Month: August 2026

Categories
AMV Anime

AMV: This AMV has a $25 Amazon Gift Card in it

Watch it here.

This was done for an online contest called “Fun with Fonts.” It was a limited time event where participants were given two fonts and two weeks to make any sort of video using those fonts. I really had no strong ideas when I got my fonts, but I did have a $25 Amazon gift card so I thought it would be a fun idea to encode it into an AMV using the two given fonts. I have no real affinity for the song. I just needed something to fit the theme that this video has a mystery in it. It was the first thing I found that was not too long and fit the bill.

Here is how it decodes:

This is all done via a Caesar Cipher. The first code has every other word split into different fonts:

The first font (called Jonas) is shifted up two letters. The second font (LIVA) is shifted back by two letters. I gave no hints here. I assumed people would recognize the general structure of the sentence (especially the number) and connect it to the title of the video. Thus, it translates to: “This AMV has a $25 Amazon gift card in it.” This also establishes the pattern of Jonas fonts shifting up and LIVA fonts shifting back.

The next code is entirely in Jonas. Before this I played clips of Reinhard and Kircheis from Legend of the Galactic Heroes. They are a famous duet and, given the last code, we know Jonas fonts shift up. So these letters are shifted up by two. That leads to: “SKHF I wish Kircheis was here.”

I wanted to provide a sentence, not just the Amazon code. So people could know they had the right decoding values.

For the next code I showed clips of Eyeshield 21. You can see it uses both fonts. Take the number 21 and split it shifting the Jonas font up by two and the LIVA font down by 1. That yields: “TXBXZT Devil Bats.”

For the final code it is all LIVA. I showed clips of Alien Nine so the letters are shifted down by nine. This yields: “G5AP Weird show to be honest.”

This produces a final code of: SKHF-TXBXZT-G5AP

Despite thinking this would generate a lot of hungry puzzle solvers, alas no one got it so the $25 fell to me. Still though, fun idea I could execute on quickly. I do live in fear I messed up the puzzle somehow.

Categories
AMV

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.

Categories
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.