10. Killing Me Softly
editor: janken
anime: Kare Kano
music: Perry Como – “Killing Me Softly”

Some Kare Kano AMVs purely focus on the series’ sense of humor or most hyperactive visuals. On the other end of the spectrum, the anime provides no shortage of material for remixes that emphasize its introspective or quiet moments. Even with only three AMVs under their belt before creating “Killing Me Softly,” janken had probably made a pretty good case for being the most capable editor we’ve got to work within the second category. True to form, here they’ve crafted one of the most emotional yet thoroughly subdued takes on the series that I’ve ever seen. This AMV never rises to the emotional gut punch that feels like logical destination of this sort of video, but it’s a wonderful slow burn that revels in the classic look and feel of the series and its idealized yet frank depictions of the ups and downs of adolescence. The combined seventy-five years of age between the two sources endows AMV this with an inherent feeling of wistful nostalgia, a feeling of a world passed that we won’t get back: schmaltzy takes on beautifully poetic songs, hand drawn animation conveying emotions we don’t even have words for anymore, and a glimpse of what the pre-Internet world might have been like in its romanticized form: stories made by and for people who were still living in some semblance of a present moment. It can be hard to sit through a video this slow but I beg you to try.

9. It’s Okay To Let The Train Pass
editor: SQ
anime: various
music: Zammuto – My Dog’s Eyes

I have a voracious appetite for repetition in audio and visual media so the ease that I took to this peculiar AMV is probably not going to come quite as easy to the average viewer, but I hope that you watch this beyond the ten second-taste test that you’re used to giving videos (I know, that’s on a day you’re feeling generous). AMVs like “It’s Okay To Let The Train Pass” need the space of a few breaths to convey meaning or any sense of emotion, maybe not in the way that you’re used to, but if you let this video to hit its stride then maybe you’ll have an experience with it. The tone and theme of this is very subjective, obviously hopeful and optimistic, but there’s an implied darkness underlying it all that’s never fully resolved, creating a tension that’s not stressful to endure but makes for a richer experience than the typical spoken word/electronic music/random scenes mismash. I’m never completely conscious of these thoughts as I’m watching it, as the twists and turns of the song and the way SQ overlays seemingly simple scenes atop one another, gradually builds the intensity of the internal sync, finding ways to make simple scenes feel profoundly, mysteriously moving. 

8. It’s Alright
editor: Nearphotison
anime: Moomin
music: The Beatles – “Here Comes the Sun (Steve Cruickshank Negative Harmony Cover)”

Nearphotison has rarely settled for anything resembling a “normal” song to soundtrack his AMVs, and the assortment of memes, mashups and other extremely online sounds he usually reaches for ensures that his videos are usually built on a foundation of unexpected absurdity, often with some metatextual commentary on the anime that’s being featured. As far as I can tell, there’s no specific connection between Moomin and “Here Comes the Sun,” unless you count that the Moomin and Abbey Road were both released in 1969 (because this is a Nearphotison AMV, I’m assuming that isn’t a total coincidence). There’s no true running joke in this video, at least not in the sense that there’s usually a certain kind of humor at work in almost anything this editor releases. From the opening seconds, the vibe is every bit as as perversely and pervasively dour as this remix/edit/cover version of this song, not simply from the musical tricks being played on on the listener and their personal relationship with/memory of this particular Beatles track, but every bit as due to the melancholy and often ominous tone of the visuals.

All that being said, “It’s Alright” is not a sad or provocatively depressing AMV. On the contrary, it’s still every bit as cute and silly as I was expecting a Moomin AMV to be. But come to think of it, what sort of expectations did I even have for this video? What do I even know about these characters or their world? Almost nothing at all, honestly. The emotional tone of the video as a whole, which can be difficult to completely separate from its individual sources (sometimes challenge when it comes to “normal” AMVs, a common conundrum with almost any Nearphotison edit), often feels contradictory or ambivalent. I don’t know how this will go down with a “normal” viewer, but there’s almost nothing I love more than when an editor crafts such a bizarre or disorienting mood like this. Not that there’s any other AMVs “like this” to compare it to.

7. Supersonic
editor: CrackTheSky
video: Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown
music: Skrillex, Noisia, josh pan & Dylan Brady – “Supersonic (my existence)”

Some background, full disclosure, or something: anime music videos (AMVs) give me an emotional or sensory fix that video game music videos (GMVs?) and live action edits generally just don’t. This is just how my brain works. I don’t know if experiences before my AMV days coaxed it into this shape or if recent events have made me stubbornly resistant to any little twist on an artform that I supposedly hold deep affection towards. No, we won’t get to the bottom of this matter here or any time soon. But it’s important for me to establish this because, as a GMV made from a game with realistic cutscenes rendered in a style that might be giving its all to pass for live action cinematics, “Supersonic” did not have an easy path to this list. Not only did it overcome these biases and my immediate reaction to hearing echoes of early 2010s dubstep in an AMV—no, this is not a track that Skrillex would have made a decade ago, yet it is still undeniably and immediately recognizable as the man’s work—but transforms a pile of would-be aggro-action sources into a slippery new creation that defies all expectation.

“Supersonic” is one of those rare blends of simple, old-fashioned scene selection paired with precision keyframing. If it’s not an elaborately-composed creation, then it somehow still provides the illusion of a work where the speed ramping and used of overlays look far more complex than they actually are. There’s an interesting visual effect at play throughout the video where shots appear fractured, the screen splitting across eye-catching angles with the now-divided visuals never quite aligning together as they should. I’d be shocked to learn if this effect has never been done before, but I’m not praising it on the premise that CrackTheSky is breaking new ground here; it just works really well with the composition of each shot it appears on. And what fascinating composition that is throughout these cutscenes, carefully chosen by the editor for simple but poignant lyric sync and adding elements of drama that, even in small doses, thoroughly resonate with the viewer. This effectively sets the table for the more action-heavy sequences that make up the latter two-thirds of this AMV. No, I definitely don’t want to undersell the impact of the pure action editing in this video, how hard it hits and how well it sustains itself without overwhelming the viewer. This AMV was one of the very first from the past year that I truly loved, defying my expectations and probably yours, too!

6. O Relógio
editor: Lobo Lualua
anime: Princess Tutu
music: Os Mutantes – “O Relógio”

In this AMV, Lobo Lualua takes us deeper into the essence of their style than ever before.

Maybe that’s all I’ll say about this video. I have nothing else but observations: some of it is dreamy and some of it is jaunty–both to a degree that surpasses anything this editor has made before–but every bit of it all just feels like the rawest expression yet of what makes Lobo Lualua’s videos so special and unique. Plenty of editors talk a big game about “aesthetics” and then rush to adopt the most focused-grouped, impersonal ideas of what that means. This editor will not be sullied by such abominations of the creative spirit. The person behind the Lobo Lualua is a complete mystery to me, but I’m content for them to remain a total enigma as long as they keep editing AMVs that are unmistakably recognizable as their work and no one else’s.

5. Booming Hearts
editor: vivafringe
anime: various
music: Simon Doty and Ezequiel Arias – “Sonoma”

I can’t do July 4th anymore. There’s an oppressive undercurrent of violence in the air and I feel like it’s suffocating. And for the last time, no, I’m not talking about National Caesar Salad Day, but Independence Day in the United States of America. Yes, I know that’s always been at the heart of its origins and complaining about it might sound like whining about how Halloween has gotten way too spooky these days. But it doesn’t feel like a fun family holiday anymore. The crowds and traffic are as bad as ever but once you’re on the ground, it reveals itself as a drunken celebration of war, right-wing brotherhood and bullshit at its most uniquely American. The last time I went I was flanked on one side by a seven-year-old-child who beat his five-year-old-brother nonstop for nearly two hours (“Grayson, stop it,” his parents half-heartedly implored over and over with no intervention whatsoever, gradually training the child to tune them out with the same indifference they clearly held for their own children and likely one another) and Trump flag-draped frat bros on my right. The high school girls wear less clothes every year–I’m not trying to shame them here, it just makes me uncomfortable and that’s all on me–and the boys get taller every summer, now averaging at least 6’4″. I don’t want to feel five years older every time I show up to this obligation. People bring their nervous dogs to this!? It’s Mardi Gras at Chuck E. Cheese with a Proud Boys rally thrown in. Sorry folks, you don’t have to stop the ride but I’m getting off anyway. I can already hear you loading up a Reddit-inspired “well you sound like fun at parties” rebuke. You want the holiday? Go ahead and take it from me just like we took the land from the natives. It’s yours!

“Booming Hearts” captures the sense of wonder and community and intimacy that could happen if fireworks shows were rooted in centuries of tradition and not the prematurely rotted Western rituals of the 20th century, now badly synced to Lee Greenwood and the Black Eyed Peas for the rest of our lives. I don’t know how accurately any of these individual scenes, let alone the totality of vivafringe’s efforts to bring them together into such an arresting montage, depict the Japanese Bon Festival celebration with any bit of realism or “truth,” but I’ll take this hyper-romanticized vision of it over any version of the Ford Truck Commercial of a holiday that we’re stuck with over here.

Mild sarcasm aside, this is a spectacularly pretty video. “Pretty” might sound like a halfhearted compliment but it’s a word I actually prefer to the often-hyberbolic and overused “beautiful.” It is consistently, constantly pretty, triggering a continuous frisson response in my brain that somehow builds for the entire four minutes of the AMV. In spite of the somewhat “random” order of these clips, there’s a meticulous and thoughtful design at work that prevents the video from ever growing too monotonous or predictable. And yes, this is possibly his most “repetitious” work to date, a word I’m sure plenty of viewers would use as a criticism but is a creative strategy that I’ve been obsessed with and forever in search of a viewer ever since I first got into this stuff. 2023 was another especially prolific year for this editor and it still feels like he’s only coming into his own.

4. Double Take
editor: BecauseImBored1
anime: various
music: Meghan Trainor – “No Excuses”

I could try to explain “Double Take” or you could just watch it and get the gist for yourself. And you’ve probably done that already, so you know that this video probably isn’t going to benefit from someone trying to summarize its concept or single out its best moments. That’s not to say that this is the kind of AMV that reveals itself in full after a single viewing. You could watch this a dozen times and there would still be jokes that you’ve missed along with moments of tremendously effective and clever sync that you never fully noticed even as they’ve registered with your subconscious mind. “Double Take” is the latest in a very long tradition of work-intensive anime crossover AMVs, but it’s easily one of the best and most satisfying we’ve ever gotten, a feat that’s especially difficult to achieve today in our technologically-savvy age where the bar for impressing viewers with this sort of thing, or even leaving any sort of lasting impression on them at all, is higher than ever.

I am not the audience for this kind of video. I’m super skeptical of blockbuster AMVs like this. I wasn’t in the audience at any convention this played at, so if there was a rapturous reception for this, I never even had a chance to get caught up in it. If there are musical artists I despise more than Meghan Trainor, I could probably count them on one hand. Now this song lives in my head and sometimes I feel like it’s all that’s getting me through the day anymore. I cannot wrap my mind around how every scene in this video is so conceptually perfect, pulled off with such technical precision or synced to the rhythm and lyrics of the song to such an expert degree. I understand the tools and the basic process of how to do this, but even pulling this off just once, this well, feels like a miracle. BecauseImBored1 makes this happen without fail about forty times in a row. If you’re watching this hyper-critically and not in the spirit it was intended to be enjoyed, then you’d expect there to be a crack in the seams or some weak link in the chain of the whole thing. That just never happens! “Double Take” is a massive achievement in editing and pushing the limits of what AMVs as a medium can uniquely achieve as a form of anime fandom.

3. Sleep is Death
editor: Abrogate Need
anime: Uchida Shungicu no Noroi no One-Piece
music: Beastie Boys – “Instant Death”
VPR Warning: Flashing, strobing

If there’s one AMV on this entire list that I wish I would have made myself, it’s this one.

I didn’t write these mini-reviews/reactions in order, partially because I had no idea what the order of this list was even going to be until a week or so ago, partially because some AMVs on it are easier to write about than others and I’d rather get the simplest ones out of the way first. “Sleep is Death” is the last AMV on this list that I’m writing anything about, and I’m not quite certain what to say about it besides identifying some pretty obvious qualities it’s got and reiterating why it is that I’m so drawn towards them and how the AMV exemplifies them. Pretty standard stuff, right? Roll that beautiful bean footage!

This video is a masterclass in scene selection. This is a very slow and sparse song and the intimate closeups that comprise so much of this AMV are an honest and fitting reflection of the hushed, intimate atmosphere of the song. Even without the lyrics (which are an essential part of the song and the AMV), the stripped down and laid-back bossa nova (?) backing track is wistful and tinged with a faint but palpable sadness, the perfect embodiment of the initially ambiguous but progressively downcast demeanor of these characters. I find myself unusually fixated on moments like these, regularly editing but never finishing videos focusing on characters in similar emotional stasis. These attempts rarely develop into watchable projects, so watching “Sleep is Death” feels like witnessing one possible resolution to the ongoing preoccupation I have with exploring this particular mood, ideally as deep as it can possibly go. That’s a tall order, to say the least, and this is one of the only AMVs that has ever fulfilled it.

This sustained sense of detached gloom hangs over this video for two minutes, even as the tempo (along with the frequency of visual cuts), slowly bends in the direction of something approaching a groove. There’s never a clear explanation for the troubles afflicting the small cast of characters, but along the way we’re given faint clues or a slightly broader context for their transparent unease: alienation at school, conspicuous and embarrassing bandages, the suggested memories of trauma or loss… none of this really provides the easy answers that we crave from an AMV attempting to fit a traditional narrative into its structure, but at this point it’s clear that “Sleep is Death” is not an AMV that’s interested in storytelling, at least not in any traditional sense. I hate to simplify it in these terms, like it’s purely an exercise in mood or atmosphere. But the editor is really effective at organically building up a complex but generally uncomfortable sensation, one that’s unfamiliar yet somehow relatable, that creeps over every inch of this video. Maybe some viewers will be more susceptible to it than others. Because I’m writing about my favorite AMVs of the year and not 101 AMVs That You’re All Gonna Love, all I can say for sure is that in my experience, it’s one of the least realistic yet most honest depictions of anxiety that I’ve ever seen. It is silent but all consuming and completely merciless. The moment in this AMV when it finally makes good on its hideous promise, preceded by a striking tonal shift that sends chills up my spine every time, is unlike anything I’ve ever seen or felt from watching an anime music video.

I don’t want to pontificate endlessly about this AMV or sell it as an experience that’s universal or even accessible to anyone besides myself. I don’t know if it is. Much like “untitled4,” another work by this editor that proceeds at the pace of a melting icicle, it can be read as a meditation on loneliness and isolation. On behalf of these characters, we vicariously crave a resolution or closure to their undefined torments, but get nothing but a blunt reminder of how the narrative arc we strain our eyes to see across the years of our own lives is nothing but a myth we talk ourselves into day after day. Sometimes the humiliation and the losses we endure give way to new beginnings or good fortune. Sometimes the scales are never rebalanced and our existence is obliterated in midst of the worst possible personal circumstances we’ll ever endure. Maybe there’s a lesson to learn from this. Maybe there’s not. If there’s any “real” tragedy to this AMV, it’s in our collective consensus that there’s an age where it’s appropriate to suffer and bite the dust; whatever that would be, these girls haven’t hit it yet. Maybe that would explain the spectacular fanfare that seems to proceed the moment we part ways with their presence.

I’m realize I might be painting “Sleep is Death” as an unbearably morbid experience to sit through. On the contrary, it’s nothing but sympathetic towards the characters it features, although I guess I might be in for a fight if I was going to make a case for the final shot as an example of “tasteful” nudity, but yes, that’s my verdict. As for the the ostentatiously excessive final moments of this AMV (the reason that VPR warning is there, by the way), which might have a perfectly sensible explanation in the context of this OVA that we’re simply never made privy to, it’s presented here in such a flashy and spectacular fashion that, in all its sudden horror, it conveys a darkly comic effect or even embodies the sort of fantastically flashy finale that, let’s face it, would be one helluva way to go out on compared to the usual process. I don’t mean to make light of this one bit but… maybe someday you’ll know what I mean.

2. Brave
editor: purple bell
anime: California Crisis: Gun Salvo
music: DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ – “Brave”
VPR Warning: Flashing, motion, rainbow colors

The fact that I’d ever even laid eyes on this obscure anime before watching “Brave” is a testament to its longevity as one of those iconic 80s OVAs that’s had next to no lasting cultural impact (at least not that I’m aware of) but has provided fodder for a small number of crate-digging AMV editors in search of some truly unique and/or specifically-dated visuals for years now. I guess that sounds like I’m describing it as an overused source; it would make sense if it actually was one, but nothing could be further from the truth. You can count the number of California Crisis AMVs worth watching on one hand before they devolve into meaningless “80s montage”-style works that pretty much anyone could make in a few minutes with a gun to their head. It’s a wonder there aren’t dozens more, to be honest. This is an anime that’s oozing with style and an elusive sense of authenticity, if being the prototype for the fantasized 1980s that never happened–a lifestyle or state of mind or idealized, utopian existence that we’ve come to fetishize as a culture that’s currently repulsed with itself and has no plans for the future–fits our new shifting conception of what’s “authentic.” With the exception of Nearphotison’s “Welcome to California” (which debuted as part of his “Mouth Silence” AMV in 2022 or possibly much earlier than that if the video that I linked to is a reupload like I suspect it is), these videos have never showed off much in the way of logic or structure. In “Brave,” purple bell follows the seemingly pedestrian approach of crafting a linear narrative out of this 45-minute-long anime. The end result feels like a much more traditional AMV than anything else on his channel, which doesn’t necessarily translate into a more enjoyable or compelling experience… except that it kinda did. For me, anyway!

I don’t get the impression that this OVA is a lost masterpiece, and as interesting as it looks or could even be as a guilty pleasure anime, 6,909 people can’t be wrong that it’s stuck in VHS limbo for good reasons. I’ll probably never know for myself if this anime is any good or not, but the streamlined version of in this AMV, soundtracked by the most inspiring and fun song that anyone will ever slap over its scenes, is a damn masterpiece. It’s efficient, packing five or six discernible sequences into its runtime, each communicating the precise amount of information about the characters and the plot that’s necessary and nothing more. The visceral action setpieces are edited with an urgency that conveys real danger and excitement–look, there’s a hard limit on what the editor’s got to work with here so don’t come into this expecting John Wick levels of elaborate action, that’s not what I’m suggesting here and you know it–making it very clear at all times where the characters are in relationship to one another and the other elements of the setting, a crucial detail to note given that half the AMV is made up of chase scenes. The action scenes hit hard and sync to the beat fantastically and could have gone on longer… and it’s perfect that they didn’t because they’d become excessive and overwhelming very quickly, not to mention cutting into the quieter scenes that are just as important to “Brave” as any of the rollicking action.

This euphoric, bouncy house track gives this a bright and upbeat feeling that initially feels like a natural backdrop to these sunny visuals and nothing more. As the video plays out, I felt like a subtle shift began to occur the interplay between the visuals and the music. As the spoken word sample is introduced at 1:18, the AMV moves away from a “music soundtracking scenes”-mode, morphing into a music video where the clips are not just firmly in service of the song but are channeling the deeper feelings that artist is trying to convey through their music. You might catch this feeling, you might not. But this is where “Brave” begins to feel like something more than an AMV. It isn’t, and cannot be, a substitute for a “real” music video. But it comes close, closer than anything else I’ve written about on this list so far, to really getting its hands around the emotional core of the music and going all out to express that in visual form. How is that any different than what anyone else’s AMVs are doing? I’ll admit that I’m not prepared to answer that or give you the necessary elaboration that you’re asking for or that my extraordinary claim demands me to provide. It’s just a feeling, a dowsing rod of a hunch, but I still experience it. Maybe you will too?

There’s so many satisfying moments in this video, beginning with the clip at 0:34 as the beats, melody and vocals finally lock into a wall of Daft Punkian wall of sound: this is the one and only “vibe-setting” shot in the entire video, not functioning in service of the story but just existing for its own sake, while being as perfectly synced to the chopped up vocals as any corresponding visual could ever be. (Also worth mentioning: the semi-slow motion shot of the heroine mounting the motorcycle immediately before it as the drum fanfare is introduced: THIS is how you introduce a character.) The action that unfolds in the following shots already has a feeling of momentum built up behind it. The transition from this high-energy scene to the one that follows feels so effortlessly natural, setting up the next moment of interaction between characters that develops their relationship in a plot-driving fashion. This video never stops. Nothing ever feels tacked on or inserted into inappropriate parts of each “act.” 1:24 to 1:30 is the sort of magical moment I’ve been trying to craft ever since I started editing. The entire chase sequence that follows, the dizzying first-person chaos at 1:44 , the impossibly great sync at 2:04, clicks with this music in a way I just can’t see any other editors replicating. Or maybe I’m wrong, as it’s not like I expected this AMV to bowl me over before I ever clicked play on it to begin with, so who knows what other surprises I could be in for if other editors took this assignment just as seriously as pb (and I gave them a fair shake in the process)?

A four minute-long song is not a small canvas to work with, but unless you’re rushing through the process, inevitably you’ll have to make some difficult choices. Somewhere in this movie, I imagine the two protagonists exchanging their red convertible (somehow not identified in this exhaustive database of vehicles that show up in the anime) for a Ford pickup, and there’s simply no time or opportunity to walk the viewer through the exhaustive and distracting process of whatever this entailed. purple bell just beams the reality of this transaction straight into our brains with a simple transition at 2:46 and, no questions asked, it just works. The climactic chase is animated with a passion and thoroughness that no one has come close to replicating at any point in this century; this is not wasted on the editor as he makes the most of these shots and builds towards a finale that provides both a satisfying conclusion to the narrative and the most appropriate/least heavy-handed visual realization of the spirit of the song. The quick fades to black at 3:24 don’t quite wrap this AMV up, but precede the coda/denouement with a truly satisfying sense of finality. “Brave” was one of the most fun AMVs I watched all last year, an unexpectedly gleeful deviation from the often serious (but never pretentious) tone that a sizeable part of pb’s videos embodied during what I hope I can describe as Year One of his experiments with the form. I’m obsessed with the idea that everyone who loves this song needs to see this AMV. I am not working to make that happen, as the possibility of it not being received with rapturous praise would probably break the last remaining bits of my faith in humanity, or at least concerning the fringes of it that still seem to be open to finding and feeling genuine human moments amidst the detritus of our crumbling culture.

You probably haven’t watched this AMV. Please do something about that.

1. Attack on (Some) Titans – Part 2
editor: Davis 51 (Under The Box Productions)
anime: Dinosaur War Izenborg, The Return of Izenborg
music: Beastie Boys – “Intergalactic”
VPR Warning: Flashing, strobing, explosions

These lists are a snapshot of my feelings in the moment I wrote them. Hopefully they stand the test of time. Based on experience, I know they often won’t do that at all! Many videos I’ve ranked very high eventually feel somewhat overrated within a few years’ time. Many videos that barely make the cut eventually reveal themselves as one of my favorites from that year, long after I’ve said my peace about them and moved on. This is okay, whatever.

It’s rare for me to rank a video as highly as I did last year with Davis 51 (operating under the guise of their studio name: Under The Box Productions) and “Attack on (Some) Titans – Part 1” and actually find myself more infatuated with it now than I did when it was much newer. It’s the complete package: the rare comedy-action AMV that goes all in on each side of that hyphen. It’s tongue in cheek and sincere and I know that doesn’t make sense but trust that I’m saying that with deep conviction and sincerity. It’s also edited to a professional degree that feels like it’s bursting out of the enjoyable and expressive but admittedly small box that even the best AMVs are usually contained to. I never actually wanted a sequel to it because I felt like one wouldn’t be necessary or live up to everything that the first part was able to achieve. Somehow, this year’s edition feels like an upgrade on the original.

Conceptually, this AMV isn’t too different from its predecessor. More campy clips from the tokusatsu/anime hybrid Dinosaur War Izenborg… but somehow it’s not the scraps of what was left over from Part 1, or at least it’s edited with such skill and enthusiasm that I was left feeling like Davis 51 actually saved all the good stuff for this time around. This is an AMV I love so much that I feel like I owe it to the editor to be revisiting its source strictly to get a better sense for exactly how they rearranged what’s here into such a compelling and fun video. While some stretches of “Ao(S)T-P2” are clearly individual action pieces tweaked with simple cuts, resulting in excellent external and internal sync, the other sequences might be much less chronological in nature than the action onscreen suggests. Yeah, I know this is the deal with most AMVs, but this one has me more interested in the process than I usually am.

Once again, the action is preposterously silly, ping-ponging back and forth between cheap but charming animation, pricelessly corny live action shots and awkward hybrids of the two. Davis 51 edits the video at a fast pace, somehow keeping up with and reacting to the lyrics of the song (being the Beastie Boys, this is as verbose as “popular” rap ever got) while keeping the action onscreen engaging, exciting and actually easy to follow. There’s plenty of speed ramping–a term I’m using a lot as this countdown wraps up and am foolishly calling upon as it’s not a feature that my version of Premiere actually has, so no, I’m not as familiar with it as I’ve pretended to be this entire time–as Davis 51 speeds clips up to both exciting and hilarious effect. Costumed performers in monster outfits, donned years before b-boy culture truly began to form, become convincing breakdancers. Villains throw obscene gestures at the heroes. There’s a 30-second introduction with credits and voiceover that’s authentically retro and self-aware and feels like the product of a professional production team, or just one editor who really, really knew what they wanted and pulled out all the stops until they got it just right.

The entire AMV being a callback to the original music video for “Intergalactic” may just be the icing on the cake, another layer you might recognize and appreciate or simply have no interest in whatsoever. But if you do vibe with that then it’s possible to acknowledge and enjoy it as nothing less than the entire foundation that the AMV was built upon. Inclusion of the Biz Markie-rapped outro included on the album but never played on the radio was an unexpected surprise to say the least, the simplest sequence of the whole project but probably the single silliest, with the lip sync and subtle facial expressions just making it work. This video feels like a miracle.

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Thanks again for reading this list of my favorite AMVs of 2023. In the coming days I will include a playlist of these videos, which I will link to here and on the standalone page of all of my AMV lists. There will be a Top 50 list and an expanded list that projects what the list might have looked like if was expanded to a Top 100. No further write-ups like this until next year, though. Stay safe. Register to vote. Floss and use mouthwash. See you then.