main menu

• Members Main Page
• Search for AMVs
• Forum
• How-To Guides
• Site FAQ
• About us
• Login

Information

• Member: TaranT
• Studio: Studio Tarantella
• Title: Garden of Lost Souls
• Premiered: 2003-10-30
• Categories:
  • Serious
  • Horror
• Song:
  • Testrauschen Glad To Be Here
• Anime:
  • Angel's Egg
• Participation:
  • Anime Weekend Atlanta EXPO AMV CONTEST, Anime Weekend Atlanta EXPO AMV CONTEST (2004-09-24)
• Comments: ADD Warning: this video is long, slow, quiet, and depressing.
  
  Spoiler Warning: This video has a significant spoiler.
  
  See the Testrauschen Web site for more information about their music.
  
  CalAnimage has posted an overview of the anime, "Angel's Egg" (Tenshi no Tamago).
  
  **********
  
  Goth-ic, adj.
  ...of or like a style of writing popular in the late 18th century which produced stories set in lonely frightening places: Gothic novels | Gothic horror films, with ruined castles, haunted graveyards, and eerie noises. - Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
  
  "The genre of Gothic horror film has existed almost as long as the cinema itself, and it has always fascinated people. As the definition above suggests, the word can be loosely used to define any horror story with suitable settings, but such themes as disturbed dreams, desperate, undying love and melancholic romanticism of death are also usually important in Gothic cinema." - Antti Nayha
  
  **********
  
  Mamuro Oshii's "Angel's Egg" has a story that at best would be called ambiguous. I once heard him speak at a showing of the anime and even he was unable - or unwilling - to say what it meant. The artwork is as beautiful as it is dark and brooding. A near perfect match for this music which in its own way is haunted and at the same time uplifting.
  
  Unlike the anime, this video does have a clear if simple storyline. Briefly, a girl (young woman?) is lost in a strangely threatening place. Scenes of familiar, yet oddly alien life and death bring panic and an untimely end.
  
  ***********
  
  Video Notes:
  The source video came from an old VHS tape. I cleaned up the interlacing with a slight amount of motion-blur, but there is still some waviness in a few scenes.
  
  The music has some white-noise surf sounds that highlight the water theme in the video.
  
  There are no scene cuts anywhere. Long transitions (simple cross-fades) are used to keep pace with the music and mood. Other than that and a few straightforward overlays (with appropriate chromakeying), there are no visual effects.