Earliest Branded Pairs in BL
Hu Jun and Liu Ye
They played Chen HanDong and Lan Yu in Lan Yu (2001) directed by Stanley Kwan. They also acted in Painting Soul (2003), by the same director, which was not a BL.
Hu Jun had previously acted in East Palace, West Palace (1996). Episode 6 of Blue Canvas of Youthful Days (2024) had Qi Lu and Qin Xiao watching that movie.
Stills from Lan Yu and Manifesto.
They appeared together in the Chinese TV Show Where Are We Going, Dad? Season 3 (2015), an event celebrated by their CP fans! They also acted together in Manifesto (2023). This is in line with Chinese government's complicated history with shipping and fu-cultures.
CCP is not always hostile towards BL and shipping. I mean, CCP is the second largest political party in the world with like nearly hundred million members. Some of them are fu-people, who create and consume BL. Some of them engage in shipping - of characters as well as real people including celebrities and senior party members. (I have discussed this in the context of Addicted here.) The appeal of a branded pair, who is not against getting shipped, doing a series like Manifesto is therefore manifold. Hence, JunYe CP is one of the most important branded pair ever.
Watanabe Daisuke and Hamao Kyousuke
They played Saki Giichi and Hayama Takumi in 4 BL movies:
Takumi-kun Series 2: Rainbow Colored Glass (2009)
Takumi-kun Series 3: The Beauty of Detail (2010)
Takumi-kun Series 4: Pure (2010)
Takumi-kun Series 5: That, Sunny Blue Sky (2011)
and acted in an non-BL movie:
Our Kogen Hotel (2013)
All of these movies were directed by Yokoi Takeshi. While I wonder if he's going to repeat it with the new cast of Takumi-kun Series 6: Nagai Nagai Monogatari no Hajimari no Asa. (2023), I am less sure given Kato Daigo who played Saki Giichi in the new movie is already 24 and he can only play a high schooler for so long. Also, I am not sure how the movie performed on the box office and if it would have a sequel.
This pair started off with The Musical Prince of Tennis #4 where Watanabe Daisuke played Tezuka Kinimitsu with Hamao Kyousuke as Kikumaru for 2 years.
WATANABE DAISUKE & HAMAO KYOUSUKE Interview in Thailand DAICHAN : I was always asked how could I become an actor. Was it because being per
All early 21st century Japanese live action BL had a handful of actors (Saitoh Takumi, Kawai Ryunosuke, Yoshikazu Kotani, Aiba Hiroki, Takahashi Yuta, Saito Yasuka and Namikawa Hajime) who appeared in multiple BL works but with different onscreen partners, so DaiMao branded pair was pretty unique.
Japanese BL doesn't have any branded pair currently.
Link to extended version of this post.
[updated on 01 March 2025] They played Chen HanDong and Lan Yu in Lan Yu (2001) directed by Stanley Kwan. They also acted in Painting Soul (