AMV chronicles #68: favorites of 2018 (honorable mentions)

This begins my list of my favorite anime music videos from 2018. Maybe I’ve made this disclaimer before, I don’t know, but I just want to emphasize that these are my favorites, not necessarily an attempt to rank the best AMVs of the year, as if I ever could.

This is the fourth year in a row I’ve done this, only the second where I’ve attempted to rank my favorites, and easily the longest such list I’ve ever tried to make. I don’t want to call this a mistake, but odds are that next year’s list will be trimmed back down to a more manageable length.

This post will highlight a few videos that didn’t make my top 40. These are not necessarily runner up videos that barely missed the cut, just things that I liked and either couldn’t include for various reasons–some of these aren’t AMVs, I guess–or just wanted an excuse to post. I love these videos and hope you check them out. The list will start tomorrow and run through the end of the week, which will easily be the busiest period of activity this blog has ever seen. The usual month or two between posts will resume as usual after it’s all done.

ある晴れた夜 – LAIN
editor: Mei Linwau
anime: Serial Experiments Lain
music: Yoshino Sai – “Aru Hare Ta Yoru”

Mei Linwau has been uploading AMVs to YouTube for years, often working with interesting ideas but never putting much of a priority on working with footage free of watermarks and subtitles. This AMV finally gives me an excuse to post something of hers, a video that’s not much of an outlier compared to most other Serial Experiments Lain AMVs that I’ve watched in terms of its editing, but is thankfully clean and free of the distractions that always kept me at arm’s length from really getting into anything she’s made. Soundtracked (NSFW?) by a Japanese folk rock tune from the late ‘70s, this AMV paints the world of Lain with warm sounds that break from the cold or angsty music I so often associate with the series. Maybe it’s just comforting to know that people will never stop editing with Lain, and that no matter how often the same scenes repeat themselves, the experience will somehow be new time and time again.

And I Run
editor: Kanada Jin
Anime: End of Evangelion
Music: The Naked and the Famous – “The Sun” 

Originally released in 2016, I didn’t catch this AMV until very early in 2018, just before it was remastered and significantly re-edited by Kanada Jin. It kind of seemed like one of those videos that just slips by without getting the praise it deserves…that is, until it finally did! No, it still hasn’t gotten enough attention.  Yes, it would have been really high on this list if I wasn’t so hung up on whether or not it was a “new” video or not. The remastered version contains a pretty generous number of new scenes. Is it a different video than the original? (Just hit F5 if it doesn’t sync up. It still won’t be perfect, though.) I can’t really say how much the changes really improve the remastered version, but the HD quality is a huge upgrade over the previous version. This is really good! Just watch it.

COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH
editor: amvclassica
anime: New Game!
music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – “Dance of the Reed Flutes” 

Just being That Editor who makes videos with classical music is really all amvclassica needed to do to make a name for themselves. If that’s a title that comes with certain expectations, classica does everything they can to upset them and create something so weird that it’s probably never been imagined by anyone else, let alone ever actually made. I’d describe this stuff as somewhat of an acquired taste, but since most of their videos (labeled as MADs rather than AMVs, probably for good reason) have racked up thousands of views, it’s probably all a lot less abrasive or weird than I’m perceiving it as.

I first discovered their work early in 2018, watching the only other AMV they released this year, an effort that I really didn’t care for but didn’t give much of a chance to. “COUGH x14” does relatively little to change this approach, but for some reason it immediately clicked with me, not only sort of charming me but worming its way into my head for days (and nights!), playing on a loop in the worst way possible. There’s a non-zero risk this will happen to you too, so make sure you’ve got nothing important tomorrow before watching this. “Cx14” is definitely classica’s most polished work, not only in terms of video but certainly sound editing as well. The sampled dialogue and sound effects play off the symphony in meaningful and catchy ways that are surprisingly melodic and…cute? I mean, go ahead and watch another miserable Instagram edit if you really must. Just saying, there’s an escape from that here if you want it.

Cowboy Bebop AMV – Stand by Me by Ben E King
editor: Ilinca6
anime: Cowboy Bebop
music: Ben E. King – “Stand by Me”

Old school in every way imaginable, this video is exactly what you think it’s going to be before you’ve even clicked play, and sometimes that’s a good thing. If you love videos like “Yesterday,” but can’t watch “Yesterday” right now because it’s not on YouTube (or more likely, just have no idea what I’m talking about), just get comfortable, pour yourself a double and remember the good old days with this AMV. Or maybe this is your first taste of these classics, in which case I really can’t think of a better way to spend three minutes.

Freda Payne – I Get High: Flight Animation
editor: CaptainBlackMarrow
anime: various
music: Freda Payne – “I Get High (On Your Memory)”

Five videos into this list and we’re already on the third AMV that doesn’t have a title outside of the song and/or anime they feature, a growing trend that kind of speaks to how videos are generally regarded by their creators less as art and more as disposable memes for fun and profit. While I’m complaining, I really wish this video featured clean Space Dandy footage or some kind of wide-screen alternative to Eureka Seven. Because this AMV is…really good and deserves to actually look as pretty as it feels and sounds. I have dug through the archives of CaptainBlackMarrow and I get the impression that following strict standards of AMV video quality is less important to him than just using what he has at hand to express himself at the speed that his ideas come to him. Maybe that’s just fine, who knows?

Genki’s Song
editor: AntaresHeart07
anime: Monster Rancher
music: Blink 182 – “Adam’s Song”
download: https://www.animemusicvideos.org/members/members_videoinfo.php?v=204139

So this song is about a very specific topic, one that’s not loosely open to interpretation or leaves editors much wiggle room to explore radically different ideas with. “Genki’s Song” echoes the sentimental tone of Blink-182’s “Adam’s Song” and plays with lyric sync just enough to bridge its themes of loneliness and depression with [squints at notecard]… Monster Rancher. I don’t know how much sense this really makes, but videos that ooze this kind of sincerity, coupled with old school anime and old school editing is just the kind of balm I will never get enough of. No, I’ve never watched this series, but anyone summoning the ghosts of Fox Kids anime in good faith like this has got my attention and support. This is sweet and wholesome and extremely well-edited in all the ways I like best.

IT-oro
editor: Gina Nelson
anime: My Neighbor Totoro
audio: IT (trailer)

My favorite parody trailers usually involve an unexpected sense of juxtaposition between the source materials. Of course, they’ve still got to make sense to the average viewer and not come across as too forced. lunalove125 (sorry, still feels weird or a little too familiar to be using editors’ real names here, even if it’s what they seem to want to go by) ticks both of those boxes in this trailer, transplanting the horror of Derry, Maine (’80s edition) into the idyllic ’50s fantasy world of Totoro. How much it actually matches the original trailer, I have no idea, but it works better than most crowd-pleasing ideas like it usually ever do and, second-for-second, was way more entertaining than the horror film it’s spoofing.

Out of My Head
created by: Junichi Yamamoto and Yoshiki Imazu
animation: original
music: CHVRCHES – “Out of my Head” (feat. Wednesday Campanella)

I’m not going to feign outrage that this video wasn’t as big a deal as “Shelter,” but I do think it was weird how little attention it seemed to receive. In a better world, Tumblr would have crashed from the sheer number of gifs from this video being uploaded to it, to say nothing of however people are using Instagram/Pinterest/whatever replaced Vine. This is one of the most joyful and creative animated music videos I’ve ever watched, and how that’s not a widely-held opinion, I simply cannot understand. Yeah, I get that it was probably produced on a tiny budget, and no, there’s no narrative to string you along, just a bunch of unconnected, ridiculously imaginative scenes that burst with color and energy and ramp up the euphoria of the song by an exponential degree. I was as unfamiliar with the two animators of this video as everyone else surely was, but taking some time to dig through their works on YouTube, it’s neat to see how their styles really compliment one another here. This is a wonderful music video, maybe too good for this world.

Pink Moon
editor: ProstrateConstantly
anime: Boku No Pico
music: Nick Drake – “Pink Moon”
download: https://www.animemusicvideos.org/members/members_videoinfo.php?v=203310

In what’s surely the most sincere and straightforward tribute that the notorious Boku No Pico has ever received, ProstrateConstantly avoids the temptation to mock the anime for laughs (an approach that would certainly guarantee a built in positive response, even in spite of being 100% expected) and re-imagines it as a miniature indie-art film. It’s disarmingly unexpected, and while it wasn’t the best AMV he released this year, it kind of sums up what I love about seeing a new video from him pop up in my feed. But even being completely work-safe didn’t save this video from being taken down by YouTube, where it was hit by a copyright strike for music. Nick Drake’s gotta eat, I guess!

Rei – Is there anybody out there
editor: Narien the Wolf
anime: Neon Genesis Evangelion, End of Evangelion
music: Pink Floyd – “Is There Anybody Out There?”

I love the mood of this AMV.  I love the okay, maybe they’re kinda overrated on the whole but they’re great and I still love them-synchronicity that finds common ground between Evangelion and Pink Floyd. I love the simplicity of this AMV and how patiently it’s edited. I even love the Italian-language dub (?) voiceover at the beginning. This was Narien the Wolf’s second AMV, after creating another Evangelion AMV with a Kraftwerk song in it. I really want this editor to keep working, even if it only means re-editing this video so the footage from the series isn’t stretched out to 16:9 to match the film. Now I’m watching this and wondering just how much time it would take me to try to correct it myself. That’s how badly I want this video to fulfill its potential and be the best version of itself that it can be.

Wombat Harness
editor: King Redeem
footage: The Crocodile Hunter
music: NF – “Can You Hold Me”

I’ve cried every time I’ve watched this, because it’s so completely hilarious and utterly stupid and weirdly touching and totally ridiculous. I am never, ever on the inside of a joke, so knowing that I’m part of a group of, like, maybe a hundred or two people who get what this is just makes me feel like I’m part of a secret club. If you want to join, watch this first. Actually, no one should try to explain this. I’ve already said too much.