2021 in retrospect: top 50 amvs (50 – 41)

Just a quick reminder to those who may have skipped or skimmed the Honorable Mentions post that these are my favorite AMVs of the year, no one else’s, and they reflect my own personal tastes. If you disagree (and I’m certain you will), then great! That means you’re your own person, and you’re absolutely allowed to have different opinions than me. In fact, I’d love to hear them, so please feel free to leave comments as we go along letting me know what you think of the videos I’ll be sharing!

At the end of the final post, I will be linking to a spreadsheet showing all videos that made it into consideration for my list, along with links to where they can be viewed — so if you really enjoyed even a small part of this list, please do yourself a favor and check out the stuff that didn’t make it — it’s all very, very good, and I had maybe the hardest time narrowing down my list that I’ve ever had in the eight years I’ve been doing this. I had to cut a lot of stuff that I didn’t want to, so be sure to give those videos a peek as well.

Alright, here we go everyone, please enjoy my 50 favorite AMVs from 2021!

===

50. TheChibiDevil – Oh No

Anime: Various
Song: “Oh No!” by Mindy Gledhill

Once upon a time it was the mark of lazy editing to rely entirely on anime openings to do all the heavy lifting in your video — however in the last…many years, I haven’t noticed this same criticism, or maybe I just haven’t been looking in the right places, OR maybe editors just haven’t been doing this as much as they once did. 2021 me cares a lot less about this, even if 2008 me would have whined and complained about it (as was the style at the time) — I named a video that did exactly this as my #3 video of the year last year, a ranking and decision I will stand by until I die, because would you just look at it?

I feel like in the case of Oh No, those criticisms, wherever they might come from nowadays, would mean even less — TheChibiDevil isn’t relying on the specifically amped-up OP visuals as much as something like Boipening does to make this AMV work so well. Rather, it seems like her use of these scenes is more geared toward their content — how many romance anime actually show the couple doing cutesy, immediately-recognizable-as-such romantic things together in the show itself rather than dancing around it for 20+ episodes (a rant for another day)? OP animations do though, and those scenes are used to wonderful effect here. The editing in this one, while understated, has several moments that I just love which keep me coming back to it (that ending scene is perfect). There’s an adorably innocent quality to this whole thing that endears me to it in a way I can’t resist, and I want more!

49. drewaconclusion – Drowning in the Kiddie Pool

Anime: Nichijou
Song: “Bodies (Kids’ Version)” by Drowning Pool

The danger of using an inherently comedic song (or, in this case, a comedic take on an otherwise perfectly straight-faced song) when making an AMV is what has ultimately felled many a would-be comedy AMV in the past — it’s too easy for the editor to rely too much on the song to bring the laughs, while the video just kind of plays in the background. It’s what makes editing comedy videos such a difficult task — the line between clever and bland (if not downright cringey) is razor-thin, so I have a certain unique respect for comedy editors who are able to make videos that take a song’s latent humor and expand it past its sonic boundaries, creating a video that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Drowning in the Kiddie Pool is one of the best videos this past year that does exactly this — Nichijou will always be comedy fodder in the same way that Azumanga Daioh was 15+ years ago, but drewaconclusion breathes new life into this source, pairing its played-out, over-the-top ridiculousness with a goofy, kid-friendly rendition of, um, this. It all results in something totally bizarre and contextually fresh — and drew’s spot-on syncing to the wacky sound effects inserted into the song cause this video to stick around in your head in the best ways, and make this some of the goofiest two and a half minutes in all of AMVs this last year.

48. Hagaren Viper – Murder, Arson and Yelling

Anime: My Hero Academia
Song: “Crazy = Genius” by Panic! At The Disco

If I haven’t said it before, let it be known that My Hero Academia videos pretty much all bore me to tears. I’ve never seen the show but the many AMVs I’ve seen that use it have done nothing to convince me to watch it; I’m sure it’s great but fight-heavy shounen is just not my thing and AMVs which use it have to climb a huge mountain to get my approval. There have only ever been a few that I’ve thought were ok, but Hagaren Viper’s might be the first that I’ve actually and actively enjoyed. It helps that there’s a focus here that tends to be lacking in these shounen action videos, to the point where even I can follow the thread of the remarkably-constructed character profile that ties everything together here. It’s wonderfully edited and may be one of the fastest-paced videos on this list, but Hagaren Viper holds the line with tons of well-placed internal sync and a variety of fun scenes that make watching it an utter joy from start to end. Action fans, rejoice and enjoy!

47. Megamom – Planetside

Anime: Yurucamp
Song: “Flowers by the Moon” by The Reign of Kindo

If tension, drama, and especially tight editing are your thing, you could be forgiven for skipping this one, but you’d be missing out on a video that, like so much this editor sets his hand to, defies basic categorization and demonstrates the power of simple-but-creative thinking. Unlike most AMVs, Planetside doesn’t feature “characters” — where there are people in this AMV, they are completely incidental to the thrust of the video, to the point where Megamom deliberately avoids showing any of their eyes throughout the entire thing. Instead, and as a result, we viewers are encouraged to look beyond them (when they’re present) to the breathtaking vistas and gorgeous landscapes they find themselves in. It’s a stunningly effective tactic, putting all of this video’s power into Mother Nature’s very capable hands, reminding us of the beauty that lies beyond the walls of our homes — a message that struck a very real chord with me, having been mostly cooped up indoors for the last year. Depending on your disposition, this video could instill a sense of blissful joy or one of melancholy and yearning — either way, it hits deep.

46. flo55 – Thunder

Anime: Various
Song: “My Name Is Thunder (Electronic Version)” by The Bloody Beetroots & Jet

If this video from last year, which made it on to my Honorable Mentions (but probably should have been somewhere on my Top 50 proper), was a city-wide dance party, then this one is what they project onto the side of a skyscraper while AC/DC skydives into the stadium across the street. Thunder is completely ridiculous, absolutely electric, and unquestionably rock ‘n’ roll — ignore the “Electronic Version” parenthetical in the song’s title, the song and the video have all the towering, self-confident swagger of the most drug-fueled guitar solo your puny mind can imagine. Flo55 stares down the beast in this video and doesn’t back down, giving every riff and scream the visuals they need to deliver a Hulk-like punch directly to your senses. Feeling sluggish in the morning? Don’t bother with the coffee, skip the cocaine, go directly to Thunder and let that lingering rattle in your skeleton keep you up the rest of the day.

45. Xophilarus & Obsidian Zero – Love Like Fools

Anime: Tsugi ga Kirei
Song: “Fools” by Lauren Aquilina

Romance in anime is often hard to get right. This is not to say it isn’t still effective — 5 Centimeters Per Second, for example, is often (and rightly) called out for being melodramatic beyond all reasonable expectation, but damned if the message isn’t still perfectly and convincingly conveyed. Yeah, a guy pining over a girl for like a decade is kinda silly, but it still works and it still chokes me up. When anime gets it right, though, it’s really something special — Tsugi ga Kirei is one of those anime, and if you haven’t seen it then it’s definitely worth your time (if romance is your thing). It very accurately captures the hyper-real emotions that wholly define falling in love in your adolescent years, and communicates even better the awkward, stumbling first steps that accompany figuring out how to express them. The anime can be painful at times, but only because it’s so easy to see yourself in one of the two main characters.

That, in a nutshell, is what makes Love Like Fools such a memorable AMV. There’s nothing surprising or especially noteworthy about the actual editing on display — it’s arranged and cut how the average editor might approach creating a video to this song. But it’s the little touches — the lyrical nods, the way Xophi and Obsidian capture the little details and facial expressions, the way the scene selection tends to suggest the deeper emotions rather than blatantly showing them — that make this video so special. It’s always a joy to see an anime I adore given such appropriate and loving homage in AMV form, and I think it’ll be tough for anyone using this source to do it better.

44. Zarxrax – Believe in the Slam Jam

Anime: Battle Athletes (OVA) // Battle Athletes Victory
Song: “Space Jam” by Quad City DJs

How it took until 2021 for this video to be made is absolutely beyond my understanding — this feels like the kind of thing that someone should have been all over 20 years ago, when ideas as obvious as this were ripe for the taking and still original. Somehow though, everyone glossed over that low-hanging fruit until this year, but Zarxrax saw what we all missed, picked it…and, well, who better to do so? The anime/song combo here on its own is stupidly fun, but Zarx elevates it well above those modest heights with constant, manic sync that keeps stride with the song’s switch-ups between singing and chant-raps. This isn’t even to mention the lip sync, which is all over this thing, and is satisfyingly dynamic — nothing about this video is boring or phoned-in. It’s kinetic, it’s exciting, it’s straight-up pure entertainment, and a charming throwback to the earliest days of the hobby. Welcome to the jam!

43. Shizaya – Agidyne

Anime: Various (Persona)
Song: “Fire Alarm” by Castlecomer

“Agidyne” is what a certain type of fire spell is called in the Persona games; not only, then, is the title of this video a really clever reference to the song’s lyrics, but it also perfectly describes Shizaya’s effort here. The video blazes by at a swift tempo, with some of Shizaya’s smoothest editing to date — despite using a number of different sources, it all feels very unified, helped in no small part by Shizaya’s masterful transitions. The video banks and twists through all the Persona games and anime, and the seams between them are practically invisible. There’s style here as well, a straightforward cool that is carried largely by the animation, but which Shizaya leans into heavily in his editing choices and effects work. Even if you’re not a Persona fan, this video is straight fire.

42. BleachShippu5678 – Dance of the Dead

Anime: High School of the Dead
Song: “Necromancin’ Dancin'” by Bear Ghost

For a hobby that is based entirely upon syncing visuals to music, I find it surprising how rarely I think, “Wow, this song is perfect for this source” while watching AMVs. Now, clearly, finding that “perfect” match isn’t the most important thing (at least to me) when considering how much I like a video — there are a myriad of ways to make an AMV work, or to enhance the perceived song/anime match, and if you’ve kept up with this blog over the years, or if you go back and read the hundreds of reviews and observations I’ve made on AMVs in that time, hopefully this is obvious. All that said, when I see a song/anime combination like this — a stars-aligned, universe-in-harmony kind of match — I can’t help but lose it in the best way.

Dance of the Dead is a brutally fun video, fast-paced and constantly entertaining. BleachShippu5678 swerves between dead-on lyric sync and hyperactive internal sync in a manner that seems to defy gravity, all while soaking the video in the anime’s gratuitous violence and over-the-top action. It blends together into a video that’s impossible to tear your eyes from, and begs to be viewed again and again to catch all the little tricks that the editor manages to mix in. Vicious, lively, raucously fun — what more could you ask for from something like this?

41. Toji1996 – Free Bird

Anime: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Song: “Free Bird” by Andrew Jackson Jihad

I’ve mentioned before on this blog how much I enjoy it when editors make Evangelion videos that don’t feature any Evangelions. I think I’ve also mentioned before (and if I haven’t, here we go) that I really like Shinji’s character in the show — when I was first getting into it, it was trendy to throw Shinji under the bus, call him a coward, etc., but I’ve always been entirely sympathetic towards him and his situation, much more than I am any other character in the series. So videos like this, which give Shinji an inner monologue that is true to the show and capture his mental state with such unambiguous clarity always, always resonate with me. Toji1996’s sparse editing, which paces this video out brilliantly, imparts a density to this video that might otherwise go unappreciated — scenic backdrops with Shinji in the foreground linger, emphasizing the isolation that the song bleeds with every note. I can’t imagine watching this video and not feeling the weight of Shinji’s despair in its four minutes, and if your initial reaction to seeing a video like this on this list is, “Do we really need another Shinji character profile?”, let me assure you that, without a doubt, yes, we do.