Fan Vid



Also known as AMVs or Anime Music Videos.

In a nutshell, the basic concept is to take footage from your favorite TV show, set the scenes to your favorite music, maybe add some Fan Art or fansubbing, put it all together in a digital movie maker on your PC, upload it to a video streaming site online, and wait for the comments to pour in.

It's not the most productive activity in the world, but for the most dedicated, it is one of the most time-consuming. Like Fan Fics and Fan Art, making and watching these videos is another way fans express their obsession over a show.

Naturally, the companies and network executives behind the shows and music are mixed on the whole deal. Some welcome the support and publicity and even hold competitions for the best video. Others simply turn a blind eye to the videos, neither encouraging them nor forcing them removed under threat of lawsuit. Other companies do that very thing.

By definition, Fan Vids consist entirely of copyrighted material. Whether the usage of the clips counts as Fair Use or not is up for debate, but there's a lack of legal precedent for whether it qualifies as fair use, largely because few makers of one are interested in dragging the case to court when they could just re-upload it under a different user name or on a different site. In any case, the proliferation of such videos makes it difficult for any company to gain headway in removing them.

Fan Vids made from Anime or cartoon sources are also called Animated or Anime Music Videos, or AMVs, while Japanese fans call theirs Music Anime Doujinshi, or MADs.

Fan Vid artists can also get into trouble for the audio they use. AnimeMusicVideos.org, which catalogs its namesake and hosts over 80,000, had to remove all videos using music by Evanescence in late 2005. Hosted videos now come with the disclaimer, "THIS VIDEO IS PURELY FAN-MADE AND IS IN NO WAY ASSOCIATED WITH THE MUSICAL ARTIST OR ANIME COMPANY IN ANY WAY."

Shipping vids and vids centered around your one favorite character (sometimes called "tributes") seem to be the most prevalent, though Gag Dub parodies have been picking up steam recently.

Just like with Fanfic, Sturgeon's Law applies oh so very much when it comes to the overall quality of the videos.

A Sister Trope is The Abridged Series.

Action


 * Action scenes to a rock or metal band.
 * Bonus points for "Linkin Ball Z" (Random Dragonball Z scenes to a Linkin Park song).
 * Multiball angst bonus for a montage of a Troubled but Cute or Draco in Leather Pants character to "Crawling" (I'm looking at you, Gaara).
 * "Bodies" by Drowning Pool is a particularly prevalent example. So much that its become the Dead Horse of fanvids.
 * It seems like it is popular to combine Disturbed music with Bleach action sequences.
 * Then there's Rammstein's Engel for Neon Genesis Evangelion. Bonus points for the video's central figure being German as well.
 * The Japanese version of this uses JAM Project songs—usually "Gong" or "Skill"—in much the same way.
 * Various anime attack sequences formatted with text and portraits to resemble an attack cutscene from Super Robot Wars. (Japan mostly)
 * Violent deaths to "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap. This is a Memetic Mutation from The OC and the Saturday Night Live Digital Short parody of that scene, Dear Sister.
 * Epic battles to "The End of All Hope" by Nightwish:
 * Halo
 * Heroes
 * Kingdom Hearts (4:30)
 * Lord of the Rings
 * Alternately, "Ghost Love Score". Also subject to Memetic Mutation: EPIC maneuver!
 * Just about every fandom ever has at least one vid to "Holding Out for a Hero".
 * "The Final Countdown" by Europe, with all of its epic Narm Charm, is a favorite for Space Opera
 * Another new contender is "This Is War" by Thirty Seconds To Mars; check out some examples from Serenity and Mass Effect.
 * Also notable are the popular and well done videos made for Final Fantasy and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

Characterizations


 * An Anti-Hero tribute with anything by Simple Plan.
 * An Action Girl tribute with "That's What Girls Do" or Good Charlotte's "Riot Girl".
 * If she's a Dojikko Action Girl in any way, "She's Just A Little Bit Dangerous" is a likely song.
 * I await the day when this song is paired with Mihoshi (OVA version) of Tenchi Muyo! fame.
 * That girl is dangerous, is another favorite for any flavor of Action Girl
 * Christina Aguilera's Fighter has become increasingly popular for Sailor Moon.
 * "One Girl Revolution" by Superchick is also a popular song for Action Girl's. Likewise "Bad Reputation", by Joan Jett for some girls.
 * Superchick's "Stand in the Rain" and "One More" seem to be giving "One Girl Revolution" a run for it's money these days. The latter's gender neutralness also allows it to expand to male characters as well.
 * Any Avril Lavigne song, really. "Girlfriend" is getting pretty common, too.
 * This one, however, is...unexpected. (Warning: May make it difficult to watch Advent Children straight-faced.)
 * Gender Benders and Wholesome Crossdressers get set to "Man, I Feel Like a Woman" and "Somebody Told Me".
 * Characters who are transsexuals or especially Bishounen to a certain song from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
 * "HE DIDN'T LIKE ME!"
 * If someone has a Super-Powered Evil Side or Unstoppable Rage, expect the songs "Animal I Have Become" by Three Days Grace, "Waking The Demon" by Bullet For My Valentine, or "Perfect Insanity" by Disturbed to be used in the videos about them.
 * "There's something inside me that crawls beneath the surface / Consuming, confusing..."
 * Flyleaf's I'm So Sick, Red's Breathe Into Me, and Bullet For My Valentine's Waking The Demon are becoming popular for this genre too.
 * "I feel it deep within / It's just beneath the skin / I must confess that I FEEL LIKE A MONSTER!"
 * If a show or game has at least four characters, and one of them is more powerful (or, in a pinch, fatter) than the others, someone has vidded it to "Particle Man."
 * "Getting Away with Murder" for the Magnificent Bastard or Psycho for Hire
 * Example: Death Note
 * Do you have a MTF Transsexualism, feminine looking or male crossdresser? Then expect at least "Dude Looks Like a Lady", by Aerosmith, video no matter how small the fandom is.
 * Urge Overkill's "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" made a fantastic Ranma ½ video.
 * Pretty much every Woobie or abused/bullied/etc. character has a tribute set to "Concrete Angel."
 * "Crazy Possessive" and "Super Psycho Love" are very commonly used for Yandere characters.

General


 * "Bring Me To Life" by Evanescence with... anything.
 * Arguably the wittiest one of these uses footage from Re-Animator.
 * This has a LOT to do with the fact it's one of the few decent/recognizable songs you can use without YouTube shredding you upon upload.
 * Anything to "What I've Done" or "Numb" by Linkin Park. No, seriously, anything.
 * Especially ones centered on Starscream from Transformers Armada. Interestingly, "What I've Done" appeared in the 2007 movie.
 * There is one with Kingdom Hearts scenes arranged and set to "Numb". It's about Roxas's anger at being just a shadow of Sora, so it gained points for making sense in context (the 'someone disappointed in' Sora being Riku).
 * Something epic to a DragonForce song. "Through The Fire and the Flames" is merely the most popular.
 * Lorena McKennitt songs for... just about every fandom ever.
 * Almost every fandom has a video set to "What Hurts the Most" by Rascal Flatts. Seriously.
 * Quest, epic journey, war, or any ongoing struggle type stories set to Marching On by One Republic. At least 50 for Supernatural
 * Most Boys Love series are set to "Flesh" by Simon Curtis or the Far cover of "Pony" at one time or another.

Genres


 * Any show dealing in anyway with supernatural beings and romance combined with Real Life's "Send Me An Angel". (Ah! My Goddess is the most common. Often entitled: "Send Me Belldandy")
 * There is a Chrono Crusade version—the irony that Chrono is a devil, not an angel...
 * "Weird Al" Yankovic and Lemon Demon seem the go-to artists for high energy, wacky comedy vids. (Some AMV contests have actually banned the use of Weird Al music since it renders making a crowd-pleasing, overwhelmingly popular comedy video far too easy.)
 * Case in point Lupin III/"This Is The Life", which even Weird Al has said is better than his own video for the song, which was basicly him acting out the lyrics mixed with scenes from the movie it came from Johnny Dangerously.
 * Then there are these two mashups of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic with two of his polka medleys, one with Polkarama and the other with the Angry White Boy Polka. They impressed Al so much that he posted the links of both of them on his Twitter page.
 * As a rule, any Hot-Blooded show goes well with JAM Project.

Sex


 * Salacious scenes from various series set to Avenue Q's "The Internet is For Porn".
 * And don't forget any and all male duos and If You Were Gay!
 * "You Give Love a Bad Name" by Bon Jovi for Evil Is Sexy characters.

Shipping


 * Foe Yay scenes to t.A.T.u.'s "Friend or Foe"
 * Buffy/Faith Buffy the Vampire Slayer
 * Jack/John Torchwood
 * DG and Azkedelia Tin Man (though it isn't Foe Yay in this case)
 * And before that song it was "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails.
 * Die for Our Ship themed vid to Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend.
 * Any slideshow of pairing fanart to "Everytime We Touch" by Cascada. Extremely prominent in the Naruto fandom.
 * A Takahashi Couple's Belligerent Sexual Tension set to John Mellencamp's Hurts So Good ("Sometimes love don't feel like it should, you make it -- oof -- hurt so good." Personally I am just surprised I've never seen a Ranma ½ video set to this.
 * If the Tsundere is violent, and an harem is involved expect "My Wife Met My Girlfriend" to make an appearance.
 * Another common video from the Tsundere's perspective is "He Drives Me Crazy"—usually combining tsuntsun visuals with the deredere music.
 * A Kiss With A Fist is becoming popular.
 * Shippy Tear Jerker videos set to Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars."
 * Shippy Tear Jerker vids set to anything by Snow Patrol.
 * As with the previous type, another popular technique is to combine a saccharine Dating Sim theme song with a completely unrelated show.
 * Slap Slap Kiss or Foe Yay to "I Hate Everything About You" by Three Days Grace.
 * "Accidentally in Love" by Counting Crows is often used for two mismatched lovers.
 * "Two Lovers" by Mary Wells for a Love Triangle, usually if it's Two Guys and a Girl (never mind that the song is actually ).
 * "All About Us" by t.A.T.u. is sometimes used for star-crossed lovers. "All The Things She Said" is the yuri song of choice.
 * Any time you get a yuri (or non-anime lesbian) couple, expect a lot of t.A.t.U. vids. Uranus and Neptune have almost their entire discography.
 * Actually these days you're lucky you get t.A.T.u. instead of "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry. This song is used for EVERY femslash pairing EVER. Despite the fact that it's a song about experimenting with women while having a boyfriend, it's used in videos about people who are in long term relationships.
 * The male version by Cobra Starship ("I Kissed A Boy") is getting quite popular for slash pairings.
 * "I Won't Say (I'm In Love)," from Hercules, for any UST couple. Or a couple where the vid's maker sees the UST, but the showrunners don't.
 * Expect to find vids about friendly enemies or brimming with Foe Yay set to "Wonderboy" by TenaciousD.
 * EVERY pairing EVER needs to go along with "Love Story" by Taylor Swift or "Why Don't You And I"? Because all relationships perfectly fit these two songs.
 * Ditto for "Teenage Dream".
 * "I Love The Way You Lie" with just about any Destructive Romance, Masochism Tango or Slap Slap Kiss couple you can think of.
 * 'I Like It' by Enrique Iglesias (used prominently in Jersey Shore, of all places) is becoming a popular choice within the Disney/non-Disney crossover video crowd. (See here, here, here and here.)
 * It seems like every Star Trek pairing (and many sci-fi pairings, in general) have at least one video set to The Calling's "Wherever You Will Go".
 * Expect to see at least one video per shipping with "Look at Us Now" by Sarina Paris.

Anime and Manga
 * "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" by Daft Punk with Naruto... or basically almost any Shonen fighter anime.
 * Also common any song at all by anyone to Naruto or Dragonball Z
 * Like this one for Ranma ½.
 * Not quite as common anymore, but during Dragonball Z's heyday, there were innumerable pairings of that series with tracks by DMX.
 * DBZ is probably the only Shonen anime that gets rap AMVs.
 * Not quite. (But Remember the Name is pretty much shonen in the form of rap anyway.)
 * Or perhaps it's because Fort Minor is Mike Shinoda's side project.
 * One Piece and any song to do with pirates or sailing, Professional Pirate is a popular one. Too bad no-one's done a good one yet..
 * Ahem.
 * Madara versus the Shinobi Alliance is a Naruto fan animation which animates the last 5 pages of Chaper 561 which is gaining popularity on Youtube.
 * There is a notable amount of AMVs for Elfen Lied set to music by Evanescence.
 * Inexplicably, Sailor Moon and "Raver's Fantasy" by Tune Up.
 * Literally half of all RahXephon AMVs use Mindless Self Indulgence, to the point where you have to admit that there are some strong thematic similarities between the two.
 * Komeiji Koishi no Dokidoki Daibouken, a Touhou Fan Vid series that protrays the games' world as a Crap Saccharine one.
 * Florence + The Machine is popular for dramatic series, like so.
 * Let's add to the equation this.

Film
 * Heavy metal to scenes from 300.
 * Any dramatic or epic TV show or film (mainly live-action one) Fan Vids, set to that music from Requiem for a Dream. You know the music I'm talking about.
 * Music by Breaking Benjamin for Harry Potter.

Video Games
 * Cutscenes from Final Fantasy to an Evanescence song.
 * Anything overlaid on a Stupid Statement Dance Mix. These usually (but not always) come out of Japan; bonus points accrue if voice clips from the characters are set to the rhythm and/or melody of the song. Some particularly devoted creators will actually cut and paste very short samples of the character's voice so they "sing along"—usually in a very mechanical way—to the song; these are termed "manual Vocaloids" due to the popularity of Hatsune Miku and friends. Like so.
 * The canonical example of such a song is Marisa Stole The Precious Thing, although others have since emerged.

Western Animation
 * Pretty much anything goes well with clips from the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Band Geeks". (A few examples...)
 * Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera" seems to suit Danny Phantom perfectly. As does Tim Burton's "This Is Halloween" and Lostprophet's "Rooftops".
 * "Animal I Have Become" by Three Days Grace is very commonly put to clips from the Teen Titans episode "The Beast Within".

Grabbing a specific scene, mostly or totally unaltered and unedited, from a work of media, and adding it music from a foreign work, specifically inserted to better blend in, sometimes improving upon the original music placement. In this regard it differs entirely from your traditional AMVs.

Anime and Manga
 * Naruto
 * The man who would become Pain, against Rain leader Hanzo.
 * Episode 167, Kyuubi vs Pain, with all the narm that it implies.
 * Sasuke vs Mizukage.
 * Zetsu being a huge troll at the Kage Summit
 * What little there is of Sasuke vs Tsuchikage. But it still works!
 * Jinchuriki Killer Bee vs Akatsuki member Kisame.
 * Madara's fight vs Fu and Torune.
 * The first part of Sasuke vs Danzo.
 * The second part of Sasuke vs Danzo.
 * Sasuke's Rape Face. You know whether to take it seriously or not.
 * Sasuke and Madara talking about having to kill Karin.
 * Sakura's sad attempt to kill Sasuke

Video Games
 * The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
 * Ganon's Castle
 * Ganon.
 * Title screen.
 * Portal - The entire context.
 * Metal Gear
 * - The Boss' true intentions.
 * - Big Boss' final death.
 * Super Mario 64
 * Final Bowser.
 * All three Bowser stages.
 * Donkey Kong 64 has its infamous rap replaced.
 * Asura's Wrath where the final battle meets Gurren Lagann.
 * Similar, There's also this one.

Web Original
 * Mega64's Dead Rising holds a whole another meaning.

 Other common techniques 
 * Mixing and matching one show with another's theme song
 * Especially common with sequels
 * Any ensemble show is probably going to have a Sitcom constructed reality vid with the Friends theme.
 * And shows with Elemental Powers (Captain Planet, Sailor Moon, WITCH, Avatar...)
 * And Nanoha with (usually) Hot-Blooded mecha anime. Like this... and this... and this...
 * Anything based on the Neon Genesis Evangelion opening. Some examples: Lucky Star, Suzumiya Haruhi, Bobobo-Bo Bo-Bobo, Sailor Moon, and Code Geass.''
 * Also intros based on the second Death Note opening. Here's one from Suzumiya Haruhi, Sailor Moon, and Lucky Star.
 * Fans of Eureka Seven seem to like these. Here's one for Bleach, and another one for Evangelion.
 * Using audio from a movie trailer to make your own show trailer. This may involve original footage (example) or clips from another show (example).
 * Conversely, overdubbing an existing trailer with dialogue and music from a different show or movie entirely.
 * It is popular nowadays for people to make their own trailers for already existing movies
 * Dialog from the show is frequently inserted, almost always as an opener or Book Ends.
 * Fandubs, video clips that have had all of the audio removed and replaced by spoken audio, either from another show or by the fan's own voice acting. These are usually humorous in nature, although some fandub projects crop up by fans who hated the original professional dub of a series (or noticed that there wasn't one) and want to give it a better one.
 * As an aside to the copyright infringement issues, humorous fandubs are not considered infringement, at least under US law. Parody and satire are protected free speech under the First Amendment—the decisions in favor of Mad Magazine alone could fill a minor law library.

This is not, of course, to say that all Fan Videos are like this—but an overwhelming majority of them are. Some have even resulted in Memetic Mutations.

Anime and Manga

 * What may be the very first version of this trope were the 1981 and 1983 creations for DAICON III and IV by the people who would go on to found Studio Gainax. The video can be seen on YouTube, of course.
 * ...Leading to a modern tribute made with the ever-present Miku Miku Dance.
 * Live-action vidding traces its roots back even earlier, to the '70s. Read.
 * "A Fair(y) Use Tale was made by a professor to explain copyright law and fair use, with each word lifted from various Disney movies! "Enjoy."
 * ADV Films included four fan-made anime music videos on disk 7 of the DVD release of Noir as an Easter Egg. You can find them by going to the moment where, and then pressing any of the four direction keys -- each one leads to a different video.
 * A Fan Vid of a completely different kind -- a fan-made "trailer" for the as-yet unbegun Live Action Adaptation of Neon Genesis Evangelion, assembled from bits and pieces of other movies and cut scenes from an Evangelion video game—can currently be found on YouTube.
 * This trope was popularized by two "professional" music videos by Mathew Sweet: "Girlfriend" and "I've Been Waiting", featuring footage from Space Adventure Cobra and Urusei Yatsura, respectively. Both were seen on MTV in the very early 90s (back when MTV showed videos).
 * Another "Professional" video was Ghostface Killah's Daytona 500, which featured footage of Speed Racer
 * Bubblegum Crisis had the Hurricane Live OVAs, featuring Fan Vid-style montages from the series set to its Insert Songs.
 * In a distant age, a Fan Vid was created. Forged from Azumanga Daioh video and Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trailers' audio, it now passes from master to master throughout YouTube. It is "The Lord of the Yen". It wants to be found.
 * The Matrix of Leadership of Sauron must be destroyed. All the funnier now that Hugo Weaving voiced Megatron in the 2007 movie.
 * "Senshi on Springer", a fan-made music video for "Jerry Springer" by Weird Al Yankovic, featuring clips from Sailor Moon and well, The Jerry Springer Show. It's Made of Win.
 * The AMV Hell series is a compilation of short fan vids (not always AMVs) ranging from the funny to the serious. One of the most famous ones was Osaka from Azumanga Daioh mixed with Ellen Feiss from the Apple commercials, with the video edited so Osaka's eyes are bloodshot like a stoner's. It's like...a bummer.
 * The 30 second Lucky Star/Death Note mashup intro was voted as most popular segment from AMV Hell that a full version was made.
 * It should be noted that, as a whole, the AMV Hell series is something on an inversion and Take That against most other fan-made vids; many normal vids are centered around a specific lyric/scene combination, and the rest of the video is built around that, making many of them 90% longer than they have to be. The AMV Hell clips are short enough to get the joke in and get out of the way for the next clip. And it works beautifully.
 * Possibly the ultimate example of effort and attention to detail in an AMV: "Woolongs For Nothing" by Box of Mystery, which perfectly reproduces Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing" video with characters from Cowboy Bebop.
 * A serious competitor for that title is this EGSMV for Howie Day's "Collide". The creator technically didn't create any images in it, but he somehow managed to transmute Dan Shive's static comics into true animated clips?
 * The Princess Tutu AMV "Håll om mig nu (Hold me now)" fits the show itself extremely well.
 * Another well-made Princess Tutu video is Hollow Princess".
 * Because of this fanvid (Spoilers for Code Geass R2), Coldplay's Viva La Vida has basically become Lelouch's theme song.
 * Extremely elaborate anime Opening/Ending parodies, such as this example (which mixes Code Geass and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann), seem to be fairly popular among users of the Japanese video hosting site Nico Nico Douga. English-speaking viewers quickly caught on, and now whole YouTube channels exist that are dedicated to uploading them for all to see.
 * One person particularly good at this is Yoraee. Who, of all things, recreates anime openings using the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003 series. Which is awesome in its own right. They make good MVs as well that are worth a watch.
 * The second opening to Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei is a popular target. Just one of many.
 * Soul Eater meets South Park. FULL STOP.
 * Gurren Lagann with the first Pokémon opening. Words cannot describe the win.
 * Instead focusing on proper sequencing, and matching of the song to the subject: ""She's Just Oblivious" (featuring Haruhi Suzumiya) and "Ranma's a Beautiful Disaster". The Haruhi one has actually repeatedly broken into the top ten rated music videos (in Canada).
 * The Nakanai Kimi to Nageki/Aganai no Sekai/Gensou videos are well known to large numbers of When They Cry fans. Somewhat interesting, as the makers apparently do all the artwork themselves too. Here's a small sampler, but beware of spoilers!
 * One of the bigger earworms to hit Japan in recent times is this Lucky Star video featuring a double remix of a Touhou song.
 * Code Geass never looked this good. Video comes courtesy of a certain Wakamura P, who is nearly legendary on some corners of the Internet. These days I hear he's doing mostly Idolmaster MADs.
 * Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's has the nice "Lyrical On Fire" video. Warning, extremely high quality.
 * Vocaloid videos will always fall into this category due to there not being an actual anime (yet). Example. (warning, sad.) Videos of this type will more often than not have fan-created music as well (since this is what Vocaloid software is for).
 * Jihaku. Just...Jihaku.
 * Hellsing seems to make a good mix with Disturbed. Here's a good example
 * Hellsing also seems to be a good match with E Nomine music.
 * "Aim For the Head"
 * Gurren Lagann + Dragon Force (video game) = Epic GODLY
 * Gurren Lagann + 300 = even more so.
 * Any Hare Hare Yukai video. Usually crossed with other anime themes.
 * Any Motteke Sailor Fuku video as well, variations of which popularly involve: Suzumiya Haruhi (here), Yu-Gi-Oh!, Axis Powers Hetalia, Kingdom Hearts (here), etc.
 * Ever notice the striking resemblance (setting aside the beard) between Dan Rather and Gendo Ikari? Well, that's part of our world tonight. Time for us to bug out.
 * The video for Wamdue Project's "King of My Castle" (with Ghost in the Shell footage) is the only AMV so far to get to MTV.
 * "As the World Crashes Down" (video viewable on YouTube) is a haunting look at this Crapsack World through the lens of anime and the soundtrack of Tesla's "Heaven Nine Eleven".
 * "Shounen Bushido": 69 animes, near flawless lip syncing, And a song that suits the Shonen theme to a T. Simply epic.
 * And parodied mercilessly as the end credits sequence of AMV Hell 3.
 * This one for Full Metal Panic! and "Holdin Out For a Hero", walks the fine line between parody and straight up awesome.
 * AMV Hell The Motion Pictures (3 and 4).
 * Here is a Berserk montage that uses Iron Savior's "Never Say Die". Maybe it's a bit heroic for the setting but it works pretty well.
 * Mobile Suit Gundam: Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team + Nightwish's "Tenth Man Down" = Shellshock (YouTube link), quite possibly the greatest Gundam AMV ever.
 * Death Note fits with Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street so well it's scary: fake trailer, "Epiphany", "Demon Student of Fleet Street"
 * For some reason Death Note and Family Guy also mixes well: "Stupid Girlfriend" (Misa-bashing is a national sport...), Over, "Shot Me In The Foot", "How Death Note Should Have Ended"
 * So does Death Note and Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog : Brand New Day, Slipping, Everything Light Ever, On The Rise, Bad Horse Chorus, and the hilarious "Death Note Bad Horse Parody".
 * "You Disappoint Me"
 * And crossing over with the mentioned Doctor Who meme, there's this hilarious Death Note fanvid set to "I Can't Decide".
 * Justice Guy (Super Heroes)
 * The Legend of Kira
 * There are quite a few tear jerkers especially centered around the ending.
 * Audioswap with Battlestar Galactica.
 * There's some really freaky ones to Korn: "Seen It All" and "Dead Bodies Everywhere"
 * "You're Gonna Go Far Kid"
 * awesomeness
 * Will the real Kira please stand up?
 * And to "Be Prepared" from The Lion King...
 * ...And even more fun with Soundtrack Dissonance.
 * Here is a anime mash-up of the story of The Wizard of Oz, starring Osaka as Dorothy (and Kamineko as Toto), Luffy as the Scarecrow, Alphonse Elric as the Tin Man, Kon from Bleach as the Cowardly Lion. With Chicken Run music (strangely fitting).
 * This video is the most impressive example of it. It features a cross between K-On! and Mobile Suit Gundam 00 in one of the most impressive culmination of it. It features a completely unrelated song to either series but the animation itself is the most powerful where the creator was able to fuse the two series into a completely plausible parallel that was unprecedented. It was so realistic to the point where it was scary that it WASN'T real.
 * This award-winning mashup of The Legend of Black Heaven with Jonathan Coulton's "Code Monkey".
 * The more uncommon mmv (manga music video) rare for a reason. Berserk with death metal. Surprising, isn't it?
 * This Yu Yu Hakusho video set to the Ghostbusters theme music is very well synced and put together, originally done sometime in the early 2000's by Hot Fudge Productions.
 * This is an amazing mixed AMV. The technical editing skill is amazing even though some of the clips are a little weird. But the skill.
 * "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid" by The Offspring is very popular for Fan Vids about Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist: here's an example.
 * Episode 167 of Naruto Shippuden was heavily criticized. After seeing this, your opinion may improve. An extremely hammy fight with the fight music of extremely hammy boss King K. Rool.
 * And now Kakashi vs Pain has been done here, this time coupled with Chrono Trigger's World Revolution.
 * Sasuke & Hydra Orochimaru vs Itachi & Susanoo meet The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time's Ganon theme quite well here.
 * It works too with non-fighting scenes, as Akatsuki's sealing of Gaara's demon meets the OST of Dragonball Z rather well here.
 * The EPITOME of Tear Jerker can be found here, where Naruto Shippuden meets John Williams' rendition of Anakin burning in Star Wars Episode III.
 * Hidan kills Asuma. Entirely unaltered scene, with Banjo-Kazooie's Death of Gruntilda. You bet it's fitting.
 * Jiraiya vs Pain meets Pokémon Black and White's N final theme.
 * Naruto vs Sasuke at VOTE meets Puppet Zelda from The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess.
 * Madara vs Fu and Torune meets no less than The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time's GANONDORF battle theme.
 * Sasuke vs Raikage meets equally bloodlusted Gruntilda from Banjo Tooie.
 * Gaara vs Deidara. Star Wars Shadows of The Empire - Skyhook Battle. DO WANT.
 * Every single one of the above videos has been taken down, replacements are needed.
 * Lots of people have said that the women of Black Lagoon are like wild animals. Now you have proof.
 * The World God Only Knows doesn't have very many good ones yet, but there are a few very appropriate examples.
 * Inversely, some videos have used the first season's bombastic rock opera theme song to good effect.
 * Someone connected the dots between the Multinational Team harem aspect of Infinite Stratos and the first Modern Warfare 3 trailer's focus on multinational conflict (with the implication that harems bring conflicts). It fits.
 * Neon Genesis Evangelion vid, a tribute to Shinji to "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want":
 * What happens when Spike Speigel goes after Vash the Stampede and the $60B bounty on his head? Tainted Donuts happens.

Film
AC:General
 * This Fan Vid of The Dark Knight set to "Deranged" by Coheed and Cambria which is a song about the Joker.
 * There's an interesting video called "Three Ways to Die" that reframes Inglourious Basterds as Le Film Artistique.
 * Couple District 13's insane Le Parkour scene, and an epic tune from the N64 smashhit Goldeneye 007, and you get this.
 * One of the more popular videos in the Watchmen fandom is "If U Seek Adrian"- a tribute to Adrian Veidt's magnificent powers of Foe Yay.
 * Harry Potter and Repo! meet surprisingly well in "Hogwarts! The Genetic Opera".
 * Harry Potter meets Grant Kirkhope's orchestrated arrangement of Gruntilda's theme from Banjo-Kazooie here.
 * "The Pure and the Tainted" is an excellent mash-up of footage from both Tron and Tron: Legacy, depicting a Battle in the Center of the Mind between.
 * A chap named Ivan Guerrero pioneered the concept of "premakes," which combine footage from different older films in order to retell a more modern film. The most notable of these is for a film made in 1954 called Ghost Busters, which starred Dean Martin as Dr. Raymond Stantz, Bob Hope as Dr. Peter Venkman, and Fred MacMurray=} as Dr. Egon Spengler. It is very well-done, and gained mention in newspapers and magazines. Ivan has done other films, such as IndianaJones and TheEmpireStrikesBack, both of which were well-received by George Lucas himself.
 * Ever since MichaelJackson's death, almost all [=AMVs of his songs have been labeled as tributes to him.
 * This AMV flawlessly sets scenes from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann to "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" from Mulan, complete with syncing up the lyrics to Kamina's mouth movements. It's achieved quite a memetic status in the fandom, and for excellent reason; it's actually chillingly powerful at certain points.
 * Of course if we're going to talk about powerful Gurren Lagann AMVs, then this one done to "The Black Parade". An incredibly powerful AMV that should bring a tear to most people's faces.
 * "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" is, in general, ludicrously popular for vids, especially for shounen. This Avatar: The Last Airbender vid is the best.
 * It also works for Ouran High School Host Club, not only sticking with the (intentionally) ironic lyrics, but for extra hilarity and at times, awesomeness. this one is one of the best and most popular.
 * The recent games in the Ace Combat series seem to invariably have their trailers used as grist for the fanvid mill. Observe:
 * Touhou Project: here
 * Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: here
 * Suzumiya Haruhi: here and here
 * Persona: here
 * The Idolmaster: here
 * Puella Magi Madoka Magica: here
 * After the original trailer for 300 was released, it was pretty common to see clips from other works synced up to the trailer's audio. A couple notable examples:
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
 * God of War
 * Spongebob Squarepants
 * Happy Feet. Yes, Happy Feet. And it is awesome.
 * Puella Magi Madoka Magica meets  Inception  here. And it is awesome.

Live-Action TV

 * In January 2008, a Firefly/Serenity video set to "Defying Gravity" (from the musical Wicked) garnered the approval and recommendation of no less than Joss Whedon himself.
 * A Doctor Who fan created "The Five Doctors", which is essentially a very high-budget Youtube Poop.
 * The Master dancing in the show to part of "I Can't Decide" by Scissor Sisters also led to the creation of fan vids set to that song which included clips of him dancing to it, creating an interesting recursive effect. Here is one of about 300 of them.
 * Now with over a million views, this was one of the first Kirk/Spock videos and has been played at several (non-slash!) major conventions. It's a bit disturbing, but a classic.
 * "Ordinary Day" by Vanessa Carlton is very popular for Doctor Who vids, like this one.
 * One notable video is the impressive Addicted To Lost, whose makers actually tweaked the audio of the original song ("Addicted To Love") so that Robert Palmer appears to be singing the new title line. The kicker? This isn't technically a fanvid. It's an actual promotional video that aired on ABC during the 2005 Super Bowl.
 * The unofficial theme song for Gomez and Morticia Addams appears to be "The Masochism Tango" from Tom Lerher. Not surprising, as they're Happily Married with a side of Too Kinky to Torture.
 * This may not exactly be popular, but there are also Power Rangers/{insert whatevermedia here} crossovers, with characters from the other show/game/whatever 'starring' as any respective Power Ranger.
 * A very funny (and appropriate) fanvid for Torchwood is set to "Banned from Argo" by Leslie Fish & the Dehorn Crew. The verse about finding "the captain" engaged in group sex with five kinds of aliens? Yeah, the line was written for James Kirk, but Jack Harkness manages to out-do Kirk for Boldly Coming.
 * Despite being over thirty years old, Blake's 7 has some awesome fanvids. This one is a very wry one about the cheesy production values. This one lampshades and parodies the bleak tone. This one wins for being a marvelous piece of meta-fiction. The song itself is practically filk with the two lead singers playing the main characters, the clips are depicting the events sung about in the song, and the band itself was named for the series.
 * Community spoofed an actual fanvid of their show in the episode "Paradigms of Human Memory". Annie brings up all the glances and Will They or Won't They? moments she and Jeff have had and it cuts to a silly Noodle Incident montage set to the love song "Gravity" by Sara Bareilles. Jeff points out you could do the same thing with Pierce and Abed and a montage of innocuous moments between those two set to the same song is shown. It is an Affectionate Parody(or as creator Dan Harmon tweeted "homage") to a real Jeff/Annie fanvid made two months after the show premiered.
 * Heroes character tributes are popular. Like Sylar for instance. Also mixing and matching music or dialogue from other series.

Music

 * This fan music video of "Kids" by MGMT is not only 4 times as popular as the official video, the creators of the video have a cameo in "Electric Feel".

Video Games

 * Super Mario 64 has Bowser's levels with imported EPIC music.
 * Touhou doesn't have any scenes that could conceivably be used in Fan Vids, and while spectacular its music contains no lyrics, so the fans do what they usually do and create Fan Vids from the ground up instead, and there is a gargantuan archive of creations. A very small list:
 * On the "unbelievable quality" side of things, Fantasy Kaleidoscope The Memories of Phantasm (full version) is God-tier animation, Touhou Hana Kagura and Touhou Kinema Kan are better than most actual anime openings (while Touhou Korindou and Touhou Daydream by the same group as the latter are things of beauty), and Touhou 3D Dog Fight is made of epic and ☢ CAUTION!! ☢ CAUTION!! ☢
 * Memories of Phantasm gained enough popularity that a sequel was made, and then another sequel afterwards, which manage to be just as stupendous.
 * On the "Fountain of Memes" side of things, Marisa Stole the Precious Thing and Overdrive! are horribly addictive Stupid Statement Dance Mixes that are most people's first exposure to Touhou, and the Bad Apple!! Shadow Art video achieved insane levels of popularity even by Touhou standards.
 * On that note... Touhou. Seriously, there is a Touhou MAD of anything and everything. Don't believe us? Witness and fear, puny mortal.
 * And that isn't even considering the crossovers. Mazinger Z, Hidamari Sketch, Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, Vocaloid, Gurren Lagann, even children's songs... if it exists, there is a Touhou version of it.
 * Here are some Kingdom Hearts AMVs set to the Goof Troop theme song, the Ducktales theme, the Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers theme, and the Gargoyles theme. They are all awesome.
 * Here's another one set to Within Temptation's "See Who I Am" and it is pure, unadulterated awesome (and also won Anime Boston's Best of Show).
 * This one sets the song "Defying Gravity" to the plot of 358/2 Days, very good lip-syncing. It manages to turn the most depressing game in the series into borderline uplifting.
 * There are many "Emerald Sword" vids out there, but this vid set to The Legend of Zelda clips is so epic it almost matches any Gurren Lagann vid in pure awesomeness.
 * The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time has its title screen to the opening music of Mega Man X 7 here.
 * A long time ago I found an OoT video set to Scars of Time from Chrono Cross. It was painfully epic but alas, seems to be gone from the interwebs.
 * Civilization II gets a fan music video set to Coldplay's "Viva La Vida," complete with scenes of the game's advisors and World Wonder clips. It works.
 * This vid uses E.S. Posthumus' "Unstoppable" to make an awesome trailer for the Subspace Emissary mode in Super Smash Brothers Brawl.
 * Someone noted the similarities between Psychonauts and Inception. Then they decided to use clips of the former with audio of the latter's trailer. The result was phenomenal.
 * Fate Stay Night is a popular one for MADs, due to it's action Visual Novel nature. However, none of them manage to beat the Guilty Sky MAD which somehow manages to give a rapid recap of the entire game. If you've beaten every route, you WILL be reminded of the most important scenes, if you haven't spoilers!
 * Portal combined with The Nightmare Before Christmas? This is Aperture and The Wheatley Song are exactly that. The former even gained enough popularity to be noticed by Valve themselves.

Web Comics

 * There's a Top 10 Webcomic list that plays alot like a music video. Here it is talking about each comic and here it is without the talking, pretty much as a music video.
 * The Beast Legion webcomic has it's own Animated Intro by the creator.
 * Lecravian has earned a name for himself in the MS Paint Adventures fandom for doing a terrific series of tribute videos for Problem Sleuth and Homestuck that take the events of the series, string them together at warp speed, and add some kickass music to accompany it all.
 * There's quite a few fanvids for Homestuck, thanks in part to its huge library of flash animation and artwork to draw from. Given its penchant for Zodiac motifs, Weird Al Yankovic's "That's Your Horoscope For Today" in particular has inspired lots of parodies.
 * On the subject of Homestuck tributes, let's see How Far We've Come.
 * This May 2012 flash page of the comic itself (warning, spoilers!) brings to mind a Fan Vid, as a large percentage of it is a repeat of older panels of the comic, popping up for no other reason than that they fit the lyrics.

Web Original

 * Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series is one of the better examples of the humorous type of Fan Vid. (See also Gag Dub.) They also do a version of the another shows theme, by making a Yu-Gi-Oh! version of the Neon Genesis Evangelion opener.
 * "Rorschach's Sing Along Journal", a strange fusion of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and Watchmen.
 * Inverted in Doctor Steel's music video for "Back and Forth", where he made a Video Full of Film Clips of his fans dancing and singing along to his music.
 * Several of his fans have made impressive FanVids (which Dr. Steel encourages), most notably:
 * Caleb Allen's masterful portrayal of "Lament for a Toy Factory".
 * Starkravenmad's Flash videos to "Back and Forth", "Fibonacci Sequence" and "Build the Robots".
 * New to youtube: Literal Music Video
 * Several Happy Tree Friends fan AMVs have been favourited by MondoMedia (its creators) on YouTube, such as Giggles Tribute -- What I've Done -- Linkin Park by sandiegoborn32, happy tree friends- flippy music video by oracle56 and Happy Tree Friends -- I Believe In Father Christmas by AnthonyRobertPrice. They also occasionally subscribe to some YouTube users who make Happy Tree Friends fan videos.
 * That Dude in the Suede used to make AMVs and send them to Christchurch AMV competitions.

Western Animation

 * Back during the 1980s and 90s, The Disney Channel frequently ran DTV, a series of music videos of popular songs set to appropriately-themed clips from the company's animated films (and even some live-action ones on occasion). For instance, they had a music video of "Splish Splash" by Bobby Darrin set to clips of Disney cartoon characters getting washed or taking a bath, and "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by Yes set entirely to the Silly Symphony Elmer Elephant. DTV would even spin off a few NBC TV specials featuring shortened music videos.
 * Similarly, Cartoon Network did a few, only using more contemporary artists.
 * This video of Moral Orel set to "Save Me" by Aimee Mann, which perfectly captures the motion picture soundtrack music video feel, gained the praise of series creator Dino Stamatopoulos on his Facebook page.
 * "The End of the World". A Teen Titans video set to "The Scientist" by Coldplay, it focuses on Robin and Raven during "The End". Features clever use of a Talky Bookend at the beginning, and mostly avoids flashy effects.
 * Probably the most popular Fan Vid to use a Western Animation work: "Hey Ya! Charlie Brown!"
 * This video sets Jars of Clay's "Mirrors and Smoke" to scenes from Superfriends—with the video clips edited to make Superman's lip-flaps match the lyrics. The band liked it so much that they uploaded it on their youtube channel.
 * You wouldn't think Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Nightmare Before Christmas would go well together, but "Kidnap the Avatar" quickly proves you wrong.
 * March Of The Titans uses clips from both Batman the Animated Series and Teen Titans, focusing in on the life of Robin (the Dick Grayson one, although the BtAS clips are of Tim Drake, the Teen Titans Robin is clearly Dick) using "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance.
 * The My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic fandom are as prolific with these as they are with every fanwork imaginable, but even then some rise above the flock.
 * The Stars Will Aid In Her Escape possesses popularity and quality above nearly every other, taking scenes from the first season to tell the story of the pilot episodes in a far different, and perhaps even more emotional, way.
 * This fan-made trailer for seasons 1 and 2 is nothing sort of stupendous, turning the series into a literal epic of world-shaking proportions (which, in a way, it is).
 * The EPICMEALTIME parody Epic Cupcake Time, along with its sequels Epic Pie Time and Epic Wub Time, achieved a lot of popularity for its meme potential and quality voice acting.
 * One fan of Phineas and Ferb The Movie Across The 2nd Dimension made an AMV using clips from the TV movie and the song New Divide by Linkin Park, depicting how Phineas felt used when he realized Perry was a secret agent.
 * The same user made an AMV entitled Mike Feels Like a Monster, combining the song Monster by Skillet with clips from Total Drama Revenge of the Island to describe Mike's conflict with his evil alter ego.

Real Life

 * Another early progenitor of the modern Fan Vid: Fighter Fling, created by none other than the F-14 Tomcat fighter squadrons of the United States Navy. That's right, even the hotshot Top Gun types were into this sort of thing! From 1989 to 2004 (when the Tomcat's retirement was announced), the squadrons would produce one long yearbook-like video of Tomcats and their crew acting Badass or Bunny-Eared set to whatever music was popular at the time. Every so often, clips or entire Fighter Fling videos appear on YouTube, but as they are no less copyright violations than the average modern-day Fan Vid, they are often taken down due to DMCA.
 * The final Fighter Fling produced in 2004 included a sendup of Van Halen's "Right Now" music video, centered upon the final days of the F-14 Tomcat's service history.
 * This sequence from Fighter Fling 2004 says it all. You will never doubt the quirkiness of the United States military ever again.
 * Footage of Hitler's army being deployed seems to fit well with "Krook's March" from Donkey Kong Country 2 here, as it does with John Williams' "Imperial March" here.