Down to the final 3. Like I said at the start, choosing a top 12 was a daunting task. I've been saving a rather long list of my favorites over the years, and the last few AMVs I eliminated include some that I would say are among the best I've ever seen. Tough as it was, I very much enjoyed revisiting all these videos, and while some of these editors are either not producing AMV content anymore or, sadly, have passed away (RIP Umika Sayoji), I think all of them (and I include RM's picks in this) deserve a spotlight on their work. It's truly inspiring to see what each and every one of them did with the series and movies they showcased. For those who are interested, among my choices, xGeminii, kumoclouds, PseudoBaka, Kinnsao San and OneBrunou have each posted new videos within the last year. I've subscribed to their channels and am always interested in new posts. For that matter, I had already subscribed to the editor of two of RM's choices, Light Raider, and plan to subscribe to at least a couple of others I had not seen before (looking at JazzsVids and Vichima, in particular).
I'll start this round with a bang. One Punch Man showcases some of the best sakuga of any series, and it's all on display here. The effects added by the editor augment each scene without overwhelming it and the music is very fitting to the series. Of all the choices on my list, this is probably the one I would want to watch over and over again the most, demonstrating both the humor and the incredibly hype action that makes this series a joy to watch.
Many of the song choices on this list have been excellent fits for a series or theme, but especially with complex characters, it can incredibly difficult to find a song that fits them perfectly. This is one of those choices, and I was blown away on first viewing. This AMV really captures the tone of the movie, rising and falling with the emotional weight of the scenes depicted, but what sets it apart is just how well it represents the main character and his struggles with his past.
Mahou Shoujo RequiemEditor: Shin AMV (not active)
Anime: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Song: Cosmic Love by Florence and the Machine
I've highlighted more than a few classics on this list, but I'll leave you with one more. This is one of the few that I hadn't watched in years and honestly wasn't sure would hold up against more recent examples. Yet, it is still amazing. The way the editor matched the beats of the song and the scenes depicted is breath-taking, and while this is the only example of a series I will spotlight twice, it couldn't be more different from Absolute Zero. It's a showcase of the whole series and all its characters, giving you just enough time to soak in each scene. A master editor at work.
RM, it was a pleasure.
there is a middle part where it's very hard to pick the right scene(s), I have done a minute fully so far.
Love to see what you come up with.
I'll leave it private especially until you've seen so it isn't taken down for copyright for the audio, though even the visuals might demand that outcome.
Thanks.
I have been inspired to make a Demon Slayer AMV. I am quite good with finding legal free software, audio, movie maker etc and with Animes it's possible to basically legally obtain it so long as I don't upload it anywhere and use it solely for the AMV. I'll PM you it when done (or I could be a famous AMV maker on an alias you never know) but seriously I'll try and make it lol
Well won, though kinda frustrated we only got one vote.
You gonna vote? :P
please finish your vote when you have time, I look forward to reading it.
Glad you appreciate that one.
I had not properly given a full viewing to the adieu AMV when I stated my favourites earlier on. I stand by ranking it 100% that is essentially a music video in every sense.
Couldn’t be...
"Could just give numbers, but they aren’t going to mean much without explanation."
I have a hypothesis that this was written by a scientist.
I think I’ll hold off for now. Suffice it to say that my rating system is more involved, and I don’t want to give it here before others have had a chance to employ their own. Could just give numbers, but they aren’t going to mean much without explanation, so I’ll wait until the end.
I will just score them. Note that my scoring system (which I will explain later when the voting period is over) isn't based on my own 'feeling' alone, that's a significant factor but not the only one. I rank based on if I could spot things about it that I'd improve, if it's very difficult for me to truly say I could improve it, I default it to 100% (so I work from 100 down instead of 0 up and gauge it like that).
My R1:
97%
95%
94%
Your R1:
84%
66%
88%
My R2:
98%
100%
100%
Your R2:
91%
73%
84%
My R3:
95%
100%
98%
Your R3:
92%
83%
100%
My R4:
98%
92%
96%
Your R4:
97%
81%
97%
I’d be up for doing that at the end. Feel like it might just be a nice opportunity to rate ourselves and each other without risk at that point.
do you want me to leave an RFD and score the AMVs? I think I won obviously but I am curious if you wanted that. I would want it from you too but I understand the problem it poses because we both could influence voters.
If we make it to the nearest 0.1 out of 10, I average 8.8/10 so far and Whiteflame averages 8.6/10 on your scores
toxic: wow, that's chilling, winner winner chicken dinner indeed. 100/100
cradles: glitchy effect got a bit overboard near end but fine 80/100
animal: good try given the difficulty to fill the violin chorus, though some parts were kind of awkward. 90/100
_______
awaken: reasonably nice stuff, not bad at all 95/100
Oz: Just seemed another lot of flashes of random similar scenes without stronger flow... 80/100
Madoka: not a big fan of the song but the animation was fine 80/100
I could probably go a few more debates before I had to start reusing AMVs, though my choices for subsequent rounds of this sort would probably include more repeat anime and/or editors. I still try to keep up with new ones, though I'll admit that my scope is somewhat limited by my previous finds. I trend more towards anime than AMVs, though I like them for different reasons, so I can see why you might prefer the latter to the former. There are some examples (I didn't post them in these rounds) of AMVs that did such a good job portraying the best parts of an anime that I actually preferred them to the series after watching the full thing. I've loved a lot of different kinds of anime, posted a favorite list here a little while back, and yeah, prefer mostly subbed myself with a few exceptions (mostly 90s anime, which I started watching dubbed and which had amazing dubs). No shade on the manga vs. anime front. There are some series (One Piece comes to mind) where the pacing of the anime is just garbage, but it's much better in the manga. Then there are series that just take what's in the manga and portray it way better on screen, like Kimetsu no Yaiba. There are even a few examples of series that have taken massive liberties with the story and come out with something better than the original, like Dororo. Also, just somewhat depends on whether you like the drawing style or the full motion animation. I usually prefer the anime, personally.
That was another thing I think we did differently. Though, I admit 'poor taste judgement' may be a better way of putting it (in the past from me).
If you notice, I think maybe only one of these AMVs are ones I've used before, most are recent. I wanted to explore many new ones and this gave me the opportunity to. I don't want to offend weeaboos but I am not the biggest Anime junkie, I often prefer AMVs to the actual Anime, though I haven't watched enough of most to be able to truly say that. I love the art of Anime more than the general style of it. The kinds of Anime I love the crap out of have brilliant storylines and character development AS WELL AS great graphics and voice-acting (I only judge this on subbed, dubbed is unbearably cringe for me most of the time).
I am also more of a watcher than a reader, I completely disagree with the notion that smarter people enjoy books while dumber people enjoy movies and series, in Anime especially I have found no real correlation like this because often Mangas are tedious to read and require far too much piecing together of the storyline from the reader.
Good to see a solidly-made Baki AMV. I'm caught up on the series, it's pretty good.
Maybe so. I honestly picked my list based on what I felt were my absolute favorites mixed with a few I appreciate quite a bit based on certain elements. Can't say that there was a specific tactic to my choices - it was honestly just a lot of fun going through some of the AMVs I've appreciated over the years and picking out a set of 12 that represent some of the best I've seen. Didn't really think much on the order except to keep each round diverse with genres and minimize the number of AMVs that include the same anime, were done by the same editor, or included songs from the same artist. I was surprised how easy that was - if you took a look at my overall list, there's a lot of One Piece, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Naruto in there.
As for this being Rated, it's not that big of an issue for me. I don't do this kind of debate (same with the one I did with Supa) to get a win. It's honestly some of the most enjoyable stuff for me to do, and if it comes at a cost to my rating, I'm good with that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUsCGh5-wNI
This is an AMV that I extremely enjoyed but I opted out of using as I was sure it's a high-risk medium-reward AMV vs most audience members on this website.
did RM read my song review site and find Animal had a ridiculously high rating? well, let's see how the amv's are
Warrior: tired of the song but decent animation 85/100
Blood/water: excellent syncing and well done overall 95/100
Lovely: feels slightly unfitting but ok 80/100
________
steel: good war scenes and set ups, I see nothing wrong here 95/100
Let it go: a bit too many flashes and weird transition effects... 75/100
anohana: Neat timing of ideas and cool stuff overall, not bad... 90/100
Based on supadudz's taste you'd probably have edged out the win if you chose that over one of your weaker pics in his eyes.
I set my choices up to hit a wide range of voters just in case, so we will see.
The main thing I remembered throughout is that I am picking AMVs to please the audience, not necessarily myself. I think you just went with both at once.
There are ones I dropped that I'd prefer over these but I chose these for audience pleasure, predicting what people like a lot or dislike and how to hit them hard as well as structuring my picks so I win Rounds not just overall points (because some people vote like that).
I also ordered the AMVs in rounds so that they begin with a hard-hitter that somewhat shocks you each time as it wasn't quite what you were expecting, then the middle choice is much more 'straightforward' and easy to watch while the closing pick is again meant to impress you and surprise.
I also had less than you to lose since this is Rated and I regularly 'buffer' my rating with debates, assuming I maintain as fairly 65/35 kind of winrate as things progress and my rating is also (at present) lower than yours. So, I figured even if I lose this, it was worth the gamble. It's also why I don't let myself get hooked on winstreaks like Ragnar and Oromagi, I just go for the hell of it and if it gets boring I take a break and even forfeit debates. This way, I am always in a position to 'tear down' a better rated debater quite significantly and noone can really accuse me of 'gaming the system' as I maintain one account, I just don't care as much about Rating as others do.
Even if I hadn't won the 'king of the hill' medal, I'd just roll with the punches, I was fortunate to rise fast and hard before the hardcore ones surpassed me.
Another AMV I was very close to selecting:
https://youtu.be/VF3TDPhj_Bs
Oh ok. I had to change the perms then. WF said he couldn't view it and I thought I accidentally shared Croc v Gugigor
the URL in your RFD is correct while your link in the comments, correcting it, are to Croc vs Gugigor
Yeah but technically speaking it’s based off an American production. studio with american writers and artists. It does take lots of elements from Japanese art
LoK is an anime btw, it just has American producers and artists. The style is definitely Anime.
I am shocked at how you scored some of both mine and WF (in terms of what really stood out to you and what didn't) and also what your critiques were because I misjudged your taste. The Korra one was actually specifically chosen in the hopes you'd vote but I accept your feedback. Your 10/10 and such were things I'd agree were fantastic. To me, most were 10/10 in their own way but I'll keep my opinion to myself.
Thanks for your vote.
Oops here link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RYR0veJ9_bVZIbugl8to-KCV6-uYtpzaEaLeRgzPcgU/edit?usp=sharing
Appreciate the vote!
Vote casted.
bump
Season 1 of OPM is absolutely gorgeous. At least with action scenes and some high intensity stuff, there's the term "sakuga," but if there are other terms for just different styles of animation within a show, I'm not aware of them.
btw is there a name for different styles within Anime? One Punch Man AMVs are sometimes so good visually that I can't believe it's Anime I'm seeing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFbr8dQ6RcM
Decent, though I tend not to be the biggest fan of AMVs that just display events that happened in the same order as the anime. Not a lot of innovation there.
Also brand new today:
https://youtu.be/bWNrn0kmaOI
https://youtu.be/pELe8xRdHww brand new today
Hey, got that one, too. Close call for me between them, both great, though.
https://youtu.be/XfSlVDEov4M
I'd take this over that.
That’s a good mix of anime.
My list of runner-ups is almost as long as the ones I actually chose, but this one got close. One of my favorite AoT AMVs.
https://youtu.be/MpVZ4gove3E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCXHl3SxCv0
a unique one that almost made the cut
Reminder to vote, please.
It's okay, you can stay level zero as long as you want.
Will try to drop a vote tonight. If not then I can’t level one til Saturday
Yeah, issues with the style of Madoka Magica are, by and large, what I've found to be the greater impediment to interest in the show (same's true of Made in Abyss). I will point out that at least a couple of mine are one-hit-wonders, especially as jrob156 has largely become a gaming channel and all the inactives largely focused on one or two projects (I can't seem to find much else that they've done, sadly), but yes, I'd say that my choices tend to come from consistent editors. That's largely the result of stumbling upon some of their later work and then going through many of their videos, which tends to rack up a few favorites. The other bias in my choices is musical. I definitely have a type of sound that I gravitate towards, though it appears that we share quite a bit there. Billie Eilish, NF and Shinedown all feature pretty prominently among my other favorites in AMVs.
I'm not keen on the hard rock song but that one punch man amv is incredible for the editing. The madoka one is extremely good and I don't always dig when it's a very 'cartoony' style anime but it's a really good AMV. I think I went with some one hit wonders whereas you tried to stick only to solid and consistent editors who specialise in AMVs (my first one that you like, is one of the only AMVs that user has done, she mainly does GMVs and Movie type stuff)
If we expanded this out to another round, it almost certainly would have fallen into the more “hardcore and furious” category. Most of what got cut towards the end was action-oriented, including a favorite Naruto AMV of mine from way back (it got me into AMVs in the first place) and a very new One Piece AMV that focuses on the action hype of the series, but they got nixed in favor of some of the lower key options.
Yeah I wanted to use almost all of light raider's AMVs lol. They were almost all contenders but I knew overusing one editor wouldn't be a good idea just because on principle some would vote against and also it may not be the style some like. For instance, Light Raider constantly avoids stringing a story along and building with/to the song's lyrics in a significant way.
I don't regret any of my choices but I accept your taste. There's people into more hardcore or furious AMVs than the type you seem to primarily watch, so I wanted to appeal to them and I am even one of them. I like all kinds as long as there's good flow and matching to the song. Sometimes less editing with more matching the vibe and lyrics can counter Light Raider's edit-heavy style.
I appreciate your thoughts on my choices! Personally, I think your strongest pick was your third choice in R3. Light Raider always produces strong AMVs, but this is among the best I’ve seen, period. I’m also a fan of all of your R2 choices, particularly your first pick. I like both of the first choices for R1 and R4 as well, and the third pick in R1 was strong as well.