Quintessence

Contest video of AKROSS Con 2017

К клипу прилагаются английские и русские субтитры
English and Russian subs available

Author's comment: Hello! For this project, I used a Brazilian song. The language barrier was a worry for me, but I've taken care of an English translation (I'd like to have a Russian one available too, but since I don't know Russian, I'll owe you this one).
Below, I'll be talking about my idea for the AMV, so if you prefer taking your own conclusions first, you can go on to watch it with no problem. The only thing you should know when going into this AMV is that it's not a story per say, so you shouldn't worry about remembering all the characters present in it. Instead, concentrate on what happens around them and how they're affected, and how the song goes into it. You can read the translation here.
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Now, what this AMV is about. When working on this, I tried to show the deep connection among the diverse forms of life in our planet, the natural (and supernatural) mysteries of this world and the smallness of human race in face of nature and its age-old wisdom and unpredictability. I planned to use a different song when I decided to run for this contest, but when I realized how perfectly "maré" went with "Mushishi", I had to edit it as soon as possible. After making this association I understood the song much better, so I fell in love with this concept. It's fascinating to me how it goes in a scientific direction at the same time it can go in a spiritual direction. I just hope other people think it's interesting too, haha.

The poem I refer to in the beginning, "Continent's End", is perfect for the concept of this AMV. I recommend that you check it out if you can; the last three stanzas are my favorite (really wish I could've put them into the video, but I hate AMV full with text). Mushishi is the main anime used in this video and if you watched it, I hope you'll be able to see even deeper into the concept. The other ones were mostly visual support, but the "one is all, all is one" philosophy of Fullmetal Alchemist goes really well into this AMV, too (which is why I used that last scene). So, there are a lot of references to the ocean, forest and life within nature in general in this AMV. Quintessence, the title, refers to this: the purest state of life, where we are most basic and most complex.

Without further ado, I hope you'll enjoy it!

Information
Anime: Mushishi, Mushishi Tokubetsu-hen: Hihamukage, Mushishi: The Next Chapter, Mushishi Zoku-Shō Tokubetsu-hen: Odoro no Michi, Mushishi: Zoku-Shō: Suzu no Shizuku, Angel's Egg, The Great Passage, A Lull in the Sea, Hybrid Child, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, From the New World, Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal
Music: Scalene - maré