The Anime Saguaro

Ouran High School Never Ends

animesaguaro — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:53:08 +0000

What do you think of your High School days? Do you think the days were great? If you thought they were not so great, maybe this AMV isn’t for you. If you think they were great, I think this video represents it well. Using the song “High School Never Ends” by Bowling for Soup, the AMV creator used Ouran High School Host Club. To me, that was THE perfect choice for the song. If people were to make it with other anime (K-ON, Lucky Star, Azumanga Daioh) there is not enough guys to keep in pace with the video. Others would fair off better. Ouran has enough guys and girls covering almost all the typical strerotypes that you would find in High School.

One thing I liked in the beginning of the video is the use of text. If you can read quickly, those are some of the issues that a typical High School student have to worry about. For me, it sets the tone for a great video. One of the most humorous scenes in the video was at 1:32 where Honey refuted that Takashi is NOT straight. Showing pictures proving Honey’s case made me laugh. Around 1:43, I was wondering if the age advancement photo has been Photoshopped. Whether or not it is, it is funny to see the difference of (Renge I think) of age.
Overall, I think the video is synced well. The effects were used to complement the video well. It was synced lyrical but thanks to the cast, you can spend all the time figuring out who are the popular kids (Honey for one) or the losers (like Ritsu). This is a video I will recommend for someone who wants to watch Ouran. This explains the series well with a well matching song. This video won in AN 2008 as Best in Show. If I saw that, I think I will pick this one; however let me see the others first…

[SC - Amuto] Everytime We Touch (Slow)

animesaguaro — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 23:41:54 +0000

I have seen bad and good AMVs and especially for Shugo Chara. This video shows that AMV maker knows what he or she is doing. I watched other videos that used this song but I thought it was a bit too fast paced to watch. By using the softer version, I think it helped to match the video watchable. Plus, I there is plenty of footage to work with for the relationship between Amu & Ikuto. Does anyone prefer Amu go with someone else?

I had one problem around 1:24 which I like to call a “frame glitch.” What is that is that one particular frame flashes quickly and that will annoy me. It is common in Windows Movie Maker but rare in other programs. Anyway, I think it is a nice job getting the footage to match better. I would not want to watch this again though…

Hot N’ Cold [Amuto] [Shugo Chara AMV]

animesaguaro — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 19:41:20 +0000

There are always a good AMV and bad AMV. You will see that even more if you use an anime that is considered popular. If someone makes an AMV well and uses a popular anime series, I always get intrigued on how good it will be. The song Hot N’ Cold makes a great complement for Amu and Ikuto thanks to their own personality traits. A well synced video like this is even better.

A think that I like is using the flashing red & blue effects during the chorus and the occasional black and white effect (like in 0:42). The creative use of that helps complement the chorus part even if the footage does not work as well. I also like the creative use of the character transformation footage at 1:02. I have seen many videos that try to use that and I felt it didn’t match.
The effect does have a disadvantage. When watching the AMV on High Quality mode, I think the effect is a bit too much in some areas (1:00). If a video blinds you like that, especially if you have a very bright screen, it can be painful. The author said that the video was bit dark in some areas, but I think the AMV is bright from start to end. I do see what the creator means around 1:42.
Overall, I think this is one of the better videos for any Amu and Ikuto fans. I don’t think it is the best video but nice to watch when I am bored. If anyone needs to watch a video featuring Amu & Ikuto, I would show them this one. Good work.

Go Team Galaxy Angel!

animesaguaro — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:24:03 +0000

I seen this video and favorite it so I think today I want to share it with you blog readers. Today I am going to feature Abracamoron of Calvin³ Productions. The video is called Go Team Galaxy Angel using the in show song “Sweet Victory” in the episode Band Geeks of Spongebob Squarepants.

Let’s get to the chase. It is one of my favorite videos but I don’t like top 10 lists but it it were, it would rank at least on it. Syncing on this video was not a problem and matched the lyrics very well. I would never imagined that a video like this would match so well. One of my favorite scenes was when Millfeulle started singing, and some of the sound effects from the show were matched in the song. Sadly, I don’t know why I don’t like this video.
Overall, I think more people should watch this video. It is definably a gem hidden on YouTube and should be entertaining for all. Great work!

Jesmaster – Destructional Metal City

animesaguaro — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:01:47 +0000

Many AMV projects will bomb if they attempt to use Heavy Metal music. If only you have seen an anime where the anime is just as crazy as the music. Try watching the AMV – Destructutorial Metal City or DMC. This uses the crazy band from the band Detroit Metal City and will make any anime like K-ON or Beck cringe to the powers of Heavy Metal.

Anyway, I have never seen such a video that matched Metal music as well as this. The choice of the anime and song works well. You don’t need to know the lyrics, just feel how crazy these guys from DMC rock. An example would be at 1:34. I am also surprised on the video quality. Initially, I think the playing is a bit off the first time I watched it but I do not think that matters at all. What an amazing job.

The Pirate Song

animesaguaro — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:13:50 +0000

This video may have been edited with Windows Movie Maker, but I think it is actually an okay video. Unlike other One Piece songs using this song, this one seems to be the only one that is good. I felt a strange feeling that this video would suck since it is a One Piece video but it seems to not suck. Action is synced to the lyrical parts of the song. No lip-syncing but I will let that slide. A favorite scene of mine is at 1:52 of the song. That is great creative use of the lyrics.
On another subject, I am amazed that this AMV video has over 300,000 views. Good job.

Best Code Geass AMV EVER!!!

animesaguaro — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:49:03 +0000

How many hours do you spend on working on an AMV? For me, it depends on the idea. It can be from just 5 minutes to 6 hours if needed. For this AMV maker, it took him about 3 hours in Windows Movie Maker. He made a Code Geass AMV and his claim is that it is the “Best Code Geass AMV EVER!!!” Do I think it is? Probably not…

For an Action video, I thought it was okay. I think he did his best on what he had. It had a nice beginning that is watchable. Sometimes during parts of the video, I thought the footage didn’t match. (0:40 Should stick with the mechas until the chorus.) (1:35 I thought this scene would not work because it is not fast paced enough). Some of scenes I think didn’t sync to the song well (1:14 a long explosion)
The song, Goodbye by SR71, complemented the song only a little bit to me. For a rock song, that is okay. If the video was a bit more fast paced, I think would complement it more but not a full 100%.
Overall, I think this is a nice video featuring Code Geass. I think there are better videos than this one out there that are made by people with better software but as a WMM creation, I think it is better than most that use WMM. Good video.

K-Owned!

animesaguaro — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 20:15:57 +0000

There are hardly any K-ON music videos out there; therefore, many are being made everyday, some great, some crap. Today we are going to take a looked at K-Owned! I thought the title was a bit unoriginal. The creator is ssgwnbtd, and you guessed, the co founder of the AMV Hell video series. This video competed in Otakon 2009.

This video is still fitting to the AMV Hell theme but I felt it compromised in quality. Most of the mini videos worked well (0:02, 1:11) and some were long (1:26, 2:30) I thought there was great instrumental use throughout the video but can be a bit overkill since I do not think that K-ON emphasized on that a lot. In addition, the video quality is always top notch. Good work on the video.

Gravitation AMV – Ozone – Dragostea din tei

animesaguaro — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 18:55:12 +0000

Unlike my video using the song, I thought this AMV was awfully unique at the same time. The concept behind this video was that it was based on the actual music video made by O-Zone including the modified O-Zone plane. I thought it was very unique compared to other videos using the same song. For the animations, they used characters from other anime series including Porco Rosso, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Sailor Moon, Hellsing and others. The only thing that annoyed was the usage of subtitles. Note that the AMV maker primary language is not English so that I can understand. Also, I thought the song matched very well especially around 2:36. You will know what I mean when you see it.Overall, I think it is a great job.

K-ON Numa Numa

animesaguaro — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:42:21 +0000

So to start things off, I decided to premiere one of my own videos… K-ON Numa Numa.

Unlike some of my other works, this one is almost completely lip-synced. The idea is from the original Numa Numa video where Gary does a humorous lip sync to the song. As for the lyrical part, I chose scenes that I thought would match the video. I had to rely on a stray translation I found online to get it to match.

As you know, the Numa Numa meme did NOT start on YouTube. It was created on December 6th, 2004 by Gary Brolsma or by Gman250. After that, it was featured on CNN, VH1, and others. Today, the original Numa Numa video on Newgrounds has amassed over 15 million views with an additional 4 million on the YouTube version. There are more views from other YouTube videos and other sources.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/206373 – The original video that started it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmtzQCSh6xk – A YouTube mirror.

The song is Dragostea din Tei which translates to “Love of the Linden Tree.” The band is O Zone. The song top the charts in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Romania, Swisserland, and others. Before anyone asks what language this song is, it is in Romanian. There is also an English version of the song as well but it did not pick up in popuarlity. The meme is still kinda strong and different language versions of the song have been produced.