A Commentary on 18+ AMV Contests

[alphasigmaevolved]

After creating the What 18+ AMV Contests do others know of? thread, I've got a few things to say about my experience with these contests.

Submission Process

Something I like about Yunicon's HMV contest is the ability to provide a link to socials in their form (optional, of course). I do think this could be more flexible to not just be YouTube though, it could be other sites like linktr.ee -- this way a person can at least find more information about a creator that submitted. I don't think I have seen this field anywhere else for an 18+ AMV contest on here, and there's no way to know if the creator has actually put up the video anywhere.

Youmacon has a field called "Playback Link" which allows viewers to go see the video after the showing. I think this would be a great addition to other cons submission process as well.

From doxxing and harassment concerns, I also think it would be beneficial for creator(s) to choose to remain anonymous and not provide their first/last name. Several HMV creators have gotten doxxed in the past and their accounts trashed, and even if con staff tries to say the information is safe in their hands, there are creators that are very wary of this and for good reason.

Listings

I've tried spreading the word around for some of these 18+ AMV contests to increase the number of submissions and interest in them. It was nice to see that Abunai got 42 entries for the 18+ AMV competition this year.

Yunicon 2023 only had 8 entries total for the Hentai Musik Video contest, and Tekko this year had 26 entries with 6 of them having nudity that wouldn't be allowed on YouTube.

Yunicon 2024 I can hope to have more submissions this year, as the contest got retweeted by hmv_clips.

Tekko I'm not sure why the entries list didn't get published when other cons post the lists for the 18+ contests, not just the winner. And even then, the winning submission can't be viewed anywhere.

Post-showing

After the contests are over, due to the nature of the content in the videos, they generally can't be put up on a mainstream site like YouTube without risking account termination. This opens up the issue to lost media, where a video plays during the contest and is nowhere to be found afterwards.

Take Gyaru Club from SpuddStaaa for example. It won the BlerDCon 2023 Ecchi NSFW AMV contest, won the Katsucon 2024 Ecchi NSFW contest, won best extreme AMV Tekko 2023 Extreme AMV Contest, finalist in Abunai 2023 18+ AMV Competition, and is nowhere to be found. It exists and doesn't exist at the same time.

Snow Blower from drewaconclusion is also something that usually gets shown as a finale to the Anime Boston contest and it always has people laughing. After talking with the original creator, I learned that ngsilver was a thing (it was some sort of hmv server?) and the original video link for its entry on animemusicvideos was no longer valid so I had to do some digging.

I've had the opportunity to work with hundreds of creators to get their content up on a site that respects privacy and avoids rampant DMCA harassment in this space. This has amounted to over 3,000 videos -- HMVs are actually more popular than you might think, but the number of options to safely host them are incredibly limited.

Spoiler :

Note: That site is HMVMania

Ever since the great PH purge of December 2020, and numerous other sites taking measures that try forcing IRL verification on users, a lot of HMVs have become lost media or are in danger of being lost media. Even HMVs from this year and last year have disappeared from mega.nz takedowns on 4chan.

I'd be interested in reaching out to these creators to get them set up for safe hosting of their HMVs, although I don't know how to find more information about them. It goes back to what I mentioned in the Submission Process section where having information for finding a creator would be helpful as an optional field.

[TritioAFB]

I know Spuudsta we could call him to lend a copy of the video

PD. In fact, ngsilver was the responsible of updating the list of HMV and yeah, they are way more popular than people think. Its just that a lot of people wont admit it.

Btw dont get dissapointed with Abunai. Several of these videos arent +18 and we will know once the contest happens. So still wondering whats the criteria for being considered +18 in Abunai

[Sayoria]

SppudSttta has a knack for HMVs when he puts the time and effort into them for sure.

Btw dont get dissapointed with Abunai. Several of these videos arent +18 and we will know once the contest happens. So still wondering whats the criteria for being considered +18 in Abunai

Yeah, mine being one. Mine has some domestic violence and more or less adult themes. Not HMV. My Pokemon video was also moved to Abunai's 18+ event two years ago for blood.

[Kagacie]

This is some good commentary!

18+ Competitions have always been a bit of a strange beast at cons.
During the 18th edition we introduced this competition at Abunai!
With the main focus for us wanting to aim for a 18+ contest that focuses on more than just HMV's.
With every edition of the contest we try and find the right balance between what is and isn't 18+ as this can be different for everyone.
This is why every year we ask our audience for feedback on the entries and if they think the competition felt like an 18+ competition.

This year we introduced a special "screening crew " that also helped us define things a bit better with every entry that came in, and while this helped we still got feedback from the audience that certain videos were not 18+ enough but at the same time the videos would also not be allowed at the regular competitions.

Over the years it has become very clear besides the obvious Hentai the definition of 18+ is very vague, and it's something that as we grow we have to learn with our audience.

The feedback on the submission process is quite a good one and doesn't just apply to the 18+ but I'd say to AMV Contest in general especially the playback link is a great one.

Post-showing is indeed a pretty big issue, we had quite a few audience members ask us about the entries afterward and having a place we can link them to would be great.

Btw dont get dissapointed with Abunai. Several of these videos aren't +18 and we will know once the contest happens. So still wondering whats the criteria for being considered +18 in Abunai

As mentioned the criteria is always hard to define, as to us 18+ is not just HMV but also videos that showcase high amounts of blood and gore or have a focus on adult themed subject matter.
This is not just a definition decided by us as the host but also from the convention itself, as what we allow in the same sense means "this is approved by the con to be shown"

Due to our growing younger audience we try to keep our regular competitions rather PG, hence why we also wanted a place for the videos that were not PG enough to be shown at the regular competitions.

So while yes based on the typical definition of "18+ is just hentai" there a videos in our playlist that don't meet that criteria, but based on our definition being beyond thatvideos showcasing sexual assault, or comedy videos involving suicide but also videos focusing on alcoholism and videos that featured domestic abuse all fall under the 18+ umbrella.

We are aware that to some these might not appear as your typical 18+ videos and we actually hope to get more HMV's next year as we want to balance things out more and not just have heavy subject matter videos as this can make the competition rather "heavy" to the audience.

Every year we try to improve and reduce the gray area of "what is 18+" as much as possible but also make it clearer to editors what they can and cannot submit to the contest.

[alphasigmaevolved]

When it comes to hosting 18+ contests from a logistical standpoint, you do start running into extra things, a few that come to mind are:
- Whether to combine a variety of topics together. Group videos with blood and gore, addiction (e.g. alcoholism or drug use), nudity (nudity with or without genitals).
- Whether the content will get you in trouble (laws differ by country about fictional acts). This is covered by the pre-screening process.
- Making sure there is a separate age-gated room.

So while yes based on the typical definition of "18+ is just hentai" there a videos in our playlist that don't meet that criteria, but based on our definition being beyond thatvideos showcasing sexual assault, or comedy videos involving suicide but also videos focusing on alcoholism and videos that featured domestic abuse all fall under the 18+ umbrella.

We are aware that to some these might not appear as your typical 18+ videos and we actually hope to get more HMV's next year as we want to balance things out more and not just have heavy subject matter videos as this can make the competition rather "heavy" to the audience.

From your experience, how are the 18+ contest entries usually handled in the order of the screening? And what's the audience reception to it?

Showing Rage Dance (Kazukisanxx)*, Second Punic Music Video (Majistoca)*, or Angel City (me)* after a video with a lot of blood and gore for example, probably wouldn't be a good tranistion.

Spoiler :

*Before going to the below links, you confirm you are at least 18 years of age.

Code: Select all

Rage Dance: https://hmvmania.com/video/kazukisanxx-rage-dance/
Second Punic Music Video: https://hmvmania.com/video/majistoca-second-punic/
Angel City: https://hmvmania.com/video/a%CF%83-angel-city/

Maybe if the videos are grouped in a certain way, that could help balance out what's in the showing as well.

Post-showing is indeed a pretty big issue, we had quite a few audience members ask us about the entries afterward and having a place we can link them to would be great.

How was this handled? Did con staff reach out to the original submitters about where a person could find their accounts on some sites?

[Kagacie]

When it comes to hosting 18+ contests from a logistical standpoint, you do start running into extra things, a few that come to mind are:
- Whether to combine a variety of topics together. Group videos with blood and gore, addiction (e.g. alcoholism or drug use), nudity (nudity with or without genitals).
- Whether the content will get you in trouble (laws differ by country about fictional acts). This is covered by the pre-screening process.
- Making sure there is a separate age-gated room.

From your experience, how are the 18+ contest entries usually handled in the order of the screening? And what's the audience reception to it?

At the con different age groups have different wrist bands, so anyone with a 18+ wrist bands gets checked at the door by con staff and allowed entry into the room, as the con takes place in a hotel room we have plenty of closed off screening rooms.

When comes to the playist we combine it all into one contest, creating our playlist is usually the most difficult thing.
it's why we introduced presenters to this competitions.
So the structure the competition goes by is as followed


- People get checked at the door based on their wristband and can enter the screening room.
- We show the competition opening (every year make a unique opening that's only viewable at the contest with no postshow available)
- The host for the event (me and another con staff member) get on stag, hype up the crowd, explain a bit about the competition and what people can expect to see
- We show videos in blocks of 5, with every block containing a mix of HMV,adult themed and usually more comedic/ecchi themed videos
- then we have a short intermission of about 1 to 2 minutes, where we the host talk a bit to the audience. We talk either about the videos shown, Stuff like sponsors for the contest or some other topic related to the contest.
- rinse and repeat until the playlist is done.

- We have a little talk with the audience while the votes for the live voting get calculated, while doing this we usually play a game with the audience or have a short talk and show last years winner.
- starting this year we also have a QR code on screen to a a short feedback form for the contest specifically.
- we present the winners and show them again
- With our special Tentacle award we offer the audience a chance to take a picture with it if they so desire.

We have noticed the audience appreciates the breaks during this specific contest as allows them a bit of a mental break and the ability to process the videos better.

Overall the audience reception to having them mixed is pretty good but the key thing we learned (Especially this year) is balance, having too much adult themed makes the contest too " heavy", having too much hentai that is just "here is people having sex on the beat" makes it boring for the audience, so the balance is key. We have noticed the comedy + adult themed videos are a combination that works wonders for the audience.

We also have seperate credit screens for each type of entry. So the bloody/gory entries have their own more dark/horror themed voting/credit screen, the hentai ones more upbeat/fun themed and the adult themed have a more moody themed ones. Noticed this also helps break up things for the audience.

It's a lot of extra work from our side but it seems to be much appreciated by the audience.

Showing Rage Dance (Kazukisanxx)*, Second Punic Music Video (Majistoca)*, or Angel City (me)* after a video with a lot of blood and gore for example, probably wouldn't be a good tranistion.

Spoiler :

*Before going to the below links, you confirm you are at least 18 years of age.

Code: Select all

Rage Dance: https://hmvmania.com/video/kazukisanxx-rage-dance/
Second Punic Music Video: https://hmvmania.com/video/majistoca-second-punic/
Angel City: https://hmvmania.com/video/a%CF%83-angel-city/

Maybe if the videos are grouped in a certain way, that could help balance out what's in the showing as well.

This is why we break them into blocks showing and spreading them out, if we have enough entries of each kind perhaps we could look into the option of breaking them into categories but in the current state that would break the balance of the contest as you'd have 3 proper HMV's and then just bloody or adult themed for the rest of the contest.

Post-showing is indeed a pretty big issue, we had quite a few audience members ask us about the entries afterward and having a place we can link them to would be great.

How was this handled? Did con staff reach out to the original submitters about where a person could find their accounts on some sites?
[/quote]

With this years list we actually only had 14 out of the 19 entries which couldn't be found on youtube, but in general we haven't properly figured out yet and for next year would love to contact the editors for it as we want to provide the audience with easy links to their favorite video.

[Kagacie]

I will say that I was not aware of harassment problems people faced in the past and this is most certainly something to take into account for our contest in the future.

[Remziel]

What an absolutely fantastic thread to stumble upon. I work for Another Anime Con and will be running an Adult AMV Contest. It's my first time running an actual AMV contest but I have done similar events in the past such as a hentai dub. The format encourages all 18+ content with rewards in categories such are Most Violent and Best Comedy. There's a lot of good insight in this thread and I agree with mixing up the content so it's not just "hentai to the beat" for hours.
I also have a few audience activities to do in between showings to keep things interesting. We used to have an amazing event called HMV Iron Editor that I have adapted some of the things that were fun for the audience to fit my event. I plan on doing a private screening between willing (brave) staff members ahead of time for judging and will use that time to figure out how best to order them for showing. As far as post-con hosting, as stated above there are not a lot of great options, they wouldn't even be allowed on most "alt" video hosting sites. I'm thinking of just allowing editors to add a "plug" in either text or video on the end of their submission.
If anyone has any advice/questions/comments feel free to reply here or DMs. I'm really excited to give this a go and hope it runs well and can even become a regular thing.

[alphasigmaevolved]

What an absolutely fantastic thread to stumble upon. I work for Another Anime Con and will be running an Adult AMV Contest. It's my first time running an actual AMV contest but I have done similar events in the past such as a hentai dub. The format encourages all 18+ content with rewards in categories such are Most Violent and Best Comedy. There's a lot of good insight in this thread and I agree with mixing up the content so it's not just "hentai to the beat" for hours.
I also have a few audience activities to do in between showings to keep things interesting. We used to have an amazing event called HMV Iron Editor that I have adapted some of the things that were fun for the audience to fit my event. I plan on doing a private screening between willing (brave) staff members ahead of time for judging and will use that time to figure out how best to order them for showing. As far as post-con hosting, as stated above there are not a lot of great options, they wouldn't even be allowed on most "alt" video hosting sites. I'm thinking of just allowing editors to add a "plug" in either text or video on the end of their submission.
If anyone has any advice/questions/comments feel free to reply here or DMs. I'm really excited to give this a go and hope it runs well and can even become a regular thing.

Sent you a DM. I'd also be interested in how I can help set up HMVs for cons/panelists post-showing.