for
4/7/2001
A warning, before we proceed: most of this information will be esoteric.
Over the years, many anime fans have cut together music videos from their favorite imported Japanese series. With the advent of peer-to-peer file sharing systems, these videos have migrated very quickly across the internet. Combing two seperate copyrighted materials is, of course, illegal--this is why most of the videos can only spread through such underground channels.
Using a Gnutella client, such as LimeWire...
...one can find dozens of these fan videos. I thought I'd spend a late page discussing the merits of some of those available for download.
Evangelion -- Weird Al Yankovic -- "I Think I'm a Clone Now"While a comedy song might be an odd fit for as brooding a series as Neon Genesis: Evangelion, this video is reasonably well cut, not overly compressed, and deals with the character of Rei, who I haven't seen done in another fan video. The picture and sound are of reasonable quality.
Evangelion -- REM -- "Losing My Religion"About the best possible fit, for song v.s. Evangelion's subject matter, this video deals mainly with Kaji Ryouji, another character for whom I have not seen any other videos. While it ends well, the cutting in this file is overly obvious most of the time. It's also overcompressed, in RealPlayer format, and the frame rate is very low. Still, it might be worth the download.
Evangelion -- Powerman 5000 -- "When Worlds Collide"If there is a master of fan videos, it's a person who identifies himself only as "Some stupid guy with nothing better to do," and gives his ICQ UIN. Another great mixture of subject matter and music, featuring good quality video and sound, this one starts out looking at Asuka and Shinji's relationship (Men and women--i.e. when worlds collide), and then explodes into other footage, with one amazing cut. That said, the end gets dragged down by a lot of series finale footage, but it's still one of the best videos I've seen.
Evangelion -- Vertical Horizon -- "Everything You Want"Another look at Asuka and Shinji's relationship, with some very beautiful footage and a good song fit. The compression is better than average. Unfortunately, the editor makes a questionable decision: he cuts to the band's actual music video numerous times. A respect issue? Perhaps. But it comes as a letdown, and a badly jarring break from the flow of the animated images.
Perfect Blue -- Nine Inch Nails -- "The Perfect Drug"Higher quality, and more complex in the way it's put together than most, the imagery of this psychological thriller works extremely well with the scratching, bone-jarring sounds of NIN. Pulling off a good video based on a single movie, rather than a tv series, is difficult, by virtue of how little footage there is to work with. To get around the problem, the video fails to focus on any one aspect of the film, which was probably the best route to take.
Evangelion -- Tori Amos -- "Crucify"Kind of a strange ending, but otherwise easy to watch, and pleasant. This edit focuses on no single character, but seems to meander from one to another, with each given a good block of time. A good fit to the song. Good quality video and sound.
El Hazard -- The Beatles -- "The Magical Mystery Tour"A welcome breath of fresh air, after the likes of Evangelion and Perfect Blue, this Beatles song blends extremely well with El Hazard's "exotic places, daring adventures!" kind of attitude (not to mention its sumptuous art). A great feel-good video, through and through. The sound is decent, the video quality average.
(Various) -- Blister in the Sun -- "The Violent Femmes"A very fun clump of different video clips (some apparently very old) featuring, basically, men being horny, in a cartoonish, anime sort of way. Dragon Ball Z, Tenchi Muyo! and several others make appearances. Lots of fun. Decent sound. Bad image--but I'd imagine the tapes it was edited from weren't much better. Sometimes found under the misleading title "Hentai in the Sun."
Evangelion Star Wars ParodyOften found under the confusing title "Evangelion, Episode 1," this video is actually an extremely clever cut of Evangelion footage to, of all things, the trailer to Star Wars: Episode I. The sound track is that of the trailer, sound for sound, while the footage has been matched up from Evangelion. It's incredibly funny, especially when people start talking, and must have taken an insane amount of time to put together (not that the rest of these didn't).
(Various) -- "The Ugly Girls of Anime"Another extremely entertaining cut of various series, in the vein of "Blister in the Sun." This one is set to a parody of that "Come on Barbie, Let's Go Party" song that we've all learned to hate. Features footage from Revolutionary Girl Utena, Tenchi Muyo!, and Akira, to name a few.
Evangelion -- Wagner -- "Ride of the Valkaries"One more from "Some stupid guy..." This is clearly Asuka's show, and is, in fact, a recut of a scene from the tv series set to music, rather than a broader sampling of the show. It works very well, although, not having seen the scene, I was saddened by the ending. Spoilers, I guess, is what I should alert you to. Good video and sound.
Evangelion -- Sponge -- "Plowed"You know, that "In a world of human wreckage..." song. This is definitely "Some stupid guy..."'s best and, in fact, the best anime video I have seen thus far. This one, too, is based around Asuka, with a fast montage at the end--something the editor seems to favor. The montage is more advanced than his others, and he has a great eye for the details that made Evangelion so visually stunning. The only letdown is the music: great song, but somewhat too compressed and flat.
As an odd side note, I saw the film Enemy at the Gates soon after viewing this video, and I still had the song going through my head. It worked perfectly. Really, uncannily perfectly.
Evangelion -- Wheezer -- "El Scorcho"While obviously he couldn't resist cutting a video to a song so obviously about his favorite character, Asuka, the song moves on from the opening line, "Well god damn you half Japanese girls!" and "Some stupid guy..."'s video loses focus. It moves from the end, to the ocean episode, to the first episode, but never quite makes you go "Oh, I know why he did that." The sound and picture are fine, though, and it's kind of fun, all said. There are much worse out there.
Tenchi Muyo in Love -- The Police -- "Every Breath You Take"Cut to one of my favorite anime movies, and, indeed, one of my favorite movies, this Police song edit starts out well enough, but soon runs out of steam. An important factor soon begins to be missed: editing. Most of the shots are just scenes from the movies, trimmed a little, but otherwise not very manipulated, in terms of their order and relation to one another. The last few shots of the video are just the last few shots of the movie, untrimmed, and don't really mesh with the Police's haunting, distant tones.
Evangelion -- Rammstein -- "Engel"Although it's one of a few other nameless videos that I threw away soon after downloading, I feel inclined to mention this one, more as a warning than a review. While I can't vouce for the meaning of the German lyrics, this video simply comes across as creepy and weird. All the lines in the song have footage of Asuka cut to them, such that she appears to be lip-synching to them. This is, I guess, because she's half German, and the song's, well, German and... hell, I dunno. Don't bother.
Thus is recounted my personal collection. I had hoped to be able to review an Akira cut to the Offspring's "Come Out and Play," which sounds like a good mix. Unfortunately, LimeWire, which is running in the background, has not finished downloading it, in spite of the several hours its been coming in. The best Gnutella access software is written in Java, which can slow my system in low memory conditions and make productive work difficult. The network is much less stable than, say, Napster, by virtue of being truly decentralized (and thus nearly impossible to shut down), so downloads are sometimes slow, and often unreliable.
The thing to remember always before setting out for anime music videos is that you probably have something better to do.
Touch the Toast