From September 2005 to June 2006 a team of thirteen scholars at the The University of Southern California's Annenberg Center for Communication explored how new and maturing networking technologies are transforming the way in which we interact with content, media sources, other individuals and groups, and the world that surrounds us.

This site documents the process and the results.

anime music videos

Curated by Jonathan "Inertia" Cullinane and Rachel Cody

Anime music videos (amvs) are a form of fan produced media that had its origins in the late nineties in primarily English-language fandoms of Japanese animation (anime). Creators make videos by re-editing footage from anime series and synchronizing it with a different soundtrack. The soundtracks are usually popular music, but can also be the soundtrack of a movie trailer or dialog from some other television show, commercial, or film. They are most commonly released over the Internet sites like animemusicvideos.org, and are shown at anime conventions. Popular genres include comedy, action, romance, drama, parody, and trailers.

ManyLemons Productions Narutrix
This parody AMV takes the soundtrack of the theatrical trailer for Matrix Reloaded and illustrates it with scenes from the ninja-themed anime Naruto. The inspiration for this work is the ability of the main character, Naruto, being able to replicate himself much like Matrix's agent Smith. This provides the humourous twist of making a major ”˜good’ character into the bad guy for once.

Ivory Knights Productions Muppet Hunter D
The famous and infectious Muppet Show theme song is combined with the dark and serious anime film Vampire Hunter D - Bloodlust to great comic effect. With excellent and incongruous lipsynching, this AMV plays well to any audience.

XOST Productions Always Hardcore
This atmospheric dance video uses well-timed lipsynch to portray the anime character Edward Elric as the musical artist himself. This is an example of the fast-paced action genre of AMV, as well as showing much the same techniques that would well be used in professional music videos of this kind.

Big Big Truck Productions Failed Experiments in Video Editing
A disturbingly accurate but comedic portrayal of an AMV editor's trials and tribulations, as described with anime footage cut with original artwork by the artist.

Scorpions Unlimited – Whisper of the Beast
This jaw-dropping work is an excellent example of state-of-the-art techniques in AMVs, creating an entirely new story by compositing existing footage, using a variety of methods. That is to say, characters have been removed from their original backdrops and placed into new scenes as if interacting with other characters, as well as day scenes turned to night and plenty of subtle alterations. This is a making-of video also showing the original sources that compose the final scenes.

Suberunker Studeosh – Still Preoccupied with 1985
This is a cultural parody mixing 80s music album covers with modern anime characters, while telling the story portrayed by the song itself. Scenes are taken mainly from the surreal comedy Azumanga Daioh, and in the mix are numerous references to pop culture and the AMV community itself.

ManyLemons Productions Sail On
This is an AMV designed to introduce people to the series One Piece. The series is often misrepresented as a children’s show, propagated largely by the decision to cut and re-script the American dub release, and its peculiar art style. This video was intended to help amend that image for the sanity of its original fans, combining its fun, adventure theme with examples of much darker and more serious moments.

More Than Toast Productions A Thousand Miles
A light-hearted romance video, this AMV depicts a simple love story from the beautiful Ghibli film, Whisper of the Heart. Elegant ”˜piano-key’ style effects and gentle transitions make this video a very accessible work.

Delusional Productions Excel - Pop Up Video
A parody of VH-1's Pop-Up Music Video style, this AMV includes comments and side-notes 'popping-up' throughout the song, often comedic and adding a distinct twist. The anime used is Excel Saga, an extremely fast-paced and nonsensical series where the fourth wall is broken so often it may as well not exist. The video follows this trend perfectly.

Turboneko Petit Love
Here’s a short and sweet romantic comedy, with emphasis on the comedy. This video portrays the dysfunctional relationship between two characters from the series Fruits Basket, shown in an innovative comic-panel style. This is a small excerpt from a collaborative project known as the DDR project, where the entire song collection from each of the Dance Dance Revolution games are put to anime by individual editors, then combined into a full (usually hour-long) AMV.

Istiv Studio The Race
This AMV features extremely detailed work rotoscoping visuals from over 70 different 'Shounen' (male-oriented) anime sources to portray a marathon race between dozens of characters to win a mystery prize. Rotoscoping is the art of editing video frame-by-frame, in this case cutting characters from their original backgrounds while moving. It is a very time-consuming and labourious process, often avoided, but the results are easy to see here.

Kusoyaro Productions Batchelorette Utena
This dramatic video showcases the more artistic and surreal dimensions of anime and AMVs. The source is the movie Adolescence of Utena, a well known ”˜Shoujo’ (female-oriented) anime, where highly distinctive visual metaphors and surrealism are the order of the day.

Doki Doki Productions Right Now
This AMV is a parody of the Van Halen music video Right Now. It strives to keep the AMV true to the music video, replacing the Van Halen musicians and live video withe anime characters and scenes. The text is replaced with comic references to the anime fan community. It has been a favorite of AMV fans for several years, but its humor makes it appealing to all audiences.]

Tophat Monkey Productions (ssgwnbtd) Osaka Feiss
This AMV parodies the famous Apple Switch commercial featuring Ellen Feiss and her disastrous computer experience while writing a paper. Short and sweet, Osaka Feiss replaces Ellen Feiss with the main character of the anime series Azumanga Daioh. It visually echoes Ellen's computer nightmare. The AMV site also has a link to the original Apple commercial.

Aokakesu Digital Odorikuruu
A classic dance video mixing energetic clips from a multitude of anime sources to create a visual montage.

wia0 Full Metal Guide to the Trailers
This AMV is a parody of the trailer for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The creators have edited the Full Metal Panic series to feature the characters giving a "guide" to movie trailers.

Kusoyaro Productions Sappy Self Indulgence
This amv brings together a mix of anime series with a musical medley. Clips from a variety of anime are combined for a comic portrayal of a romantic musical medley featured in the movie Moulin Rouge.

Zettai Unmei Anime (AbsoluteDestiny) I Wish I Was a Lesbian
This is a comedy video featuring an anime character as the musical artist of an unusual song. The song is depicted using clips from a variety of anime series, while the musical artist croons along.

Submitted by kvarnelis on April 25, 2006 - 5:33pm

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