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)
When I came across this particular AMV I knew that I had to post it as the latest in the long line of “AMV of the Day” for the site. Like a previous AMV posted months earlier this one uses the excellent mahou shoujo anime Princess Tutu. The AMV I speak of is called “Hold Me Now”.
This particular anime music video takes the ballet-themed mahou shoujo (magical girl) of Princess Tutu and combines it with the song “Håll om mig” by Swedish singer-songwriter Nanne Grönvall. The end result of this combination makes for what consider one of the best AMV’s I’ve seen since I’ve been watching them for the past couple years. It’s on par with the previous Princess Tutu AMV posted in March (Danse de Raven).
While that previous AMV had a much more seductive tone to the video this latest Princess Tutu music video settles on some heavy dramatics to give a sense to the story of the anime. I particular like how the amv’s creator, Marissa Panaccio, was able to deftly time the beats of the song to the action on the video (or is it vice versa). I’ve been watching this video for the last couple days and I’m still not tired of it. That in itself is a mark of an AMV that’s done well.
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.
As I continue my current binge on all things anime and manga there’s one anime series that I thought deserved to be profiled in the usual “Anime of the Day” segment. This series comes from the action genre and heavily promoted towards the seinen (Males 18-30) demographic. While girls and women love this show as much as their male counterpart it definitely appeals very much to boys and young men. The anime I speak of is Black Lagoon (Burakku Ragūn in its original Japanese title).
Black Lagoon is the brainchild of mangaka Horie Rei. The manga began in the Spring of 2002 and continues a strong showing to this day. Like most manga that gain a large following it was just time before an anime adaptation was made and in 2006 the first season was released by anime studio Madhouse with Katabuchi Sunao handling director duties. To say that the anime became as popular as the original manga source would be an understatement.
The book’s main leads in Revy and Rock became fan favorites. One cannot go into an anime conventions anywhere around the world without seeing at least a dozen young women in Revy cosplay. She’s a character that actually is the most kickass in the group of mercenaries she works with and they’re all men. That just showed how appealing she became not just to the boys and men who followed the manga and anime, but to girls and young women who usually do not see such a powerful and kickass female protagonist who puts her male counterparts to shame.
The animation by Madhouse is its usual excellent self which also one reason why this series has caught on with anime fans worldwide. Black Lagoon has been released in the US by now-defunct Geneon Entertainment. They released the first two seasons (the series is just now into it’s third) and with that companies folding it’s quite difficult to find those two season box sets. It’s the hope of legion if anime fans that FUNimation Entertainment (who took over some of the licenses that Geneon Entertainment used to have) will re-issue those two seasons and give fans a price respite.
Black Lagoon might have been targeted towards the boys and young men demographic, but it’s success and popularity across the board makes it one of the growing lists of titles who break through prescribed genre labelings and why it does continue to grow in popularity. Plus, I think it doesn’t hurt the show that it’s main character in Revy is one kickass example of why some of the strongest fictional female roles are in anime (despite being drawn to be sexy to draw the male audience). This past Spring’s Sucker Punch may not be anime, but it’s kickass female characters definitely owe some of their foundations on characters like Revy.
A sneak peek of Season Three: Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail
Today, I couldn’t make up my mind which amv to pick for the latest “AMV of the Day” so being the co-founder of the site I decided to use my God-like powers and picked the two which caught my eye. I mean if I couldn’t abuse my God-like powers over the site then why have them…right? So, instead of one AMV we have two and they’re from the same creator and definitely have the same vibe and feel to them. I guarantee that like these AMV’s or not you’re feet will tap to the beat or maybe your head begin to bob to it.
The first AMV is titled “SugardanSen” and takes the “Caramelldansen” meme to a new level through creator Chiikaboom’s editing of scenes from 50 different anime to create one of the most catchy and sugary AMVs I’ve ever had the pleasure to watch and listen to. The part of the video that comes on at the 1:03 mark always brings about a huge grin to my face. It’s really not needed for me to describe this video other than those prone to seizures due to extreme flashes of light and rapid image editing should avoid it.
The same goes for the second AMV which also shares the same happy and pop sugary tempo and tone. It only includes scenes from three anime series but what it lacks in numbers it more than makes up for less seizure inducing video (though not by much). This video uses the “The Game Of Love (E=MC2 Mix)” by Jenny Rom (yeah, never heard of her either but she sings a catchy tune) and Chiikaboom has done a better job of editing the scenes to match the lyrics.
Both AMVs must been seen one right after the other. I always end up watching both whenever I feel down and on the way to depress mode. It’s hard to not feel better (at least by a bit) once I’ve these AMVs.
Attack of the Otaku
Anime: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky*Star, Ouran High School Host Club
Well, for the latest AMV of the Day I have picked one which includes one of my favorite anime of late (also a favorite manga) and a song that I didn’t care for to be honest. But when combined together they make for an awesome anime music video. I’m talking about the mashup that is “Fairy Tail Teenage Dream”.
Fairy Tail is one of those anime that one just ends up loving whether they want to or not. It shares similar character designs as the long-running and uber-popular anime series, One Piece, and they even share similar-sounding storylines. The song “Teenage Dreams” by Katy Perry I’ve always caught on the radion or used in some ad campaign, but it’s always been too sugary pop for my taste. It’s very catchy to listen to and I can understand why it’s become so popular. It only took pairing that song to this anime and how the creator of said AMV edited the whole video for me to actually like the song.
Will I listen to “Teenage Dream” when not in this AMV form? Most likely not, but at least I’ve come to appreciate said song and not completely dismissed it. Another reason why when AMV’s are done well they open up the viewer to a whole new realm of music possibilities not to mention anime ones.
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.
“mahou shoujo” – def. subgenre of Japanese anime and manga involving young girls (usually early to mid teens) with superhuman abilities who either volunteer or forced to fight for good and protect the Earth from destruction.
It has been awhile since I’ve profiled an anime series or OVA on the site. The great thing about attending anime/manga conventions is one discovers new anime or manga to obsesse over. This year, after a visit at this past April’s Anime Boston 2011, my latest anime obsession looks to be our latest “Anime of the Day”. My choice happens to be the latest in a long line of mahou shoujo anime series: Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
This series was actually recommended to me by someone on Twitter months ago but I was still hesistant to check it out until recently. It was while doing some last-minute research before heading over to Anime Boston 2011 that I finally latched onto Puella Magi Madoka Magica. This is peculiar since I’m not that much into the mahou shoujo (“magical girl”) subgenre of anime and manga. Fellow site writer pantsukudasai56 is the one who probably knows about this subgenre than I. It didn’t stop me from finally checking it out. Once back from Anime Boston 2011 I went and found all 12-episode of the first season (it’s just been recently announced that there’s to be a second season). I ended up watching all twelve episodes over a week and fell in love with it.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica is about very cute teen high schoolgirls who suddenly get thrust into a world of magic and science. There’s a major character that I always call an anime series’ mascot and this time it’s a creature resembling something crossed between a bunny and a siamese cat. Kyuubei (others spell it’s name Kyubey, Kyubei, QB, etc…) is a very cute creature who will grant a chosen girl any wish they want as long as they enter into a contract with it to become a Puella Magi who is a girl with magical powers to fight evil and witches.
How can you not love this little guy…
The series’ animation and characters actually make it out to be a very cutesy anime. From the playful and gothic lolita-style design of the girls. Even the creature known as Kyuubei was drawn to elicit nothing but “awwwws” and “d’awwwws” from those who first see the initial episodes. But it’s not that which got me to love this series. Unlike most other mahou shoujo series this one actually becomes quite serious after a couple episodes and turns a major corner into becoming quite a dark series. This turn is even more disturbing considering that the animation continues to be cute and lighthearted. The look of the character design might turn some people off, but for this particular series the gosurori (“gothloli” aka “gothic lolita”) style fits the series and should change the minds of even those who hate the look.
The animation by the anime studio SHAFT is exquisite despite a few inconsistencies here and there, but overall it’s one of the more beautiful and inventive looking anime series of late. The writing by Urobuchi Gen is what sells the series as it combines the early cutesy nature of the series with the darker turns it makes until the very end which is heartbreaking and emotional, to say the least. Here’s to hoping that some enterprising and brave licensor in the U.S. like Sentai or FUNimation will take a chance and license the series for a North American release.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica looks to be the anime series of 2011 and has only been seen in Japan. How those outside Japan are able to see the twelve episode is something to be left unsaid. Maybe those still wanting to know the answer can enter into a contract with Kyuubei and find out.
Some of the transformation animations from the series…
During this past Anime Boston 2011 there was one panel where I and fellow site writer, pantsukudasai56, sat in and had one of the better times during the convention weekend. It was the panel being held by the on-line podcast and site, Anime World Order, and it was called “Anime’s Craziest Deaths”. It was pretty much two hours of just watching clips of some of the craziest death scenes in anime history. One which stood out and had quite a reaction from the crowd was from the action anime series, Black Lagoon.
This scenes qualifies as one I love just for it’s sheer audacity and craziness which typifies much of the action genre in anime. Black Lagoon has so many cool and crazy characters that it was only fair that the show contain scenes and sequences to match their personalities. This scenes pits the protagonists’ WW2-era PT boat versus a Soviet-era Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunship. Now one would ask how could an antiquated PT boat even take on such a heavily-armed and heavily-armored chopper gunship whose sole purpose is to take on tanks and armored vehicles.
Well, glad you asked.
The only way to answer that question is to watch the scene and just marvel at just how it’s level of craziness just continues to increase as the scene moves along to it’s surprising climax. All I can say about this scene is…
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.
Through the Shattered Lens 