A Few Diamonds in the Rough (Miku Miku Dance Edition)

Anyone obsessed with watching videos on YouTube knows that the website contains three things; a good side, a dark side, and a WTF side. I met the ladder side not too long ago when a video with a title similar to "Mio has to go to the bathroom" popped up in my suggestions page. It was a strange video of Mio (K-on) doing the most insane dance I  have ever witnessed in front of a closed door which was to give the idea she had to go and the bathroom was occupied. It was made using a program I believe is called Miku Miku Dance. After watching this strange video I watched a few "related videos" which also fell under the WTF part of youtube. I then decided to put "MMD" in my search box one day and was expecting a day of seeing some strange stuff, which I did. But three video stood out to me not for their bizarre concepts, but because they were very well done. Here are a few diamonds in the rough.

【初音ミク】でVirtual Insanity【MMD】

 

As a kid my music influences came from two sources, my dad and my sister. One of her favorite artist was Jamiroqui. I remember when she first showed me a music video for one of his songs called "Virtual Insanity" where the singer seemed to be floating around the room while avoiding the also moving furniture. The secret to the effect was that the floor stood still while the walls and ceiling moved together via some sort of lift. Well years later as I search through these MMD video, I see the still image of the video above and I just go insane with joy. Using this program they recreated the entire video right down to Jamiroqui's unusual dancing method. I was hit by the nostalgia bomb hard and I couldn't have been happier to see this video. The only down side to this video was the vocaloid performance was lacking. Then again I've not yet heard a vocaloid perfromance of an english song perform well anyway so it is to be expected. 

 Miku Hatsune - Sweet Devil 【VOCALOID MMD-PV】 

 

Now being a guy who listens to mostly soft/hard rock and metal music, it's not often that a pop style song catches my attention or gains my respect so much that I feel the need to share it. This one deserves it and if it wasn't for this pretty video I would probably have not found out about it. I can't really say much about this video other than the camera movements were well done, its visually entertaining, and the dancing was fun to watch...oh and there is a near up-skirt shot of Miku's dress. It's completely unneeded but whatever.

【VOCALOID MMD PV】 glow 【Miku Hatsune】

 

Now to say this video is was a diamond in the rough somehow doesn't do this video justice. It is more like finding a diamond the size of a house with beautiful lady trapped inside who wants to marry you and has the cure to every know illness in the world. Yeah it was like that for me. So much to say about this video, so little writing space. First, lets talk about the song itself. It is an absolute brilliant song in every detail from the guitar's intro and outro pieces, the bass guitars rhythm, and soft and sweetly sung melody, and just the overall deep emotional feeling of the song. When a song can make you feel an emotion so strong and it isn't even in a language you can understand, it is worthy of masterpiece status. Then there is the video which perfectly matches the tone of the song. The framing, movement, and look of the camera is done perfectly like you would see in some of the best music videos. Also the animation is top notch and has some amazing detail . For example the animator had the drummer hold the stick on the snare drum upside down which I hear is a commonly used technique. The movement of each musician is life like and fits every part of the song. And boy, does miku really look like a music video star in her performance (yes I know she isn't real, but it's animation presented as a person acting so it counts).

and that's all I have at the moment. Maybe some more videos will grab my attention and deserve a blog post another day. Till then, keep searching.