X TV Alternate OP AMV (please let it stay up long enough for me to post this)
Finally finished a project that's been percolating for a while -- an alternate version of the X TV OP set to Ali Project's "Ankoku Tengoku." (In my head, there's a chibified X TV series a la "Welcome to Lodoss Island," and its theme is "Peony Pink," but I just couldn't make that work.) I haven't had great luck with YouTube in the past, so I'm hoping this stays up for a while at least.
I actually started working on this sometime last week, when I was feeling frustrated with my CLAMP fanbook picture and iMovie was a welcome distraction. Prior to this, I'd finished one video before -- the first R2 Geass opening footage set to a different song, tweaking the footage ever so slightly so the timing matched up -- but it kept getting taken down. This is my first video where I really played with montage, so it's still kind of an accomplishment.
It's still a bit rough compared to what I'd like. I managed to avoid using any footage with subtitles, but the video quality varies a bit due to the material I had on hand. (This would be one of the first things I'd fix if I decide to tweak it later on.) Also, using iMovie 6 to edit with anything like precision is like an exercise in masochism -- it just doesn't understand why you'd want your clips to stay where you put them, instead of them scudding around every which way when you try to add a new bit. The X TV OP is also a little short, so I had to source additional footage from the TV series, which has a broader color palette.
At any rate, I tried to keep it in the spirit of an OP as much as possible rather than an AMV, like the footage you'd actually see before the episode plays. To that end, I tried to stick with clips that had a lot of visual impact, and put a premium on atmosphere. It was hard to resist using certain clips, like Fuuma drawing the cloth off the Shinken at the tail end of episode 25, and I went back and forth on certain sections dozens of times. (Of course, I had to include Kamui running toward the camera at the end, because all proper animated versions of X include that at least once. Hell, even "CLAMP in Wonderland," kind of.) Overall, it was hard, but I had fun with it.
The Japanese lyrics are available here, via Animelyrics, and you can watch a subtitled version of the original Kamichama Karin OP there as well. That's the version I used when putting the video together. The accuracy might be debatable (notably, the "Maria" that gets translated to "Virgin Mary" is actually "dahlia"), but Hikari no Kiseki was working before the published lyrics were available, so it's understandable. At any rate, the gist of their translation is similar to others that are out there, so I'll extend them my hearty thanks and reproduce the lyrics here:
Darling open your eyes
I want the treasure everyone has been picking at so badly
at the den in the center of this world
You can't escape from here
imprisoned pale-faced prince
for I am the goddess here
You have to fight and poach for everything here
You'll surely fall into the trap I've laid
God, do I want to tear you into pieces
Illnesses that aren't terminal
are poison for your heart
It's like a rose melting in the flames of purgatory
Let's be reborn
A dark Virgin Mary* resides in the nightless sky
Writhe in the quicksand made of
my continuing delusions and reality crashing down
Darling, raise your voice
if you want to return to the Earth
as much as these dark demonic hands of mine want you
then let me tell you, your prayers are dying out
and becoming nothing more than resounding echoes of return in this prison
You are a devil
Your sword of anger towards me and your wounds made of lament
will dissolve, vanish, scatter, and forever be lost here, without a trace
...if you watched the Kamichama Karin clip, does that not seem...a little at odds with the visuals? o_O (Maybe it works if you watch the show all the way through -- I started it but couldn't get past the 3rd episode, despite my love of Koge Donbo.)
At any rate, I think it does all hang together; at the very least, you know X TV is a series involving a brooding pretty boy, swords, dramatically swirling ribbons, and a fuck-ton of feathers. If you watched, I hope you enjoyed it!
Click to viewI actually started working on this sometime last week, when I was feeling frustrated with my CLAMP fanbook picture and iMovie was a welcome distraction. Prior to this, I'd finished one video before -- the first R2 Geass opening footage set to a different song, tweaking the footage ever so slightly so the timing matched up -- but it kept getting taken down. This is my first video where I really played with montage, so it's still kind of an accomplishment.
It's still a bit rough compared to what I'd like. I managed to avoid using any footage with subtitles, but the video quality varies a bit due to the material I had on hand. (This would be one of the first things I'd fix if I decide to tweak it later on.) Also, using iMovie 6 to edit with anything like precision is like an exercise in masochism -- it just doesn't understand why you'd want your clips to stay where you put them, instead of them scudding around every which way when you try to add a new bit. The X TV OP is also a little short, so I had to source additional footage from the TV series, which has a broader color palette.
At any rate, I tried to keep it in the spirit of an OP as much as possible rather than an AMV, like the footage you'd actually see before the episode plays. To that end, I tried to stick with clips that had a lot of visual impact, and put a premium on atmosphere. It was hard to resist using certain clips, like Fuuma drawing the cloth off the Shinken at the tail end of episode 25, and I went back and forth on certain sections dozens of times. (Of course, I had to include Kamui running toward the camera at the end, because all proper animated versions of X include that at least once. Hell, even "CLAMP in Wonderland," kind of.) Overall, it was hard, but I had fun with it.
The Japanese lyrics are available here, via Animelyrics, and you can watch a subtitled version of the original Kamichama Karin OP there as well. That's the version I used when putting the video together. The accuracy might be debatable (notably, the "Maria" that gets translated to "Virgin Mary" is actually "dahlia"), but Hikari no Kiseki was working before the published lyrics were available, so it's understandable. At any rate, the gist of their translation is similar to others that are out there, so I'll extend them my hearty thanks and reproduce the lyrics here:
Darling open your eyes
I want the treasure everyone has been picking at so badly
at the den in the center of this world
You can't escape from here
imprisoned pale-faced prince
for I am the goddess here
You have to fight and poach for everything here
You'll surely fall into the trap I've laid
God, do I want to tear you into pieces
Illnesses that aren't terminal
are poison for your heart
It's like a rose melting in the flames of purgatory
Let's be reborn
A dark Virgin Mary* resides in the nightless sky
Writhe in the quicksand made of
my continuing delusions and reality crashing down
Darling, raise your voice
if you want to return to the Earth
as much as these dark demonic hands of mine want you
then let me tell you, your prayers are dying out
and becoming nothing more than resounding echoes of return in this prison
You are a devil
Your sword of anger towards me and your wounds made of lament
will dissolve, vanish, scatter, and forever be lost here, without a trace
...if you watched the Kamichama Karin clip, does that not seem...a little at odds with the visuals? o_O (Maybe it works if you watch the show all the way through -- I started it but couldn't get past the 3rd episode, despite my love of Koge Donbo.)
At any rate, I think it does all hang together; at the very least, you know X TV is a series involving a brooding pretty boy, swords, dramatically swirling ribbons, and a fuck-ton of feathers. If you watched, I hope you enjoyed it!