Tag Archives: AMV

AMV of the Day: A Thousand Miles (Macross Frontier)

Posted on by Arleigh

I think this is the second time I’ve chosen an AMV which uses the same song. The first time was an earlier “AMV of the Day” which starred the two leads of the anime series Toradora!. This time around the latest “AMV of the Day” goes from romantic-comedy to the mecha-action genre.

This latest AMV also uses the same title. “A Thousand Miles” is not just the name of the AMV but the title of the song used in the video. Yes, it would seem Vanessa Carlton’s hit ballad from several years ago is quite popular with AMV creators who plan on creating a romance-themed video. I must admit that this video was quite good. It’s not everytime that one can create a romance AMV out of the mecha-series Macross Frontier.

Looking back on the video after several viewings I will say that the song fits the romance between the character of Ranka Lee (green-haired girl) and Alto (the Veritech pilot). While the video only shows the Ranka/Alto romance (Alto also catches the eye of another beauty in the series to create a love triangle subplot) the song seems more appropriate in giving voice to Ranka Lee as a character and how she feels about Alto.

It is a shame that Macross Frontier still hasn’t been licensed for an American release. This video just shows how great this anime really is.

Anime: Macross Frontier

Song: “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton

Creator: whispersreloaded

AMV of the Day: Instinct

Posted on by Arleigh

The latest AMV I’ve chosen for the regular “AMV of the Day” comes from one of the anime hit series from 2010. It combines the horror and ecchi (softcore) themes and images from that series with one of Rob Zombie’s most popular songs to date in “Dragula”. The video is plainly and simply titled, “Instinct”.

Highschool of the Dead  (Gakuen Mokushiroku in Japan) was one of the major anime hits of 2010. It was the anime adaptation of the wildly popular manga series of the same name. It was a series which successfully combined the horror aspects that a zombie apocalypse brings to any story and the softcore elements that ecchi brought to the table. Simply put it was a series that was about sex, violence and horror. So, it wasn’t too much of a surprise that someone decided what better song to merge scenes from this series than Rob Zombie’s very own “Dragula”.

The editing work on this video was actually excellent. The creator, StarSapphire26, didn’t just edit and splice together scenes to match the tone and tempo of the song, but added some visual touches which made it stand out from most AMVs. This is one reason why this video stood out for me beyond just being one of the better and rare good AMVs which uses Highschool of the Dead as the foundation.

Anime: Highschool of the Dead (Gakuen Mokushiroku)

Song: “Dragula” by Rob Zombie

Creator: StarSapphire26

AMV of the Day: The Beautiful People of Black Lagoon

Posted on by Arleigh

Finding very good to high quality AMVs (anime music videos) have become easier to do on YouTube as I get myself more immersed in the amv scene. While I don’t ever see myself creating one even on a dare I do appreciate the work which goes into creating the very good ones. The latest “AMV of the Day” choice is definitely one of the very good ones and, if not, for the non-HD quality of it (though it still looks very good in its SD format), would probably be one of the best out there that I’ve seen.

“The Beautiful People of Black Lagoon” dares to combine scenes from the anime which makes up the latter part of that title with the Marilyn Manson song which begins the amv title. This AMV was able to capture the chaos and mayhem of Horie Rei’s Black Lagoon and also highlight the fact that this series does have a large amount of beautiful people in it from Revy to Gretel and, of course, Roberta. It really gives credence to the lyrics in Manson’s song and the industrial rock sound of the song goes well with the violence that’s so inherent in Black Lagoon.

I could easily show this to people who have never heard of the anime Black Lagoon and I can guarantee that more than half would be intrigued to see the series after this watching this AMV. It is still a marvel that this AMV was made almost four years ago and still can hold it’s own on the more recent ones. Shame there’s no HD version of this AMV. If it looks this good on SD I think it would look great on HD.

Anime: Black Lagoon

Song: “The Beautiful People” by Marilyn Manson

Creator: Jasta85

AMV of the Day: Repeat (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)

Posted on by Arleigh

The latest AMV of the Day continues my current obsession over a great mahou shoujo (magical girl) by the name of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. This amv is called “Repeat”.

“Repeat” uses the song “Sleep Now” by Hugh Hall and it’s atmospheric sound goes hand in hand with the dark, almost gothic sensibilities, of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I’m none too familiar with Hugh Hall’s music, but the song that creator Chiikaboom used to highlight the dark nature of this anime series really makes this amv seem like a well-made trailer for the series. In fact, if I didn’t know that this video was an anime music video I would’ve thought it was a professionally done teaser trailer for the anime series.

This amv once again shows just how engaging an anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica really is. Yes, the animation and character designs are quite cute, but that lighthearted aspect of the show doesn’t last very long. This video shows just how mature, dramatic and tragic this series ends up becoming.

Song: “Sleep Now” by Hugh Hall

Anime: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Creator: Chiikaboom

AMV of the Day: Toradora! Rough Love (Grow A Pear)

Posted on by Arleigh

So, finally back from a near week of anime and manga festivities at this year’s Anime Boston. One of the things I’ve enjoyed while attending these anime conventions have been the creative AMV’s which come out during the the event’s AMV contests. This year the crop of AMVs which won the different categories were very unique and inventive. One such AMV which seem to think outside the box was in the Best Romance category. This AMV combined the Ke$ha song, “Grow A Pear”, with the romantic comedy anime series Toradora! with an end result that was quite funny and charming.

The video took the give-and-take and very hostile early relationship between the two main characters in the series, Taiga and Ryuji. The song matches up pretty well with these early scenes of tsudere hostility from Taiga towards Ryuji but it does finally build-up towards the inevitable admittance from both characters of their true feelings for each other. This video had won the Best Romance category and could easily have won the Best Comedy category as well, but with the quality of romance AMVs being quite lacking during this year’s Anime Boston it wasn’t a surprise that this particular AMV won.

Song: Grow A Pear – Ke$ha

Anime: Toradora!

Creator: l33tmeatwad

AMV of the Day: Black Lagoon…To Be Loved

Posted on by Arleigh

I was going through my notes of my Saturday over at this year’s WonderCon when I got a tad bored and began to look at some AMV’s on YouTube. I realized as I was watching these AMVs that I hadn’t seen using Black Lagoon as the foundation. Well, I sure solved that. The latest AMV of the Day is “…To Be Loved” and it’s definitely Black Lagoon-centric.

I’ll start off by saying that Papa Roach is not a bad I particularly enjoy listening to. Well, I really don’t like most of the bands which came up during the so-called nu-metal craze of the late 90’s and early 2000’s. I will admit that the song “To Be Loved” by Papa Roach was a good pick to highlight just how action-packed the anime series Black Lagoon truly is. This series has one of the most kickass female characters in anime/manga with Revy.

Revy is the hard-drinking, chain-smoking and all-around badass fighter and gunslinger for the mercenary group she belongs to. There’s a reason why a majority of the scenes in the AMV has her pretty much eother punching, kicking or shooting someone or someones. She’s always getting her and her team in trouble with her attitude but she’ll always be the first to solve said problem. Usually through the use of an inordinate amount of violence. There’s a reason why so many anime/manga fans love her and it’s not just because her usual attire is a very short tanktop and very short cutoff jean shorts.

So, while I don’t like the band used for the video I do at least like the choice of song. Long live Revy!

Creator: Fleon

Song: “To Be Loved” by Papa Roach

Anime: Black Lagoon

 

AMV of the Day: This Is War (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Posted on by Arleigh

As a continue to write my Sucker Punch review I decided to take a break from it and watch some AMV’s on YouTube. I finally found one that I thought was worthy of becoming the latest “AMV of the Day”. This one combines one of the most popular action anime series of the last few years with a song from the American hard rock band 30 Seconds To Mars.

“This Is War” forms the basis for this AMv which takes that song and combines it with scenes from the anime series, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. One thing which I always look at when choosing which AMV makes the grade is whether the creator has a fine grasp on the song and its lyrics. It’s simple enough to cut-edit anime scenes together and slap on a song to it, but matching the song to those very scenes takes skill and the creator of this amv definitely has that.

Creator: klepohi

Anime: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Song: “This Is War” by 30 Seconds To Mars

AMV of the Day: Danse De Raven

Posted on by Arleigh

It’s been awhile since I’ve put a new AMV and this time I thought this latest entry is quite appropriate and one which fellow writer Lisa Marie would really enjoy.

Last week Natalie Portman won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her powerful performance in Black Swan. This latest AMV is one which combines two things that Lisa Marie will appreciate most: ballet and French music. The video takes scenes from the magical girl anime series, Princess Tutu, which eerily looks like certain scenes from Aronofsky’s film. The music the creator, Chiikaboom, used is “Le Bien Qui Fait Mal” from the rock musical Mozart L’Opera Rock.

I haven’t really seen much of Princess Tutu and I definitely haven’t listened to much French music outside of classical. I will admit that this AMV has a certain dark appeal to it and the combination of scenes lifted from the anime and the music used makes it quite badass.

Creator: Chiikaboom

Anime: Princess Tutu

Music: “Le Bien Qui Fait Mal” from Mozart L’Opera Rock

AMV of the Day: Azumanga Daioh – Little Girls

Posted on by Arleigh

With the most recent anime of the day choice being the series Azumanga Daioh I thought it would be appropriate that the latest “AMV of the Day” come from the series as well.

This particular AMV won the Best Comedy category in Nekocon X (2007). The AMV is called Azumanga Daioh – Little Girls and it combines scenes from the series with the Oingo Boingo song, “Little Girls”. Starring prominently in this video is the aforementioned creepy male teacher Kimura-sensei. In fact, this video pretty much highlights just how creepy and how much a dirty old man Kimura-sensei really is and the lyrics of the song doesn’t help him much.

For those in the know they’ll see a certain bear pop up in the video several times and those appearances add to the comedy of the video. There’s really not much else to say about this video. It has to be seen to truly experience.

Anime: Azumanga Daioh

Song: “Little Girls” – Oingo Boingo

AMV of the Day: And Now, A Word From Our Sponsors

Posted on by Arleigh

It took awhile but finally an official Youtube version of the AMV which won three awards during Anime Expo 2010. Scintilla’s very excellent “And Now, A Word From Out Sponsors” is the latest entry to be AMV of the Day.

This AMV is pretty brief but what’s shown gives enough proof as to why it was voted by the Anime Expo attendees to win three categories. It won the Staff Favorite and Best Comedy categories, but it was winning the top prize for Best In Show which cemented this amv as top in a field that had some very good entries.

The video edits together several scenes from different anime to match the lyrics of the song. A song aptly titled “Burger Dance” by DJ Ötzi. Some effects work such as putting the KFC, Pizza Hut and McDonalds logos into the scenes were made, but in the end the song is just a laugh riot from start to end. It had everyone singing along to the chorus. That is just how great and fun an amv it was.

Now, if the creator of the amv “Alchanum” just follows suit and also uploads to Youtube that Best Drama amv winner.

Anime: Code Geass, Azumnaga Daioh, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Fruit Basket, K-On, Axis Power Hetalia, Lunar Legend Tsukihime, Naruto, Princess Tutu, Revolutionary Girl Utena, serial experiements lain, Sgt. Frog, Soul Eater

Song: “Burger Dance: International Remix” by DJ Ötzi

Creator: Scintilla