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Information

• Member: Kaiba57
• Title: The Destroyer
• Premiered: 2005-01-01
• Categories:
  • Character Profile
  • Drama
  • Sentimental
• Song:
  • Smile Empty Soul Finding Myself
• Anime:
  • Rurouni Kenshin (TV)
• Comments: I know I said that I wouldn't be making any more vids, well I lied lol. A half lie actually, this was the Rurouni Kenshin vid that I was about a quarter of a way done with, but got distracted with my other vid, Strength from Fear. The video is about one of the lesser seen chracters, Anji, the Destroyer. I had a lot of free time for my christmas break and all, so i finished it. This vid is more of a drama/sentimental vid more than anything.
  
  I got this idea from listening to The Punisher OST, and it hit me... Anji, the Destroyer and The Punisher have really similar stories. SPOILER WARNING: A brief story of the Punisher (from the movie) was that after his wife and kids were killed,he became a new kind of vigilante that will rage war on those who have done him wrong. Anji's story is only a little different. Anji was originally a peaceful monk who lived with 5 orphaned children in a Buddist temple. Together they all had a very peaceful life living together and grew to care about each other very much. One day the mayor of the town came by and told Anji that he and the children had to leave for the Meji Government would not fund the town they lived in since those children were those of the Shoganate, the opposing side of the Meji during the revolution. Anji was given some time to leave, but soon after the mayor had left, his advisor told him that he shouldn't be so easy on them since it is only a monk and 5 children. Later that night, while Anji was out praying, the mayor's men came by and set fire to the whole temple with the children still inside. Anji saw the smoke and rushed to the temple, but when he got there the mayor's men knocked Anji out. By the time Anji came to, the fire was gone and everything was burned down. Anji found only the dead bodies of the children. This is the transition of Anji being the peaceful monk, to becoming the destroyer. From then on Anji trained hard, mastering the Futai no Kiwami and grew much stronger. Years later Anji came back and killed the mayor and his men. And from then became part of ShiShio's group, the Juppongatana, for he believed with ShiShio he can rid the world of those who were deserved to be saved, believing that it was what those kids would of wanted him to become. Anji was the most merciful of all the Juppongatana. Anji taught the Futai no kiwami to Sanosuke, not knowing one day their fists would clash. During their fight Anji mentioned that becoming the destroyer was what those kids would of wanted, but Sanosuke retaliates saying that Anji becoming the Destroyer was the last thing those kids would of wanted. Anji realized his mistakes and from then on he went to repent his wrong.
  END SPOILER
  
  This video has some digital effects, but they are very subtle. a lot of the effects were the cropping of the edges of the flashing scenes on certain beats. Some of the others were the lens flare and light blur around the 1:31-1:33 mark; the spotlight effect 1:33-1:34; and the cookie cutter effect around the 1:34-1:35. Yeah I know a lot of the effects are in the same place. originally i was going to just used the flashing of certain clips, but I wasn't to try something different. this video also is more lyrical sync than of the instamental kind. but i still synced towards the beats, but it was very diffeicult as there aren't really than many hard beats that i could sync to, and some of them were really subtle.
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  Comments on particular scenes
  
  "I don't care anymore if I let you down"
  - For this part of the video, I portrayed Anji as looking back at his life in the beginning when he was a monk. I think that this part fit well the lyrics of the song.
  
  "I believe that I need to be free"
  -I tried to put the scenes for this part as if Anji was reassuring himself that, him becoming the destroyer was what those shildren would have wanted after their death. I synced the word believe with the overlay of Buddha to show how Anji lost his faith in Buddha, but would regain it later on.
  
  "I'm so used to my life with you around"
  -This part is kind of obvious; Anji never knew that one day that the people he cared about would go away. I tried to make it look like it was from the past so that is why I used the grayscale and fades from white.
  
  I don't know anymore....the real me
  -For this one I showed Anji using the Futai no Kiwami, showing how he had mastered it, but being a killer wasn't really who Anji was. I thought that this fit the lyrics pretty well.
  
  "And I thought that I found myself today"
  -For this part I used the clips of Monk Anji and how he just learned that he and the children must leave the temple. I thought that it fit the lyrics pretty well because Anji thought he found himself that day, but didn't.
  
  "And I thought that I had control"
  - For this, I had Anji praying away from the temple, but then he saw the smoke and sensed that the children were in danger and reushed toward the temple. I felt that this fit pretty well as Monk Anji still believed that everything would be okay.
  
  "All the change in my life just fell away"
  - For this part I tried to show that this is the change of how Anji is goning to besome the Destroyer. For the words fell away I put the clips of Monk Anji falling down after taking a blow to the head.
  
  "For a moment I didn't need you"
  - This part is last lyrics of the song(not the ones before hand with the same wording.) This is probably the most important part of the video, Anji is finally seeing how the children dont' want Anji to be a Destroyer but reather be peaceful once again. Anji can finally let go of the Deaths of those five children.
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  Special Thanks to dj_ultima_the_great with the creation of this thread Side Character Challenge This was one of two insperations , the other was that Anji is my second favorite Rurouni Kenshin character, so I just had to do a vid about him lol.
  
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  -Encoded with XivD-
  To get the Xivd codec go here:http://www.koepi.org/
  The video also requires DivX to play, to get it go here: my http://www.divx.com/
  The free one works fine.
  ---------------------
  Software Used
  ------------------
  - Adobe Premiere 6.5
  - Virtual Dub
  - DvD Decyptor
  - DvD2Avi
  - TMPGEnc
  
  Enjoy ^_^