My Favourite BL Fan Videos on YouTube
YouTube is where I was introduced to the world of Asian BL and I'll always be grateful for it, but it's interesting to remember that I discovered it not because of a particular series, but because of fan videos / 'edits'. I love the idea that dedicated fans feel so attached to a particular BL that they pay homage to it by making a video. They pick their favourite parts of the series - almost always the best parts too - and edit them into a single piece of video that's usually just a few minutes long, but long enough to concentrate their love into an ode to the series. Some of my favourite YouTube videos are homages to series that I haven't even seen, that's how good they are. And the choice of music to play over the edit is just as important as the images selected. It can't be easy making them, and tastes are so varied that it's inevitable that some viewers won't like them. For example, I've found edits for the much-loved Thai two-season series "SOTUS" that have very different focuses - one might lean towards comedy, the other towards drama, another to romance - but all of them are fantastic in their own ways.
So here's a list of a few of my favourite YouTube BL edits. And SPOILER alerts are in place for all of these edits, so watch with care if you haven't seen the relevant series yet.
Satsuki v Daiki by Ice Smile: If you've read my first post in this blog, you'll know that this was the first BL edit I came across and it's still one of my favourites (though if I'm honest with myself, Alan Shirahama can take most of the credit for this). And it's not even BL! It's just edited to look like BL. For this reason, I love creator Ice Smile as one of the best BL editors on YouTube I've ever come across, and you could do a lot worse than trawling through the full set of his/her BL fan videos.
GayOK Bangkok:
Arm x Nat by Jesse West: SPOILERS this edit shows a key moment of the Arm/Nat storyline in the wonderful Thai BL series GayOK Bangkok, so you should only view this video if you've watched the whole series. This edit aims at presenting the bittersweet side of the Arm/Nat relationship, so it can be painful to watch for fans of this series' most loved couple. But I haven't found a better reminder of just how intense and genuine Arm's feelings for Nat were.
Arm x Nat - I'm not ok but I'll pretend if you want by Marta Buketikova: The finest tribute to this couple that I've found on YouTube. It hits all the right notes across the entire series. That scene in the temple when Nat arrives....I bawl every time. If this edit had given a better sense of Arm and Nat's personalities and perhaps added a few lines of dialogue, it would have been a perfect clip and a top pick.
Uncontrolled Love by _Sunday_: SPOILERS this edit gets everything right, and even though it's fairly generic, it's a great example of how to create a 'dramatic BL' fan edit. It's tightly focused on the main couple of Chinese series Uncontrolled Love and their most intensely dramatic moments together. It comes off as very serious and earnest as a result, especially its melancholy music choice, but it's a perfect fit for the original material. Wonderful stuff.
Zara Soulmate is up there with Ice Smile as one of the best YouTube BL creators I've found. Her tribute videos are saturated with intensified colours and dreamy filters, and her choice in music - sometimes wistful and minimalistic, but most often epic and intensely dramatic - is well paired with her interpretation of the source material. Here are three examples of Zara's excellent work that I love:
SPOILERS
Red Balloon - by far the best edit I've found of this exceptional series.
HIStory 2: Crossing The Line - I love how she focuses on the wonderful reactions and facial expressions of Fandy Fan in this clip. She hovers beautifully over those small yet meaningful moments that make this series one of the very best out there.
Advance Bravely - finding scenes from this series where the handsomeness of the two lead actors looks anything less than god-like is difficult, but even so, Zara's skill raises them up even further. Her use here of colour saturation and B&W fades is really effective.
SOTUS / SOTUS S: three very different interpretations of this series, all of them are excellent. BIG SPOILERS
Kongpop x Arthit / You Light Me Up - the ridiculous catchy pop song used here is nicely matched to this light and romantic interpretation, and the images are timed to the music with an almost professional precision. The focus here is on showing Arthit's very funny efforts to convince everyone he's straight and not attracted to Kongpop. The pink milk scene that's been chosen here is solid gold and so funny. All hail Krist's and Singto's wonderful acting and chemistry. Get ready to smile with pure joy!
Arthit x Kong - It's Alright - this take on the SOTUS story is far more serious and dramatic. It looks more closely at the repercussions of Arthit's mistreatment of Kongpop so it lurks in some dark corners. It highlights how badly their story could have gone if Arthit hadn't faced up to the truth about himself. It ends where all the best SOTUS edits end - with Arthit's beautiful emotional confession of his feelings to Kongpop at the rooftop party in season one. This deepens the intensity and beauty of their journey from hate to love better than any other edit I've seen. One of my absolute favourites.
Kongpop & Arthit - What am I to you? - this edit is more generic than the other two but it's the perfect summary of both seasons of this series. And all with a Troye Sivan cover as the music.
HIStory2 : Crossing the Line - Surrender - SPOILERS my number one favourite Asian BL fan edit, and by a big margin. It's about as close to BL perfection as you could possibly ask for. Beautifully edited, sublimely paired music (god, that song!), intelligent scene choices from the source material (that final kiss scene slays me every time). It also flips the usual Crossing the Line character dynamic by seeing the action from Xuan's perspective instead of Hao's, which makes the A-grade classic 'sister confession' scene even more emotionally devastating than in the original. Who would have thought that such a short and simple fan video could achieve so much? Classic edit by another great creator Nerjaveika.
Love Sick: I've found two great edits for this series so far.
Can't Stop - Phun and Noh - pure joy of living right here! And it's all thanks to Captain. Watch and relive just how charming and magnetic this actor is in this series. Perfectly paired music too, thanks to Justin Timberlake. Some of the scene choices here are Editing Oscar-worthy. The look on everyone's faces during the suncream scene! Aim storming off livid after Noh tells her to piss off! But seriously though: Noh drunk, singing and dancing at a beach concert is Life Itself. One to watch on loop whenever you feel down.
Phun/Noh - The heart wants - This edit goes full BL yearning, Love Sick style. It's not exactly original but it's nicely made and gives a great idea of the push and pull dynamic in the story, with lots of kisses cuddles and intimate moments (and it gives nothing away about the story either).
Beloved Enemy - Let Me Go: Nerjaveika hits another home run with an unexpectedly brilliant reworking of the terrible series Beloved Enemy. S/he has dubbed scenes from the series with excerpts from a radio-play recording based on the graphic novel. This simple but original idea results in something very impressive and riveting to watch, even though it also gives us a painful sense of what the series could have been if only it hadn't been censored beyond repair and recognition. As always with Nerjaveika, the music choice is infallibly good.
Kim and Karn - You Can't Stop Love: there's nothing all that special about this edit of Korean/Thai BL co-production The Moment. It's only on this list because it showcases the two most beautiful actors I have ever seen in an Asian BL program, and one of the best 'kiss of love' scenes I've seen in BL. I think that's more than enough reason to share it with you!
And if you haven't seen the full movie (as I haven't), there's of course an extended YouTube edit ready to help you out. It gives us just the more important parts of the story that contain BL elements, you can find it here. [EDIT: I have just watched the entire movie and it's not really worth the viewing, to be honest. It involves three interlinked drama-romances of varying quality and interest, of which the BL narrative is easily the best one. The link above to the BL Cut is the best option. And can I just reiterate how utterly magnificent the "kiss of love" scene is in this movie. Straight to Number One.]
Love by Chance: Tin x Can Kiss Scenes: SPOILERS yep, the title says it all. There's no dialogue, and only partial subs, but seriously, who needs them when there's all that Tin Can kissing going on. And we get The Nickname Scene thrown in as a bonus! If there's a better Tin x Can edit out there, please let me know.
I haven't been able to find many edits for Grey Rainbow, which is a good indicator of how divisive and hated the series is. The edits I have found are either too sappy or poor quality. Limerence is another good editor of BL-inspired content on YouTube, and s/he has teamed up with Paper Plane Subs to create this not-bad clip. Be warned, it is heavy on big spoilers, so if you haven't seen the series, definitely do not watch it. It focuses largely on the final two episodes and its most poignant moments, so it's an intensely personal experience for fans like me who loved the series. Great idea to use the series' OST here as well. Until a better edit of this series comes along, this is my first port of call for a dose of Porsche and Nuer's extraordinary love story.
BL Mix - Stay Here With Me by LonesomeMultiAngel: Is this the fan edit to end all fan edits? A compilation of memorable moments from BL dramas from across Asia that must rank as one of the very best homages to the genre as a whole. The kisses, the tears, the romance, the drama, the lust, the yearning. It's all here. Watch and relive some of the greatest moments in Asian BL in under four minutes. Just some of the series showcased in this edit are Love Sick, Seven Days, Hormones, Takumi-kun, Waterboyy The Series, My Hero, Night Flight, Love of Siam, Club Friday The Series 5 (which I really should watch again and review, damn it's good), Counterattack, Doushitemo Furetakunai, Like Love, Timeline and The Lover. Oh, the feels!
So here's a list of a few of my favourite YouTube BL edits. And SPOILER alerts are in place for all of these edits, so watch with care if you haven't seen the relevant series yet.
Satsuki v Daiki by Ice Smile: If you've read my first post in this blog, you'll know that this was the first BL edit I came across and it's still one of my favourites (though if I'm honest with myself, Alan Shirahama can take most of the credit for this). And it's not even BL! It's just edited to look like BL. For this reason, I love creator Ice Smile as one of the best BL editors on YouTube I've ever come across, and you could do a lot worse than trawling through the full set of his/her BL fan videos.
GayOK Bangkok:
Arm x Nat by Jesse West: SPOILERS this edit shows a key moment of the Arm/Nat storyline in the wonderful Thai BL series GayOK Bangkok, so you should only view this video if you've watched the whole series. This edit aims at presenting the bittersweet side of the Arm/Nat relationship, so it can be painful to watch for fans of this series' most loved couple. But I haven't found a better reminder of just how intense and genuine Arm's feelings for Nat were.
Arm x Nat - I'm not ok but I'll pretend if you want by Marta Buketikova: The finest tribute to this couple that I've found on YouTube. It hits all the right notes across the entire series. That scene in the temple when Nat arrives....I bawl every time. If this edit had given a better sense of Arm and Nat's personalities and perhaps added a few lines of dialogue, it would have been a perfect clip and a top pick.
Uncontrolled Love by _Sunday_: SPOILERS this edit gets everything right, and even though it's fairly generic, it's a great example of how to create a 'dramatic BL' fan edit. It's tightly focused on the main couple of Chinese series Uncontrolled Love and their most intensely dramatic moments together. It comes off as very serious and earnest as a result, especially its melancholy music choice, but it's a perfect fit for the original material. Wonderful stuff.
Zara Soulmate is up there with Ice Smile as one of the best YouTube BL creators I've found. Her tribute videos are saturated with intensified colours and dreamy filters, and her choice in music - sometimes wistful and minimalistic, but most often epic and intensely dramatic - is well paired with her interpretation of the source material. Here are three examples of Zara's excellent work that I love:
SPOILERS
Red Balloon - by far the best edit I've found of this exceptional series.
HIStory 2: Crossing The Line - I love how she focuses on the wonderful reactions and facial expressions of Fandy Fan in this clip. She hovers beautifully over those small yet meaningful moments that make this series one of the very best out there.
Advance Bravely - finding scenes from this series where the handsomeness of the two lead actors looks anything less than god-like is difficult, but even so, Zara's skill raises them up even further. Her use here of colour saturation and B&W fades is really effective.
SOTUS / SOTUS S: three very different interpretations of this series, all of them are excellent. BIG SPOILERS
Kongpop x Arthit / You Light Me Up - the ridiculous catchy pop song used here is nicely matched to this light and romantic interpretation, and the images are timed to the music with an almost professional precision. The focus here is on showing Arthit's very funny efforts to convince everyone he's straight and not attracted to Kongpop. The pink milk scene that's been chosen here is solid gold and so funny. All hail Krist's and Singto's wonderful acting and chemistry. Get ready to smile with pure joy!
Arthit x Kong - It's Alright - this take on the SOTUS story is far more serious and dramatic. It looks more closely at the repercussions of Arthit's mistreatment of Kongpop so it lurks in some dark corners. It highlights how badly their story could have gone if Arthit hadn't faced up to the truth about himself. It ends where all the best SOTUS edits end - with Arthit's beautiful emotional confession of his feelings to Kongpop at the rooftop party in season one. This deepens the intensity and beauty of their journey from hate to love better than any other edit I've seen. One of my absolute favourites.
Kongpop & Arthit - What am I to you? - this edit is more generic than the other two but it's the perfect summary of both seasons of this series. And all with a Troye Sivan cover as the music.
HIStory2 : Crossing the Line - Surrender - SPOILERS my number one favourite Asian BL fan edit, and by a big margin. It's about as close to BL perfection as you could possibly ask for. Beautifully edited, sublimely paired music (god, that song!), intelligent scene choices from the source material (that final kiss scene slays me every time). It also flips the usual Crossing the Line character dynamic by seeing the action from Xuan's perspective instead of Hao's, which makes the A-grade classic 'sister confession' scene even more emotionally devastating than in the original. Who would have thought that such a short and simple fan video could achieve so much? Classic edit by another great creator Nerjaveika.
Love Sick: I've found two great edits for this series so far.
Can't Stop - Phun and Noh - pure joy of living right here! And it's all thanks to Captain. Watch and relive just how charming and magnetic this actor is in this series. Perfectly paired music too, thanks to Justin Timberlake. Some of the scene choices here are Editing Oscar-worthy. The look on everyone's faces during the suncream scene! Aim storming off livid after Noh tells her to piss off! But seriously though: Noh drunk, singing and dancing at a beach concert is Life Itself. One to watch on loop whenever you feel down.
Phun/Noh - The heart wants - This edit goes full BL yearning, Love Sick style. It's not exactly original but it's nicely made and gives a great idea of the push and pull dynamic in the story, with lots of kisses cuddles and intimate moments (and it gives nothing away about the story either).
Beloved Enemy - Let Me Go: Nerjaveika hits another home run with an unexpectedly brilliant reworking of the terrible series Beloved Enemy. S/he has dubbed scenes from the series with excerpts from a radio-play recording based on the graphic novel. This simple but original idea results in something very impressive and riveting to watch, even though it also gives us a painful sense of what the series could have been if only it hadn't been censored beyond repair and recognition. As always with Nerjaveika, the music choice is infallibly good.
Kim and Karn - You Can't Stop Love: there's nothing all that special about this edit of Korean/Thai BL co-production The Moment. It's only on this list because it showcases the two most beautiful actors I have ever seen in an Asian BL program, and one of the best 'kiss of love' scenes I've seen in BL. I think that's more than enough reason to share it with you!
And if you haven't seen the full movie (as I haven't), there's of course an extended YouTube edit ready to help you out. It gives us just the more important parts of the story that contain BL elements, you can find it here. [EDIT: I have just watched the entire movie and it's not really worth the viewing, to be honest. It involves three interlinked drama-romances of varying quality and interest, of which the BL narrative is easily the best one. The link above to the BL Cut is the best option. And can I just reiterate how utterly magnificent the "kiss of love" scene is in this movie. Straight to Number One.]
Love by Chance: Tin x Can Kiss Scenes: SPOILERS yep, the title says it all. There's no dialogue, and only partial subs, but seriously, who needs them when there's all that Tin Can kissing going on. And we get The Nickname Scene thrown in as a bonus! If there's a better Tin x Can edit out there, please let me know.
I haven't been able to find many edits for Grey Rainbow, which is a good indicator of how divisive and hated the series is. The edits I have found are either too sappy or poor quality. Limerence is another good editor of BL-inspired content on YouTube, and s/he has teamed up with Paper Plane Subs to create this not-bad clip. Be warned, it is heavy on big spoilers, so if you haven't seen the series, definitely do not watch it. It focuses largely on the final two episodes and its most poignant moments, so it's an intensely personal experience for fans like me who loved the series. Great idea to use the series' OST here as well. Until a better edit of this series comes along, this is my first port of call for a dose of Porsche and Nuer's extraordinary love story.
BL Mix - Stay Here With Me by LonesomeMultiAngel: Is this the fan edit to end all fan edits? A compilation of memorable moments from BL dramas from across Asia that must rank as one of the very best homages to the genre as a whole. The kisses, the tears, the romance, the drama, the lust, the yearning. It's all here. Watch and relive some of the greatest moments in Asian BL in under four minutes. Just some of the series showcased in this edit are Love Sick, Seven Days, Hormones, Takumi-kun, Waterboyy The Series, My Hero, Night Flight, Love of Siam, Club Friday The Series 5 (which I really should watch again and review, damn it's good), Counterattack, Doushitemo Furetakunai, Like Love, Timeline and The Lover. Oh, the feels!
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Sadness! Hopefully a Tumblr archive may appear someday, it can be such a disheartening loss when fannish creations are removed from the net.. (as a longtime fan of fanvids, fanart, & fanfic overall)