Video Information

Information

  • Member: Kai Stromler
  • Studio: Shin Hatsubai/Kuroi Kenshi
  • Title: Sakigake!! Takino Tomo!
  • Premiered: 2005-04-05
  • Categories:
  • Song:
    • Hammerfall I Want Out
  • Anime:
  • Participation:
  • Comments: "The LORD sent Nathan to David, and when he came to him, he said: 'Judge this case for me! In a certain town there were two men, one rich, the other poor. The rich man had flocks and herds in great numbers. But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He nourished her, and she grew up with him and his children. She shared the little food he had and drank from his cup and slept in his bosom. She was like a daughter to him.
    Now, the rich man received a visitor, but he would not take from his own flocks and herds to prepare a meal for the wayfarer who had come to him. Instead he took the poor man's ewe lamb and made a meal of it for his visitor.' David grew very angry with that man and said to Nathan: "As the LORD lives, the man who has done this merits death! He shall restore the ewe lamb fourfold because he has done this and has had no pity.'"
    (2 Sm 12, 1-6)

    "What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun."
    (Eccl 1, 9)




    The story of SH095, and why it is one of the few -- if not the only -- AMVs whose catalog entries begin with a pair of Bible quotes, does not start with me. It begins instead with Ocean Soul and AbsoluteDestiny, who together and unknowingly forced me down this bitter yet rewarding path.

    I was going to post a topic in the Recommendations Forum soliciting people's recs for videos with underground heavy music and lead with a post of my own and my own picks. However, non-admins such as myself can't post topics there, only contribute to them, and given the way the .org tilts against real metal, getting an official topic was not likely. So I went the outlaw, underground, route so familiar to thrashers and decided to do my own recs page, in the course of which I downloaded, watched, and graded 257 metal videos of all stripes.

    One of them was a video by a member under the handle of Ocean Soul, using Azumanga Daioh and a cover of Helloween's classic youth/antiestablishment anthem "I Want Out" by Sonata Arctica. It started out FUCKING AWESOME, focusing on Tomo and chopping hard and straight, and it made me think, "God damn, this rocks, I can't believe this doesn't rule the world, the concept's perfect."

    Then, about 90 seconds in, it started to fall apart. It lost character focus. The lyric synch went off. Soon hits were getting missed and I was howling at the screen "GOD DAMN IT, HOW DID YOU LET THIS ONE GET AWAY?!"

    With that, the die was nearly cast: I was going to remake this concept into a video that I would be able to watch all the way through without losing it. However, because I don't *like* ripping people off, I was going to do it under the following restrictions:

    * I would use a different and improved version of the song. I didn't like Sonata Arctica's cover as they got too flowery with it, and the version I had was HammerFall's cover anyways. However, this version was also too slack, and had to be punched up for optimum video use.
    * I would rigorously boost the footage. I've been unsatisfied with the pastelization of AzuDai on ADV's DVDs for a while now, and wanted to make a statement about how this anime looks with proper color balance.
    * I would refine the initial concept to something more focused and technically challenging. The original was a Tomo profile; this one is a Tomo lipsynch video with a few exceptions.
    * I would not watch the original again until after the completion of the final version of the new take. The Shin Hats version of this concept would emerge solely from the song and source, rather than being guided by anyone's previous edits.
    * I would not fail to acknowledge my debt to the original video, nor fail to assert my conviction that this video is a self-sufficient work.



    That being said, this video developed into a hard-grinding, technically challenging, effects-laden, disk-clogging, and yet ultimately fun and enjoyable learning experience. It doesn't have much in common with #46, the previous SH AzuDai effects fest, beyond the customized audio used in both, but there is one shot that was done the way it is as an explicit homage to that video.

    This is also the first SH video that really falls under the "character profile" heading, something that I have historically tried to avoid because profiling a character, to a greater or lesser extent, almost always means putting the anime first, which is something I try greatly to avoid, mostly for reasons that have to do with how I got into AMV and anime by extension. However, the vid that drew me in (Eric from OV's version of Iced Earth's "My Own Savior" with Berserk) was a character profile itself -- but one that instantiated the character fully through the music rather than merely using it as a soundtrack for favorite scenes. That's the kind of "character profile" that this video aspires to, not the more casual "character tributes" that clog the caption.

    This video was entered at Fanime Con and Otakon in 2005, but this entry was written in its entirety before the video was premiered. Regardless of whether or not it is successful in public competition, the truth deserves to be known; a video that swipes someone else's concept may go unnoticed, but the swipage still matters. And it's even worse if a video succeeds with a concept uncredited.

    In the end, the decision as to whether this video is good and independent or a low-down ethical outrage lies not with me, but with the .org at large. To some degree, a video's antecedents don't matter, and it should stand on its own, but what if someone else with 94 works and nontrivial "standing" swooped in and took it upon themselves to remake your first video before you had the chance to make a second? If that had happened to me back in 2001, someone, no matter how pure their motives, would have made themselves an undying enemy. Of course, that may be because I'm a prideful, prickly, hot-tempered, forceful, anti-authoritarian force for anarchy.....which does not really make me hopeful for more tolerant perspectives on the part of other Tomo-chan fans. :P



    Shin Hats Self Grade: A-/B+. The concept is a total rip, there are a few cuts with less than optimal structure, and there are many people who will legitimately say there are too goddamn many effects, but I still feel that this is a cool video that attacks and accomplishes its purpose with clear success.
    # cuts: 254. average length: 0.86 seconds. total time: 53.5 hours.

Opinions (3)

  • Orig
  • Visual
  • Sound
  • Synch
  • Lip
  • Effects
  • Effort
  • Re-View
  • Overall
  • 9.00
  • 9.00
  • 9.33
  • 9.67
  • 9.33
  • 8.00
  • 9.33
  • 9.00
  • 9.00

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