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AMV: The Anarchy

Watch it here.

Skit that goes along with it here.

This video was done for RICE 2026 where it won “Most Unsettling.” It was also submitted to Anime Boston 2026 in other (non-finalist), ConnectiCon 2026 in Drama (non-finalist), and Otakuthon 2026 in Originality (non-finalist).

You can see this work as a continuation of my other nuclear war AMV and, in a broader sense, with my other war themed amvs.

I also taped a little presentation on the context around this video. It is a bit rough, but it covers a lot of the historical and modern influence that went into this work.

The title comes from this book.

Director’s Commentary

00:00 – 01:06: The audio here is from the documentary Q.E.D.: A Guide to Armageddon. The director of this would go on to direct Threads. I tried a different intro with a ballet dancer here that I ended up not liking as much.

01:07 – 01:11: I really like how this title drop came out. I wanted some sort of title in the video itself to neatly separate the intro audio and the song that came after.

01:56: I wanted to draw a clear dichotomy between the violence and horror of the explosion compared to peaceful home scenes like this. This technique is designed to allow the viewer to create and imagine the horror for themselves and it is used extensively in both the Q.E.D. documentary and Threads. I also used it fairly often in this video.

02:48-02:49: I wanted to use one old source, Barefoot Gen (in 4:3) with a bunch of other modern widescreen sources. To do that I would have to go from the 4:3 aspect ratio to widescreen at some point. It made sense to me to use the same bombing event (in this case the attack on Nagasaki) which we see in both Barefoot Gen and then in Nagasaki 1945: Anjerasu no kane. My thinking was the explosion would “blow away” the frame as we switched into widescreen. I felt that was a very clever solution, but no one seemed to like it so oh well.

03:38: I really like the little synth synced up to the cowling on the missile falling away.

04:12 – I am a bit mixed on the Akira inclusion here. It looks a little different compared to my other modern sources and its not exactly a nuclear blast. I probably could have swapped it with something else, but I did not like my other options more so I kept it.

04:31 – 04:43: I added the air raid horn late. I was on the fence if it was a good addition or not, but it seemed to resonate well with people so mission accomplished.

Conclusion

I am very happy with how this all turned out. I really like a lot of the cuts from nuclear devastation to ordinary life. Probably my favorite AMV I have done so far.

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AMV

AMV: Bitch I’m a Bus Driver

Watch it here.

Submitted to:

  • AMV CLASS WARFARE in the Beast category where it was selected to represent that class.
  • Otakuthon 2026, where it was a finalist in Comedy/Parody

As part of the serious and important work I do editing fansubs, I was tasked with quality checking Orphan Fansubs release of Korogashi Ryouta. I knew before finishing all three episodes that something had to be made with this. It was just too wild an anime to let it be forgotten. I have a particular penchant for the old and the weird so it was a natural fit for me. I also enjoy thinking that this may be the first AMV ever made with this source. Email me if you find an earlier one!

Song wise I knew I wanted something bus themed since the bus was going to play a key role. I poked around at a few songs, but ultimately went with this wheels on the bus metal cover. It is just the right level of zany and unexpected for me.

Director’s Commentary:

00:16: I added a switch being flipped sfx here. Felt like it was missing something without it. Not sure it adds a lot, but it does feel like a good switch over to the more heavy metal portion of the song.

00:49 – 00:52: Maybe the best sync to audio I have ever done in my AMV career. Just tremendous and worth the admission price.

01:05 – 01:07: This would be the second best. I had a lot of fun with the screams in this one.

02:11 – 02:13: I added a little face of the MC here to cover up the side boob. Its probably not needed, but I wanted to cover my bases to not run afoul of convention submission rules.

Altogether a nice quick comedy AMV with a weird source.

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AMV: The Good Guys

Watch it here. This video was done for RICE 2026 where it was a finalist in “Aaaand ACTION!.” It was also a finalist at ConnectiCon 2026 in Action and a finalist in Retro Matsuri’s 2026 Animated Music Video Contest: The 2000’s Strike Back!.

There is also a related video in the argument series here.

I have quite liked this song every since hearing it and I have always loved Noir, so this was a natural pairing. This project actually took a fair bit of time as there are both a lot of episodes to go through (26) and I was looking for a bunch of very specific clips. The final product executed well on the vision. I especially like the quick cuts and that is where a lot of my time was spent.

Director’s Commentary

00:04 – 00:05: There are a number of these very fast sections in the video that I experimented on a lot. What I have works, but I could spend endless amounts of time tweaking.

00:05: The gunshots and other sound effects are all native to the song so there was a tremendous amount of working finding the right clips for them to sync up.

01:35: I never liked this clip of the MAC firing into the air, but I never found anything better.

01:39: There is some extensive masking on the lips here to make it look like she is not talking. It looks ok at speed, but suffers if you really inspect it.

01:56 – 01:58: The MAC firing here in time with the music is my favorite part of the video.

02:54: There is a turn in the video, at about here, where the singer starts questioning if he is the bad guy. I wanted to tie that into the protagonists of Noir, but it was hard to do with so little time left in the video. Still something to work on.

Conclusion

It is getting a bit silly to keep saying, but I quite liked how this turned out. It is not to the level of some action AMVs I have seen, but its the best I can muster at this time and it celebrates a somewhat forgotten show I really enjoy so another success for me.

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AMV

Live Action MV: The World Surrealist

Watch it here. This was done as part of an iron editor challenge through BentoVid in 2026. Participants were tasked to edit a video using live action sources only in a limited span of time (eight days). I had recently seen this video by Nerdwriter1 discussing the film Un Chien Andalou, and, since I am constantly on the lookout for artsy films to impress my LA film friend, it seemed like an excellent choice to use. Given it is pretty short I also wanted to us L’Age d’Or just so I had more options. Both are directed by Luis Buñuel and involve Dali so they are artistically linked to me.

The real difficulty for me was finding a song. I did a bunch of trolling on youtube before finally settling on Kerala by Bonobo. I think there is probably a better choice, but given the limited time I just went with it. I really wanted something a little more abstract and possibly discordant, but I never really found anything that hit those marks. So it goes sometimes.

Production was remarkably quick, partly do to the nature of the event and partly because there is really no story or idea behind this work. I wanted to embody the surrealist mindset of not telling a linear or sequential story. I simply grabbed clips that looked odd, surreal, weird, etc. and put them almost randomly on my timeline. I specifically tried to avoid putting clips in story order or to hit any specific musical beats. As you would surmise things go quick when you work in this manner.

Director’s Commentary:

00:10: Famously Un Chien Andalou starts with a lady getting her eyeball sliced in half. I thought about using that, but it was just too much to start with so I cut to black here.

00:15 – 00:20: Right from the jump here you can see the non-linearity at play as this bike rider crashes and then the next scene you can see him riding.

00:39: This box is a recurring prop in the film, but it is never explained. I wanted to keep that mystery by using clips with it a lot.

00:54 – 00:55: One of the objectives of this event was to play with the speed of clips. That works pretty well for a surrealist work like this as you do not need a reason to speed up or slow down a clip. I experimented with briefly stopping this clip and then letting it play. I like how it looks, but it could be executed better.

01:17 – 01:27: I really like how these three clips play on each other.

01:50 – 01:53: I made this clip play in reverse, but I still go back and forth on if it looks good or not.

02:04 – 02:06: The woman looking in fear at the car coming here was a very quick cut in the original film. I wanted to have it linger, but the footage was not there so I just played it twice out of order. It looks ok, but it is not what I wanted.

02:32 – 02:35: Maybe the funniest sight gag in the video.

02:40 – 02:48: No, I cannot explain the foot scenes, but I love the cut to the face of the statue.

03:02: I really love the little shrug the old man gives here.

Conclusion

As usual, I am pretty happy with how it all turned out. I got to make something very quickly that is pretty weird with unique sources. I also got to impress my LA friend. Mission accomplished.

Categories
AMV Anime

AMV: The Struggle

Watch it here. This video was submitted to:

  • Anime Boston 2026 in Fun/Comedy where it was a finalist.

This was a video I have had in mind ever since I heard this incredible song by im sad alex. It is not particularly ground breaking and could uncharitably be described as riffing off this video since they both fall under the category of: “song about something banal with clips of banal object.” I myself even think this video is not as good as that earlier one, but it does appeal to my puerile sensibilities and there are enough good jokes to make it work. It is not my favorite or best work, but I knew it would be a crowd pleaser.

Director’s Commentary

00:27 – 00:29: I had to do an absurd amount of lip flap cover up here so that she is permanently screaming.

00:47 – 00:48: Friend of the show drewaconclusion suggested I use ringing toilets here. Good suggestion.

01:12 – 01:13: I love the subtlety of the water here and in the following clips.

01:24: The cut to storm is my favorite part of the video.

01:34 – 01:35: I am ambivalent about the floating toilet. I do think this clip needs a little more action and it is kind of funny, but I do think there is a better solution out there.

01:52: Same with the text here. I think it is better in than out, but I wish I had something better.

01:56 – 02:08: I had a bunch of 4:3 clips and other small clips I wanted to use so I just threw them all in at the end here. It is a nice climax to the video and there is a lot to see.

02:20 – 02:24: I really like the quiet send off here.

Conclusion

Just a nice short punchy comedy video. It does not stay too long and it delivers on the joke. I do feel it needs something more, some more flair somewhere, but that is for better editors to find. It is beyond me at the moment.

Categories
AMV Anime

AMV: AMV Editor MasterClass

Watch it here. This video was submitted to:

  • Anime Boston 2026 in Shorts where it was a finalist.

Recently the shorts category has started to appear in AMV contests. They feature videos under 90 or 60 seconds with slightly relaxed content rules. A lot of contests allow short submissions in addition to longer more typical AMVs so it is natural that I would start experimenting in this medium, if only to get more shots at being a finalist. I have been enjoying executing on some smaller less intensive works, like this and there will be more to follow.

I knew that I wanted to do a parody like this, partially because meta-AMVs have always been pretty enjoyable and I had seen other parodies (such as this one) that have been quite good. Music wise I just searched for generic corporate meeting music. It almost does not matter what it is as long as it is bland given the text and visuals are doing 95% of the work. Even the anime itself is kind of secondary as it just serves to highlight the text jokes. It came together very quickly, mostly due to the idea being very straightforward and the fact that I only had to do one minute of video. The hardest part, as ever, was getting the live action stuff right. I’m just not sure my camera is up to the tasks I am setting it. Usually with enough light and some editing I can make it work, but I continue to be unimpressed with how much noise I end up getting.

Director’s Commentary

00:00 – 00:06: As ever, the indefatigable Mr. Skehill of QuixoticUnited Production joined me. This marks the fourth video he has been a part of. May our strange AMV cinematic universe never end.

00:09 – 00:11: I knew I wanted to use a few scenes from Sailor Moon, but the 4:3 aspect ratio was going to be a little incongruent (even if I made use of other 4:3 shows later) so I went with a multibox format here. It is nice you get a lot of clip variety and you get a text joke too.

00:15 – 00:21: Some good text jokes in here.

00:23 – 00:31 : I knew I wanted to involve some other editors I know and drewaconclusion and hamstar138 were more than happy to oblige. I worked with them to come up with some good class names.

00:48: Very on the nose, but it is a good joke.

00:59 – 1:00: I tried a bunch of final jokes at the end, but none of them worked so I just went with the logo.

Conclusion

I am really happy with how this turned out. It is quick, it has a ton of good jokes, I get to shout out some of my favorite editors, and it has my good friend in it. I do wish it had a better ending joke, but I like everything else.

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AMV

AMV: The Bloody Refrain

Watch it here. This AMV was created for SLICE (Short little iron chef edits), where editors were tasked to create a video from a set list of songs in under 100 hours. It was submitted to that contest and Retro Matsuri under the other category.

I had recently just watched Kite, which is somewhat notorious for its graphic depictions of sex and violence. I found it pretty decent and it was pretty well suited for this kind of short contest. I find that narrowing the footage to work with helps prevent getting paralyzed with choice. The perfect thing to avoid when you only have a few days to do something. The end result is nothing special, but I am happy with it all the same.

Director’s Commentary

00:03 – 00:05: The black scenes here (and later on) represent sexual assault. Obviously I could not include that on youtube and even if I could it would mess with the feeling of the piece so I have to rely on implication here instead of being explicit about it.

00:52 – 01:00: I think I would not have quite as many clips here as I ended up with. It moves a little too quick to me now.

01:00 – 01:02: I like the synchronization with the basketball here.

01:44 – 01:46: Not sure why I did not use a crossfade here to tie the present and the past together more nicely.

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AMV

AMV: Some Memories Are More Clear Than Others

Watch it here. This video was made for AwesomeCore 2025, an online contest encouraging experimental videos. It was also submitted to ConnectiCon 2025 in the experimental category, but was not a finalist.

After watching La Jetée I was inspired to create something in a similar vein. I wanted some sort of historical work, comprised mostly of still shots with a brief interlude of clear motion, matching a lot of what the film does. The connection between film and AMV should be even more obvious given I used a song straight from the film.

To put it simply, I wanted to convey how an early fascination with planes for Jiro Horikoshi, led to the creation of the Zero, a personal triumph for him, which ultimately contributed to the destruction of his own country. Kind of a lot to do in four minutes, but I claim I have done it.

Director’s Commentary

00:03 : It may be hard to see unless you are looking for it, but all the still shots have a gate weave effect applied. I wanted this so that each still shot has a little motion and it is not just a slideshow. I also added some film grain and turned down the color so that the scene with all the motion in the middle could have a little more contrast.

00:30 : I am using the fades here to show passage of time.

00:34 – 00:37 : One of my favorite bits of this AMV is the rapid shot changes to indicate the ferocity of the earthquake.

02:33 – 02:56 : I used real audio from Zeros at an airshow here. I wanted to convey, by way stopping the music and turning off the effects, that this was a very special moment for Jiro and was a core memory for him. This is also very similar to a scene in La Jetée.

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AMV: Class Warfare

I did two videos for this, but only submitted one. You can see them here. This was an online contest where contestants were asked to submit a video related to one of the classes from the Holy Grail War (those being: saber, archer, lancer, caster, rider, assassin, berserker, and shielder). These videos are for the rider class.

Director’s Commentary: Ponsonby at Waterloo

It felt a little sacrilegious to make a high tempo “blood-pumping” video full of historical events, so as penance I made this slower more thoughtful video about General Ponsonby covering his death at Waterloo.

00:43 – 00:51: I ran out of live action clips to use, as this is a fairly short part of the Waterloo movie, so I added in some art from the battle.

01:16 – 01:31: The slow motion footage is direct from the film with no changes.

02:50 – 02:53: Really great shot with all the retreating cavalry in the background.

03:06 – 03:23: I am quite partial to the ending.

Director’s Commentary: Thunder, Steel, and Blood

The impetus for this is I have seen a lot of movies with Napoleonic cavalry in them and I just wanted to show off all the great cinematography. It is doubly cool that it is all real extras with no CGI.

00:37 – 00:55: Slow motion footage is still cool wherever it is used.

01:39: Technically WW1 British mounted infantry here.

02:36 – 02:40: Kind of a meh climax here. Really wish I had some better clips of the cavalry mixing it up with some infantry, but it was just not available.

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Eight Years at NetNumber (now Titan.ium owned by Lumine)

The years march on (12 years and counting as a professional) and so do the annual blog posts.

Each year I feel like I have less and less interesting news to reports. It becomes a struggle to type up anything remotely interesting from the last year. Nevertheless, we must persevere.

I have gone fully remote this year, only spending two days in an office. The change has been mostly smooth. I certainly enjoy the extra time I can sleep each day and this has undoubtedly extended the life of my car along with some nice gas savings. Now if only that remote stipend could become a thing. It has not all been smooth sailing though. It has become markedly more difficult to access people. I do miss the ease of finding someone to talk to. It can be a lot harder to get someone when all you have is email and chat. Still, my experience is nothing new.

Like I thought, the number of videos I made last year was an aberration. Final count for 2024 was 15 AMVs and eight small non-AMVs. I doubt I will ever make so many videos in a year again, but I find myself still full of ideas. It is early in the year, but I have already notched a nice win for myself in the awards category, which has certainly given me a bit more impetus. I hope to release five or so new videos this year.

Late last year, the first big fansub editing project I was involved in came out. This was a ton of work, but I was happy to contribute my small part. I thought that would be it, but through the label [Blasphemboys] and through Orphan Fansubs, I have continued editing and quality checking. I do about 30-60 minutes a week. It is not that hard and it is very cool to see some very old/obscure work for maybe the first time in English. I look forward to keeping at this.

Gun collecting wise, the miracle gunsmith I found last year has all but retired, so the search for a new one must begin. I still need brass for my Bodeo and now for a Roth Krinka. That said, it was a fairly light year of collecting.

I completed a Gundam model kit for the first time this year. It was certainly fun, but much more fiddly compared to Legos. Too much work involved snipping things out and cleaning up the pieces. Much nicer with Lego to just have everything ready to go. Still, I have acquired some nicer tools and would like to do some more kits.

Not much more to say. Another year closer to death.