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Top Anime Music Videos Part II

Totoro Anime
© Studio Ghibli

Last week's column offered a brief history of anime music videos (AMVs) and their tendency to go wrong in this modern era. This week, we'll look at the topic from another angle: Why do they fail so often? Why is Youtube flooded with shoddy work that brings around instant disgust for a noble hobby?

It's not hard to point out the reasons why so many AMVs fail. Common sense instructions are, for whatever reason, ignored. If you're considering giving birth to your own AMV, do the world a favour and give thought to:

Planning: Nobody liked it when Mr Marlow in Woodshop 101 insisted on blueprints for that birdhouse project before anyone was allowed to attack the wood with a saw, hammer and nails, but it's generally a good rule to have a plan before you go crazy with constructing the actual product. What's the purpose of your video? Do you have a message, a deeper meaning? Do you just want to choreograph movements to music? Do you want to deliver something funny? It's all cool, as long as enough foresight is put into the project.

Sound: By all means, pick a song you like, but be unique. There are about fifty Full Metal Alchemist videos out there set to Welcome to the Black Parade. What makes yours different? Maybe you could give exposure to a lesser-known band. Put significant thought into the music you choose: It's half your video. There should be something that matches the song and the theme.

But not literally. It's a little boring to watch a video where every action on-screen is narrated by the song's lyrics.

Picture: Here's where most AMVs fail epically. Most amateur video authors feel that it's perfectly okay to take video footage off YouTube and other streaming sites. For anyone who knows the first thing about quality video dumps, this is a nightmare. Worse, many fans opt for fan-subbed anime footage since it's plentiful and available. This means the video is often peppered with irrelevant subtitles. This is by far the primary telltale sign of sloppy editing.

If you're going to make an AMV, put the time and effort into finding raw video. Your best option is to actually buy professionally dubbed DVDs and rip them yourself. No subtitles, and the picture quality will be unmatched.

There are a million and one tricks and rules to decent authoring; this is just a small common sense guide. Check the Internet for resources upon resources. Animemusicvideos.org is a great place to start, with a well-done “How To” section and plenty of examples of good work.

That said, here are four fantastic AMVs for your viewing pleasure. Speaking personally for a moment, they're some of my favourites...though there are still a lot of AMVs out there worthy of attention that I have yet to watch.

Nightmare (Neon Genesis Evangeleon)

The long-famous Neon Genesis Evangeleon is...well, it certainly changed anime. It's a very unique, very strange series. More than a few AMVs have been constructed in its honour, but few are as well put-together as Nightmare. Nightmare uses Perfect Circle's “Counting Bodies to the Rhythm of the War Drums” here, and it's a perfect partnership. The timing and editing is spectacular.

In the Year 2525 (Various)

Here's a good example of using a lesser-known song. Not to say that Zager and Evan's unsettling ballad is unpopular; it was a hit for ages. But it's not the type of song you'd see associated with anime. That's what makes this video so fantastic: The music matches the video exactly. This also says something for the disturbing themes commonly found in anime.

Something Wicked This Way Comes (My Neighbour Totoro)

What makes this one so much fun is that the author has completely changed the meaning of the source movie. My Neighbour Totoro is all about a big friendly forest spirit who protects the young and innocent...but with some evil music and very clever editing, Totoro becomes something else entirely.

Hold Me (Princess Tutu)

Princess Tutu is an anime based around fantasy and ballet. “Hold Me” is Swedish dansbandmusik. The combination of the two sounds like a ticket to Sissytown, but this video is doubtlessly one of the most gripping AMVs ever constructed.