Behind The Model: VTubers I Love and His Unique Clipping Brand

He’s probably the only VTuber clipper you know the personality behind.

VTubers I Love, or VIL as he is affectionately known, isn’t just a moniker and a cute profile picture of his favorite VTuber. The former marketing specialist turned full-time VTuber clipper is his own full-blown brand.

The crabby creator, with his companion LIV (and definitely not meant to be the other way around), has started streaming himself. Even before then, he was everywhere on Twitter, sharing the love with, well, the VTubers he loves.

Getting into the medium like many others did, through Hololive, he was an avid clip watcher in his old job. However, as time went on, he realized there was a world where he could do this for himself, and create the clips he wanted others to discover.

But he didn’t just want to be a faceless entity like those before him, and that’s where the marketing side of him came out.

“A lot of clippers, it seemed like they didn’t have a very forward-facing personality. They usually just clipped and threw videos out into the YouTube space. Not a lot of people know about the people behind the clip channels, so I was like, ‘maybe I can be that bridge and people can learn more about me as a person and as a clipper’ so I’m not some random entity.

“I was lucky over the four to five months it really started doing well and it did well enough that I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just going to throw all my effort into this and try to see what I can do if I spend my full time just working on clipping and doing content creation.’”

I am small. 🧍‍♂️ #vtuber #debut pic.twitter.com/YPHELeHBoI

— VIL (Vtubers I Love) (@VILvtubersilove) May 28, 2023

VTuber clipping is more than just watching your favorite streamer and sharing their highlights. There’s a little bit of a science behind it, even if VIL doesn’t believe anyone has perfected the craft.

There’s the video editing, of course. But that comes with the caveats of subtitling if you’re translating clips, and cutting it to be digestible on YouTube. There’s a lot of dead air in storytelling, but clips thrive off being snappy and concise⁠—with a witty punchline at the end.

How different VTuber clippers approach that recipe is always a treat, and it keeps VIL on his toes.

“I'm always really impressed with the kind of work that everyone does. Each clip channel has its own kind of editing style or types of clips that they like to post.

“It's curation [too], because when people come to your channel, they might subscribe to you for a certain type of content. It's kind of your job to build that audience. Who are the VTubers that you're clipping and why?

“It partially goes into my name—my full name is VTubers I Love. And the reason for that is because I wanted to make sure that if people saw my name, they automatically recognize if I'm clipping this person, it's because I enjoy them as a content creator.”

A lot has been said in VTubing about creators and their relationship with clippers. Many see the upside, with ‘free marketing’ being thrown around as a term liberally. The critics look towards some of the more risque content, or the ‘clickbait’ style of video.

It is undeniable clippers like VIL do rely on VTubers to do their job. Similarly though, VTubers do benefit massively from the extra exposure. And VIL noted that’s part of what makes the clipping ecosystem, especially for the independent VTubers he focuses on, so interesting.

“My content would not exist without their work. So their work is paramount, right? I'm very happy if my clips help someone else and get them more reach. But it's hard for me to take credit for that kind of thing.

“I think my work is valuable and it helps get it in front of people, [but] if they didn't do the streaming and the work to make that content, then I wouldn't have anything to clip.

“It is certainly a symbiotic relationship. It's helped myself and other VTubers in a way where… I clip someone when they're smaller and then the more I clip them, the bigger they get and the bigger they get, the more of a following they have, so more people want to watch my clips and it just kind of feeds into itself.”

One thing you’ll notice about VIL’s clips too is they are quite different from the average clipper. He loves a long story, often carving out five-minute highlights of his favorite streamers. Some of his most popular videos get up to 20 minutes long, either as a compilation or a single story.

“I actually sometimes question if my kind of content is even the best way of doing things,” he mused. “Sometimes I wonder if I should make my video shorter. But the reason why I chose that and the reason why I've stuck by it is because a lot of the time I don't just clip a funny little out of context thing and then move on.

“Most of my clips are actually either stories the VTubers are telling about their life, or maybe they talk about a memory or something funny that happened to them that day. Those can't be cut down to 30 seconds, right? A lot of the time they're full-on stories.

“Sometimes you might get a short clip, a funny little lewd moment or something like that. That's great. But then also my videos can be something where if you're having lunch and… you want to sit down and go through short stories, it almost feels like you're having a conversation with someone, or you're learning about the life of a VTuber.”

Regardless of whether it’s the best method or not, it’s the one VIL is pushing forward. In a way he is the third-person storyteller, writing the record that’ll be saved as history once those streams fade away.

That’s a similar mantra to what he’s taken into his content. His new Vaporwave Vibing streams, akin to a “VIP room at a concert”, and his well-known clips align with that.

And as the VTubing space continues to grow, he will always be looking for the next VTuber he loves and share their stories with the world.

“There's new VTubers debuting every single day. You never know who is going to be the next big VTuber.

“Even if they're not the next big VTuber, I think they also just deserve to have some spotlight on them because everyone has something unique that they bring to the table that might be a diamond in the rough that you never know a viewer is going to really connect with.”

Find out VIL’s full story in his Behind The Model episode.