The first of a series of reviews, I will be reviewing an AMV (Anime Music Video) entitled Ichigo’s Legend by YouTube user Arashinoctis. Is this AMV legendary, or does it simply fall flat on its face?

A little background. My name is Mike Garcia and I am mostly known as AspectMG on YouTube (for AMVs at least). I uploaded 2 AMV’s back in 2006, one of which (named Ichigo’s Resolve: Rescue of Rukia) has since risen in popularity and has now reached 2.4 million views (at the time of this article) and at one point reach ’20th Top Ranked (All Time) for Film & Animation Category’. As a result, many have turned to me seeking guidance for improving their AMV’s. My goals for these reviews are simple. I wish to provide the type of feedback needed to help elevate the creators skills and further improve the overall quality of their work. I also seek to help bring some needed attention to their videos and grant them a little added exposure. It’s not as fun making quality videos if no one is watching them!

Arashinoctis’s YouTube Channel

Arashinoctis brings us an AMV designed to show us all the power that Kurosaki Ichigo wields and the struggles he has faced throughout his journey.

The Grab

[The grab is what I like to call the first segment of an AMV meant to convince the viewer that they need to keep watching or they’ll be missing out. Attention spans are short, even more so on the Internet. If you cannot lock in their attention quickly, they’ll be clicking off your video in no time.]

‘The Grab’ in Ichigo’s Legend is contained within the first 43 or so seconds of the video. Ichigo must confront an enemy he has never faced alongside a Death God by the name of Kuchiki Rukia. A dire situation forces her hand and she assists Ichigo in defeating his foe by turning him into a Death God as well. With a Superman-esque musical lead-in and well timed cuts, Arashinoctis makes it apparent early on that the rest of this video should be intense and entertaining. Grab achieved!

The Direction

Ichigo’s Legend is a fast paced montage of sorts, showing all of the accomplishments and perils Ichigo has faced since the series began. You will take many leaps through the anime and bear witness to some of the most memorable fights he has been mixed up in. What hurts this AMV is that the scenes jump around quite a bit, sometimes showing the good ol pre-bankai days, then swiftly catapulting you into his advanced hollow form battles. It can be a little jarring.

Technically Speaking

All that is needed to make a great AMV is to take some of your favorite clips and put it to awesome music right? Wrong. So terribly wrong. Too many fall into this trap which is why the vast majority of all AMV’s you’ll find on YouTube are not all that good. Does Arashinoctis follow this path of mediocrity? No, thankfully not.

Arashinoctis shows us that he can be quite good at timing in Ichigo’s Legend, but falters at times as well. The music he chose contains segments that completely change the tone and slaps us with some hard hitting notes. This is where Arashinoctis shines. He captures the impact of the music with some hard cuts to match. While not always flawless, these points of the video are certainly the highlights. The rest of the video is a little inconsistent at times, occasionally abandoning the music all together for a mash up of clips that just doesn’t flow very well, some of which stick around for a little too long.

Some parts feel rushed, especially the end (though I may need to take some of the blame for this as his original submission was only half completed, and I requested that it be complete before I review it), but overall it flowed pretty well. While I am a proponent of “Less is More” when it comes to the usage of effects, this AMV lacks any at all. While this does not ‘hurt’ the video, it simply made it less technically challenging.

The video quality was a little suspect in certain areas and judging by the subtitles, he used many different sources for his clips. This caused the actual visual quality to rise and fall occasionally, and the pesky Adult Swim watermark reared its ugly head at times. The appearance of subtitles also hinders the overall presentation of this AMV and removal should have taken place if possible.

Suggestions

If you lack more sophisticated editing software and feel stuck with the likes of Windows Movie Maker, try using Wax. It is a free editor and is a little more powerful than WMM. This will assist you in eliminating watermarks and subtitles. Also try to find a consistent quality in your source material if possible.

I would recommend adding some intro text such as your name and the name of the AMV, and follow it up with credits at the end mentioning the video & music sources. This can help ensure that your video stays up on YouTube, as companies are less likely to have your video removed for use of copy written material if you cite them as the owners.

Other than that, keep working on your timing throughout the entire video. Always keep the flow of the music in mind when selecting clips. Not much else to say here. You’ve clearly demonstrated that you have the ability to time things well, now you just need to work on keeping that skill consistent throughout.

The Final Say

Overall you will find that Ichigo’s Legend is better than 85% of AMV’s littering YouTube. It isn’t without its flaws, but is a solid effort and shows that the creator is talented and will likely make some truly impressive works in the future as he improves his skills further.

The Grab: 4 out of 5. Well timed, well executed, and builds the momentum for the rest of the video well. All it needed was a little extra polish to bring it to the next level. First few seconds of video are garbled and pixilated.

The Direction: 3 out of 5. It does the job of showing off the legend that is Ichigo, but jumps around the timeline a little too much for my tastes at times.

Technically Speaking: 3 out of 5: This was the hardest part for me to score. On one hand there is excellent timing during pivotal moments of the music, but on the other he may have loosened his grip too much during the longer segments. The inclusion of subtitles also hurts the presentation.

Score: 3.3 Bankais out of 5