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Latest AC-bu Animated Music Video Is a Zany Battlecry Against COVID-19
posted on by Choo Sum Lee
Experimental rock group Battles released an animated music video last Sunday for the track "Sugar Foot" from their album "Juice B Crypts". The video is animated and directed by AC-bu, and depicts a continuously escalating mecha space battle. Like AC-bu's previous music video for DJ Powder, the video's zany and kitschy art and animation belie a straightforwardly hopeful and liberating message.
If the giant virus-shaped meteorites didn't clue you in, the video is about COVID-19 – specifically, its impact on live events and festivals. The video's description on YouTube writes:
In 2020, the outbreak of Covid-19 caused a global lockdown and restricted many activities and events in the world. This music video depicts the 'Great Space Robot Festival' that unfolds to avenge cancelled festivals and events, in the hope that humanity will be able to overcome the crisis and move towards a better world.
AC-bu's comments on the video reflected much of the same sentiment, while adding that the video is inspired by 1980s mecha anime that they are familiar with. Sure enough, the full-body suit/helmet combo at 0:21 is pretty derivative of those worn by pilots in mecha anime like Macross, the giant horned mecha at 1:30 looks similar to Super Robot Gaiking, the flipping logo transition at 2:26 and 3:00 is a dead-ringer for this transition used in the Transformers cartoons, and the Earth mecha with the moon-cannon at the end is possibly a reference to Battle B-Daman and its popular marble mecha toys.
What other fun references can you find that we missed?
Sources: "Sugar Foot" YouTube video, Beatink
