BJK’s AMV Roundup #3 – Believe In The Me Who Believes In You

Since I got an MP3 player and realised that I can put AMVs on it and watch them in teeny-tiny perfecto-vision my intake of the things has increased substantially. Thus, BJK’S AMV Roundup #3 – Believe In The Me Who Believes In You was born—nay, forged.

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Anime: One Piece
Song: Sam Tsui and Christina Grimmie – Just a Dream
Spoilerage: Moderate-High

If I heard this song on the radio or something I doubt I’d even notice it, except maybe to think “Gosh what a mediocre and immediately forgettable song”. Paired with One Piece, though, somehow it works. I’ve been thinking lately about why it is that I love AMVs so much, and I think what it comes down to is emotion. I am an emotion junkie, I can’t get enough of it, and the best AMVs are like a shot of pure emotion straight to the heart.

Best Selection: “If you’ve ever loved somebody put your hands up”, jeezy crizzy.

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Anime: Suzumiya Haruhi No Shoushitsu
Song: One Republic – Good Life
Spoilerage: Medium-Rare

I cannot adequately explain why but this one really affected me. Maybe it’s because Disappearance is the best story to be told in the Haruhi series, maybe it’s because everything about it is so superbly done, maybe it’s because of the rather clever downplaying of Yuki.N, maybe it’s just everything. I love this AMV to pieces, it’s easily one of my top ten favourite ever.

Best Selection: I honestly can’t pick a single moment.

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Anime: Various
Song: Underworld – To Heal
Spoilerage: Low

I really, really like this one. ‘Slow’ AMVs are pretty rare and when they do exist they often come off as … well, as kind of wishy-washy and ineffective, but this one just builds and builds until you feel like you could burst. It’s a little odd, but this really reminds me of the slow musical bits in LA Story, it affects me the same way.

I just wish it were longer.

Best Selection: A kiss beneath fireworks.

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Anime: Kowarekake no Orgel
Song: Lifehouse – Sick Cycle Carousel
Spoilerage: High

…

Best Selection: … *sniff*

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Anime: Ga-Rei -Zero-
Song: Breaking Benjamin – You Fight Me
Spoilerage: Moderate-High, probably

I haven’t watched Ga-Rei -Zero- but after seeing this AMV I think I might have to.

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Anime: Bakemonogatari
Song: Boom Boom Satellites – Upside down, Finger Eleven – Paralyzer
Spoilerage: Medium?

Another AMV for an anime I haven’t watched. Sometimes I just like images and music juxtaposed in a pleasing way.

Best Selection: The ‘What Do You Mean It’s Not Awesome’ bit with the stapler near the start. 1:00 – 1:15 has something special about it, too.

—

Anime: Nichijou
Song: ????????????
Spoilerage: ?????????????????????

This one deserves kudos just for making Nichijou seem even weirder than it actually is.

Best Selection: Seriously, I would have thought that to be impossible.

 

BJK’s AMV Roundup #2 – I Am An Alien Magic-User

AMVs! Thousands of ‘em!

Well seven. But they’re all really good.

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Anime: Various
Song: Vanilla Sky – Umbrella

I’m not in love with the song for this one and I’m only vaguely familiar with most of the featured anime, but in the end I only really ask one thing of an AMV, and that’s that it makes me tingle. This one makes me tingle.

Best Selection: 2:30 – 2:36. Build-up, pause, release, tingle.

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Anime: Star Trek (Star Trek is an honorary anime)
Song: Maps

I’m not much of a shipper. When I do ship it’s usually for at least vaguely canonish couples like Mustang x Hawkeye or Tanis x Lauralanthalasa, but Kirk x Spock is a love for the ages.

(Actually, just writing that I couldn’t help but think, “Kirk x Spock IS a canon couple”.)

(Don’t ship Kirk and Spock? You do now.)

Best Selection: STAR MAPS.

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Anime: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Song: Ellie Goulding – Every Time You Go

I recently finished watching Puella Magi and, as expected, it tore me apart—not least because the way in which it tore me apart was totally different to what I was expecting. I cried all the way through the last episode then couldn’t sleep for thinking about it. Great series. Great series.

(By the way, this AMV contains some pretty big spoilers for a show that really shouldn’t be spoiled at all—I was lucky enough to go in knowing nothing about it except that it was something of a deconstruction of the Magical Girl genre. If you haven’t already I recommend you watch the show now—NOW—and then watch this.)

Anyway, I haven’t watched many AMVs for Puella Magi yet (spoiler avoidance, you know how it is) but out of those I’ve seen I chose this one because if you don’t ship Madoka x Homura then WHAT WERE YOU WATCHING?

Best Selection: do you know the regrets I paid / for all the times I saved

(Oh Homura.)

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Anime: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Song: My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade

he said son when / you grow up / would you be / the saviour of the broken / the beaten and the damned

It’s almost spooky how well this song matches the anime. Fantastic AMV. Just excellent in every possible way.

Best Selection: Kind of, sort of, basically all of it. Look, just the fact that it manages to make TTGL even more epic is incredible.

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Anime: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Song: Globus – Orchard of Mines

Another tingly AMV, although I felt the ending was a teensy bit weak—or just not quite as strong as the rest, maybe. I’m in the middle of re-watching Brotherhood now, and it’s amazing just how much I want to just keep going all the way through. That’s the mark of a truly great story, I think, even when you know what’s going to happen you still get pulled through so strongly.

Best Selection: Ed trying so desperately to reach Al with the music and the flashes of memory and excuse me I’ve just got something in my eye

—

Anime: Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuuutsu
Song: The Veronicas – 4ever

There are a lot of things to praise about this one, but mostly I like it because it reminds me of how much I like Haruhi, despite her faults (and she has her share).

Best Selection: Haruhi failing to throw grass in Kyon’s face was basically a perfect moment. I mean … it’s not really anything the AMV did. But still. Perfect moment.

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Anime: Darker Than Black
Song: Darkwing Duck Theme

THE CONCEPT ALONE MERITS INCLUSION

Best Selection: DARKER THAN DUCK

 

Anime Deux!

So I’ve come down with full-fledged ANIME MADNESS, this is what happens when you deny yourself something you truly enjoy for too long. Start to get back into it and wham, insanity.

WITH THAT SAID

Chihayafuru
It took me a while to try this one, despite being pointed towards it from numerous angles. “It’s an anime about competitive karuta of all things,” I (foolishly, short-sightedly, bone-headedly) thought to myself, “how good could it be?”

But of course it isn’t about karuta* at all. It’s about friendship and loneliness and loss and dreams and unexpected connections and, really, all the sorts of things good stories are built around. The characters are engaging and likeable (especially Chihaya), the voice acting is decent, the art style is … okay, the humour is gentle but effective (when something can make me laugh with a soft line like, “He spoke!”, I’m generally going to like it), and basically it’s pretty great. Characters, you see? Give me good characters and I’m yours.

(Also Arata’s dialect is adorable.)

A young Chihaya quietly shows her worth.

* Karuta is a kind of poem card game thing. It’s not boring, actually, just not the sort of thing you would (perhaps) expect an entire series to be built around.

Fate/zero
I haven’t watched Fate/stay night, but I’ve heard a lot about it (enough to recognise the significance of the final line of F/z’s first episode). It’s one of those series that I would’ve watched given the opportunity, but said opportunity never came up. Anyway. In some ways this was the opposite of Chihayafuru; a concept that seemed to be exactly the sort of thing I love, but in execution it turned out to be somewhat unengaging. Nothing terrible, competent enough and with high production values, but it just didn’t grab me. Not sure if I’ll continue on with it—with the feast of excellent anime I have before me, ‘pretty okay’ just doesn’t cut it.

Even so.

Tiger & Bunny
Superheroes, anime style! I like the concept of this one, superheroes being awarded points for their actions on a kind of reality TV show (First To Arrive! +25 Points!) but the CG is a big turn-off. The hero sponsorship is fun (with actual CMs!), but the actual superpowers are fairly vanilla and dull—nothing surprising, nothing creative. With that said I always like the ‘heartless corporate sponsors calling the shots for the people who do the ACTUAL work’ angle, and it seems as if that could have some nice payoffs later—to be honest I’m in two minds about the whole thing, in general I liked it … it’s probably too early to judge in any case, I should give it a fair shot before leaping to any conclusions. Focusing on the positive, it has an enormously likeable lead in Wild Tiger. He’s a veteran super hovering around the middle for ‘power’ and near the bottom for popularity, large on enthusiasm and heart but a little short on actual, y’know, competence. Not the brightest bulb in the box either. It’s not just his underdog qualities that make him engaging, as he’s also struggling to do right in the face of cynicism. Also, he’s not ACTUALLY a loser (he’s a super, after all, and even being the least popular still means he’s out there) but just a little past his prime and without much to fall back on. Having the latest young hotshot superhero come in with the exact same power as him doesn’t help matters.

I mean, look at that face!

Look at it!

LOOK AT IT.

So. Good concept, so-so creativity, distracting CG, but an engaging lead, some nice moments, and the potential for a good story. I’ll be giving this at least a couple more episodes, with the hope that it goes in the right direction.

Also there's a cameo by a young Macaulay Culkin. Let's be honest, that's worth another episode just by itself.

Last Exile ~ Ginyoku no Fam
Last Exile ~ Fam, The Silver Wing
I watched the original Last Exile pretty much as it aired, although thinking back now I can’t really recall much about it aside from the steampunkish aesthetic (skypunk?). Still very much present here, although I couldn’t tell you if any of the characters are the same—a few looked familiar but it might just be the art style.

But anyway. Decent enough, but again with the distracting CG—I guess it can’t be helped but still, the clash between CG and animation is far too harsh, it totally drags me out of the magic. It’s a shame, too, because other than that the show is pretty darn gorgeous—just check out this scenery:

The music is excellent also, just straddling that line between ‘noticeably excellent’ and ‘fittingly subtle’. Story and characters are decent enough, at least they seem to be getting into the main story quickly but it’s clearly not an anime that revels in clever plans or interesting ways out of tight situations; pretty standard fare in the action scenes. In fact, my favourite part of the episode was just seeing the characters eating together and chatting, there was exposition and foreshadowing involved but that sort of thing is nice as an introduction—one of my pet peeves in fiction is when a story starts off in the middle of an action scene before showing me who the characters are, why should I care about them? I have no context.

Anyway, I’ll probably give it another episode or two, if only to find out who this is:

I'm just a sucker for calm, competent, silver-haired 'lady knight' types; it is a Thing with me.

Guilty Crown
Stylish, atmospheric, superbly directed. From the first minute my attention was caught—you know how I said up there, how I don’t like it when stories start in the middle of the action with no introduction? Add “…unless it’s done well” to that. Guilty Crown’s opening is excellent, and quality is sustained throughout the episode. That everything looks gorgeous doesn’t hurt, even the CG isn’t particularly distracting—properly lit and rendered in a style that’s not too incongruent with everything else. I also like the reversal of the common “In the future Japan becomes the dominant superpower in the world” trope; due to a plague-like virus, Japan now relies on the rest of the world for its continued existence. The climax was pretty fabulous too—you know what? I can’t think of anything bad to say about this one, I really enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to more.

Sarai-ya Goyou
House Of Five Leaves
Mmm. Morally ambiguous Edo-period samurai series with a distinctly beautiful art style. The odds were in favour of me liking this from the start.

Again, I don't have much to say about it except that it's good and I want more.

Deceptively well-paced; it doesn’t feel rushed in the least but before I knew it the episode was over. It’d take a lot to stop me from watching this one through to the end.

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT

Anime, anime, anime. I’ve got it bad, bruvva. I’ve got it bad.

 

Watching Anime So You Don’t Have To

I know I said I was just going to take things slowly and ease myself back into anime, but I say a lot of things. So, what have I been gorging myself on lately?

Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Slower and less compelling than I expected. If there wasn’t so much buzz around this one I might have given up on it already, as it is I’m taking it half an episode at a time, I think I’m up to episode three or four. So far I like Homura and can’t remember anyone else’s name.

We're gonna need a bigger shark.

Still, the art style is lovely and I like the vague sense of unease, and I’m expecting something truly horrible to happen at any moment. So that’s always a plus. (That it just might happen to Kyubey is, I will not lie, a contributing factor to my continued attendance.)

Boku Wa Tomodachi Ga Sukunai
I Don’t Have Many Friends
I like this. Far more than I was expecting to. Yozora is … really interesting. I like how the characters aren’t just quirky and funny but in fact deeply weird and with genuine flaws. That they’ve ended up alone requires absolutely no suspension of disbelief whatsoever.

If watching anime has taught me anything it's this: If you ever meet a girl with a cute little fang, run.

Also it made me laugh twice and made me go ‘hmm’ once, and did I mention how much I like Yozora’s voice? Definitely looking forward to more of this one.

Ouran Host Club: Drama
Yet more proof that live action is no substitute for the real thing.

Mirai Nikki
Future Diary
Everyone seems to be talking about this one, and with good reason. It’s creepy and interesting and the direction is excellent—most every part of it screams ‘yay’.

Or just screams.

Just about the only thing I dislike is the CG. Looking forward to more of this, if they can keep up the creepiness and put in some clever future diary antics I’ll be happy indeed.

Phi Brain: Kami No Puzzle
It is astonishing that a show about puzzles could be this stupid. Also I kind of hate the art style. Kind of hate it all to heck. I don’t even know why I watched this one, I guess things were just going that way.

Nichijou
Is insane.

To Aru Kagaku No Railgun
A Certain Scientific Railgun
Finally catching up with this. I like it a lot more than Index but it’s a bit too, I don’t know, slice-of-lifey and unfocused. Treats the wrong things as important, I guess is my main problem with it. Or not the WRONG things, exactly, but not the things I’d like it to be focusing on. Also I find Kuroko slightly irritating, at least whenever she’s not kicking arse with teleportation powers.

Not particularly representative, I suppose. Still, how could one resist?

All of that makes it sound like I don’t like the show much, but in truth I find it immensely entertaining (and I love the title). I just wish it was tighter regarding story—I know, I know, it’s MEANT to be a lighter more slice-of-lifey kind of thing. Even so.

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
I’m watching it again and it’s fantastic as ever.

Although ... although ...

So There You Have It
There are a couple of others I have my eye on, but for now my anime gauge has been refilled. I have no intention of letting it drop again, not with this many good shows to watch.

This is one of the tamer of Nichijou's skits. I'm not even joking.

 

BJK’s AMV Roundup #1 – My Legend Began In The 12th Century

‘#1′, he wrote, somewhat optimistically. AMVs are one of my favourite things about fandom, there’s an amazing amount of both talent and love out there, and who doesn’t enjoy splendid editing and wonderfully synchronised music/visual beats? People who don’t like marvellous things, I suspect.

Hugely massive spoilers may follow; you have been warned.

—

Anime: Soul Eater
Song: Marilyn Manson – This Is Halloween

Soul Eater is a great anime, even though the exact point at which it diverges is the point at which the manga turns things up to eleven and becomes insanely awesome, so … I mean, I love the anime, don’t get me wrong, I think in a lot of ways it couldn’t be better (the voice acting especially, and especially especially Maka–hard to believe it was Omigawa Chiaki’s debut, she does an amazing job). I even liked the gecko ending (how could I not, it includes one of the best punches in the history of all things), but like Fullmetal Alchemist the manga’s story post-divergence is just so much better and makes far more sense. Hopefully they’ll do a ‘Brotherhood’ once it ends. Anyway, I love this AMV. I had no idea Marilyn Manson had even done a cover of This Is Halloween (from The Nightmare Before Christmas, natch), at first I was like “Whaaaaa~” but then I was like “Actually this is kind of great”. I’m not normally a fan of covers or Mr Manson but this is pretty fantastic, and the marriage of Soul Eater with this particular song is something that I’d never think of but which makes perfect sense now that I’ve been exposed to it. A bit like a catflap. Also the editing is utterly majestic.

Also also, watching this reminds me that although I think of Soul Eater mostly in terms of funny and awesome, it really does have more than its fair share of superbly creepy moments.

Favourite Moment: “Everybody scream! Everybody SCREAM!” with Tsubaki and her brother. 200% Sync Ratio: Perfect Combo.

(Also any clips from when Maka went crazy eight bonkers from using Black Blood, that was hilarious and disturbing and awesome and mental in all the right ways.)

(Incidentally, Soul Eater gets my personal awards for both ‘Best Maniacal Laughter’ AND ‘Best Screaming’. Seriously, the screaming and laughing in that anime are top notch.)

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Anime: Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood
Song: 30 Seconds To Mars – This Is War

Hagaren is one of my favourite manga, mostly because of the absurdly huge number of fantastic characters, and although the first anime went a bit mad towards the end Brotherhood truly does justice to Arakawa-sensei’s work. And this AMV does justice to Brotherhood. Not much to say, except the bit at the end made my breath catch in just exactly the right way.

Favourite Moment: Roy Mustang is ‘The Messiah’.

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Anime: Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
Song: Breaking Benjamin – Diary Of Jane

This one’s a teensy bit rough as far as editing/timing goes, but it’s the best AMV I’ve found of Yuki.N so there you have it. Nagato-san is the main reason I like this anime so much (not such a fan of the novels, not sure why), being not only my favourite character in the series but one of my favourite characters in any series.

Favourite Moment: Honestly, any time Yuki does her stoic-but-scowly ‘Nagato Disapproves’ face.

Yep, that's the one.

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Anime: Various. Like, REALLY various.
Song: DJ Earworm – Blame It On The Pop

Something jolly to finish with, I love this kind of wacky joof fun/slightly sentimental AMV and DJ Earworm is aptly named—and the title speaks the truth, 2009 WAS a good, good year for anime.

Although apparently I can’t watch even a one second clip of Tokyo Magnitude 8 without tearing up.

Favourite Moment: Honestly, who could choose? I did particularly like the clips of Endless Eight matched to the lyrics “When I say the same thing every single time”, that was class. Man, Endless Eight. What a hoot that was. Funny at the time, looking back … yep, still funny.

(Also the lip-sync bit with Yui (“Baby don’t worry”) made me super happy for some reason.)

(And 3:00 to 3:16 is just excellent.)

—

Well that was really fun! Ahhh fandom, I do so love you.

 

Anime; Deviance; Art

I’m slowly getting back into anime, and oh my goodness how I’ve missed this stuff. I kind of fell out of it last year because a new season came along with nothing much I was interested in, and those shows I WAS interested in turned out to not be that compelling. To begin with I’m easing myself in with Puella Magi Madoka Magica. (Yes, I know.) Comparisons to Neon Genesis Evangelion, Bokurano and Narutaru have me simultaneously expecting greatness and preparing for the very most horrible worst. I’ve chosen Ore no Imouto Ga Konna Ni Kawaii Wake Ga Nai! (My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute!) as my antidote anime, because I’m almost certain it isn’t going to give me nightmares or break my heart into a thousand tiny pieces. Almost certain.

Also I forgot to mention, I started a DeviantArt account a week or two back and I’ve really been having fun with it. Great little (not little, unbelievably huge) community over there. Anyway, my page is here, but of more interest are Disco Daleks and The Gentlemanly Escort Cube. (And Atticus Finch, Ace Attorney.)