Delayed from 2019, staring Kaownah & Turbo (Nitiman), adapted from a yaoi manga (and the Japanese live action and anime of the same name) I didn’t expect much from this on. Japan’s version of Love Stage!! wasn’t successful and didn’t highlight the crossdressing element of the original manga & anime. Fortunately, Thailand had the guts to do the original yaoi justice (I am ashamed for doubting them) although they didn’t resolve it in the same spectacular way as the anime.

Stymied by lack of international distribution this BL surprised me with its charm. The acting was good, the leads were appealing, support cast on point, and the production values high. It’s gave me Lovely Writer vibes (although with a lot more Japanese slapstick and way fewer egregious sound effects).

It followed the original manga story arc relatively closely with some quintessentially Thai changes. We got the nose bleed, the dub con sleeping kiss, and a few other questionable yaoi derived tropes, but all-in-all what Thailand did to mellow the content, mellowed it in mostly the right direction. We also got solid side characters and couples and some pretty high heat levels prettily handled.

Demonstrating the advantages of a Thai long-form adaptation, this version gave us a chance to really watch the two leads become friendly and like each other beyond just a crush and then fall into love. And I believed it, despite their rocky start, in a way I never did with the previous adaptations. Particularly Anda’s character.

One of the things I’ve always appreciated about this story is that the climax is about coming out as a celebrity couple as well as gay. I like the examination of the nature of celebrity versus privacy. And I love that they depicted two couples with two different versions of this choice. P’Jet is such a a great advice giver for Anda and I love the “gay advice auntie” rep. It ended well, different from all prior adaptations and very Thai about it. A solid and enjoyable show.