Anime Music Videos, or AMVs, are a popular subculture of anime fans who create music videos using anime footage, dating back to VHS mashups in the 1980s and reaching to today’s thriving communities on TikTok. The massive community surrounding AMVs is historically powerful.
Grampus says that the art styles of anime and digital renderings in video games already have an audience — and aligning that with a music artist can garner new fans for both. “I think those cultures intersect at certain points,” Grampus says. “I like to say, ‘Niche is the new mainstream.’”.
This isn’t the first time the Weeknd has incorporated anime’s influence into his music videos. In 2013, he implemented cartoon cats and Japanese characters in the part-pornographic, part-typographic video for “ Kiss Land .”. And last year, he hired Japan’s first Black-owned anime studio, D’Art Shtajio, to produce the autobiographical “ Snowchild ” ...
If you’ve noticed more anime in your life — on Netflix or TikTok, in music videos — you’re not alone. In the first few months of 2021, streaming services have been in an anime arms race, with Netflix and HBO Max adding anime television series and films in rapid succession.
Inherently, anime is an art form used to tell a story — so when it appears in a music video, audiences can’t help but follow along. “Snowchild” does this well, but perhaps the best example is the posthumous release of Juice WRLD ’s “Righteous.”.