Will ‘Reaction’ Video Became the Next Genre Gone Viral?

Will ®Reaction Video Became the Next Genre Gone Viral?

Finally! I have been waiting for your reaction of watching this episode!

On Bilibili, a comment under user vvideo has draw everybody's attention. In the video, he watched the 31st episode of <Love Between Devil and Fairy>and cried himself out of breath. The comment section has found some joy in its intense empathy.

If you are obsess with short video platform, you must familiar with dual visual window video.

It's been called Reaction Video aka Reaction. Influencer like ccould being called Reaction Influencer. The whole visual is form by influencer's reaction and the content itself.

Reaction video began on Youtube. In 2013,<Game of Thrones>'s fans are posting their reactions to the hit TV show on Youtube. In recent years, Reaction has gradually become a form of Internet entertainment.

In fact, live commentary on sports events and wipes on Japanese variety shows can all be seen as progeny and offshoots of reactions, because at their core they are all about immediate Reaction to the specific content being watched.

Today, Reaction is a mature and large subgenre of entertainment.After several years of development, the “army” of Reaction has gradually grown in China, and “watching TV series with Reaction” is even becoming a new way of watching TV series. So, what impact will this “participatory carnival” have on the spread of movies and TV series? Is there any future for Reaction as a way to distribute episodes?

The development and current situation of domestic drama Reaction

The rise of Reaction to TV drama, originated from the translation of Reaction videos from overseas. At the same time, as the influence of domestic movies and TV series is gradually expanding overseas, a group of overseas youtubers who love Chinese movies and TV series also came to Bilibili to make their own Reaction videos.

One of the representative ones is South Korea’influencer As early as 2016, she started to upload Reaction videos of domestic dramas and analyze domestic dramas from the perspective of cultural differences between China and South Korea in the form of chatting with friends.

The video, featuring overseas influencer's Reaction, also has a fixed title format: “Foreigners watch…” , although it will produce aesthetic fatigue, but also a keyword which attracting subscribers.

The contrast Reaction brought by cultural differences on the one hand satisfies the audience’s curiosity about the differences in foreign perspectives.On the other hand, there will also be the satisfaction of Chinese culture “spreading to overseas”.

Overseas influencers watching domestic movies and TV series is actually a sense of contrast. When the overseas influencers is not the target audience for the content, it can often bring about unexpected results.

Another type of Reaction is happened on straight guys reaction when watching romance/costume drama. When watching movies and TV shows that tend to please female audiences, straight guy often can’t get the points of female audiences, and face the multiple sets of romantic plot will be confused. But the dullness of hindsight, and the sharpness of the outsider, can be fun to watch and laugh at in Reaction.

But the process started from unwilling watching to obsess with it, is also the purpose of Reaction. The number of views of the video doubled when a teasing otaku secretly wiped his tears for the moving proposal in <A Dream of Splendor >.

There are two other popular reactions.

One is the professional Reaction. The influencer is usually equipped with certain professional knowledge, explaining relevant knowledge of movies and TV plays and analyzing the professionalism of the plays. Some plays are not professional enough, the influencer will be complaining the plot with the audience together; But if the influencer himself is certified, as if receiving some kind of “professional endorsement”, the audience will be “reverse recommendation”.

Some judges and lawyers watched the <Draw The Line>, and made corresponding answers to the legal knowledge in the play. There are psychological counselors to see <The Psychologist>, through the plot of the play, to share the actual case.

The other type is the celebrity's Reaction. When a celebrity re-watches a movie or TV series he or she has been in, he or she may do a second reading of the character or recall an interesting experience on set. These are the things to watch for in this kind of Reaction. Others react to the work of their peers and contribute unexpected punchlines.

The value is there, the potential is untapped

So, when we look at Reaction, what are we looking at? Or, what can we feel?

It’s really about two things: group identity and companionship.

Because the Reaction video is used as the material of the original video to cause the Reaction, in fact, the audience has already watched the original content and knows the plot quite well. The desire to “discover or watch” the reactions of others is a search for acceptance.

For example, after watching a play, the viewer’s inner thought is “the actors are not acting well and the plot development is awkward”. The reason why he watches the Reaction video is that the main cha