AMV Autobiography

[Douggie]

2006: 4 AMVs
2007: 5 AMVs
2008: 6 AMVs
2009: 2 AMVs
2010: 1 AMV
2011: 0 AMVs

I always thought that AMVs were a good stepping stone to get my editing skills to the level where I finally can work in the porn film industry, so I can't really say that the interesting part has begun. Sorry to disappoint you guys, but hopefully that dream will come true one day...

[mexicanjunior]

These are very cool reads...I'll try to type one up eventually.

[Radical_Yue]

This was never the way I planned
Not my intention
There was a boob in my hand
At the ACEN Convention
AMVs, on you_tube
suck too bad to mention
It's just those boobs on you
Caught my attention

I groped an Aes and I liked it
The feel of Victoria secret
I groped an Aes just to try it
I hope her boyfriend don't mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
All the guys pants became real tight
I groped an Aes and I liked it
I liked it

This... HAS to be made into an actual song.

agreed. That was AMAZING Todd XD

[JCD]

My addiction with anime started in 1999/2000, but it wasn't until early 2001 when I saw my first AMV. My younger brother pointed out to me that there was a Music Video section on a DBZ fansite - I imagined what it would be, thought the idea was totally awesome and immediately downloaded one of them. It was a pretty low-average video, but even so, I was blown away by it. From that point, I started searching the Internet for more and more AMVs and eventually came across some classics like Kevin Caldwells "Engel" and Kusoyaro's "Faith" and found this site as a great resource.

11. September 2001 I got a new computer (boy, what a sameful date for it it was), and noticed that Windows ME had a small program called Windows Movie Maker on it. Needless to say I realized that I could make Music Videos with this - the next day I made my first two, the first being to The Matrix - Blur - Song 2 and the second a DBZ video to Die Ärzte - Yoko ono, a 30 second song, edited together out of other AMVs. Of course they pretty much sucked, but I still showed them around to brothers and friends, just never bothered to release them anywhere on the internet.

Eventually my two brothers and one friend became inspired too and also started making their own AMVs. While both of my brothes trip with this was rather short lived (as was it with anime for them), my friend Robert was quite interested and we also made a few videos together, one of them has a video entry here. All we were doing up until then was cutting videos together out of other AMVs with WMM in no more than 2 hours each. We realized it could be so much better if we would have the whole anime as source, so we got TV Capture cards (just didn't think of DVDs then).

Bundled in the package for my card there was a video editing program called MovieXone, which filled me with joy to finally have something better than WMM. I immediately started a test project, which became much more tedious because I wanted to take advantage of the improved editing options. Still, at that time I was very statisfied with it, so I decided to release it on the internet. At the same time I was looking around a bit on here, and it came kinda across to me that Adobe Premiere was THE program to use. So I got a copy of it and started liking it as the UI in MovieXone was quite similar. Made another few videos with it, none of them taking longer than 3 days of editing.

Around that time, with my first released video, I also got to know some AMV community on the internet, some of them like PX32 (who I didn't actually meet until 2 years later) and Messi (who I've known longer, but only after 1/2 year realized we're living in the same fricking town) are still best friends now. I also was really suprised that there would be people on here liking my videos by the few opinions I got.

Of course I didn't want to continue just making 3-day-jobs, so there were some attempts at surpassing myself like Endless. It was the first video I actually used DVDs for, but I ended up not liking it. Somehow even more unstatisfying all my friends were telling me it was awesome. I ended up not releasing it for a good while.

A few months (and 3-day videos later) I found out about a site called moobies.net, which was a small AMV site offering to host videos which were good enough. Out of fun, I tried sending one and got hosted immediately, as with my following videos. With .org hosting still in far sight, this greatly helped me to get them around more. The site also hosted an online contest lateron, where I won Best Action in. I was happy as hell about it, and it propably was the final proof for me that my videos weren't just crap compared to others.

One video prior to this I discovered the genre I wanted to take my videos to (and am still holding now): Dance. In retrospect I was really really statisfied with this one and even years later, hell, even now, I still like it alot. It wasn't until a whole year later that I finally realized and utilized what I liked so much about it and composed that into a new video: Overdrive

I heard about the Connichi AMV Contest earlier that year and was totally looking forward to enter it and attend, since I thought live AMV contests were just a thing of American conventions. I went, saw, and won. I had NO IDEA that they were presenting the winners in a room of about 1000 people, and I was just blown away by that. This weekend and especially this moment were some of the best in my whole life. Meeting quite some other AMV creators like zest and finally PX32 was kickass, too.
This really made me looking forward to the next conventions, and I also made it my goal to go to AWA sometime, where I won Best Techno in Expo one weekend later.

The online popularity of Overdrive exploded, I got alot of great feedback, my host sent me a 160 Euro bill for overusing traffic. What made me especially proud was that it was the first AMV of Germany, heck, even one of the first of Continental Europe, that had a little impact here on the .org.

In the meanwhile, after participating on the Animix-Project, I became more and more involved in it, and as things were going bad for it, I was asking if I could help somehow. So, I became Co-coordinator, being the one taking care of answering people's questions and managing submissions. When it was finally done, I was really proud to have been part of it and influenced it in a hopefully good way.

I found out that there's a pretty huge AMV Community in Finland, and out of fun, I registered there, hopped on their IRC channel and quickly became friends with those guys. It went that far that I took a flight to their Anime-Convention in 2004 and met them in person. To me much more important here, when I saw the (totally different) countryside of Finland out of the plane, was that I went freaking 1500 km from home just because of freaking Anime Music Videos. I was having a good "What have I done?" feeling but in a really good way. The people there were awesome, the con was great, the AMV Contest was even larger than Connichi's and alot better received. It was also the first time I used English as a conversation language, and imo I did quite horrible I eventually improved over the years, so yep, you could say AMVs helped me ALOT to speak English fluently.

Video-wise, I didn't make anything spectacular in 04 as people were expecting from Overdrive, but I didn't really care that much. It went as far as getting 17th place at Connichi that year (after winning the previous), which was a huge letdown for the fans as my friends made fun of me . I had my highlights too, I got part of the last DDR-Project which is a thing I looked forward to each year, and made TROY with my friends. I also switched editing programs, from Premiere to Vegas, as I used it in an Original Animation video not worth mentioning.

Upon joining Reflections of Stlye 2, I got to know SnhKnives and quickly became friends with him. He was kinda my door to become friends with alot more North American editors, and eventually to AWA, especially after he came over to Germany to visit me in 2005.

Since Overdrive, I discovered more and more of the same music called Eurobeat. Making a video to it seemed inventable, and PX32 starting an MEP for it seemed like a good excuse to start EuroFire. I also started Spirit of the Stage earlier that year. You can read the back story in the respective video profiles. Those videos were certainly no letdown for expectations anymore as Spirit of the Stage even topped Overdrive's popularity and was also easily my favourite over it.

At the same time voices got louder and louder that I should do something different from dance or action. Even if those weren't there, I would've made Life's Futakoi. I know some peeps here still favour that one, but I myself liked the dance style more after all

2006 was the right time to finally make my dream of going to AWA come true. I graduated, got enough money, a place to stay while I'm there. Only losing my job could come in my way, which.... happened. As I already ordered the plane tickets, the decsision was up in the air to either I remain unemployed and go there, or get a job and don't. Of course I sent out job applications, but I didn't get accepted anywhere until September, so I might as well fly there, which I did in the end. Of course it was awesome, but in retrospect, being unemployed and REALLY short on money kinda damped the experience of AWA and America overall a bit. I was just not feeling as happy as I should be.

Soon in October after that I got a job again and quickly decided to repeat the same thing next year. No worries on my side this time, I enjoyed AWA 07 alot more.

Started in 06, I finished GitsP in 2007 for AWA and Connichi (back story in video profile). There was another huge impact for me coming up as the band m.o.v.e was announced for Connichi, the band who made the music for Overdrive, Strike On and Spirit of the Stage. Needless to say I couldn't believe it and was looking forward to it like a child. At their question hour at the con I met them, and to my suprise, they've already seen Overdrive as someone showed it to them on the day before. I had a nice chat with them as they were really interested in what else I have done, exchanged e-mail adresses and such. It was like another dream come true, as their concert lateron, which was wickedly awesome.

There's not much more to say for the time up until today. After finishing GitsP I realized that I don't particularily like that video more than some of my others which I spent far less time on. I came to the conclusion that I won't attempt anything taking so much effort anytime soon and stick to more simple videos much like Pure Love as this one is pretty much the favourite of my own today. I held this up for 2008 and think I will longer. Sorry to those with high expectations .

That's it. There's alot more inbetween those lines I forgot, but that's the most important stuff.
What can I say? I met so many awesome people because of AMVs, have friends all over the world, visited them in Finland, France, Holland, the USA and soon South Africa, met my favourite band and got to know them in person, and have a hobby which products will stay around hopefully forever.

I can't see myself quitting AMVs anytime soon. I'll be frank to say that I'm not as diligent about editing as I used to be. But I still LOVE anime as much as I used to, so there will be always that desire to make a video to it. Even if I won't edit for years, I will stay in contact with those friends I made, forever.

[GloryQuestor]

Well, I can trace my start into AMVs around 2003. I was much more into the classic / freeware gaming community at the time, submitting reviews on and off for GameHippo and Home of the Underdogs. It was around this time that I came across FilePlanet's AMV library. I downloaded quite a few to watch from there -- many of them I liked at the time and still do like to this day. Some of them were uploaded by editors from a-m-v.org, so I thought I'd take a look on a-m-v.org

Prior to that, my animation gathering had picked up and was still going strong -- at the time, I had a new moderately-paying job, so I could afford to buy anime titles every so often. After a while of being on a-m-v.org and checking out all the videos, I grabbed a copy of the AMVApp and decided to give my own titles a shot.

Since I only had Windows Movie Maker at the time, my first videos were pretty amateurish. I never really came from a video-processing background, but I dabbled in paint programs and animation programs for a long time prior -- from programming sprites on the TI computer to later on using DoMark's Virtual Reality Studio and Multimedia Fusion. From all of those experiences, I learned quite a bit about animation itself. This experience would help me out later, but for now I was just doing what every amateur did -- put straight unprocessed video to audio.

The actual first 5 AMVs I created were more of a five-part fanfic-ish series of Noir videos. I had put together an original story based off the anime, strung it together, and had quite a bit of fun with it. During the production of the 3rd video, I made "The Hurricane" -- my first video uploaded to this site. I followed it up with my first of many Christmas-themed videos -- a tradition for me that I kept up to this day. "Every One of You (Steel Angels)" was another idea I had bouncing around after seeing Steel Angel Kurumi for the first time.

Then I came up with the idea for "Stand Alone (More) Complex" after watching GITS: SAC and getting my hands on the SAC OST+ disc. I wanted to do a crossover video project, and the two presented ("Motoko" and "Batou") did work out well enough, although in hindsight, I still keep meaning to remake them.

It was around this time I started getting involved more with the #AMV community. A lot of the long-time editors from there really gave me useful advice as I was getting out of my WMM phase and into my Premiere phase, and I still ask for advice to this day of many of them.

With "Tempted By Yomiko" being the last project I finished up on WMM, I started off rather slowly with the next 3. Scandia then had asked if I could do something with Magic Knight Rayearth, which resulted in "The Madness of Hikaru Shidou" -- a rather twisted one that intercut reality (MKR Season 2) with fantasy (Rayearth OVA), and one that I liked from a storytelling standpoint if not quite from an editing standpoint. Based on another of Scandia's requests (and 80's style video) came "B-Ko Has Too Much Time On Her Hands", a video that I still like to this day for how it all came together in the end.

It was in mid-2005 that my video techniques, while still rough in some cases, really started getting much better. In June, I created "InuYasha's Quest For Glory", an homage to my favorite game series and a new era for my video productions.

Many more videos followed from there, always using techniques and features I just felt like trying out. "RahXephon - Candle in the Wind" was my first major heavy-effects vid, with a lot of switching between color and grayscale, along with fading characters cleverly, while telling a compelling story. My father, being a Buffet fan, asked if I could make a video out of his song "Fins", which became the bizzare mindtrip that is "Watch Out for Sharks!".

2006 was also the first time I Iron Chef edited, with Kitsuner in a personal match, then later participating in AMV4000's #AMV channel Iron Chef challenge. Not too long after that was the collaborative effort "Impromptu" followed by the "Iron Chef Idol" series. It was around this time that my Iron Cheffing style coined a phrase -- Whenever anyone edits straight through a song from beginning to end, it's been called "pulling a GQ".

It was in the 2006 that I went to my first convention in quite a long while -- Tekkoshocon in Pittsburgh, PA. I entered "RahXephon - Candle in the Wind" as my video entry, and met with Illia Sadri for the first time, along with many other editors I've heard of but never did meet in person until that time. It was an experience that I liked, and in 2007 and 2008, I started branching out to other conventions and meeting a lot of the people I've always talked to in #AMV, but only met for the first time. Flashing forward to 2007, I had helped out Illia Sadri with the AMV Contest and events at Tekko that year, which led to my joining as part of the official AMV Staff with Vlad Pohnert and her in 2008 -- an experience I will never forget, as it was the best time I've had up to that point.

These days, I moderate the #AMV channel, continue to make music videos, and participate in many projects. I also plan to travel to conventions again over the course of next year.

Now that I've looked back over all of my past history with a-m-v.org, I realized it's become a big part of my life that I certainly do not want to give up. I've met a lot of people, seen a lot more than I ever would have, all thanks to the Org community. I can't wait for 2009 to get here.

[Bakadeshi]

i will contribute to this, but probably tomorow. don't feel like typing up a book right now at this late hour :O

[Krisqo]

Shall I begin...

2001

I vaguely remember how I first stumbled into AMVs. I think I was downloading songs from various Final Fantasy games off of Kazaa and I stumbled across AtomX's Linkin Park FFIX video. A little later in 2001 a friend of mine invited me over to his house and showed me some more Final Fantasy videos and even showed me the Org. For the rest of the year I searched various P2P clients for these videos.

2002
Most of 2002 was the same as 2001. Just finding and downloading videos. But in watching these creations, I began getting the desire to make my own. Especially after finding Vegita007's videos on Saiyan Chronicles. Unfortunately my family computer was using Windows 98 so I did not ever have Windows Movie Maker at my disposal. Without a job I could not afford to purchase any true video editors.

Lucky for me, on September 21st, my dad finally upgraded to XP. When I discovered that it had a video editing program installed, I was ecstatic. That very night, I set to work on my first AMV <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/1 ... eflections of Goku</a>. This also spawned the creation of my studio "Krisqo Studios."

2002 saw me pushing 4 videos out in just two months. All of them were Dragonball Z videos made with downloaded AMVs and movies/episodes matched and all except <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/138882">Super Saiyans Live On</a> used Megumi Hayashibara as my audio source.

2003
2003 was by far my best year in which 9 videos were completed. My first video of the year was also my first non-JPop AMV, <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/138956">Dangerous Trio</a>. I made one more DBZ/Megumi video before doing something that... was interesting. I downloaded a Slayers AMV from Limewire that used "In the End" as the audio. I didn't think the audio worked well and I tossed "You Give Love A Bad Name" by Bon Jovi onto the video and it worked much better. I later got some source material and tossed my own version of the video together.

Then came my biggest project. I was always a fan of the music during the 2000 Disney Millennium Celebration since I was there for it. I always wanted to make a video using "Tapestry of Nations" so I set out to do it. The Problem: the song is 24 minutes long. Battling the general buggieness that is Windows Movie Maker, I chipped away bit by bit for over a month. But low and behold, <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/138991">Tapestry of DBZ</a> was completed.

Somewhere in July I re stumbled across the Org out of chance and this time I decided to register. I didn't upload any videos or do anything else at the time. I honestly forget why I came here originally.

I think I was a little burned out from then on because my next few videos were very poor. I completed my final all DBZ video <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/28532">The History of Dragonball</a> in December.

2004
2004 was a very slow year mostly because I finally got myself a job. But some good did come out of it.

<a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/138994">Livin on a Prayer</a> became my first Multi-Anime video again using downloads and videos. By this point I was beginning to collect anime DVDs and my sources on the computer were getting a bit old so I began searching for a better way. I settled on a program known as "#1 DVD Ripper". I even shelled out some cash for the full version.

At the same time, I was getting more and more into the Anime Fandom. I was a big fan of VA Tiffany Grant and I happend to find that she was going to be at a convention in Virgina called Neko-Con. Well... Virginia is only a few hour drive from Philadelphia (6-8 depending on traffic) so I managed to talk my dad into taking me. Well... I then discovered that they also had an AMV contest. So naturally I decided to enter. I put that new "ripper" to use and compiled <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/53590">Shinji's Downfall</a>. And luck would have it, it got played on the big screen. My god I'll never forget that moment. I was so nervous and pacing around the back of the auditorium. I still remember how much the song shook the walls. I didn't win anything but the experience was worth it.

Following Neko-Con I entered a bit of a slump. I lost all intrest in AMVs and even a fan fiction I was working on. So 2004 ended with just two videos. But some great memories. It was also one of my first videos uploaded to the org. <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/28532">The History of Dragonball</a> was the first at some point. Cannot remember the date.

2005
Sadly, my slump continued for most of 2005. It was not until I read about Neko-Con 8 that my motivation came back. I was still using Windows Movie Maker and that ripper, but I knew that I needed to upgrade. But the deadline was coming so I put it off and used WMM again. <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/88176">False Identity</a> ended up being my final WMM AMV. I think I pushed WMM to its max. I am still surprised how well it came out and remains one of my favorite videos.

Neko-Con never happend because my family ran into some money troubles. I began my search for a new editing program and all fingers pointed toward Adobe Premiere. We all know how much it costs, though. Then one night my step-mom handed me a disk labled "Adobe Premiere Pro". She had gotten a copy from a former employer who is also her doctor. God was I happy.

Next was to fix the quality problems in my videos. I ended up back on the Org where I discovered the guides. Not the Read <a href=http://www.a-m-v.org/guides/avtech31/>ErMaC & AbsoluteDestiny's Friendly AMV Guides</a> but Vicbond007's. It was a little tough but when I got my first AVISynth script written and high quality clip rendered I knew a whole new world was about to open up for me.

The result was <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/101477">The Place We Promised</a>. High quality footage and some better editing. Though compression was gonna need work. I ended up releasing this video onto the Org Christmas Day.

2006

This was my favorite year.

For starters I was discovering that the computer I was using was having a hell of a time running Premiere. It was almost as unstable WMM. With some coaxing from my dad I shelled out some $1700 on a nice Dell XPS 400 in late February. And my god it was nice.

Second, I became more active in the AMV community. I had a forum account from when I got the guide but I never posted anything. Now I was lurking and learning the ins and outs. I took notice of the Mult-Editor forum and found some good ones. First was called "Cliche with Style" but that fell apart even though I sent a segment in and I deleted the original. I then came across "Project Trinity" run by Sierra Lorna and silver moon. I knew Sierra from her "Elvis vs Anime" video. I registered but had to compete for a spot in the project. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the track list and I was on it. <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/124341">Project Trinity Track 4 - Celebrate The Child</a> is the video. Looking at the video now I was among some good company; Jade_Eyed_Angel, Batto!, Mamo! JenCM18 among others.

Later in the year I decided to start my own MEP, "Operation Introduction." This opened some new memories which I cherish to this day. Running the MEP was fun. I had a nice assortment of editors including Moonie and StolenSoul. While this was in the works I began work on a solo project. Thanks to JaddziaDax's <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/1 ... rgazing</a> I searched out and got the entire Cardcaptor Sakura collection. And work on Stay With Me began in late August.

That fall I began talking to more people on the Org. One being DivineQueenYeiweh. She was having problems with other editors bashing her videos and the technical aspects of them. I felt sorry for her so I offered to teach her the ins and outs of the EADFAG. This lead to a little Skype chat where I finally spoke to JaddziaDax as well as Koopiskeva, Kikai_Saigono, Niotex, and some others. Some good times playing Gunbound.

November was interesting. Operation Introduction was released to mixed reviews. And I was just about to finish Stay With Me. But Premiere Pro would not render my video out and I could not shove it into AE because I was using AVS files. The result? I hunted down a copy of Premiere 6.5 off of EBay and I still edit with it now.

<a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/132278">Stay with Me</a> is my best video. Period. I love it. And it shares a special message. While working on this, Yeiweh and I began talking more and more and getting closer and closer. Before we knew it, we had fallen in love. Only 2,300 miles separated us.

2006 rounded out with some more MEPs. There was the House Light segment in <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/134926">The AMV Holiday Special</a> a crappy Gundam Wing segment in <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/135192">The Sega Project</a>.

What a year!

2007

07 began with the release of <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/137614">SOAD: RTI</a> and anyone who has seen it should remember my infamous Princess 69 segment. Along with some more meps 2007 was starting to look like a repeat of 2006. It was not to be.

Yeiweh moved in with my family in June and together we got <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/1 ... palooza</a> completed. But in the background we were looking for a place to live since my folks were going crazy and kicking everyone out of the house. On November 31st, the two of us signed the lease for our apartment and we moved in the next day. With money short we were unable to get an internet hookup. So the org and all the people vanished from our lives for several months.

2008

Before moving I had a couple of projects in the works. One was a Kaleido Star video and the other used Shakugan no Shana. Over the months without internet access, I picked away little by little on the Shana one. It was over year since "Stay With Me" was completed and I was itching to get something done.

Money got freed up mid summer so we got the net hooked up and I got to upload my most recent solo video <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/160284">Shana</a>.

What's up now? Got a nice Solo in the works as well as a few MEPs and of course Project Editor. And also trying to save up some money for mine and Yeiweh's wedding. So it's seems like it's going to be fun times.

[Chiikaboom]

mm maybe i should do one..







































..nahhh :<

[CrackTheSky]

I'll write mine when I release my new video either tomorrow or Saturday.

Also: Ileia, I didn't know 2007 was your first ACen. Awesomesauce.

[ssgwnbtd]

It was a cold, bleak, deathish day in October '99 not unlike today. The wind howled across the barren wasteland of south Jersey like a mournful specter seeking some long-dead puppy. I had recently sat through my roommate's ceremonial viewing of DBZ and perhaps Kenshin for the 3rd time. As I sat there, clinging to my mouse, bed pushed flush against my desk, naked and pale but for a tattered bathrobe and socks, I decided to make a Sailor Moon AMV. Yea, verily, I did. And it was bad. In the name of all that is wrong and unknowable in this Universe, it was bad. I then went on to make 8 DBZ and Evangelion videos in the next 10 days. All equally as horrible.

The Earth went round the Sun again and again. In the sixth hour of the sixth month on the sixth day I have no idea what I was doing because I don't write in my LJ, ever. At some point I sent a End of Evangelion AMV to AWA. It was bad. I sent a different End of Evangelion AMV to Otakon, it was rejected. It was ok. I remade it 3 times with months between versions. I made a bunch of shorts and they were shown at Otakon in 2003 and 2004 between stuff. I also made several bad videos. I technically make the first FF7: Advent Children video.

2004. AMV Hell. Not worth mentioning.

2005. Busy year. The next video worth mentioning is Augen, one of the first Elfen Lied AMVs. It was shown at Katsucon during the general screening with a disclaimer that used the phrase "artistic merit". That was maybe the best screening I've had for a video. The video was yanked from the org a few months later.

The Wind Beneath My Guts. Maybe the best Berserk AMV ever.

Nightowl Pictures' Natey Benzer messages me on aim and asks for a song to make a video for the AUSA 2005 contest two days before the deadline. I give him Joousamamonogatari. He, Barranti and I make a video to most of it. It goes on to win Expo at AWA. I make several other bad videos. Best video I made all year is the AMV Hell 3 credits.

2006. I make a fantastic Brokeback Mountain trailer using Evangelion. No one cares because it is gay. I make a Lain video to a Tom Waits song in faux German. It is rejected from 2 conventions because I enter it into Drama.

I make the first Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PSP) video. Whoopideedoo! In 2008 an angry Norwegian threatens to kill me with his grandfather's axe in a post on the video's youtube page. He is still at large in Norway.

2007. I make some great videos. They win nothing. I make great videos in Online Iron Chef 3.0. I make it to round 4 and lose to aerialesque, who eventually ends up winning the tournament. Best video this year by far is the AMV Hell 4 credits.

I live with Nightowl's Nate briefly in South Carolina and make the Princes of the Universe + Highlander anime video for Otakon in 2 hours. It almost wins. Nate, in a drunken rage, order-threatens me to do dishes when most of them are his. I do them reluctantly. I never forgive him.

I read the entire second half of the Death Note manga in 5 hours. When the first 4 episodes are out I make a DN video to It's a Sin. I never put it on the org because there are better scenes in the later episodes. I don't get around to remaking the video.

2008. Tired of making AMVs for most of the year. Organize AMV Hell /0. Make one short for it and the intro and the credits. Putting it together takes several days. AMV Hell /0 credits are uniquely disturbing, and I get compliments on them. I make a nauseating Gurren Lagann video with 100's of stills. I make Shoes. It wins nothing at Otakon (first version, boring ending), but gets a staff award at AWA and wins Comedy and Best in Show at AUSA. Shoes. I send a video Zarxrax rejected from AMV Hell 4 into SAST at AWA. It uses the Highlander anime and the song Highlander (The One) by Lost Horizon. It loses to a gamecube video.

October. Katsucon deadline 2 months off, I start work on a depressing comedy video using Shinkai romance anime, inspired by season 3 of Moral Orel.

Epilogue

I got into anime when Dragon Warrior first aired early Sunday mornings on channel 11 in the NYC market. I didn't know it was anime though. Voltron similarly. When DBZ first aired in the early Sunday time slot I'd watch it. I still didn't know it was anime. I spent most of high school playing Magic: the Gathering. At some point in high school I was shown Tenchi Muyo. Boring. I went to college and by sophomore year had seen the rest of DBZ, Rurouni Kenshin, Flame of Recca and finally Neon Genesis Evangelion. The latter of which was the high water mark for anime even though the last episode alienated half the audience. It was of course surpassed quickly by Cowboy Bebop. The most America-pandering anime of all time, but also one of the well thought out and executed storylines in anime. I still want to make a Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest: Able Yuusha) video someday; probably to a Dragonland or DragonForce song. A DVD box set of it came out in Japan a while ago. Someone should buy it for me.