Thursday 19 December 2013

AMV Friday Roundup I

It was the last Friday of September. We will not say I was bored, because I'm a teacher, there's always something I'm supposed to be doing; let's go with I needed a break. Since I never have time to watch anime these days, except whatever the club is watching Friday at lunch, thus was born...

AMV FRIDAY


After watching a few Anime Music Videos (AMVs), I tossed my favourite one out on Twitter and Facebook, asking if people would like this to be a thing. I got about as much response as I do for my web serial (meaning hardly anything), and figured what the heck. So for the last three months or so, every Friday, I've posted a new AMV on Twitter. With the fourth update, I instituted the hashtag #AMVFriday. (Granted, someone named Rachel Nabors had already used that tag back in May, but just the once.)


Below is a roundup of the first twelve AMVs. Those selections were not completely random though! Thus I present the (never before seen) qualifications I have:

A) Posted by Creator. The channel should involve the person who made the AMV. First, because I strongly believe in giving credit to the originator of an idea. In fact, even if the comments area says "This is a great video by xxx, check out his/her website" (and by the way, the AMV culture is pretty good about giving credit) - not enough for me. Because, second, I want to be sure that the creator is fine with it being streamed. There's a lot of AMVs on www.animemusicvideos.org (check it out!) which may not have been intended to be posted elsewhere.

B) Few subtitles. This is just a personal preference. I find the subtitling detracts, because my mind automatically tries to read it (comes from years of anime watching) - which pulls me out of the experience. I understand that maybe the AMV creator had no alternative, but including a shot with subtitles only works for me if the dialogue complements the music or what's going on, which is rare. Will I still watch? Of course. Will it make AMVFriday? Unlikely.

Let me try to hook you up...
C) Low View Count.  I didn't really start with this qualification. I knew I didn't want to post something from a 'BestAMVs' channel, I wanted to be less mainstream, but I didn't pay much attention to "Views". Until the end of October, when I was feeling down, and it occurred to me that my prior AMVFriday had already garnered over 100,000 views before my plug. They didn't need me to bring them traffic. I wanted to highlight someone who hadn't been quite as fortunate. So, since Fri Nov 1st, I've been keeping the view count in mind.

D) Single Song or Single Anime. Again a personal preference. If you're going to be cutting together a few different songs, stick with one anime. Similarly, if you want to combine a bunch of anime together, do it to a single tune. Let's not make the world any more Attention Deficit Disorder than it needs to be.

E) Not a Slideshow. In my searching, I've discovered that playing music and tossing down a new slide every five seconds seems to be a thing. To me, that's not an AMV. It's not that you have to have animation (very good AMVs have been made using manga pages), but a haphazard sequence of still shots is not good enough to clear my bar.

And that's pretty much it! How does it all happen? I take between 30 and 60 minutes to search 'AMV' and an anime (or song) that's on my mind. Watch some results, and suggested links off those. Eventually post my top one. But at this point? I'll take requests too!

You read that correctly: If you think there's an Anime Music Video out there that fits my qualifications, and is worthy of a plug, let me know. You can either comment below, send me an email, or @mathtans me on Twitter. Will it improve your hit count? Probably not, I'm rarely seen, often forgettable. But you will get at least one additional view!

AMV FRIDAY ROUNDUP: 1-12


1) Marmalade Boy. Song: Kiss the Girl. "Kiss Miki"
Channel: Celia SMV
Views when found (approx): 29,200 (Sep 27/13)

2) Magical Lyrical Nanoha. Song: Crush. "Nightmare AMV"
Channel: xValkyrieAngelx
Views when found (approx): 45,300 (Oct 4/13)


3) Karin ("Chibi Vampire"). Song: Part Of Me (Katy Perry).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu27rAKf-BM
Channel: SmilesR4All
Views when found (approx): 32,900 (Oct 11/13)

4) Tokyo Mew Mew. Song: Genie In A Bottle (Christina Aguilera).
Channel: AliceIkuta
Views when found (approx): 3,500 (Oct 18/13)

5) Fairy Tail. Song: "This Little Girl" (Cady Groves)
Channel: NaviProductions
Views when found (approx): 285,000 (Oct 25/13)

6) Read Or Die. Song: The End (Groove Coverage).
Channel: Faith (Kawaii Productions)
Views when found (approx): 1,800 (Nov 1/13)

7) Fushigi Yugi. Song: "At The Beginning" (Donna Lewis/Richard Marx)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOfSdThCfKY
Channel: JessieChaos
Views when found (approx): 2,000 (Nov 8/13)

8) Initial D. Song: Give it All (Rise Against)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFPsAagnM3o
Channel: Sztyanime
Views when found (approx): 2,165 (Nov 15/13)

9) Gatekeepers 21. Song: "Open the Gate" (No Doubt)
Channel: Vernon Jettlund (A Studio-Pink Prod)
Views when found (approx): 845 (Nov 22/13)

10) Bubblegum Crisis. Song: Self Control (Infernal)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfGFeTRvf8o
Channel: VanVarnel
Views when found (approx): 605 (Nov 29/13)

11) Martian Successor Nadesico. Song: She's the One (Robbie Williams)
Channel: JordanWulff
Views when found: 92 (Dec 6/13)

12) Various! Song: Summer Sunshine (The Corrs)
Channel: xxxShanaxxxx
Views when found: 429 (Dec 13/13)



If you want to read the little blurbs I posted with each AMV, search #AMVFriday. If you want to comment, do so below!

2 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. There would need to be a decent Scooby AMV before I'd do anything. Not liable to be an issue.

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