AMV Hell

AMV Hell is a series of fanvids which feature several short, comedic skits which combine anime footage with music or other audio. The assorted skits were contributed by a large number of different individuals. In addition to anime, some other footage is occasionally present; most notably, one of the "AMV Minis" spinoff videos challenged editors to use western animation in place of anime, and another challenge utilized live-action imagery. The AMV Hell series is highly popular and influential - many other fanvids follow the same format.

The videos were originally created by Zarxrax and SSGWNBTD, but later entries in the series were contributed to by numerous individuals.

Most AMV Hell skits are raw edits, but styles vary between skits. The videos use a television rapidly changing between channels as a framing device.

AMV Hell
The first video in the series, which premiered on May 28, 2004.

It originates from interactions between its creators - Zarxrax and SSGWNBTD - over AOL Instant Messenger. SSGWNBTD would often send Zarxrax short video snippets and incomplete anime music videos, or merely discuss using a particular song in conjunction with a particular anime. Similarly, Zarxrax had many ideas which were never truly intended to be full length, stand-alone videos. As such, Zarxrax had the idea to combine the duo's ideas into a single video, with the expectation that doing so would result in "at least a few minutes of content".

Zarxrax intended to send the resulting compilation in to some contests, which required that full video would not include any content the contributors deemed inappropriate for attendees of conventions where the video would be shown. However, some of their ideas were inappropriate for such a setting, which led them to create a second video containing everything they could not include in the first. This second video would be titled AMV Hell 2: Son of AMV Hell; the end of AMV Hell includes a joke promo for the sequel at the end, containing various dramatic scenes which the promo admits are not actually contained in AMV Hell 2. Some of the clips which were intended for the original were moved to AMV Hell 2 in order to "balance out the length of the two videos".

The original AMV Hell went on to win awards at three different conventions.

AMV Hell 2: Son of AMV Hell
Contains clips which were considered inappropriate for inclusion in the original, plus some additional ones which were intended for the original but moved to AMV Hell 2 in order to pad AMV Hell 2's length. Ends with a teaser for AMV Hell 3: The Motion Picture, which was originally intended as a joke.

AMV Hell 3: The Motion Picture
Zarxrax and SSGWNBTD did not originally intend to make a third AMV Hell, but viewers took the fake teaser at the end of AMV Hell 2 seriously and repeatedly asked how they could contribute to the creation of AMV Hell 3. This led the creators to legitimately attempt the ambitious, feature-length project and allow their fellow AMV creators to contribute clips of their own.

AMV Hell 3: The Motion Picture II: AMV Hell 4: The Last One
Zarxrax initially did not intend to create AMV Hell 4. However, SSGWNBTD did, and many viewers had asked for more, which resulted in this project.

AMV Hell 5: Dedicated to Dio
Contains contributions from numerous people. Assembled by SSGWNBTD while Zarxrax was busy working on the AMV Minis spin-off.

Dedicated to both Ronnie James Dio and an individual who had contributed skits to previous AMV Hell videos.

AMV Hell 6
Has two versions. The original rough cut, AMV Hell 6: The End of the Universe 2012, was considered to be sub-par by various individuals. Zarxrax felt that many of the segments featured needed to be replaced outright, and requested that new ones be submitted in order to improve the video. The result of this endeavour was AMV Hell 6.66: This Is (Not) The End, which is officially considered to be the "definitive version", although its intro sequence indicates that the contributions were so dis-satisfactory that Zarxrax decided to "just throw some random videos in and hope there are some good ones".

AMV Hell 7
Premiered on August 8, 2014.

After some time spent on smaller, less intensive projects, Zarxrax decided to attempt one last feature-length AMV Hell video before ending the main series for good.

AMV Hell Championship Edition
Released on June 6, 2006.

Contains the winning entries from a weekly series of contests which were held to see who could make the most interesting skits using specific audio sources, plus a few other notable entries.

AMV Hell 0
Premiered on September 19 2008.

Made alongside AMV Hell 3: The Motion Picture as a repository for content which was not allowed to be included in AMV Hell 3. 0 was specifically stated to have no rules whatsoever on what varieties of content were allowed, and as a result featured large quantities of sexually explicit content. Zarxrax has expressed regret regarding its content, referring to both 0 and Divided By 0 as "truly reprehensible".

AMV Hell Divided By 0
Made by SSGWNBTD "in the same style as AMV Hell 0".

AMV Minis
Ended on January 24 2015.

A series of shorter videos which were intended to be more manageable than the feature-length creations. Ran for two seasons, after which it received a follow-up titled AMV Minis Challenge where each episode followed a specific theme.