Blake Banks’ “Burn This City Down” currently sits at 14,000 plays on YouTube. But when you search for the song on the platform, you’ll find an unofficial music video that’s inspired by anime: a couple of beautifully drawn manga figures spending time together on the steps of a school yard. Visually stunning with rapid cuts to lyrics and the figures engaging in activities like some kind of animated montage, the video has become a viral hit on YouTube, currently sitting at 294,000 views since its release at the end of August. Perhaps the song’s illuminating energy and burning passion play a hand in its rapid growth, but the vast majority of its popularity clearly comes from  the video, with this particular format being known as the amine music video, or AMV for short. And Banks’s AMV is the latest in a mysterious format of content that is breaking the next generation of rap stars who understand anime and use it to their advantage. 

Odds are, if you’re below 60-years-old, you’ve had some exposure to anime — even if you didn’t realize it. Anime is a specific type of Japanese animation that is aimed at both adults and children. The first glimmers of the art form appeared as early as 1917 in Japan as anti-war propaganda but on a creative level, it reached the United States in the 1960s in the form of shows like Astro Boy and Speed Racer. As these programs became popular, others began to grow in the United States over the course of a couple of decades: Dragon Ball-Z, Diaclone, and Macross turned into hits in the 1980s. By the time the 1990s came around and brought Yu Yu Hakusho, Cowboy Bebop, the revival of Dragon Ball Z, among other anime programs, the art form became a massive hit in the United States, successfully impacting multiple generations.

Now, people who have grown up on anime have brought it into hip-hop — a genre that historically has been hesitant to accept it. For years now, underneath the radar, YouTubers have made their own music videos to accompany rappers’ songs, utilizing anime-style graphics to create their own unique expressions. While it’s always been creative and had an audience that primarily existed underground, growing numbers and engagement could see it become a new normal for rappers looking to showcase their appreciation of anime and grow their platforms.

Banks has three AMV videos so far and reveals over the phone that he loves what they do — but he didn’t know anything about anime prior to connecting with them. “I found out about these channels through my own artist discovery,” he says. “I went through YouTube and found these channels that basically make a montage of your music via anime. I wasn’t really into the scene so I had to take a look into it.” Since then, as showcased by his frequent collaborations with them, Banks has become enamored with the platform. But that’s not the only reason that he keeps getting the videos. “What’s great about these videos is that they become super popular, because of anime’s popularity in the United States, and their success translates all the way to your streams,” he says. “When my song gets uploaded to these AMV channels, I am immediately able to see how much of a boom I get on Spotify and SoundCloud. It works out great for both parties, whether they charge you or they do it for free.” 

Anterior Robinson, a 25-year-old YouTuber from Atlanta, GA who loves the Monogatari anime series, says that he creates these AMVs because it’s something he’s wanted to do ever since he was a child. But it wasn’t until he saw an AMV for a Childish Gambino song that he decided to truly chase his online dreams. His process, as he explains, is tedious, but ultimately what makes it magical. “I go through at least thirteen episodes in most cases to find clips that I may need,” he says. “Once I do that, I start piecing the puzzle together and, with each piece, the image that I want to paint begins to reveal itself more and more.”

A search on Robinson’s channel showcases just how beautiful his art is. For the Joey Bada$$ song “Like Me,” he pieced together clips from Cowboy Bebop, translating the rapper’s gritty style into a striking futuristic aesthetic that fits the universe of the series. The channel only has a little more than six thousand followers, but this video has racked up over 2.2 million views. Robinson says that he picks songs he wants to make AMVs for based on his emotions. “I listen to the message and emotional impact the songs give off,” he says. “The anime I choose has to amplify this experience ten-fold. These two elements have to be in harmony, and the synchronization has to be at least seventy percent.” 

Fulmetalparka$ is a Virginia lyricist who’s been a lifelong fan of anime and has had his fair share of AMVs. He’s created a massive fanbase with his creative aesthetic and his AMV videos have his platform skyrocketing. “My first official one was done a year or two ago by a channel named Scroll Gang for my song, ‘Phoenix Down,’” he says. “It took them about a month or two to create. They used the Beyond The Boundary anime and what they created helped the song to really take off.”

He’s gearing up to release a new project, Memory Cards 2 OST, a body of work he says is inspired by forgotten movies, video games, and styles of the late ‘90s and early 2000s, and he’s already planning to collaborate with AMV channels for its videos. But with their rising popularity, since the world is becoming aware of the type of video’s reach, he anticipates that it’ll be harder to get them made. “They are becoming so high in demand that their cost rises by the month and submitting content, even with funds, doesn’t’ always guarantee placement,” he says. “Your music has to fit certain criteria from the beat to the content in order to even be considered.”

Fulmetalparka$ doesn’t only chalk their scarcity up to how esteemed these visuals have become, but also how fiercely they are guarded in the community — something he has total respect for. “These channel owners actually have some integrity when it comes to their content,” he says. “Not anyone can get an AMV video, no matter how good the song is. They choose who they want to work with and it makes the community sacred so that it can’t become tarnished or oversaturated. Artists looking for quick come up by having videos made by popular channels like Trash Gang or Scroll Gang can just turn away because those days are far in the past. But for the underground community with our distinct sound, AMVs will forever be an aid to our music.”

Banks, similarly, pays his respects to the mysterious channels that have helped to propel his music to new heights, leading to coverage on platforms like ELEVATOR, Illroots, and Lyrical Lemonade. “These channels, often made by kids in countries like Japan and Russia, are helping rappers everywhere achieve metrics that wouldn’t ordinarily be possible,” he says. “Pretty soon, the music industry will try to replicate what they have going on. I just pray they don’t succeed — what these channels are doing now is too good to fuck up.”