Kill your idols

[CrackTheSky]

Time to break some hearts here, but I just really have never liked this video:

Video: Jihaku
Category: Action, Drama, Other, etc. (+3)
Anime: Happy Lesson, Air Master, Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water (TV), etc. (+114)
Song: Best of You
Artist: Foo Fighters
Creator: Tyler_yj (Fantasy Movies)

First of all, I don't begrudge Tyler for making this video. I know a couple of my editor friends have cited Jihaku as the reason they started editing. I know that this video was hugely influential in drawing new editors into the fold and countless great videos have been made as a direct result of Jihaku's influence. You'll get no argument from me -- respect to Tyler for doing what he did here.

But the video to me just feels like the worst sort of emotional manipulation. It wasn't the first video to do this, but it was after Jihaku that these multi-anime OP/ED-gasm videos set to really anthemic, dramatic songs started popping up. It's a trend that's still ongoing, though the focus has shifted slightly to the more action-y side (for better or worse). Every video that has ever stuffed itself to the brim with dramatic-looking scenes while simultaneously sacrificing any sort of meaningful concept or purpose other than making the viewer feel as much dramatic tension as possible at every second owes itself to Jihaku. This video is just so exaggerated that I can't take it seriously. I love that Tyler's description of this video is "It's a video about life in general, a confession about life, full of passion, rage, deception, determination, desire to fight, desire to give up." To me this feels like a cop-out, an afterthought, an excuse to string a bunch of random scenes together. If it's going to be a meaningless melodramafest, just say so.

What bugs me most though is that Jihaku is arguably the video which spawned a whole slew of similar videos that have the appearance of depth but are as shallow as can be (and yes, I've been affected by this as well). It makes the argument, even if not explicitly, that as long as any given scene looks dramatic, it will be, even if the scenes surrounding it are completely unrelated. It spoon-feeds tension and angst without expecting any effort from the viewer. I don't blame people for liking it -- it's an exceptionally likable video. It gets you pumped and it keeps you watching, but it leaves me cold at the end. I guess my tastes just tend towards videos with more conceptual strength.

[BasharOfTheAges]

It's a montage. They're not supposed to have meaning of their own. They're supposed to evoke your memory and personal experiences with the sources. You mention imitators in action, but the real parallel is in multi-source romance videos - they pretty much all use that formula.

It's all about the archetypes.

[Ileia]

It's a montage. They're not supposed to have meaning of their own. They're supposed to evoke your memory and personal experiences with the sources. You mention imitators in action, but the real parallel is in multi-source romance videos - they pretty much all use that formula.

It's all about the archetypes.

Pretty much. Personally, while I do like the video, I never felt it to be particularly special or ground-breaking as an AMV because I always saw it as just an anime version of the official music video - just with less focus on the band and more on the imagery.

[Shui]

I always thought of Jihaku as FUgly. But I hate the song so I'm in no position to judge it.
These types of atmospheric AMVs I don't mind if well done and not full of overused scenes. Though I think Magic Pad was the one that really kickstarted it.