Anime World Order Show # 207 – Interview With Jim Kaposztas, Creator of the First AMV

Once upon a time, this would have been labeled as a “bonus” episode since we don’t even introduce ourselves or say the episode number, but since the last time we had him on was over a decade ago we decided to catch up with Jim Kaposztas, creator of the first AMV and certified “oldtaku” to talk about anime fandom, conventions, and creative fan endeavors in both the pre-Internet era as well as today.

Promo: Right Stuf Anime (37:58 – 41:00)
The great day has arrived, as Angel Cop Remastered on Blu-Ray is out. Oh sure, we bought the original Blu-Ray but this is the true HD remaster in the original aspect ratio! Also coming at you is Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos in its entirety! We were only able to review the first 15 episodes back in 2007, so we’ve been waiting over 15 years to see the rest of this madness unfold. And while we can’t be certain, with it now streaming on Netflix and removed from HiDive/the Sentai Filmworks site, there’s a good chance that they no longer have the rights to Den-Noh Coil, so unless you think Netflix of all places will do a home video release, you will want to buy the Den-Noh Coil Complete Collection while the supplies of it still exist. We get the feeling that it might not be reprinted.

7 Replies to “Anime World Order Show # 207 – Interview With Jim Kaposztas, Creator of the First AMV”

  1. I always love listening to how the anime world was before the Internet and big industry cons could take our money. It was a great experience, especially on the US or UK side (like the previous interview episode from last year). Back in Mexico, there were a lot of “Chinese cartoons” (like my grandpa used to call them) or Dragon Ball wannabes. Coming from Mexico, it was completely different growing up having Mazinger Z, Saint Seiya, Ranma 1/2, Heidi Girl of the Alps and what not in local TV and syndication. That was my childhood, and especially having them UNCENSORED gave me a different approach to the anime world when I came to the US 20 or some years ago and started doing conventions in 2011. I always like listening to the ways the conventions were like back in the prehistoric days of our grand dinosaur lords of the 80’s and 90’s. Thanks guys for another great episode. [If we’re the dinosaur lords being from the 80’s and 90’s, then what does that make Jim being from the 60s and 70s? Granted, this comment was posted within minutes of the episode going live such that one couldn’t listen to it by now even at 2x speed, but we know it’s great so we’ll take the compliment! –Daryl]

  2. If the dinosaur lords are from the 80s, then I think Jim’s generation must be some kind of Cambrian era critter, like trilobites or anomalocaris.

  3. I wish he went into how the HELL did he make cuts on interlaced content. [I presume content being interlaced was of no concern in an era of CRT-only displays, before computers could play video. –Daryl]

    1. Essentially correct. I haven’t gotten through the whole episode yet, but I have gotten to the part where he talked about laying down control track. As long as the control track on the tape was clean and uninterrupted, editing the video track to cut between different clips wasn’t a big issue. (I did a little bit of video editing back in the day myself, and took a video editing seminar while in grad school for the student television channel, mainly so that I could get access to their editing bay using U-Matic and Digital8 video and Video Toaster to cut together the only 3 AMVs I ever made, back in the very early 90s.) Everything was analog — even running through a computer (such as the Amiga running video Toaster) only served to superimpose a computer-generated analog signal into the video input from the deck. (This is a similar principle to the Amiga and genlock device, which we and many other groups used to produce the early VHS tape based anime fansubs back in the day.)

    2. Hi,
      The edits were done with an edit capable VCR, using a “flying erase head”, which would lead to a phenomenon someone called “rainbowing” at the edit point. The Videos were edited between 2 machines, way before Computers became commonplace…
      Jim

  4. Regarding editing interlaced footage on CRT displays, and I promise this is the last time I bother you with this, what I fail to understand is dealing with the interlaced standard of “odd>even>odd>even>odd>even……..” If I cut the video improperly, and end up with 2 even or 2 odd fields right next to each other, how will THAT work??

  5. Really great episode…..I wish a version of this had been a panel at SakuraCon 2022….I did enjoy the AMV content I made time for at SakuraCon, to be sure, but I was hoping for more historical & technical discussion like this with audio-visual examples. I’m very sad my favorite local con, Oni-Con (Galveston, TX) dropped their AMV Contest, which was sponsored and managed by a cable access show out of San Antonio, Texas. The AMV contest at Delta H Con (Houston, TX) is small but fun. I think the most fun I’ve ever had experiencing AMVs was Otakon 2021 last year….which led me to discover the anime series Lovely Complex, as one of the entrants used visuals from that show. The AMV Contest for Anime NYC 2021 was pretty good but there were some repeat entrants I remembered from Otakon 2021….not that I minded, necessarily…they were some of the best ones. I think I have great ideas for AMVs but ZERO skill at actually putting one together & editing it, LOL. Just glad that others still produce them and hope these remain a staple of anime conventions for years to come.

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