Tag Archives: AMV

AMV of the Day: Kobato – Ring a Bell

Posted on by Arleigh

Been awhile since I was able to find and post a new AMV (anime music video) which means the pickings have been slim. But as I was writing up the post commemorating the site’s 1000th post milestone I was listening to some J-Pop as background music and one particular song came on. It was BONNIE PINK’s “Ring a Bell” which was used as the opening song for the very fun and beautiful JRPG Tales of Vesperia. As soon as I finished writing up the milestone post I searched YouTube for AMV’s which used this song and after finding a couple AMV’s which used it I settled on the best one I was able to find.

The latest AMV is from YouTube user XValkyrieAngelX and it was titled Kobato – Ring a Bell. I knew of the song, but the anime used was one I’ve heard about but never had the opportunity to watch: Kobato.

First off, the editing work by XValkyrieAngelX was very good. She didn’t make the video too cluttered and confusing with massive amounts of quick edits and cuts. Her use of particular video effects was timed well with the song that they weren’t distracting. One thing she was also able to do was keep the AMV relatively spoiler-free. The anime itself has been called one of the many romance-comedy that continues to be quite popular in Japan and pretty much with most anime fans so the video shows of the romance side of the anime but not enough to ruin the whole story.

The song “Ring a Bell” is one of those catchy J-Pop ballads which just sticks to one’s mind and won’t let go. Using this song really matches up well with the visuals used from Kobato. One of the best compliments I could ever give an AMV creator is that they were able to convince me to watch an anime I’ve only remotely heard of just based on watching them use it in one of their videos. Kobato – Ring a Bell is one such AMV and as soon as I finished watching it I went over to Amazon and, lo and behold, the DVD was up for pre-ordering and I went ahead and pre-ordered it.

XValkyrieAngelX has more AMV’s uploaded in her YouTube account and this one has given me reason to watch the rest of her work.

Song: “Ring a Bell” – BONNIE PINK

Anime: Kobato

Creator: XValkyrieAngelX

AMV of the Day: Mahou Shoujo Requiem

Posted on by Arleigh

I think my love for the anime mahou shoujo series, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, may extend past this summer and til the end of the year. I’ve begun to watch the other new series to premiere in the last 12 months over in Japan, but this particular one has stuck itself in my head in a good way. It’s why whenever I find a great AMV done using the series I end up loving it. So, the last “AMV of the Day” is another Puella Mago Madoka Magica production.

This one is appropriately titled, “Mahou Shoujo Requiem”, and is paired with the ethereal and hypnotic song “Cosmic Love” by the group Florence + The Machine. Even the title of the song is quite appropriate as it highlights the cosmic aspect of the anime series the video is using.

The video’s creator is one “tehninjarox” and this creator also made the previous “AMV of the Day” entry (“A Prelude to Dreams”). The editing work in this latest AMV was exceptionally well done with scene transitions coming in fast and clear with each percussive beat of the song. I also like the fact that following the cosmic theme of the song there’s many images of Kyubey in the video. Can’t have a cosmic and requiem-themed AMV of this series and not Kyubey show up.

So, far this AMV of the Puella Magi Madoka Magica series one of the best one I’ve seen though not the best. The next one I plan to post in the future is the best one but not by much.

Anime: “Puella Magi Madoka Magica”

Song: “Cosmic Love” by Florence + The Machine

Creator: tehninjarox

AMV of the Day: A Prelude to Dreams

Posted on by Arleigh

The latest addition to the “AMV of the Day” stable I first saw in the final day of this year’s Anime Boston this past Spring. It’s title is “A Prelude to Dreams” and I will say that it’s one of the more interesting and unique looking anime music videos I’ve seen.

“A Prelude to Dreams” has won several awards from many anime conventions one of which was this past Spring’s Anime Boston as it won the “Best Other” category. It also won a the “Judges’ Choice” in the same convention. It was really the only AMV in the whole convention which deserved to win two awards. It’s creator, tehninjarox, did a great job in using scenes from thirteen anime series and films and created a well-edited video to accompany the song chosen. The song is the second Imogen Heap AMV I’ve chosen for “AMV of the Day”. This song is the DJ XSaryux mix of the Imogen Heap track, “Hide and Seek”, and I must admit that the music matches well with the scenes chosen from those various anime titles.

The editing job also made great use of smooth transition effects which made each scenes flow into one another without breaking the dream-like effect the song and images created as the song progressed. I’ve seen probably half of the titles the creator used for this music video and I was glad that some of them were from the anime film Summer Wars and the mahou shoujo series “Puella Magi Madoka Magica”. It’s always great to see those two used in created ways outside of what they were already made for.

Anime : Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Genius Party, Genius Party: Dimension Bomb, Genius Party: Gala, Genius Party: Wanwa the Doggy, Summer Wars, Ef – The Latter Tale, Ef – A Fairy Tale of the Two, Bakemonogatari, Dance in the Vampire Bund, Katanagatari, The Girl who Leapt Through Time

Song: Hide and Seek (DJ XSaryux mix) by Imogen Heap

Creator: tehninjarox

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