Sorry i'm a little late with the update. Work has been hell for the last week, and i came down with a bad case of con crud on top of it. But here you go, finally!
Those are all the links i was able to find as of a couple days ago. The rest either haven't been posted, or have only been posted on YouTube by "reposters" who i don't really feel like supporting. If i find more links (or anyone else tells me about them) i'll update the list.
The asterisks by the numbers indicate the winners in each category. The Judges' Choice was A6, and the Audience Choice, Creator's Choice and Best of Show were all F2.
And if you want to know what i thought...
ACTION/ADVENTURE
I really liked Rider4Z's video (A4), so that's the one i voted for. A2 was well done and set to a good song, but the concept of Full Metal Alchemist action AMVs is getting a little thin. It's relatively easy for any AMV of equal quality that's _not_ FMA to impress me more at this point.
A5 and A3 were both decent, though i've got to say that it was rather surprising to see another E.S. Posthumous video after all this time.
I haven't seen any Ghost in the Shell except for the original movie, and IMHO A1 did a kind of meh job of standing on its own merits.
A6 was a very well done video. It got voted best in show by the Judges, and Avalyn voted for it for best in category. I was just kind of put off by all the horror aspects. Which is interesting, because even as i was deciding i didn't really like it, i could also see some strong parallels between it and the "Leviathan Wakes"/"The Expanse" book series which i really like. Which makes me wonder what i'm going to feel about the upcoming "The Expanse" TV series. Perhaps i'll be more okay with the body horror stuff when it's part of a story and not a music video.
DRAMA/THEATRIC
I was kind of underwhelmed by the first three videos in the drama category, but that's generally my expectation going into the drama category, so i was quite happy when i discovered that the last three were much better (IMHO.)
My favorite was D4, PieandBeer's "Levity", set to the latest Studio Ghibli movie, and Avalyn actually agreed with me about this one (the only category in which our votes matched up.)
D6 was one of the best Kingdom Hearts AMVs i can remember seeing in quite awhile, possibly ever. Of course a large part of that is that it's been awhile since i watched many Kingdom Heart AMVs, so they've got a lot more material to work with now. Back when KH2 was the new hotness after you'd seen a couple videos they all started to look a little alike because they were all using the same scenes. Nekokitkat managed to avoid that and it was a pleasant surprise.
D5 was well done, but it was set to "Your Lie In April", which we saw used in a number of other videos in the AMV Room. Which is not a problem. What is a problem however is that the impression i get from most of the AMVs is that this is yet another romantic/friendship anime where the female dies a tragic death in order to prove the depth of the male's affections for her.
I wanted to like D1, because Rider4Z, but it just wasn't really my thing. Nor was D3. D2 was my least favorite of the category.
FUN/UPBEAT
So after the half good/half meh Drama category, Fun/Upbeat blew me away.
F1 was my favorite in the category, and almost got my vote for Best in Show. It was the first time i ever heard the "Notice Me!" song, and it's not a good AMV contest unless i find a new silly song or new kick-ass song. It was also the first AMV in the contest to use "Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun". It's hard to tell a lot about it from what's shown in the AMVs other than the fact that it's a high school romantic comedy, however the way in which it gets used seems rather similar to the Toradora AMVs of a few years back, albeit with less violence. Avalyn and i are hoping that maybe it will fill the Toradora void in our viewing schedule.
F3 was my other favorite from the category. In fact by a small margin it beat out F2 for Best in Show. However it was not my favorite in category, because it didn't really seem like a Fun/Update AMV to me. I probably would have voted for it in either the Action or Dance categories, but it wasn't in either of those categories.
F5 was the other video i considered voting for. It seems to be one of those classic/overdone/whatever-you-want-to-ca
F2 won Best in Category, Best in Show, and i think a couple of other things. It was a really well done AMV which told a compelling story using an interesting looking anime that i've never seen before and am now kind of interested in, which is another thing i look for in a good AMV contest. So what was the problem? As far as i can tell, and as has been mostly confirmed by other people who've seen the anime, the AMV seems to tell the exact same story as two episodes of the anime itself. (Or possibly two half-episodes, i'm not clear on the structure yet.) I'm okay with AMVs that recap the story of an entire series (see F5 above,) but recapping individual episodes just seems a little too easy, even when it's well done.
F4 was yet another Free! AMV. However instead of focusing on the (real or imagined) homosexual tensions between the characters like so many other Free! AMVs i've seen, this one told the story of a fangirl obsessed with the anime, which was a refreshing change. Avalyn voted for this one for best in category, which i don't think was a bad choice.
SENTIMENT/ROMANCE
Sentiment/Romance was almost as good as Fun/Upbeat. I'm a bit more of a fan of this category than some people i know, but even so it was a bit of a surprise. It helped a lot that for the most part the videos weren't super-sappy/tragic.
I ended up voting for S1, because i'm even though i insist that a video actually meet the criteria of the category (as i view it at least) it never hurts to mix in a little action or dance :)
Avalyn votes for S2, and i quite liked it too. It was also a Monthly Girl's whatever, but more romantic and less comedic than "Notice Me".
I also liked S3 and S4. S3 was another video set to that "two kids get together to form a jazz/rock band and (maybe) compete for the affections of a girl" anime that i saw used a couple times in the VCAs. This one definitely seems more in the "Sentimental" half of the spectrum. S4 is mainly notable for using a cover of "Call Me Maybe."
S5 and S6 were okay, but didn't seem very memorable to me... i can't exactly remember why :) (Okay, upon checking i kind of blocked S5 out of my mind because i know too much about the manga, and S6 was the 2nd Monthly Girls' AMV and the 3rd one of the night, and had the song i liked least out of all three.)
RHYTHM/DANCE
This category wasn't _bad_, but it was a bit of a disappointment to me. This is always the section where i hope to discover an awesome new song, and that didn't really happen this year.
The best of the bunch in my opinion was R2. It had a decent song and was a single-source K-On AMV, which was interesting because i think i may have seen more of K-On in this one video than in all the other AMVs sampling it that i've seen before.
R4 and R5 were decent. I was kind of excited about R4 ahead of time since it was set to a "Daft Punk Skrillix mix", but it ended up consisting of a lot less Daft Punk than i would have liked. Avalyn ended up voting for R5, but the music wasn't quite as much to my taste.
R3 was... just strange. Not bad, just weird and not really my thing.
As for R1, from an artistic standpoint pairing a Michal Jackson Captain EO track with Space Dandy is brilliant. However i haven't seen Space Dandy and i'm not all that fond of Michael Jackson's music, so personally i felt really "meh" about this one.
COMEDY/HUMOR
Okay, i love the comedy section. And technically speaking the comdey section was very good this year. But it's gotten into a bit of a rut.
We had the obligatory AMV set to a meta song. (C1)
We had the obligatory meta AMV about anime/AMVs. (C4)
And we had the obligatory AMV about Free! being gay. (C2)
And they were each well done examples of their types, but it's starting to get a little old.
C5 was set to "Thrift Shop", and was a nice idea that was pretty well done. I commented before the show that i'd heard clips of the song before, but never actually heard the whole thing before. Well it turns out the clips i heard were the best part, and i'm not all that fond of the bits of the song that go in between. Avalyn was apparently not as put off by the song as i was and voted for this one.
C3 is just nuts. It takes the "Rainbow Stalin" joke that was a 5-10 second bit from... AMV404 i think? And expands it out into a full AMV of its own. However it bribed me with Final Fantasy sound clips, and it was original, so it got my vote.
BONUS CATEGORY:
As for the commercial and trailer stuff, "Attack on Badassdom" is something else that's getting overdone by this point. Aside from that the trailers were all reasonably interesting. My favorite was probably Rider4z's Hunger Games/Korra mashup.
I confess that i wasn't paying too much attention to some of the commercials because i was busy trying to figure out how to vote.
The FedEx one is amusing but part of that may be because i vaguely remember the original commercial. The Swear Jar one was amusing. I kinda want to like "Immortal Chimera", but the subject matter is just a little too squicky for me. I don't know the Johnny Bravo intro or the Footlocker commercial, so those ones kind of passed me by.
I didn't vote for any of the commercials or trailers because i didn't notice any such spot, but either i didn't look close enough, or it was creator's only vote, because according to the list X3 and X11 were the bonus category winners.
I've probably forgotten some stuff, but that's the highlights as i remember them!
| Anime Expo 2015 AMV Contest | ||||||
| AMV.org | YouTube | Number | Title | Creator | Audio Source | Video Source |
| INTRODUCTION | ||||||
| Link | Link | INTRO | AX 2015 AMV Competition Intro -Monty Oum Dedication- | By Rider4Z [Otaku Lounge Productions] | We Own It (Fast & Furious) by 2 Chainz, Wiz Khalifa | Monty Oum's Dead Fantasy & RWBY, and Red vs Blue |
| ACTION/ADVENTURE | ||||||
| Link | Link | A1 | Red Pill | By Straw Buggy | ”Rocksteady” by The Bloody Beetroots | Ghost in the Shell: Arise, Mardock Scramble |
| Link | Link | A2* | Transmutayshun | By Ileia [CornDog VidVids] | ”Come With Me Now” by Kongos | Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood |
| Link | Link | A3 | Alter | By Zazzle [Allegoriest AMVs] | ”Unstoppable“ by E.S. Posthumus | Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 1 & 2 |
| Link | Link | A4 | Last Call | By Rider4Z [Otaku Lounge Productions] | ”Burn It to the Ground” by Nickelback | Various [6] |
| Link | Link | A5 | THROWBACK | By BecauseImBored1 | “Diamond Eyes” by Shinedown | Yu Yu Hakusho |
| Link | Link | A6 | Nomura | By Pic4 | ”Compelled“ by Jack Trammell | Knights of Sidonia |
| DRAMA/THEATRIC | ||||||
| Link | Link | D1 | User Distortion | By Rider4Z [Otaku Lounge Productions] | ”Hurricane” by 30 Seconds to Mars | Future Diary |
| Link | Link | D2 | Derelict | By irriadin [PixelBlended Studios] | ”A Dream Within A Dream vs Trifonic Broken (Redrosid Mashup)” by The Glitch Mob | From the New World |
| Link | Link | D3 | Unbound | By Ryuu-Dono [Nero Team] | ”All is Violent, All is Bright“ by God is an Astronaut | Various [5] |
| Link | Link | D4 | Levity | By PieandBeer [Tsunderbird Studios] | ”All I Want” by Kodaline | The Wind Rises |
| Link | Link | D5* | Echo of Life | By Ookami [Eclipse Studio] | ”Echo” by Jason Walker | Your Lie in April |
| 404 | Link | D6 | Call To Arms | By Nekokitkat | ”Vox Populi” by 30 Seconds to Mars | Kingdom Hearts series |
| FUN/UPBEAT | ||||||
| Link | Link | F1 | Notice Me! | By Zazzle [Allegoriest AMVs] | ”Notice Me” by Alexa Ray Joel | Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun |
| 404 | Link | F2* | My Neighbor Figaro-kun | By Nicolio1313 | ”The Barber of Seville, Figaro's Aria” by Erich Kunzel | My Neighbor Seki-kun |
| Link | Link | F3 | Yato's God Complex | By Rider4Z [Otaku Lounge Productions] | ”Immortals” by Fall Out Boy | Noragami |
| Link | Link | F4 | The Fangirl Chronicle | By Celia Phantomhive [r3act Team SesSions] | ”Far Too Close [Pegboard Nerd Remix]“ by J.Viewz | Watamote, Free! |
| 404 | Link | F5 | Take a Leap | By MomtoCutiePia | ”Geronimo“ by Sheppard | Barakamon |
| SENTIMENT/ROMANCE | ||||||
| Link | Link | S1 | Collide | By Radical_Yue [CornDog VidVids] | ”Like Satellites” by Manufactured Superstars ft. Danni Rouge | Waiting In The Summer |
| Link | Link | S2 | Lucky Seven | By PieandBeer [Tsunderbird Studios] | ”Little Numbers” by Boy | Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun |
| Link | Link | S3* | My Favorite Days | By CrackTheSky | ”Running With The Boys” by Lights | Kids on the Slope |
| Link | Link | S4 | Maybe | By Vivifx | ”Call Me Maybe” by Paradise Fears | Inu x Boku SS |
| Link | Link | S5 | All That Matters | By BasharOfTheAges | ”Life, in a Nutshell” by Barenaked Ladies | Usagi Drop |
| 404 | Link | S6 | Kokoro Message | By KushiiSmiles | ”Don't Go Breakin My Heart” by Glee Cast | Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun |
| RHYTHM/DANCE | ||||||
| Link | Link | R1 | Captain DandEo | By "LC"_Lapen | ”We Are Here To Change The World” by Michael Jackson | Space Dandy |
| 404 | Link | R2 | Ho-Kago Teastep | By MoonieAMV | ”Highscore” by Teminite and Panda Eyes | K-On! series |
| Link | Link | R3 | A Salty Stick | By BakaOppai | ”Marble Soda” by Shawn Wasabi | Various [35] |
| 404 | 404 | R4 | Power Chord | By Vivifx | ”Daft Punk Skrillex Mix” by Conte | Various [12] |
| Link | Link | R5* | Coup de Grace | By andrewbee | ”Pray to God [feat. HAIM]” by Calvin Harris | Various [58] |
| COMEDY/HUMOR | ||||||
| 404 | Link | C1 | One Million Views (Guaranteed) | By Compbros | ”Viral Song” by Toby Turner | Various [15] |
| Link | Link | C2* | Fishsticks | By NepNep | ”Gay Fish” by South Park | Free! series |
| Link | Link | C3 | Rainbow Stalin Saves The World | By drewaconclusion | ”All This Love" by The Similou, + Various Sources [7] | Various [3] |
| Link | Link | C4 | Contest Trolling 101 | By Mr. Pilkington | ”Pop101“ by Marianas Trench | Various [66] |
| Link | Link | C5 | Cosplay Bargain Bin | By Tarage | ”Thrift Shop” by Macklemore | Various [39] |
| BONUS CATEGORY: | ||||||
| Plays after ACTION/ADVENTURE | ||||||
| 404 | Link | X1 | Peppermint Samurai | By Compbros | Mentos Commercial | Sket Dance ) |
| 404 | Link | X2 | Your Favorite Swimming Show | By Camichan19 | ”Friends“ TV Intro | Free!, Free Eternal Summer ) |
| Link | Link | X3* | The Little Prince Returns | By hamstar138 | ”The Little Prince” Trailer | Whisper of the Heart, The Cat Returns ) |
| Plays after DRAMA/THEATRIC | ||||||
| Link | Link | X4 | Immortal Chimera | By l33tmeatwad [PixelBlended Studios] | “Immortal Dog” by The Midnight Show | FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Soul Eater |
| 404 | Link | X5 | A True Ladies Man… In Space! | By Compbros | “Johnny Bravo” Intro | Space Dandy |
| 404 | Link | X6 | Girl on Fire | By Rider4Z [Otaku Lounge Productions] | ”The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1” Trailer | The Legend of Korra |
| Plays after FUN/UPBEAT | ||||||
| 404 | 404 | X7 | IT’S HAPPENING | By Gaki | Footlocker Commercial ft. Manny Pacquiao | Hajime No Ippo |
| Link | Link | X8 | FedEx | By ReignGoddess | FedEx Commercial | Speed Racer |
| Link | Link | X9 | Attack on Badassdom | By Maboroshi Studio | “Knights of Badassdom” Trailer | Attack on Titan |
| Plays after SENTIMENT/ROMANCE | ||||||
| Link | Link | X10 | Definitely Not Natural | By ReignGoddess | Enzyte Commercial | Speed Racer |
| 404 | Link | X11* | Waifu Insurance | By BakaOppai | Geico Commercial | Various [15] |
| Link | Link | X12 | March of the Penguindrum | By Camichan19 | “March of the Penguins” Trailer | Penguindrum |
| Plays after RHYTHM/DANCE | ||||||
| 404 | 404 | X13 | OK Google | By kayn | ”OK Google“ Commercial | Various [13] ) |
| 404 | Link | X14 | The Swear Jar | By Maboroshi Studio | Budweiser “Swear Jar” Commercial | Servant X Service ) |
| Link | Link | X15 | Mayachete | By Sailor Death Productions | ”Machete” Trailer | Nichijou, Azumanga Daioh, Team Fortress 2, Fallout 3 |
Those are all the links i was able to find as of a couple days ago. The rest either haven't been posted, or have only been posted on YouTube by "reposters" who i don't really feel like supporting. If i find more links (or anyone else tells me about them) i'll update the list.
The asterisks by the numbers indicate the winners in each category. The Judges' Choice was A6, and the Audience Choice, Creator's Choice and Best of Show were all F2.
And if you want to know what i thought...
ACTION/ADVENTURE
I really liked Rider4Z's video (A4), so that's the one i voted for. A2 was well done and set to a good song, but the concept of Full Metal Alchemist action AMVs is getting a little thin. It's relatively easy for any AMV of equal quality that's _not_ FMA to impress me more at this point.
A5 and A3 were both decent, though i've got to say that it was rather surprising to see another E.S. Posthumous video after all this time.
I haven't seen any Ghost in the Shell except for the original movie, and IMHO A1 did a kind of meh job of standing on its own merits.
A6 was a very well done video. It got voted best in show by the Judges, and Avalyn voted for it for best in category. I was just kind of put off by all the horror aspects. Which is interesting, because even as i was deciding i didn't really like it, i could also see some strong parallels between it and the "Leviathan Wakes"/"The Expanse" book series which i really like. Which makes me wonder what i'm going to feel about the upcoming "The Expanse" TV series. Perhaps i'll be more okay with the body horror stuff when it's part of a story and not a music video.
DRAMA/THEATRIC
I was kind of underwhelmed by the first three videos in the drama category, but that's generally my expectation going into the drama category, so i was quite happy when i discovered that the last three were much better (IMHO.)
My favorite was D4, PieandBeer's "Levity", set to the latest Studio Ghibli movie, and Avalyn actually agreed with me about this one (the only category in which our votes matched up.)
D6 was one of the best Kingdom Hearts AMVs i can remember seeing in quite awhile, possibly ever. Of course a large part of that is that it's been awhile since i watched many Kingdom Heart AMVs, so they've got a lot more material to work with now. Back when KH2 was the new hotness after you'd seen a couple videos they all started to look a little alike because they were all using the same scenes. Nekokitkat managed to avoid that and it was a pleasant surprise.
D5 was well done, but it was set to "Your Lie In April", which we saw used in a number of other videos in the AMV Room. Which is not a problem. What is a problem however is that the impression i get from most of the AMVs is that this is yet another romantic/friendship anime where the female dies a tragic death in order to prove the depth of the male's affections for her.
I wanted to like D1, because Rider4Z, but it just wasn't really my thing. Nor was D3. D2 was my least favorite of the category.
FUN/UPBEAT
So after the half good/half meh Drama category, Fun/Upbeat blew me away.
F1 was my favorite in the category, and almost got my vote for Best in Show. It was the first time i ever heard the "Notice Me!" song, and it's not a good AMV contest unless i find a new silly song or new kick-ass song. It was also the first AMV in the contest to use "Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun". It's hard to tell a lot about it from what's shown in the AMVs other than the fact that it's a high school romantic comedy, however the way in which it gets used seems rather similar to the Toradora AMVs of a few years back, albeit with less violence. Avalyn and i are hoping that maybe it will fill the Toradora void in our viewing schedule.
F3 was my other favorite from the category. In fact by a small margin it beat out F2 for Best in Show. However it was not my favorite in category, because it didn't really seem like a Fun/Update AMV to me. I probably would have voted for it in either the Action or Dance categories, but it wasn't in either of those categories.
F5 was the other video i considered voting for. It seems to be one of those classic/overdone/whatever-you-want-to-ca
F2 won Best in Category, Best in Show, and i think a couple of other things. It was a really well done AMV which told a compelling story using an interesting looking anime that i've never seen before and am now kind of interested in, which is another thing i look for in a good AMV contest. So what was the problem? As far as i can tell, and as has been mostly confirmed by other people who've seen the anime, the AMV seems to tell the exact same story as two episodes of the anime itself. (Or possibly two half-episodes, i'm not clear on the structure yet.) I'm okay with AMVs that recap the story of an entire series (see F5 above,) but recapping individual episodes just seems a little too easy, even when it's well done.
F4 was yet another Free! AMV. However instead of focusing on the (real or imagined) homosexual tensions between the characters like so many other Free! AMVs i've seen, this one told the story of a fangirl obsessed with the anime, which was a refreshing change. Avalyn voted for this one for best in category, which i don't think was a bad choice.
SENTIMENT/ROMANCE
Sentiment/Romance was almost as good as Fun/Upbeat. I'm a bit more of a fan of this category than some people i know, but even so it was a bit of a surprise. It helped a lot that for the most part the videos weren't super-sappy/tragic.
I ended up voting for S1, because i'm even though i insist that a video actually meet the criteria of the category (as i view it at least) it never hurts to mix in a little action or dance :)
Avalyn votes for S2, and i quite liked it too. It was also a Monthly Girl's whatever, but more romantic and less comedic than "Notice Me".
I also liked S3 and S4. S3 was another video set to that "two kids get together to form a jazz/rock band and (maybe) compete for the affections of a girl" anime that i saw used a couple times in the VCAs. This one definitely seems more in the "Sentimental" half of the spectrum. S4 is mainly notable for using a cover of "Call Me Maybe."
S5 and S6 were okay, but didn't seem very memorable to me... i can't exactly remember why :) (Okay, upon checking i kind of blocked S5 out of my mind because i know too much about the manga, and S6 was the 2nd Monthly Girls' AMV and the 3rd one of the night, and had the song i liked least out of all three.)
RHYTHM/DANCE
This category wasn't _bad_, but it was a bit of a disappointment to me. This is always the section where i hope to discover an awesome new song, and that didn't really happen this year.
The best of the bunch in my opinion was R2. It had a decent song and was a single-source K-On AMV, which was interesting because i think i may have seen more of K-On in this one video than in all the other AMVs sampling it that i've seen before.
R4 and R5 were decent. I was kind of excited about R4 ahead of time since it was set to a "Daft Punk Skrillix mix", but it ended up consisting of a lot less Daft Punk than i would have liked. Avalyn ended up voting for R5, but the music wasn't quite as much to my taste.
R3 was... just strange. Not bad, just weird and not really my thing.
As for R1, from an artistic standpoint pairing a Michal Jackson Captain EO track with Space Dandy is brilliant. However i haven't seen Space Dandy and i'm not all that fond of Michael Jackson's music, so personally i felt really "meh" about this one.
COMEDY/HUMOR
Okay, i love the comedy section. And technically speaking the comdey section was very good this year. But it's gotten into a bit of a rut.
We had the obligatory AMV set to a meta song. (C1)
We had the obligatory meta AMV about anime/AMVs. (C4)
And we had the obligatory AMV about Free! being gay. (C2)
And they were each well done examples of their types, but it's starting to get a little old.
C5 was set to "Thrift Shop", and was a nice idea that was pretty well done. I commented before the show that i'd heard clips of the song before, but never actually heard the whole thing before. Well it turns out the clips i heard were the best part, and i'm not all that fond of the bits of the song that go in between. Avalyn was apparently not as put off by the song as i was and voted for this one.
C3 is just nuts. It takes the "Rainbow Stalin" joke that was a 5-10 second bit from... AMV404 i think? And expands it out into a full AMV of its own. However it bribed me with Final Fantasy sound clips, and it was original, so it got my vote.
BONUS CATEGORY:
As for the commercial and trailer stuff, "Attack on Badassdom" is something else that's getting overdone by this point. Aside from that the trailers were all reasonably interesting. My favorite was probably Rider4z's Hunger Games/Korra mashup.
I confess that i wasn't paying too much attention to some of the commercials because i was busy trying to figure out how to vote.
The FedEx one is amusing but part of that may be because i vaguely remember the original commercial. The Swear Jar one was amusing. I kinda want to like "Immortal Chimera", but the subject matter is just a little too squicky for me. I don't know the Johnny Bravo intro or the Footlocker commercial, so those ones kind of passed me by.
I didn't vote for any of the commercials or trailers because i didn't notice any such spot, but either i didn't look close enough, or it was creator's only vote, because according to the list X3 and X11 were the bonus category winners.
I've probably forgotten some stuff, but that's the highlights as i remember them!
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