The Craft-Work and Art of the AMV, Part Two
Ξ May 18th, 2009 | → 5 Comments | ∇ Music is Life, The Anime Annals |
Song selection, scene choices, and editing: the combination of these three elements are essential to a succesful AMV. Add to this mix the creative genius of vision and concept and the result is a video that can move, thrill, and entice you. Today’s entry will focus on whom I consider the master of the art-form, Koopiskeva, followed by a random assortment of other AMVs of note (or notoriety LOL). (EDIT: No, I won’t!)
From the moment I saw this first AMV, I realized that I was in the presence of genius. I don’t like to throw that word around too lightly, but given the sum total of Koop’s work it is a very fair assessment of his talent. One caveat I ought to add is that this quality comes out more acutely if the viewer has seen the anime beforehand and knows the twists and turns so that the AMV can play on them to further move and/or provoke them; later I’ll give an example of one where a sight-unseen anime can still have an effective AMV.
This is the second time (at least) that I’ve posted this video here, but it does bear repeated viewings, as does the anime it is based on, ef – a tale of memories, the summation of which I posted here six months ago in my “An ef-fing Masterpiece” entry. Here Koop focuses on the relationship between Renji and Chihiro and stencils their most significant scenes against the background music of Sara Bareilles’ beautiful song, “Gravity”. The moving canvas that is the result can be most touching even if you don’t know the story: due to a tragic childhood accident that also cost her the sight of one eye, Chihiro’s memory undergoes a wipe after thirteen hours, and she must write everything down in her diary in order to read it the next day to reclaim the lost memories of the day before. If she should awaken without her diary, everything would be lost, even that of the boy she just met, the story they conspire to write together, or the fact that he loves her… and she him. She imagines herself trapped in a circle and pinioned and bound to its center; the circumference of the circle is the span of her life since the accident at age twelve, and the reach of her arm at the chain’s length is thirteen hours, and no more. She can reach no further without help… and perhaps hope.
In the second video entitled “Momentum”, Koop takes Makoto Shinkai’s award-winning masterpiece 5 Centimeters per Second: A Chain of Short Stories About Their Distance, and weaves together pivotal scenes from the love story between Takaki and Akari, made even more moving with the song he chose, “Awakening” by Mae. (I should add that many of these songs had been previously unheard by me, and I’m very grateful for being turned on to such lovely music.) Even though time passes them by in leaps and bounds, their dreams and memories do not, and this AMV shows that splendidly.
(From the wiki: “Makoto Shinkai had expressed that, unlike his past works, there would be no fantasy or science fiction elements in this film. Instead, the feature film would attempt to present the real world from a different perspective. Makoto’s film gives a realistic view of the struggles many face against: time, space, people, and love. The title 5 Centimeters Per Second comes from the speed at which cherry blossoms petals fall, petals being a metaphorical representation of humans, reminiscent of the slowness of life and how people often start together but slowly drift into their separate ways.”)
Now, see if you can relate; you’re human after all, right? 
In another of his homages to Shinkai, Koop put together an AMV from one of his previous films, The Place Promised In Our Early Days, Beyond the Clouds, using Vienna Teng’s touching “Gravity” as the backdrop. The winner of several awards, this story involves three childhood friends and a promise to someday fly to Hokkaido to investigate a Tower that can be seen from their location, though it’s in a war-zone. In the intervening years their promise is seemingly broken when the girl, Sayuri, becomes ill with a form of narcolepsy and the two boys travel their own separate paths. This tale features similar themes mentioned in the Shinkai wiki quote above, and I’ll leave the synopsis to you to read if this AMV interests you, but as always with the wiki, beware of spoilers!
Well. Choosing from such a wealth of riches that Koop’s collection involves is a bit overwhelming; even though of YouTube “quality” even the ten videos he has on his page there don’t vary much in the amount of sheer enjoyability they provide. As much as I dislike rap and hip-hop music (in general) even his The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya AMV “Skittles” is worth a look! But the one video I wanted to put up here, I just can’t due to the HUGE spoilers in it. HUGE I tell you! His Kanon-based AMV entitled “Twilight” is a major tour-de-force, incorporating the characters from the anime into real-world settings and objects; it’s just amazing! Aside from a few very minor faults such as too many quick-cuts and text that passes too fast to read that also distract from the visuals, it’s probably his best work (in my humble opinion). Now, I’m exceptionally biased for this series; Kanon is probably the one closest to my heart in terms of characters, story, visual goodies, emotional payoffs, and complexity of plots. So, since from the very first scene the whole main story is spoiled I can’t very well show it here. Which bums me out. But I love this AMV to death LOL
SO: If you’ve (a) already seen Kanon, or (b) don’t ever plan to, I’ll provide the link, since in the first case, you already know the story, and in the second, it may make you want to watch it (though spoiled, but you’d have missed out on it anyway so yeah)… But! If you do plan on watching it (and I recommend it as highly as Air), DON’T CLICK THE LINK! Because it will ruin it for you; once the cat’s out of the bag it won’t go back in. So be forwarned. Just go watch the series already; chances are good that you won’t regret it, as evidenced by Anime News Network’s entry on it here, where you can at least check out the preview! Then you can watch Koop’s AMV, which is here ;-)
Anyway, thanks Koopiskeva, for your excellent work and masterful influence on the AMV sub-hobby, your hard work is appreciated!
Okay. Moving on…
You know what? I can’t ;__; How can you follow Koop up with anything? To be sure, there are many high-quality AMVs on Anime Music Videos.org, but unless I host them I can’t link to them. Plus, their nag screens are immensely annoying, and the search function is interrupted by them relentlessly unless you donate. (If you’ve the patience though, it’s the best place to find the best AMVs.) However, once my site is properly upgraded so that my Anime Page on unbound.org is put together, I will be planning a page for AMVs that I will host there. I’m just waiting on my fantastically-talented webmistress to recover from her computer’s untimely demise. And then things will change quite a bit 
Plus, the season finale of “24″ is on tap tonight, and I don’t want to rush through my Blog post in order to get to it in time. I want my entries to be the best they can be; no skimping on quality for you! “24″ is the only television I watch, and haven’t missed an episode since starting it up in 2001, so it’s a special event
With that being said, I guess that there will have to be a Part Three to this essay, in which I’ll include several AMVs of series that are variously funny, moving, dead-serious, dark, dystopian, and seriously bloody. I mean seriously. You may be scarred. And probably scared, too, depending upon how you view anime LOL
And as an example of an effective AMV involving an anime not seen before, and as a closing “consolation prize” for cutting this entry short, here’s Koop’s video “Gravity” featuring the anime Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal, or rather the movie based on that series, with background music featuring Enigma’s “Gravity of Love”. This title has been at the Number One position at ANN for highest-rated, which is really reason alone to check it out, but this AMV cinched it for me:
Thanks for visiting (and please feel free, as always, to leave a comment!), and stay tuned for Part Three 
on May 21st, 2009 at 6:41 am
I usually don’t bother with AMVs (as I had some traumatic experiences regarding spoiler…), but you posted some very good examples here. The only AMV/MAD I watch are the ones which showcase the work of specific animators (and I’ve made some of that kind myself). Many animators have established their own style and/or are extremely gifted, so it’s very convenient that such AMVs are around to get a glimpse into a specific animators work. Here an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBMCiEGXFsY
It’s compiled work of Kou Yoshinari, one of the best active animators, pay attention to the realistic movement and his blurry style. He is one of the few animators who do also the post-processing themselves, that’s why some of the scenes look like CG (but it’s all hand-drawn). Sorry for the little excursion but animation/animators appreciation is a passion of mine, and I try to make people aware of the outstanding work of some animators
As for the AMVs you posted, I especially like the first one. The music works perfectly with the visuals and conveys the same feeling as the anime, besides it reminds me how awesome ef ~ memories is (haven’t watched it since the original airing). The spoiler-heavy Kanon AMV is also quite enchanting, and as you said it certainly is a different experience if you know the anime and its characters, because you can better relate to the content, the lyrics and the used visuals.
I think Clannad + AS offer huge possibilities for an awesome AMV, but browsing on youtube didn’t bring up anything even remotely worthy of that epic tale.
on May 21st, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Thanks for sharing that sample from Kou Yoshinari Max, it was dazzling. While mecha and the like aren’t typically my cup of tea, I can still appreciate the work involved in creating this piece. From the start I noted the true-to-life movement, clothing, and expression; while somewhat dated (not a flaw) the characters and designs were interesting.
Isn’t Paper Image awesome? ef – A Fairy Tale of the Two (the stories in total) really is a wonderfully twisty sentimental tale that this AMV, while focusing on Chihiro and Renji, really accentuates. Song selection is critical though, and the choice for this video was sublime. The lyrics really reflect the pair’s situation so well. Aside from Studio SHAFT’s genius, Koop’s editing was just incredible and made the visuals even stronger. Total package = Big Win
As for spoilers, yeah, I know what you mean. I wisely cut off that Eureka Seven AMV I mentioned (in another reply) due to the spoiler warning, after seeing just enough of it to decide to check the series out. But I saved it so that after viewing it I can watch it in full
(This is what I mean by an AMVs main purpose should be to make the viewer want to check the series out.)
You don’t know how badly I wanted to include that linked Kanon AMV in this post, but it absolutely would spoil it for visitors who I hope will want to watch the full series. That first scene shows The Big Reveal and would ruin the viewing experience for everyone coming “clean” into the story. For example, in the last scene of the AMV where Yuichi “drops the briefcase”, if he’d have seen the AMVs first scene he would’ve just held onto it, as would the spoiled Viewer! Can’t have that happen, not with this story especially!
I try LOL
By the way, I wanted to give Koopiskeva the heads up about this “tribute” post and contacted him via YouTube to express my appreciation for his work, which he should be rewarded for. I also hinted that a Clannad AMV would be awesome given that both seasons are completed now. In his (gracious) reply, he didn’t commit, but I hope to have planted a seed in him
Thanks for writing (and reading)!
on July 1st, 2009 at 7:23 am
We all planted a seed into that whore atleast once :3
on July 1st, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Okay, at first I thought this was just another Spam from some Russian scammer’s site, but after checking out a few things saw that it actually is a legitimate comment LOL
At first I was reluctant to Approve it as I didn’t want Koop to be offended but given the anime community’s penchant for mocking, insulting, and criticising each others’ work (most of which, I think, is good-natured) decided that *I* was the one being over-sensitive.
I was kind of skeptical about the “a-m-v.org” link as well, because it’s different from the animemusicvideos.org or amv.org that I’m used to seeing, and again suspected that it was some comment from a scum-sucking pig of a spammer/scammer/p.o.s to trick people into going to their virus-infested parasite site. But it isn’t.
I checked out the link from your post and saw that it linked right to amv.org, and that you ARE a member there (and happy anniversary on your join date tomorrow!), so, hoping that Koop, if he sees this, knows (probably all-too-well LOL) who you are and from where you hail, decided to allow it to post. I’m nothing if not magnanimous
I just don’t like assholes and so enjoy snipping their comments before they see the light of day
I’m sure that there are others as equally-talented as Koop is on amv.org, but honestly I haven’t had the patience to download blind and test them all. Besides, those nag screens just piss me off. When I can afford it I’m definitely donating (out of work atm), but in the meantime I really don’t need the hassle of having them shoved in my face everytime I want to check out an AMV. Which means, unfortunately, I’m forced to troll You(ugh)Tube in search of them
When I can manage it, I’m going to actually host some amv.org-downloaded ones here since I’ll have the space for it, but I’m waiting for my webmistress to give my site a makeover. I have an Anime section on it where I plan to put some up (nothing there now).
Anyway, as you can tell (I’m sure), while I’m really intrigued by AMVs, currently I don’t have the time to get as involved as I would like to be. Which makes me sad. Oh well, Life is full of sadness and etc.
KholdStare has kindly been educating me though and easing me into appreciating AMVs and got me to register at amv.org. Honestly I’m absolutely fucking jealous of the talent I’ve seen there, and so I presented my little series on AMVs here to share with my unsuspecting public, whom, you may or may not know, come here due to my novel which I blab incessently about elsewhere. But mostly here LOL
So this humble little Blog is my subversive and surreptitious attempt at converting more innocent Visitors into getting into anime, and is at a kind of “entry-level” as compared to the more “in-depth” anime Blogs you’ve seen. They need to be eased into the medium
Heh heh *gleefully rubs hands together*. So this is nothing that you haven’t seen or read before LOL Still, I hope you’ve enjoyed what you’ve seen 
Oddly enough, as it turns out, I *think* that most of my Visitors come to read the anime material, and since “I respond to enthusiasm”, slant more articles toward anime for them since they’re the most supportive and responsive. Plus, I just love it xD
As for Koop, the guy just blows me away. I see that his “Skittles” AMV is high on your own list, so you must at least agree in some part with me and my little tribute to him.
Honestly, I’m not all that into technicalities with AMVs (or anime for that matter). If I enjoy it I enjoy it; I don’t give a shit if a frame is off or lip-flap doesn’t quite match up in another. I just want to enjoy the medium, and don’t wanna get all “Trekkie” about it :-p
Anyway, as you can tell, I’m also not into one-liner responses. So I’ll sign off before it becomes a “tl;dr” comment.
(OHNOES TOO LATE!!!)
By the way, if you’re into Saimoe, I sometimes hang out at #isml, so pop in if you’re so inclined. Oftentimes the topic turns to AMVs
Seeya,
~Rob
on August 16th, 2012 at 3:28 am
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