The Kare Kano TV series has a fascinating history. For one, it was never finished. The show also hastened director Hideki Anno’s departure from GAINAX (or so the story goes). Following a disagreement with the original author of the Kare Kano manga (or so the story goes), Anno left the production, placing the remaining episodes in the capable hands of his protege, Tsurumaki Kazuya. Not until six years later would Anno return to the director’s chair; he did, however, contribute to the production of Mahoromatic and Petite Princess Yucie in the interim.

Given the staff change, it should come as no surprise that later episodes of Kare Kano differ in style and tone from those that come before. Even though Tsurumaki didn’t take full control of the show until Episode 19, the transition first becomes apparent at Episode 15 - which, for all basic purposes, is a pretty unusual episode in itself. Why? For one, even though it was the first regular episode to air following two weeks of recap (ugh!), it ignores all ongoing story arcs to instead tell the story of how Yukino’s parents first met and fell in love. What really makes it unique, however, is the fact it’s presented in the format of an old home movie, much like you might find collecting dust in some forgotten corner of your grandmother’s attic. The entire episode is presented in black and white, and, at times, has the appearance of having been shot on 8mm film.

To be honest, I absolutely adore this episode. Yukino’s mother and father are plenty interesting characters in their own right, yet never see much time in the spotlight. This episode clearly belongs to them, however. And, of course, it’s a fascinating episode from both a direction and storyboard standpoint - which, since we’re talking about Kare Kano here, means its a bright spot in an already blinding sea of brilliance. It’s really something.

And it was also the inspiration for my fourth music video…

Forever and Before (30 MB XviD AVI)

This video is essentially a retelling of Episode 15. I used from footage from no other episode. That proved to be quite a challenge in itself - producing a four minute video using 24 minutes of source footage is not as simple as it sounds. Sure, while I didn’t have to spend an eternity scrubbing through hours of source looking for specific cuts (that’s the real reason the average video project takes on the order of 30+ hours to complete), the lack of suitable footage meant I’d have to break one of those cardinal “rules” of AMV editing: I’d have to reuse footage.

Ah, to hell with rules. Hideki Anno blazed his own path when he directed the episode, after all.

All things considered, I still managed to keep the repeated footage to a minimum. Still, it’s there for a reason (which should be obvious once you’ve watched the video). It actually suits the narrative fairly well… which, of course, raises an interesting question: did I compose the narrative with those limitations in mind, or did the narrative simply take advantage of them? Honestly, I can’t answer that question. When working with existing footage, there’s only so much you can do - so many ideas you can realize - yet… well, that’s just AMV editing for you. As a photographer, I’m used to this sort of thing. Photography is, essentially, the art of subtraction, and while I can’t change the reality of a scene as I see it with my own two eyes, I have immense control over the reality of that scene as the camera sees it. Good photographers don’t simply record images. They make images.

To me, that’s what AMV editing is about. It’s about creating something original from that which already exists. You might be thinking, “Well, duh!”, but if you really stop to consider it for a moment, it’s an entirely different beast when compared to standard filmmaking. Creating something from scratch is easy enough as long as you have ideas and resources. Bending reality to your will, on the other hand, requires a lot of creativity. That, and ignorance of intellectual property law.

But I digress. Forever and Before was completed in a single weekend (it was a LONG weekend), and was later submitted for competition at that year’s AMV contest at Anime Central in Chicago. I had never been all that interested in running the con circuit, but the timing was right, so I figured, “Why not?” Much to my surprise, the video not only made the initial cut, but was also one of three finalists in the Drama category. In the end, it lost, but it did so to one of my favorite videos of all time, so I can’t complain.

Unfortunately, I let the success go to my head, and set out a year later to produce a new video for the sole purpose of submitting to the next Anime Central… only to have it cut from the contest completely. I’ll talk about that video next time…