NDK 10: AMV Contest

One of my biggest disappointments at NDK this year was that I never got to see the AMV contest all the way through. Part of this disappointment was the overall quality of the contest entries. The contest had room for about 30 AMVs but over 130 were submitted. (To give you an idea of how big this is, other, larger conventions received fewer than 100 submissions—the number of submissions that NDK rejected.)

Not surprisingly, I worked through the main contest. Not that it would have done me much good to have the time open, though. I’m told that the Main Events hall (which seats 1,500 and has standing room for 300 more) was so crowded that one of the directors of the convention was turned away at the door because there wasn’t even standing room available.

By popular demand, they decided to re-show the AMV contest on Sunday morning at 7:00. I missed this showing because I worked until about 4:00 AM Sunday morning and I slept right through the reshowing. Not a problem. It wasn’t advertised but there was a third showing of the AMV contest.

Every year after the convention, the con directors throw a party for the volunteers and staff who worked the convention. Without us, there would be no convention, so the party (called the Dead Dog Party) is their way of saying thanks, and giving us all some time to relax. Starting last year, they replayed the AMV contest near the end of the Dead Dog Party. I planned to watch this showing. Indeed, I even got to watch some of it.

Then Murphy’s Law struck me hard. I was planning to give one of my (underage) friends a ride back home from the convention. This was fine until his parents called near the end of the Dead Dog Party and demanded that he head home immediately. Being his ride, and not wanting to get him into trouble, it meant I had to leave early. I got to watch about 20 minutes of the two-hour contest.

I’m still not pleased that I didn’t get to see the contest entries. Luckily there’s this list of AMVs that were played at the convention. I’m hoping that all of the submissions eventually make it onto AnimeMusicVideos.org so I can see them all, but I’m sure I’ll miss a few of them.

Next year I’m going to schedule time off for me to attend the main contest. The atmosphere of having 1,800 people cheering great videos is something you can’t beat. It beats the experience of seeing a movie on opening night in a crowded theater. I’m not going to miss it again.