AMV of the Day: Breaking (Various)

Posted on July 25, 2015 by Arleigh

It’s been awhile since we’ve had a new AMV of the Day. With con season in full gear it’s been tough waiting to see what new AMV’s come out of these conventions. The problem with finding new and interesting anime music videos, especially in the United States, has been the tendency of the same videos winning awards at North American conventions. Name recognition has become the norm when voting which videos make the grade and, in the end, win the prize in their chosen category.

Not saying that these videos and their creators don’t deserve the recognition and accolades for their work, but it does make finding new fresh voices and visual styles in the field harder and harder to discover. Foreign videos tend to be the last realm for people who are into AMVs to find rare gems in the rough.

This latest AMV of the Day is “Breaking” and by the creator Pat [AMVCON-2015] and meshes together some of the more popular and action-oriented shonen (and some shoujo) anime to the tune of Linkin Park’s “Breaking the Habit.”

Anime: Amagi Brilliant Park, Bleach Movie: Hell Verse, Btoom!, Ga-Rei Zero, Kokoro Connect, Kyoukai no Kanata, Madoka Magica: Rebellion, Naruto: Road to Ninja, Nerawareta Gakuen, One Piece: The Movie 70, Persona 3: Spring of Birth, Ookami Shoujo to Kuro Ouji, Sword Art Online 1 and 2, Steins;Gate: Fuka Ryōiki no Déjà vu, Suzumiya Haruhi no Shōshitsu, To Aru Agaku Railgun S

Song: “Breaking the Habit” by Linkin Park

Creator: Pat [AMVCON-2015]

Past AMVs of the Day

AMV of the Day: Cosplay Bargain Bin (Various)

Posted on April 6, 2015 by Arleigh

This past weekend saw myself and fellow site contributor pantsukudasai56 over in Seattle attending Sakura-Con 2015. One of the activities we ended up participating in (meaning we sat down and watched) was in the AMV panels. While we never made it for the AMV Contest panel itself where people got to vote on the videos themselves we did manage to sit down and watch some of the videos. One of these days I will dedicate an entire con to just watching AMVs (well, at least go to the contest itself).

So, for the next week or so I shall be posting the videos we did catch and the one’s which ended up winning awards.

The first “AMV of the Day” Sakura-Con 2015 Edition made it as a finalist for the “Best Fun” Category. It’s “Cosplay Bargain Bin” by TarageAMV and is an amalgamation of over 30 or so anime clips edited to the tune of Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop.”

While it didn’t win in the end, this video from TarageAMV was actually quite funny and does a great job of spoofing the hardships and stress that cosplayers must go through to get ready for the next anime convention. As someone who broke his cosplay cherry this year with a simple enough costume (and I was still stressed that I couldn’t get all the pieces) I think I have a much better appreciation of the lengths and dedication cosplayers put into getting their cosplays ready.

Anime: Acchi Kocchi, Aquarion Evol, Attack on Titan, Baka and Test – Summon the Beasts, Black Butler, Black Rock Shooter, Bleach, Bodacious Space Pirates, Chobits, Clannad, Code Geass – Lelouch of the Rebellion, Cowboy Bebop, Daily Lives of High School Boys, Darker Than Black, Darker Than Black: Gemini of the Meteor, Dragon Ball, Neon Genesis Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, Neon Genesis Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, Genshiken Second Season, Gj-Bu, Golden Boy, Great Teacher Onizuka, Hayate the Combat Butler, Heaven’s Lost Property Forte, Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere II, Inu Yasha, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Kill la Kill, Log Horizon, Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, Mayo Chiki!, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, My Little Monster, Naruto Shippuden, Occult Academy, One Piece, Ouran High School Host Club, Plastic Nee-san, Robotics;Notes, Sailor Moon: Crystal, Spice and Wolf, Stein:Gate, Yuru Yuri

Song: “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (feat. Wanz)

Creator: TarageAMV

Past AMVs of the Day

AMV of the Day: Can Can Pantsu (Various) NSFW

Posted on February 15, 2015 by pantsukudasai56

The following AMV of the Day is decidedly NSFW, unless you work at a place that is very lenient with what they allow their employees to watch. Which you probably don’t. So don’t watch this at work. Seriously, it’s not porn but it’s still very NSFW. Not sure if I’ve stressed this enough, but this is NSFW, and Through the Shattered Lens takes no responsibility for any discipline handed out for those that still haven’t paid close enough attention to what I’ve said.

Now, with that disclaimer out of the way, this is an AMV that I first saw when I was at Another Anime Convention back in October. They had the great idea of having a room dedicated solely to the showing of various AMVs all day every day of the convention. It was great to be able to relax and catch a few AMVs in between various panels that caught my interest. It was typically broken up into blocks that specialized in certain themes, and one of their late night themes was for various ecchi, or racy but not full blown porn AMVs. (They had a block for hentai, or porn AMVs, but that’s another story) The one thing I wish they had done different was that they didn’t always list the name and creator of the AMVs they were showing, so while I was aware that this one existed for some time, I didn’t have any luck finding it until Arleigh found it and showed it to me.

While I have seen a lot of ecchi anime in my day, this is made up of some 35 different anime, some of which I haven’t seen, and even further surprising to me was that there were even two that I had never heard of before. After viewing this AMV, I believe that’s an oversight I’ll have to correct. One wouldn’t necessarily think that the Can Can would work for this, but it is so perfectly done with just a rapid fire string of panty shots that I can only hope that someday the creator decides to do another like this except with boob shots. I was a little confused as to who the creator is, since at the end of the AMV it says it was made by Potato, but according to animemusicvideos.org, which is pretty much THE authority on AMVs, the creator’s name is FlamingMangos. Due to the racy nature of the AMV (did I mention this is NSFW?) I don’t believe that it’s been featured in any formal AMV contests. It’s too much for a general audience AMV contest, but not really bad enough to be in a hentai AMV contest. Still, its lack of awards is in no means a measure of it’s fun qualities. At the very least, I doubt you’ll be able to hear the Can Can and not have this AMV come to mind.

Anime: Akane-Iro Ni Somaru Saka, Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan, Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan 2, Demon King Daimao, Freezing, Freezing Vibration, Green Green, Gundam Seed Destiny, Hagure Yuusha no Estetica, Heaven’s Lost Property Forte, High School DxD, High School DxD New, Kanokon, Kyou no Asuka Show, Ladies Versus Butlers!, Maji de Watashi Ni Koi Shinasai!! S, Majimoji Rurumo, Manyuu Hiken-chou, Onī-chan dakedo Ai sae Areba Kankei Nai yo ne!, R-15, Rosario + Vampire, Rosario + Vampire Capu2, Samurai Girls, Seikon no Qwaser, Sekirei, Sekirei: Pure Engagement, Shuffle!, Shukufuku no Campanella, Sora no Otoshimono Final: Eternal My Master, To Love-RU (OAV), To Love-RU (TV), To Love-RU – Darkness, Tonagura!, Watashi ga Motenai no wa dō Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!, We Without Wings

Song: “The Infernal Galop” by Jacques Offenbach

Creator: FlamingMangos

Past AMVs of the Day

AMV of the Day: Warriors (Various)

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Arleigh

The latest “AMV of the Day” is one of those rare, but impressive anime music videos which happens to have a several creators working together to make one video. These are called MEP which stands for Multi-Editor Project.

“Warriors” is a video collaboration between nine video editors by the names of Mycathatesyou, Kireblue, Xophilarus, Shin (aka tehninjarox), Obsidian Zero, Warlike Swans, Warlike Cygnet, PieandBeer and Rhianic. I always found it impressive that so many imaginative and creative individuals could work together to make one product. While collaboration between such people are not rare I’ve found that sometimes ego plays a huge part in making such things fail more than succeed.

As this video shows they’ve definitely succeeded in creating an anime music video which sticks to the theme of the Imagine Dragons’ song “Warriors”.

Anime: Kill la Kill, C-Bu: Stella, Women’s Academy, Kara no Kyokai, Attack on Titan, Fullmetal Alchemist, Pokemon, Slayers Evolution-R, No Game No Life, Fate/Zero

Song: “Warriors” by Imagine Dragons

Creator: Mycathatesyou, Kireblue, Xophilarus, Shin (aka tehninjarox), Obsidian Zero, Warlike Swans, Warlike Cygnet, PieandBeer, Rhianic

Past AMVs of the Day

Horror AMV of the Day: Carnivore (Tokyo Ghoul)

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Arleigh

While horror anime is not quite widespread as other genres they do exist and one of the more recent ones is the horror/dark fantasy series which came out this past July.

Tokyo Ghoul is the anime from whence our latest “AMV of the Day” was born from. I’ve only seen highlight clips of the series, but from what I’ve seen it’s definitely right up my alley. It’s not so violent and gory that it goes over into “guro” realm. It looks like it’s series dealing with ghouls hiding within the human population and having their own clans and factions gives the series a nice urban gothic feel to it in addition to the horror.

This particular AMV uses the appropriate song by Starset called “Carnivore” which is one thing the ghouls in this series tend to be as eaters.

Guess what they like for breakfast, lunch and dinner? I heard it tastes like pork. Some very long pork.

Anime: Tokyo Ghoul

Song: “Carnivore” by Starset

Creator: Anime Bros

Past AMVs of the Day

Horror AMV of the Day: Sweet Dreams (Another)

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Arleigh

For the first Horror AMV of the Day we go back to good old Another. Those not well-versed in the world of anime this series is literally titled Another.

Another is one of the best horror anime to arrive in years and it combines elements of the supernatural ghost story, mystery and, most important of all, enough gore to satisfy even the most bloodthirsty fan. What better way to advertise some of the highlights of Another than by making a video to the tune of Marilyn Manson’s cover of the classic Eurythmics song “Sweet Dreams”.

Horror anime is quite a tough thing to pull off well. Either one goes full-on gore but sacrificing a coherent narrative or going for characterization and a great story yet lacking in the blood and gore. Another is able to accomplish both and amv creator S&D Productions does a great job of making sure this comes across in the video simply titled “Sweet Dreams”.

Anime: Another

Song: “Sweet Dreams” by Marilyn Manson

Creator: S&D Productions

Past AMVs of the Day

AMV of the Day: Ship Happens

Posted on September 19, 2014 by Arleigh

What was one of the hobbies teens of any era enjoyed doing before, during and after school?

That is a question that could have many answers and all of them would be correct. Of late, the answer of “shipping” classmates, fictional characters and everything in-between has become such a cutthroat past-time amongst teens and those teen-at-heart that on-line wars have cropped up when certain people think their “ships” is the only OTP and everything else are non-canon and thus not worthy of mention or attention.

Yeah, I could barely understand what I just said there, but being a confessed otaku I know enough of this “shipping” and “OTPing” and all the other made up words people younger than I have created to help enhance their obsessi….enjoyment of anime, films and books.

This AMV perfectly illustrates the extent people go through to make sure everyone knows their pairings of characters is the one true one. I’ve studied wars which have started like this.

Anime: Azumanga Daioh, Code Geass – Lelouch of the Rebellion (TV), Cowboy Bebop, Death Note (TV), DragonBall Z: Movie 1 (Dead Zone), Durarara!! (TV), Evangelion Shin Gekijouban: Q (Movie), Free! – Iwatobi Swim Club (TV), Fruits Basket, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (TV), Guilty Crown (TV), Kill La Kill (TV), Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, The (TV), My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute (TV), Naruto, Ouran High School Host Club (TV), Puella Magi Madoka Magica (TV), Sailor Moon, Shingeki no Kyojin : Attack on Titan, Steins;Gate (TV), Toradora! (TV), Trigun, Vampire Knight (TV)

Song: “I Ship It” by Not Literally

Creator: Vivifx

Past AMVs of the Day

AMV of the Day: Evangelion 2.22 [Lights]

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Arleigh

The last three or four days and with many more to go, site co-founder Lisa Marie has been reviewing many films the depicts high school as seen by it’s many filmmakers down the years. While this particular major series of reviews is the creation of Lisa Marie and one she’s determined and enthusiastic in completing I thought I might drop by the proceedings and pop my head in quickly.

I don’t have a high school-themed review, but I do have the latest “AMV of the Day” that loosely follows the theme of high school. This time around the AMV is about a group of high school students in a futuristic Japan who also happens to be pilots of giant mechas (piloted robots) called Evangelions. Yes, I know it’s a very loose and barely there tie-in to Lisa Marie’s “Back to School” series, but who wouldn’t want to be a high school student and also be the pilot of giant Evangelions while wearing some fashionable plug suits. I mean the Evangelion anime is not just about mecha fighting monstrous angelic beings, but also has all the angst and growing pains of being a high school age teen.

The video’s creator, LuftPyrite, does a great job of marrying scenes from Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance with the Accent8 Remix of Ellie Goulding’s very popular and recognizable song “Lights”. While the video itself does end very abruptly it still doesn’t diminish just how good this video is from start to abrupt finish.

Anime: Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance

Song: Lights (Accentu8 Remix) by Ellie Goulding

Creator: LuftPyrite

Past AMVs of the Day

AMV of the Day: Snowball Genocide (Various)

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Arleigh

I’m just hours away from watching an advanced screening of Guardians of the Galaxy on IMAX in San Francisco. What does this have to do with the latest “AMV of the Day” you may be asking?

Well, the answer to that is really nothing. Nothing except that both this AMV, “Snowball Genocide”, is just as fun to sit back and watch as I’m sure James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy will be. It helps that “Snowball Genocide” won not just the Best Fun/Upbeat category but also Best Concept video during Anime Boston 2014’s AMV contest this past March.

Anime: A Channel, Acchi Kocchi, Azumanga Daioh, Heaven’s Lost Property Forte, Hiyokoi, Kanon (TV – 2006), Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Minami-Ke Tadaima, Mitsudomoe Zouryouchuu!, Shugo Chara!! Doki, Upotte!! (ONA), Zoku Natsume Yūjin-Chō

Song: “Royal Taste (Jan Waterman Remix)” by Montee & Junky Sound

Creator: KisanziVNS

Past AMVs of the Day

AMV of the Day: Iwatobi Weather Service (Free! – Iwatobi Swim Club & Attack On Titan)

Posted on July 22, 2014 by Arleigh

This latest “AMV of the Day” was entered in this month’s AMV Contest at Anime Expo 2014. It’s definitely one of the more unique looking videos I’ve profiled for this series.

For one thing “Iwatobi Weather Service” by NekoKitkat25hug is a fanservice video. In the past, when I posted an AMV that was all about and celebrating fanservice it was usually focused on the female characters. I don’t think I ever picked one where it was the other way around. I must admit that I’ve never watched many anime that was a reverse of the typical harem-type story. The closest reverse harem anime I’ve watched would be Ouran highschool Host Club. That one didn’t even concentrate on the fanservice trope, but more on the romantic-comedy angle. With this video’s use of the swimming anime Free! – Iwatobi Swim Club it definitely focuses on fanservice.

Not my type of fanservice but I must admit that it’s quite the hilarious video (I’m sure appealing to those who have enjoyed this anime). The video also was helped by the use of The Weather Girls’ classic song, “It’s Raining Men”, which takes on a darkly humorous twist in the final minute when it’s literally raining men.

Anime: Free! – Iwatobi Swim Club and Attack On Titan

Song: “It’s Raining Men” by The Weather Girls

Creator: NekoKitkat25hug