)OTAKON would like to announce the winners of its 2003 Anime Music Video Contest. The winning entries were determined from ballots cast by the members of Otakon 2003. After viewing the screening of entries, members were asked to vote for their single most-favorite anime music video in each of five categories: Romantic/Sentimental, Dramatic/Serious, Action, Upbeat/Rhythm, and Humorous/Satirical. 501 votes were cast.
This year's contest received entries from 185 unique individuals or groups, a new record for the convention. Entries were screened in a 120-minute contest, and as seven non-competing screening tapes (six general screening tapes and one late-night screening tape). The contest was shown twice at the convention: once Friday night in the 4,500-seat Main Events room (on three screens!) and once Saturday afternoon in the 2000-seat Video Room One. Attendance at both showings was approximately 90% of room capacity.
The general screening tapes were each shown two times during the convention -- on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings in the 800-seat Video Room Four. The late-night screening tape was shown once on Saturday night. A tape of entries that scored highly in the evaluation process but that were not selected as contest finalists was also screened Saturday night in a consolation screening.
The winner in each category receives an Otakon Golden Hiroko-chan trophy, some anime and/or manga booty from the Otakon dealers room, and the warm, fuzzy feeling of a job well done.
Winning videos are described in the form of <Optional Title> "Song" by Artist; Anime used; Producer/Director received ## of the votes cast. (Numbers may not add up to the total number of ballots cast because some members did not vote in all categories.)
ROMANTIC/SENTIMENTAL CATEGORY:
(501 votes cast, mean number of votes per entry was 84)
WINNER: "Glory of Love" by Peter Cetera; Anime: Vision of Escaflowne; Maker: Daniel Chang received 151 (30%) of the votes cast.
RUNNER-UP: <Deceptive Passions> "Pretty Girl (The Way)" by Sugarcult; Anime: Fushigi Yuugi; Maker: Meredith "Meri" Cantoni received 136 (27%) of the votes cast.
HONORABLE MENTION: "Desperado" by the Eagles; Anime: Love Hina; Maker: Alex Mirra received 87 (17%) of the votes cast.
SERIOUS/DRAMATIC CATEGORY:
(496 votes cast, mean number of votes per entry was 83)
WINNER: <Searching> "Superman" by Five for Fighting; Anime: Trigun; Maker: Stephen "Grover" Voccola received 130 (26%) of the votes cast.
RUNNERS-UP:
"Mad World" by Gary Jules; Anime: FLCL; Maker: Nightowl Pictures received 89 (18%) of the votes cast.
<Urban Ragnarok part 1> "Twilight" by E.L.O.; Anime: Metropolis; Maker: thefinalact.net received 87 (17%) of the votes cast.
HONORABLE MENTION:
<A Beautiful Failure of a Film> "Airport Song" by Guster; Anime: Shin Seiki Evangelion; Maker: Louis Kratz
ACTION CATEGORY:
(497 votes cast, mean number of votes per entry was 83)
WINNER: <The Need for Speed> "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins / "Top Gun Anthem" by Harold Faltermeyer & Steve Stevens; Anime: Macross Plus, Macross Do You Remember Love, Top Gun Movie; Maker: Skyfire AMV Productions received 162 (33%) of the votes cast.
RUNNER-UP: "Die Another Day" by Madonna; Anime: Noir; Maker: VicBond007 received 153 (31%) of the votes cast.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
"Hindi Sad Diamonds" by Nicole Kidman, John Leguizamo & Alka Ygnih (from the Moulin Rouge OST); Anime: Ah! Megami-sama; Maker: Brad DeMoss
<Variations of D Minor> "The Dark Tower of the Abyss" by Rhapsody; Anime: Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust; Maker: Vancore Studios
UPBEAT/RHYTHM CATEGORY:
(499 votes cast, mean number of votes per entry was 83)
WINNER: <It's Tricky to Make a Music Video> "It's Tricky" by Run D.M.C.; Anime: 69 Various Anime; Maker: Lee Sheng received 232 (47%) of the votes cast.
RUNNER-UP: "Stop The Rock" by Apollo Four Forty; Anime: Various; Maker: Indifferent Productions received 190 (38%) of the votes cast.
HONORABLE MENTION: <Vanilla Vash> "Ice Ice Baby 2001" by Vanilla Ice; Anime: Trigun; Maker: Senta Miller
HUMOROUS/SATIRICAL CATEGORY:
(493 votes cast, mean number of votes per entry was 70)
WINNER: <Lollipops, Sunshine, and rrrRRRrrr> "The Bullet's Breath" by Iniquity; Anime: Card Captor Sakura & Various; Maker: Doki Doki Productions received 281 (57%) of the votes cast.
RUNNER-UP: <We Want YOU!> "In the Navy" by the Village People; Anime: Various; Maker: Vlad G. Pohnert received 77 (16%) of the votes cast.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
<Hard Knock Anime> "Kannon D-Dur" from the Shin Seiki Evangelion OST / "Hard Knock Life" from the Goldmember OST; Anime: Various; Maker: WESTWARE
<Who Let the 'Fros Out?> "Who Let the Dogs Out? (Eeping Weird Leech Mix)" by the Bahamen; Anime: Moko Moko Afro Ken & Various; Maker: Ashyukun
<Mokushi desu ne, boku genki desu yo> "It's the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M.; Anime: Various; Maker: Tom "the Fish" Guttadauro
All entries not listed here received less than the mean level of votes per entry for that category.
OTAKON would like to thank everyone who participated in the 2003 Anime Music Video Contest. Congratulations to all who submitted entries!
* * *
FREQUENTLY-ASKED QUESTIONS:
WHERE CAN I GET A COPY OF THE OTAKON ANIME MUSIC VIDEO CONTEST?
Despite -- and in fact because of -- numerous requests, OTAKON cannot provide copies of the Anime Music Video Contest tape to everyone who'd like to have a copy. While we appreciate the high level of interest this fan activity engenders, we are only human and could not even begin to satisfy the large number of requests for copies desired by general anime fandom. Thank you for your understanding of our position.
[Normally, there'd be big huge lists of the contents of all the AMV tapes we showed at Otakon but that's going up on the Otakon web site soon, so I won't fill up the forum with all that text.]
)