MTV for emotaku

May 28, 2007 12:32 AM

Anime Music Videos.Yet another remixing web subculture, they're usually a source of amateurishly produced angst. From the competitive perfectionists, though, come well lipsynched, action packed, meta-mashuped, and occasionally just filthy stuff for cartoon nerds. Besides the usual metal, ballads, and pop rock, there's some Daft Punk, club, and downtempo accompaniment. Or you can just go to hell. Wear headphones and no-one will know.
posted by anthill (22 comments total)

The Daft Punk / Interstella 5555 combo especially has a great slow, surreal '80s feel.
posted by anthill at 12:45 AM on May 28, 2007

Like at least 90% of you probably did, I clicked on "filthy" first. I'd forgotten how bad Sublime was.
posted by obvious at 1:06 AM on May 28, 2007

The Daft Punk one is official, they even released it on DVD.
posted by scodger at 1:12 AM on May 28, 2007

OK Obvious, I have your filth right here...

Also, scodger, that explains a lot... what a cool project.
posted by anthill at 1:36 AM on May 28, 2007

My favorite AMV is this Macross Plus video for Cake's "Going the Distance".
posted by The Tensor at 1:54 AM on May 28, 2007

One of my favorites is Caffeine Encomium, which does a very good job of capturing the spirit of the anime series Kodomo no Omocha(Child's Toy) using the William Tell Overture.
posted by Tenuki at 2:42 AM on May 28, 2007

AMVs interest me the least when they are most literal -- it seems like the most popular ones are simply a tedious cut-and-paste a shot to literally illustrate each line jobs.

That said, sometimes they nail it.
posted by churl at 2:56 AM on May 28, 2007

PS I wasn't talking about the ones you linked in the post, anthill; I found those pretty unique and enjoyable.
posted by churl at 2:57 AM on May 28, 2007

I do love me a good anime music video. I think they can be so good because they take all the lush visuals of an anime, and all the symbology, and serve it up next to a song that provides a super-compact, concentrated narrative and atmosphere around it - there's a (loose) emotional payoff every second or so, rather than every few minutes. Also, to some extent the viewer has to/gets to construct their own narrative around the visuals which means they avoid the potentially clunky writing that supports them in the actual anime.

I've always liked this fairly epic one, though as AMVs go it's quite old.

This one is shorter and funnier.
posted by Drexen at 3:07 AM on May 28, 2007

The best one i've ever seen is the legendary Sir Mix-a-Lot vs. Anime Ass.

NSFW, but incredibly funny.
posted by ELF Radio at 3:36 AM on May 28, 2007

Ken Ishii - Extra
posted by Frasermoo at 4:46 AM on May 28, 2007

A taste that goes great with Radiohead!
posted by zardoz at 4:55 AM on May 28, 2007

Magnetic Rose - Phantom of the Opera (techno remix) is mindblowing if you're watching high-quality laserdisc footage. The Youtube version, not so much.

Silly humor weathers the cruelties of online compression better:

Nadesico - Futurama theme. Pretty relaxing, actually.

El Hazard - Hubba Hubba Zoot Zoot. Just... weird.

Various oldies - Dare to be Stupid. The song has been done to death in AMV circles, but this is the only one I've found that finds a perfect match for the verse "stick your head in the microwave".
posted by PsychoKick at 9:24 AM on May 28, 2007

There's also AMV Hell's videos, which feature many different songs, cut together in a channel surfing format. Very funny stuff.

The original
AMV Hell 2: Son of AMV Hell
AMV Hell 3: The Motion Picture

And then there's AMV Hell 0, which carries the following disclaimer on the website:

This video contains extremely explicit content. It is seriously one of the worst things ever produced. It is also highly offensive to just about all groups of people. By clicking the following link, you agree that you are over 18 years of age, or of the legal age to view adult material where you live..

Some clips of it are on youtube, but to get anywhere near the full glory of it, you'll have to downloaded the full version from their website, which gives a bittorrent link.
Or go for the heavily edited youtube version: Part 1 and part 2.
posted by Arturus at 9:41 AM on May 28, 2007

Wow, great finds...

I figure that most anime studios have enough budget for one or two fast action scenes every show, and have to fill in the rest with two-frame mouth moving stills. Condensing the incredible visuals with a good hook is akin to crack. Or special K, for most of the stuff out there.
posted by anthill at 9:51 AM on May 28, 2007

I can't believe the only really good AMV hasn't been mentioned. Pokemon with mindless self indulgence.
posted by clockworkjoe at 10:28 AM on May 28, 2007

This thread really takes me back to college - especially the Macross Plus AMV.

I've always liked this Rammstein / Evangelion AMV.
posted by pombe at 9:18 PM on May 28, 2007

OK, one more, I've gotta get to bed.
posted by anthill at 12:22 AM on May 29, 2007

I was introduced to this via a friend showing me AMV Hell 3. I can't count the number of times I've watched that once since - it's on my PC, streamable to my TV, and on my Zune. It's absolutely great, and I knew it would be the first time I watched it when the All In The Family theme song came up.

I can't recommend that one enough to anyone, anime fan or not.

Other than that... I've been mostly unimpressed with the rest of them I've seen. Perhaps AMV Hell ruined my attention span, but it seems like doing an entire song with clips from just one anime isn't that interesting unless you're a big fan of both the anime being used and the song it's done to. (Which is probably why I'd only put up with ones using Azumanga Daioh)
posted by evilangela at 9:00 AM on May 29, 2007

If you're going to watch the Pokemon Mindless Self Indulgence video, do yourself a favor and watch the original version. The YouTube version has synch problems and you don't get the full effect of the meticulous timing.

This is the video by which all other videos are measured.
posted by darksasami at 10:33 AM on May 29, 2007

some are altogether dement[o]ed. (yum.)
posted by progosk at 11:49 AM on May 29, 2007

And we all know The Internet is for Porn.
posted by zengargoyle at 9:42 PM on May 29, 2007