Sad news for the global anime community on Monday, February 6 asa pioneer in animefandom, James Kaposztas, the creator of the first-known anime music video (AMV) passed away. The news was confirmed by Michael Pinto, publisher and co-founder of Anime.com Inc., who took to Twitter to share a few words about his friend “Jim”.
Kaposztas' immense contribution to the medium of anime extends beyond the creation of the AMV as he was also a big supporter of early anime fandom events in the cities of New York and Philadelphia, eventually getting into various staff roles at Otakon, which was first held in 1994.
RELATED:Studio Pierrot Founder Passes Away
Kaposztas' iconiccreation of the AMVcame from his desire to improve his video editing while also showcasing one of his hobbies, leading him to connect two VCRs together and weaved together second-hand VHS footage of violent scenes fromSpace Battleship Yamato, known in the US as “Star Blazers”, and put them together with the song “All You Need Is Love” by The Beatles way back in 1982, when he was just 21 years old.
Kaposztas would upload this and other AMVs to his YouTube channel. He worked at Otakon for 22 years and assumed various staff roles in Video and Technical operations. Pinto went on to talk more about Kaposztas’s important role in supporting early fandom events, particularly through cosplaying Star Blazers character Captain Avatar, as well as how he turned his love for anime and turned it into a professional career as a video editor that spanned over two decades.
While it is a highly prevalent art form these days, the early stages of AMV creation proved to be extremely difficult due to the difficulty of sourcing the video material, having the technology required torip and painstakingly edit videos, and also the likelihood of facing legal action, often due to the discontentment of musical artists whose work is used in AMVs.
One of Kaposztas' biggest fears was finding the videos that he made for pure art and enjoyment on sale at a dealer’s outlet, which he spoke about in detail in an AMV docuseries available on the AMV Filmmakers Association official YouTube channel. Kaposztas' passing marks the loss of a hugely significant presence in the anime world, whose creativity and love for the medium was important in the growth and eventual explosion of Japanese animation in the United States and the west in general.
