Sualenritsgom

[Elcalavero]

[seasons]

I'll be saving most of my thoughts on this for later, but this is one of your best works.

Over the years I've watched people ruin this source or use it really disrespectfully, so I was fine if I never saw another Grave of the Fireflies AMV as long as I lived. I was really impressed by how you didn't try to change the context of these scenes or turn them into something they weren't, but it's a very different take on this material than anything else I've ever watched, very true to the horror and despair of the original story, but in a way I've never felt before.

There are two or three moments in this that really shook me and one that's probably the most jarring I've ever experienced from watching an AMV. It's weird to speak of this video as a horror AMV, literally lumping it in with, uh...videos of teens fighting zombies, but it's one of the best horror AMVs I've ever seen. I'm definitely not done thinking about this one.

[CrackTheSky]

This is one of the most disturbing, uncomfortable, and eerie videos I've ever watched. Although not really comparable in any meaningful way, the only other video I can think of that has made me feel something like this is lolligerjoj's GEHIRNSTURMEN, although mostly for different reasons. I really, really enjoyed this, but it's not a video I will be watching often.

This is masterful, though, and one of the highlights of this year for me. You're a huge inspiration to me and you keep making some of the most wonderfully different videos I've come across.

[Kionon]

After speaking to Seasons about this video, I decided to try to say something. There's a LOT I agree with CrackTheSky about when it comes to this video, but it was far from easy to watch.

It took me more than a few watches to get through this. I won't say I enjoyed it. I don't think the point of this video was to enjoy it. I agree it disturbed me, it made me uncomfortable, it deeply upset me. Not only do I have strong emotions associated with the source, but I have strong emotions associated with the historical era, and with the social and architectural elements still present today.

As Seasons said in our conversations, this video ticks off a couple of my list of boxes that make this video visually painful to me, which makes me sick, or gives me a headache. To be clear, this isn't negative. I mean, it's negative in the sense of the effect it caused for me, but it has nothing to do with your editing skill. This is especially true if you were trying (and I think you were) to invoke pain.

This is clearly outstanding art, and you are clearly a talented artist. Unfortunately, you won't find all viewers will be able to enjoy your art, even if they recognise the artistic value. And that's where I am with this. It was hard enough to get through the first time, I can't watch it again. This inability to review is something which has been, unfairly in my mind, tied up with too often with the inherent value of a work. Just because I can't watch this doesn't mean I question its expressive validity.

I hope that makes sense.

[lloyd9988]

This video were featured in the August 2018 Edition for Monthly AMVs as "Watch These Next"