Assorted AMV recs, including FMA

[starlady]

I'm trying (futilely) to clean out my 'posts' folder. A surprising amount of things in there are not actual posts. But here, have some AMV recs with a side of recs for AMVs of the first FMA anime, in honor of the fact that I am going to see the FMA movie on Wednesday. Both of these posts were written in…May.

Better late than effing never!

# Confession to the Dancefloor--This one is just fun, and bouncy. I particularly like the use of color, and the integration of titles and various anime source footage.

# Skittles, Haruhi Suzumiya--Looking back through my journal, I see that I said that we should show it at the vid party this year. Um, yup?

# Coming Home, Macross Frontier--This is one of my favorite AMVs in absolutely forever, and has a definite SFnal theme. I could go on about how it's to a very famous anime series, etc, etc, but I'm just going to rewatch it instead.

# Inception--Obvious fandom crossover appeal is obvious, but it was a contest winner at Otakon too.

# Children of Daicon--This one is a great look at anime fannish history in a really fun package.

# Traumerei, FMA:B--Have I mentioned that these recs aren't completely objective? Anyway, this is the FMA AMV I was hoping to find, or at least as close as we're going to get this year, and it's quite good.

# Attention Please, Paprika--This was a Festivid, and oh man, it's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

# Pure Thrust--One of the giants of AMVs returns, and it's amazing. I don't have anything more coherent to say.

# Meteor Tower--I like this one for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that the interplay between the song and the footage gets at what makes AMVs tick to some extent, I think.

# Drawn Dream, Natsume Yûjinchô--No mystery here, a lot of people love this anime (I need to watch it!), and it's a brilliant, feel good AMV.

# Spanish Wolf, Spice & Wolf--I'd be lying if I said I'm 100% sober, but that doesn't change the fact that this is a great feel-good AMV to a completely unusual kind of song for AMVs. Awesome. Also don't ask me to explain Spice & Wolf, except if's a great way to learn about macroeconomics and understand it.

# And Now, A Word From Our Sponsors--A pointed and hilarious critique of a recent trend in anime, namely, the corporate sponsorship. I rec'd it after Otakon and then it won a Viewers' Choice Award on the org, it must be good.

# Blame It On 2009--I was just going to watch this and not rec it, but then I realized: this is the perfect illustration for what makes anime a medium and AMVs a distinct genre. And, you know, it's great.

FMA AMV recs for stultiloquentia

This is the "spaghetti at the wall" approach to AMV recs: basically I raided my download history on the org for everything FMA and 4 or 5 stars. Yes, there is a lot of Nightwish, because that's the flavor I wanted out of most FMA AMVs at the time. Also, most of these are for the first anime. I may be in the minority of thinking that the first FMA anime was a stellar example of how to adapt an in-progress manga and do it well, but I stand by that opinion, as much as the actual Arakawa ending was much better. And unlike FMA:B, the first anime wasn't lead-footed in the beginning.

Contains my questionable college taste, but I did rewatch all of these and still find them acceptable.

Lost Soul

Fullmetal Code - I liked the Conqueror of Shangri-la movie too, for the record, right up until the end.

Alchemic Sin - Apparently I have a thing for trailers? No, that's not a surprise.

Always Hardcore - I find this one really funny now.

EasyAction of [hagaren] - Actually, it's really interesting to compare this one with the previous one.

Red Sun Rising

Tsumibito no kashou - I think I've rec'd this one before. It's good, but serious warning for five bajillion frames per second.

Liberi Fatali - Another one of those tracks that everyone makes an AMV to.

From the Ashes - I think this is definitely one of the best that are left on the org.

Our Search - I keep rewatching this one, though I find it sadly unepic. But as a technical experiment, it's brilliant.

Actually, a lot of my highest-rated FMA AMVs aren't available any longer. Part of that is because of the Evanescence Affair, which makes me feel old. Of course, now I want to make FMA AMVs.

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

this is the perfect illustration for what makes anime a medium and AMVs a distinct genre


... I feel like a dolt for having now watched the AMV & having to ask, but: can you elaborate on this a little? Or should I just go back & read that epic post in your journal about that again? ^^;;;

(Also, Drawn Dream ZOMG. If I could have that, like, perpetually playing in my brain my life would be so much better. Also, yes! Natsume anime = fantastic. & yeah, much warmer than earlier chapters of the manga, at least. I like anime better than manga 99.999% of the time anyway but I do think there's so much added when you actually get to see Nyanko-sensei toddle around, & see the youkai moving all freakkkkky & stuff. [Er, not freaky like getting freaky, natch.])

[starlady]

LOL, I did just go back and reread the epic post(s) on my journal before I wrote this.

I know people disagree with me, but I really honestly haven't seen anything that makes me question my fundamental conviction that AMVs and vids are not the same thing (which, obviously, they aren't, but I mean at more than the surface levels). I would buy the idea that in the middle of the last decade, say around the time when absolutedestiny converted to vidding, there was a brief point when the digital technology available to editors and vidders and the technical level of anime was equal enough to enable crossover and a moment toward convergence, but I remain convinced that the mainstream of AMVs is barreling towards this strange new semi-transformative semi-original horizon (I actually think "Pure Thrust" above is a great, subtle example of this), while vids are, for better and for worse, solely transformative.

As for what I think makes AMVs and vids distinct…with the massive disclaimer that most of this is still a roiling mess in my head, I think the easiest thing to do here is to talk about Blame It on 2009 above, and t'wings vid about manpain, because they're both relying on the visual grammar of their chosen medium to do what they're doing. But whereas t'wings is using the multi-fandom footage, paired with a linear song, to point out the ways that that visual grammar warps narratives and refocuses all stories on the (white) man's pain (and yes I'm simplifying here), the point of Blame It on 2009 is slicing and dicing dozens of anime to a sliced and diced song--the point of it is a celebration of the visual grammar, of what makes anime anime, and it's hella confusing if you're not a fan of anime and AMVs, as the crowd reactions at WisCon made clear.

I think that's one example; another thing I'd talk about is motion within the frame of the vid/AMV. Check out Pure Thrust again, and look at what the way anime moves enables Nostromo to do with the clips, and to not do with the clips; compare that with kuwdora's Poker Face (Royal Flush Remix) of talitha78's Poker Face, and remember that Abrams' camerawork is nauseatingly kinetic. There are a lot of technical differences like this, and individually I'd agree they're secondary, but they add up to a very primary difference.

I should probably try to keep talking about this, because writing it all out is making me think in productive ways, but I have to get back to a fic that's due in 2 days. So! I will leave it here for now. Let me know what you think; this is all, obviously, from my own narrow perspective.

[stultiloquentia]

OH ROCK ON. Thank you so very much! *dives in, still munching cereal*

[starlady]

Sorry it took so long! Enjoy!