Okay then, no talking about left and right today.
I came across this thing here: The four faces of Arnold. Take a look! But come back here when you are done, I am not finished.
For no particular reason I decided to go after some AMVs last week. AMV stands for Anime Music Video - someone with lots of free time takes scenes from an anime and makes them fit with a song. Some are beautiful, with image and music in perfect synchrony. If you are willing to download a good few megabytes, I suggest hopping on some P2P (WinMX or Overnet are better for anime) and looking for...
Ahh! My Goddess - Queen - Who Wants to Live Forever
Tenchi Muyo - No Doubt - Don't Speak
The History of Anime
Ranma - Carl Douglas - Kung-fu Fighting
Rurouni Kenshin - Carl Orff - O Fortuna
Rurouni Kenshin - Goo Goo Dolls - Iris
Notice two things: by saying these AMVs are great I do not imply the songs in them is great as well, just that the sum of all things involved is beautiful. The first two in special. And you probably will not find them with these names, but any Googler will know what to look for. On with it.
Of course, there are also very bad AMVs. One attracted me, "Evangelion - The Ride of the Valkyries". I avoid Evangelion AMV, because I never saw Evangelion (yes, I know, big hole in my anime life) and because they all look the same. But this one was especially bad. The guy saw that the music had M minutes, ss seconds; so he chose a scene and cut a slice of M'ss from it. removed the sound, put the Valkyries on top. That is all. So I saw a full battle scene for Evangelion and got annoyed at a tune I really like. No sync, no meaning, no nothing. Like playing a random CD on the stereo while watching the anime on a muted TV. Same applies to "Saint Seiya - Tina Turner - We Don't Need Another Hero". I got it out of curiosity, seeing as Saint Seiya almost rivals Dragon Ball in number of episodes and OVAs, and that is the only AMV of it I ever came across. Waste of time. No sync. At least this guy tried to do something, you can see it is not just one scene. But, really, if you cannot find the matching visual sequence for that musical phrase, do not spoil the anime and the song.
On the other hand, bad AMVs have a crucial point: seeing my dear Ride of the Valkyries so horrendously misused, I felt this great need to make an AMV myself and use this song. But it will probably be for Escaflowne instead - enough of EVAs and Angels, the Guymelef is my armored suit of choice! In fact, any Zaibach 'Melef would do, or even Scherazade; I ask for nothing big and complicated and all pompous as the Guymelef of Ispano. Looking like Allen or Van would surely be a plus, too.
Back to the point: somehow, the idea of making an AMV found a warm corner in my mind, settled down and built a home. But to make the one I want I would need to download the entire Tenkuu no Escaflowne series in Raw format (no subtitles), which I cannot do right now for a number of reasons. Then there is the problem of actually making the video: I think I forgot my bag of "Effort" somewhere. Or maybe I am a prophet of some sort and am saving as much effort as I can because I, and I alone, know the future will be a very perilous struggle and only those with the most determination will reach the end and raise above all others as the new leader of... you get the idea.
I would write about my recent attempt at programming, but it contrasts too much with the current line of the post. No more than the link up there, of course, but that is a small interlude, a break, to part completely with the political mood of the last two posts before going into something a bit more fun. I consider myself excused.
Posted by Etienne at February 23, 2003 12:55 AM