Planet Rinda

AMV Obsession

As of late, I’ve become increasingly obsessed with AMV’s online. This has led me to ponder the appeal of these video gems. AMV stands for Anime Music Video. They’re the latest entry into a long entertaining history of combining music with film clips that stretches back to the time of silent films. Most all of us have been raised on MTV and it’s surreal world of three minute miniature movies set to our favorite music. I think that’s one reason for the rise in AMV’s. It could also be that the AMV is well suited to our attention spans. Or it could simply be the wonderful combination of video with music. I don’t know really. I simply know that I’m becoming hooked! AMV’s are just a great way to enjoy all the anime characters that we know and love!

AMV’s are generally made by fans for fans without any official permission. These amateur masterpieces are made with video editing software and some of the results are quite professional looking. They generally combine carefully edited anime video clips with music of all kinds. Some use still images in a slide show format such as scanned images from manga. The style, the music and the final results are as varied as the anime fanbase out there. Many are award winning. Contests for AMV’s can be found online and at most conventions these days. But be forewarned. The competition is fierce!

These two posts by 2xKnight over at AnimeFansOnline really jump-started my latest AMV obsession. So please check out what he has to say about Naruto AMV’s and AMV’s in general (including one of my personal favorites Understanding Rukia!).

So look around online. Check out YouTube or your favorite video website. There are a plethora of AMV’s out there. Here are some of my current favorites…