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Information

• Member: TheSmokingMan
• Title: Memory of Taiki
• Premiered: 2005-01-01
• Categories:
  • Drama
  • Character Profile
  • Serious
• Song:
  • Radiohead Pyramid Song
• Anime:
  • Twelve Kingdoms
• Participation:
  • Katsucon 11 AMV Awards, Katsucon 11 AMV Awards (2005-02-18)
  • Yaoi-Con 2005 AMV contest, Yaoi-Con 2005 AMV contest (2005-10-28)
• Comments:
  [Why I Made This Video]
  12 Kingdoms (Juuni Kokki) is probably my favorite anime. I'm surprised that so few people have seen it. The story is based on a series of fantasy novels that are based on Chinese mythology. The depth of the writing really shows through in the series. If you haven't seen it, I hope I've done enough justice to the power of the story of the 12 Kingdoms. And I hope this video gets you interested enough to give it a try. Trust me it's worth it. By episode 9 I guarantee you'll be hooked.
  
  [Synopsis]
  12 Kingdoms is divided into 4 different story arcs. The first arc episode 1-13 focuses on Youko and her journey into the world of the 12 Kingdoms. The second arc, episodes 15-20, focuses on Taiki. Taiki is a Kirin (the one who chooses the ruler of one of the 12 Kingdoms). He was accidentally born in Japan instead of the world of the 12 Kingdoms. He lead a very unhappy life in Japan while they tried desperately to find him. Then when he was about 10 years old he was brought back to the 12 Kingdoms. He spent a year there before mysteriously disappearing again. He ended up back in Japan with no memory of what had happened over the year he spent in the other world. Then slowly, his memory began to come back to him when he was older and in High School.
  
  My video takes place when he is in High School. His memory of the 12 Kingdoms comes in bits and pieces as he tries to put together his broken past. Kaname (Taiki's name in Japan) is a very sad kid so I tried to create a somber, sad, and longing feeling in this video to match his feelings. I also tried to give the video a kind of ethereal dreamlike quality that almost feels like you are floating through Taiki's memories.
  
  [Process]
  This is the first AMV I've ever created. So it was very much a learning process for me. I used Adobe 6.5 and virtualdubmod to edit and encode the video. I've put waaaay too much time into this. I had originally edited the video using mpeg1. BIG MISTAKE. It looked absolutely terrible. I had to go back and replace every single video clip in the entire video. It was definately worth it; the video quality looks absolutely amazing. I probably have well over 40+ hours of time invested into this now. But I've learned a ton so it was worth it.
  
  I like using material that isn't widely known. Only half a dozen 12 Kingdoms videos even exist and this is the very first that is about Taiki and only the second that has ever used Pyramid Song. I chose the Radiohead song "Pyramid Song" because it really adds to this feeling of sorrow and longing for the past. It's a difficult song to sync because it doesn't have a constant beat or lyrics that correspond to video clips. Instead, I had to rely on the pacing of the video in order to make it work. It starts off very slowly, drawing you into the world of the 12 Kingdoms and progressively picks up speed until it climaxes and then yanks you back out. I chose not to use many special effects because I think it only detracts from the power of the story. The effects I do use are motion, transparency, and color adjustments. You will barely notice them if I did them right.
  
  There always seems to be something you can improve on an AMV. Nothing is ever perfect, you just run out of time. There are some things that I would like to go back and change, but overall I'm happy with my first video and like how it came out. I hope you enjoy it.
  
  [Codec/Quality]
  The video was ripped from the dvd and audio was ripped directly from the cd. I used lossless formats for editing until I converted it into XviD. I used XviD 1.0.3 http://www.xvid.org/ to compress the video and it came out beautifully. I apologize for the large file size, but I wanted to maximize the quality of this video. You can view it full screen at near dvd quality with no problem whatsoever.
  
  [Lyrics: Radiohead - Pyramid Song]
  I jumped in the river and what did I see?
  Black-eyed angels swam with me
  A moon full of stars and astral cars
  All the things I used to see
  All my lovers were there with me
  All my past and futures
  And we all went to heaven in a little row boat
  There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt
  
  I jumped into the river
  Black-eyed angels swam with me
  A moon full of stars and astral cars
  And all the things I used to see
  All my lovers were there with me
  All my past and futures
  And we all went to heaven in a little row boat
  There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt
  
  There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt
  There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt
  
  [12 Kingdoms resources]
  Official Sites
  http://www.12kingdoms.us/
  http://www3.nhk.or.jp/anime/12kokuki/index.html
  
  Fan Sites
  http://12ktp.inspirelight.net/
  http://www.12kokuki.com/
  http://www.madman.com.au/12kingdoms/
  
  Encyclopedia
  http://www015.upp.so-net.ne.jp/juunikirin/12kokuki.html
  
  Novel Translation Sites
  http://www.otyaku.com/animeObserver/index.html
  http://www.eugenewoodbury.com/shadow/shadow_title.htm
  
  Screen Captures
  http://photobucket.com/albums/v438/thesmokingman/
  http://photobucket.com/albums/v517/thecancerman/
  http://photobucket.com/albums/y274/jrdelaney/
  http://anime.exonesis.com/juunikokuki/