) almost to a perfect pitch.

So far, there’s no set release date for the home video (DVD/Blu-Ray) release of The Future Diary from Funimation.

Source: Anime News Network

AMV of the Day: The New Era (One Piece)

Posted on by Arleigh

To say that Mass Effect 3 has been ruling my free time for the last two weeks would be an understatement. During breaks in-between playing the game I’ve been checking out YouTube and I came across a new AMV which somewhat ties in to Mass Effect 3 through the piece of music used to launch the game. The latest “AMV of the Day” once again takes us back to the epic anime series One Piece.

This anime music video acts less like your typical music video and more like a trailer to help convince the non-believers why One Piece is an anime series that should be watched by everyone. Creator Schandlover does a great job of using the ban Two Steps From Hell and their song, “Protectors of the Earth”, and creating a trailer that truly shows why Eiichiro Oda’s long-running manga and anime really deserves to be called epic. This is the same song used by BioWare as they also try to point out the epic epicness of Mass Effect 3 .

Anime: One Piece

Song: “Protectors of the Earth” by Two Steps From Hell

Creator: Schandlover

AMV of the Day: Fairytale of Lies

Posted on by Arleigh

The latest AMV of the Day comes courtesy of AMV creator Rider4Z. Outside of Chiikaboom, his amv creations have become some of the best I’ve seen and have earned a place on my favorite list.

This time around his latest anime music video takes a song from one of my favorite metal bands and uses it to score a well-edited selection of scenes from the romance-fantasy anime series, Romeo x Juliet. While some fans of the video has nitpicked and pointed out that it spoils the ending to the anime I just laugh at such fools. Fools I say! I mean how can an anime series adapting Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet be spoiling anything.

I like the song choice of Within Temptation’s track “Faster” from their 2011 concept album, The Unforgiving. This is not the first time Rider4Z has used this band’s symphonic metal sound to score one of his videos. Each and everytime he uses this band’s music it just makes those videos very epic in tone and scope. This video has already won some early year accolades. It recently won Best Drama in the Katsucon 2012 AMV contest. I have a feeling this video will be making the rounds at this year’s anime conventions and should pick up a few more awards.

Anime: Romeo x Juliet

Song: “Faster” by Within Temptation

Creator: Rider4Z

AMV of the Day: Calling

Posted on by Arleigh

Time of a new “AMV of the Day” post and this time around it involves an anime which I thought was one of the best I’ve seen in the last ten years. This particular anime music video is called “Calling”.

The anime film Summer Wars (released in 2009) was quite a surprise for me. I haven’t really gotten into anime films unless it’s made by Hayao Miyazaki and Satoshi Kon, but this particular one by Mamoru Hosada became quite a favorite. During Anime Expo 2011 an amv by creator NekoKitKat25hug ended up winning AX2011’s Best In Show during it’s AMV Competition. While I wasn’t able to attend AX2011 I was still intrigued to check out the amv which ended up winning the con’s top AMV trophy.

“Calling” pretty much condenses Summer Wars into a four minute video to the tune of Shiny Toy Gun’s “Major Tom“. This wasn’t just a straight-up quick re-telling of the anime, but one that doesn’t really give away too much of the story like other amv’s who follow the same editing style. My favorite section of the video has to be final minute which still manages to make the film’s best scenes come off exciting and new.

Anime: Summer Wars

Song: “Major Tom” by Shiny Toy Guns

Creator:  NekoKitKat25hug

AMV of the Day: Alchanum

Posted on by Arleigh

My time during Anime Expo 2010 was some of the best times I’ve ever had on vacation. It’s why I plan on getting back to Anime Expo for 2012 after missing out on 2011. One of the things which I liked about Anime Expo 2010 was some of the AMV’s I was able to watch. One of them ended up winning Best Drama and also ended up my favorite AMV for the convention. It also happens to be one of my favorite AMVs of all-time. This AMV is the latest “AMV of the Day” and simply titled “Alchanum”.

This AMV was created by Rider4ZMusicVideos and he chose the very popular anime series Fullmetal Alchemist and the song “See Who I Am” by the symphonic metal group Within Temptation. The epic, dramatic sound of the song paired with some very emotional scenes from the series shows just why this particular AMV was such a bih hit at Anime Expo 2010 and why it won the Best Drama category.

For those who have never watched Fullmetal Alchemist can get a basic idea of why this series has remained so popular with anime fans everywhere. Even if one didn’t understand what was going on in the video the emotions conveyed within should tempt these neophytes into checking out the series. The video also highlights just how well Within Temptation’s songs fit well with AMVs especially those of the dramatic stripe. For those who have seen the series this video should just reiterate just why they ended up fans of the series in the first place.

Anime: Fullmetal Alchemist

Song: “See Who I Am” by Within Temptation

Creator: Rider4ZMusicVideos

AMV of the Day: Fullmetal’s Back

Posted on by Arleigh

Ok, I never thought I’d say this but it looks like Backstreet Boys has finally been part of something that’s been fun to watch and quite enjoyable. It’s this very one thing which is the latest entry in our recurring blog feature: “AMV of the Day”.

The video makes a play on the Backstreet Boys’ party song title, “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”, by taking out the band’s name and putting in Fullmetal. Yes, this is an anime music video where creator Rider4ZMusicVideos has combined the very popular shonen anime series, Fullmetal Alchemist, with the aforementioned Backstreet Boys song. To say that it was a surprise to see the two work well hand-in-hand would be an understatement.

Rider really plays up some of the comedy in the series with scenes chosen, but also does a great job of picking particular scenes to help lip-synch the lyrics of the song. Once again, I was thoroughly surprised just how enjoyable this video was and for the first time in my life I actually enjoyed listening to a Backstreet Boys song.

Anime: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Song: “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” by Backstreet Boys

Creator: Rider4ZMusicVideos