BL adaptations source guide cover: film strips rising out of an open book with two small figures standing on the page

BL Adaptations: Every Drama and the Novel, Manga or Manhwa It Came From

Every drama in the catalogue, name by name, paired with the novel, manga or manhwa it came from

This is the index page for BL adaptations on BLGLFlix. Every entry below is headed by the name of the work rather than by a category, because that is how people actually look for these: not “manhwa adaptations” but Payback, not “novel adaptations” but When Oranges Fall.

The list runs source work first, then every screen version it produced, with both directions linked. A reader who came in from a drama can walk backwards to the book; a reader who came in from the book can find every adaptation that exists. Four properties on this page run to three media or more: Payback (novel, manhwa, Thai drama), Unexpectedly Naughty Fukami (manga, anime, live action), Fourever You (five novels across two series and several arcs), and Cherry Magic, which has produced six adaptations from one manga.

Where a screen version renames its characters, relocates the setting, merges two books, adds a second couple or cuts a subplot, the entry says so. Publication dates, episode counts and platforms come from our own title records and are checked against publisher and broadcaster listings. Each property that has its own dedicated article on this site is linked to it rather than repeated here.

BL adaptations are easier to find by name than by category, so this page lists them work by work. Each entry names the drama, the novel, manga or manhwa it came from, and links both records. Twelve source properties are covered here, running to more than forty linked title pages across screen and print.

What this page is, and what it is not

This is a navigation page. It exists so that a reader who arrives knowing one name can leave holding the whole chain: the drama, the book it adapts, the comic in between if there is one, and every sequel, special or remake attached to it. It is not a ranking and it is not a review.

The reason it is built this way is simple. Nobody searches for the idea of an adaptation. They search for Payback, or Cherry Magic, or When Oranges Fall, and then they want to know which book came first. So every section below is headed by the name of the work rather than by a category label, and every entry links out to the full record in both directions.

Use the first table as the index. Each row pairs a screen version with the source it adapts, and both cells are links. If you already know which title you want, jump straight to its section.

Every BL adaptation and its source

Thai BL adaptations

Thailand’s route is almost always the same. A web novel runs free on Dek-D, Tunwalai or ReadAWrite, collects a readership over a year or two, gets picked up by a print imprint, and only then attracts a studio. By the time a drama is announced the story has already been read by the people who will watch it.

Payback

Payback is the longest chain on this page because it crosses three countries’ worth of publishing before it reaches a screen: samK’s Korean web novel, then Fujoking’s manhwa adaptation, then the 2026 Thai series, which keeps the Korean entertainment-industry setting but renames every lead.

The full publication history, the character name changes across all three versions, and where to read each one legally are in our dedicated guide: Payback: the manhwa, the novel and the Thai drama compared.

Love Upon a Time

littlebbear96’s web novel was serialised online in 2021 before Deep Publishing, an imprint of Satapornbooks, released it that November as an official e-book running past six hundred pages. An official English edition followed, translated by Paphavee and Juls with the meb translation team, alongside a bonus volume of special chapters.

The premise survives intact in the 2026 series from Domundi TV and Mandee Work: a present-day student wakes four centuries earlier in the Ayutthaya Kingdom and is mistaken for a missing young man whose face he happens to share. JJ Radchapon Phornpinit plays both Nakun and Klao; Net Siraphop Manithikhun plays Phop and his modern counterpart Tinnaphop. The screen version adds a second lead pairing, Jom and Kaew, played by Latte Thanutchon Chankaewarmorn and Kim Pongsaton Sittipan, which the novel does not have.

ChermChey

Nottakorn’s Chermchey ran to 28 chapters on Tunwalai and completed in 2020, later published as a standalone novel by Deep with an official English e-book on Mebmarket. In the novel a young man travels to Taipei to recover from a breakup, and a visit to a temple there puts him in the path of a fellow Thai traveller.

The 2026 series from Copy A Bangkok and Domundi TV, directed by Cheewin Thanamin Wongskulphat, relocates the romance to Thailand and rebuilds it around a bar rather than a solo trip abroad. Ten episodes premiered May 19, 2026 on TrueVisions Now, airing Tuesdays at 20:00 through July 14, 2026, with international streaming on GagaOOLala. Tutor Koraphat Lamnoi and Yim Pharinyakorn Khansawa lead. Losing Taipei is the single biggest change any adaptation on this page makes to its source.

Crazy Love, Moo-Moo!

Littleskyofme’s Phi Fak Chop Thoe Mu was serialized online before LUCKPIM published it as a single volume of roughly 332 pages on July 7, 2023, with an English translation through meb’s translation programme. It belongs to a wider Chinese-Thai family story world and runs on a persistent-pursuit premise: an eldest son who will not stop courting a younger man who has stated, repeatedly, that he is not his type.

The 2026 adaptation from Blue and Co., directed by Pawis Saosri-on, premiered May 9, 2026, running ten roughly 47-minute episodes on Saturdays on Channel 3 with international streaming on Viu. Boss Chaikamon Sermsongwittaya and Noeul Nuttarat Tangwai lead for the third time together. The drama adds a dating-app collision the novel does not have, and expands the household into three interconnected couples.

When Oranges Fall

Littleskyofme’s second entry on this page began as a one-shot before being expanded into a serialized novel from 2021. The 2026 GMMTV series renames its two leads and moves the whole thing into 1990s high school life, a period setting that is entirely the adaptation’s addition.

The cast, the full episode guide and what else the series changed are in our dedicated guide: When Oranges Fall: cast, episodes and the novel behind it.

Your Dear Daddy

Your Dear Daddy, also listed as Riak Dad Si Than, adapts the novel Until You #RiakDadSiThan by the author CEO. Rice Natid Kaveekornwong wrote and directed the eight-episode series, which premiered May 9, 2026 and aired Saturdays at 22:30 on Channel 9 MCOT HD through June 27, 2026, with international streaming on iQIYI. Fluke Pusit Dittapisit and SaengNuea Jitaboon Ngamboonyarak lead as Sila and Saithan.

Fourever You

Fourever You is the largest single adaptation project in the catalogue and the one most often misread as an original ensemble drama. It adapts a connected set of campus romances by Howlsairy that runs to five novels, not the four its “Four Doctors” nickname suggests: East and North become the first series, while South, West and Lately, It’s Winter Season become the three arcs of Part 2. Only the first four carry compass-point titles.

Splitting that set across two series, three arcs and two specials is why the property carries a dozen records here rather than two. The watch order, the two correct episode counts for the first series and the reading order are in our dedicated guide: Fourever You Season 2: watch order and episode guide.

Japanese BL adaptations

Japan runs on a different clock. The source is nearly always a manga serialized in a digital magazine, and the screen version is nearly always short: six to ten episodes, often under thirty minutes each, sometimes under fifteen. Compression is the defining habit.

Fake Fact Lips

Suehiro Machi’s manga is a single volume. The 2026 drama from Durandal for BS Fuji gives it roughly four and a half hours of television, the cleanest ratio on this page, which means this adaptation had room to add rather than cut.

What it added, where the manga stops, and which version to start with are in our dedicated guide: Fake Fact Lips: manga against drama.

Unexpectedly Naughty Fukami

Ayaka Matsumoto’s manga has been serialized digitally on ComicFesta under the Screamo label since December 7, 2022, collected by Suiseisha into four volumes as of early 2026, with an English print edition from Seven Seas Entertainment scheduled for September 29, 2026.

The 2025 anime from Studio Hokiboshi came first, eight short-form episodes of roughly six minutes each, airing March 14 to June 9, 2025, with an English simuldub arriving the same week as the Japanese broadcast. The 2026 live-action drama, directed by Emiko Shirai, ran ten thirteen-minute episodes on Tokyo MX from April 7 to June 9, 2026, with Atsuki Kashio and Yu Miyazaki in the leads. Digital serialization to anime to live action in under four years is fast even by Japanese standards, and it happened while the manga was still ongoing.

The Journey to Killing You

Asai Sai’s Anata wo Korosu Tabi was serialized in the digital magazine Kachi Comi and collected into a single volume by Akita Shoten on February 14, 2020. In 2025 Tokuma Shoten reissued it as a two-volume edition under its Chara Comics label, volume one on February 25 and volume two on September 25, each carrying newly drawn bonus art.

That reissue was not a coincidence. The six-episode drama premiered on Fuji TV and FOD on September 26, 2025, running to October 24 with episodes of roughly 26 to 28 minutes, directed by Daisuke Kamijo. Masanari Wada plays Kataoka Kinji and Hiroto Takahashi plays Odajima Ren, a subordinate carrying a secret order to kill the boss he is assigned to protect.

The Boy and I Who Will Break Up in 100 Days

Asahara Naoto’s novel is literary fiction rather than genre romance. KADOKAWA published it as a 272-page hardcover on May 19, 2023. Asahara died of lymphoma in July 2023 at the age of thirty-eight, weeks after its release, making it the author’s final published work.

The premise is a trap the reader watches close: a couple goes viral after an interview about a local partnership oath system, a production company invites them to be filmed for a hundred-day documentary, and by the time the cameras roll the two have already broken up. They agree to perform the relationship anyway, for a director who knows nothing. The six-episode MBS drama, directed by Shogo Kusano and written by Naoyuki Miura for C&I entertainment, premiered on May 26, 2026 in the late-night Dramaism slot, streaming on FOD Premium in Japan and GagaOOLala internationally, with Kentaro Ito and Kanichiro as the couple. KADOKAWA reissued the book as a 320-page bunko paperback on May 25, 2026, the day before the premiere.

Cherry Magic

Yuu Toyota’s Cherry Magic! shows how far a single BL source work can travel. Serialized by Square Enix in Gangan pixiv since 2018 and running to sixteen volumes with a seventeenth announced to conclude it, the manga has produced six adaptations across three formats and two countries.

No other title here comes close, and the Thai remake is the only case in the catalogue of a Japanese BL manga being adapted twice for television in two different countries. All seven versions, how much of the manga each one covers and which to start with are in our dedicated guide: Every Cherry Magic version, ranked and compared.

Properties that exist in three or more media

Four properties on this page run past the usual book-to-screen pair. These are the ones worth mapping before you start, because picking the wrong entry point costs you the reveal.

Source works in this catalogue that produced adaptations in three or more separate media.
PropertyOriginal sourceMedia it now spansRecordsCountry of origin
Cherry MagicMangaManga, drama, film, remake, anime, musical7Japan
Fourever YouWeb NovelFour novels, two series, arcs and specials12Thailand
PaybackWeb NovelNovel, manhwa, Thai drama3Korea
Unexpectedly Naughty FukamiMangaManga, anime, live action3Japan

What changes between page and screen

Reading a dozen of these pairs next to each other, four adaptation habits show up repeatedly.

  • Names get localised, settings usually do not. Payback keeps the Korean entertainment-industry machinery but renames every character for Thai audiences. Cherry Magic’s Thai remake renames everyone and relocates to Bangkok. The story engine stays; the labels move.
  • Thai adaptations add a second couple. Love Upon a Time and Crazy Love, Moo-Moo! both widen a single-couple novel into an ensemble. Fourever You goes further and merges two separate novels into one season. Two ships means two fandoms.
  • Japanese adaptations compress hard. Fukami’s manga became eight six-minute anime episodes, then ten thirteen-minute live-action episodes. Neither format has room for a four-volume ongoing story, and both work anyway by picking a stretch rather than summarising the whole.
  • Publishers time reissues to premieres. Anata wo Korosu Tabi was reissued in two volumes across 2025 ahead of its drama. The Boy and I Who Will Break Up in 100 Days got its bunko paperback on May 25, 2026, one day before the series premiered. If an older BL manga suddenly gets a new edition, a screen adaptation is usually already in production.

Series with no book behind them

Not everything in the catalogue starts on a page, and it is worth knowing which titles you can watch without wondering what you missed. Love Class and its two sequels, Love Class Season 2 and Love Class Season 3, were written directly for screen by Kim Kyung-hwan rather than adapted, which is part of why the trilogy could keep going. Check In to You is an original body-swap comedy from the Korean BL studio STRONGBERRY.

The distinction matters more than it sounds. An adapted series has a fixed ending sitting in a book somewhere, and it usually stops there. An original series can be renewed on the strength of its pairing alone.

Which source should you read first?

If you want the biggest gap between page and screen, read Chermchey, because the Taipei setting the drama discards is most of what makes the novel work. If you want the fullest version of a story you already know from screen, read Payback’s novel, which stays inside its protagonist’s head in a way neither the manhwa nor the drama attempts. If you want something that was never really a romance novel to begin with, read The Boy and I Who Will Break Up in 100 Days. If you came in through Fourever You and want the parts the season merged away, the four Howlsairy novels each keep their own couple in focus.

All of the Thai novels listed here are readable in their original language through Dek-D, Tunwalai, ReadAWrite or their print publishers, and several have official English editions through meb or their imprints. The Japanese manga are available through licensed digital storefronts, with English editions from Seven Seas Entertainment and Square Enix Manga. We do not link to unlicensed aggregators; each of our title pages carries the official reading link where one exists.

Publication dates, episode counts and platform availability are accurate at the time of publishing and subject to change. Cross-referenced against the documented broadcast history of Payback, the official MBS Dramaism announcement for The Boy and I Who Will Break Up in 100 Days, Wikipedia’s Fourever You entry, Anime News Network, and the official Square Enix Manga listing. Last updated: August 15, 2026.

1
Payback (Novel)

Payback (Novel)

Web Novel
22
3
Payback

Payback

TV Series
305
5
Love Upon a Time

Love Upon a Time

TV Series
50
7
ChermChey

ChermChey

TV Series
46
11
When Oranges Fall

When Oranges Fall

TV Series
262
13
Your Dear Daddy

Your Dear Daddy

TV Series
54
16
Fourever You

Fourever You

TV Series
26
19
Fourever You Part 2
23
Fake Fact Lips

Fake Fact Lips

TV Series
125
34
Cherry Magic

Cherry Magic

TV Series
29

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What are BL adaptations?

BL adaptations are boys’ love dramas, films, anime or stage productions made from an existing novel, manga or manhwa. In Thai BL the source is usually a web novel from Dek-D, Tunwalai or ReadAWrite. In Japanese BL it is usually a manga serialized in a digital magazine. Korean stories often pass through a webtoon before anyone films them.

What counts as an adaptation on this index?

A screen, stage or animated version that carries the source work’s plot and characters across, whether or not the names or the country change. A drama that merely shares a genre or a premise with a novel is not listed. Where a production adapts more than one book, every book it draws on is named in the entry.

Why do BL adaptations change the characters' names?

Usually because the setting moves. Payback’s Thai series relocates a Korean story and renames Lee Yuhan, Song Myeong-shin and Yun Je-i as Sun, Bank and Jay. When Oranges Fall renames the novel’s Ko Neung and Ko Song as Krittin and Kanin. The story engine stays intact; the labels are localised.

Do Thai BL adaptations add couples that are not in the book?

Frequently. Love Upon a Time adds a second lead pairing to a single-couple novel, Crazy Love, Moo-Moo! expands its household into three interconnected couples, and Fourever You builds one ensemble season out of two separate novels. A second pairing widens the audience and gives the production two fandoms to promote to instead of one.

Which dramas in this catalogue have no book behind them?

A large share of them. Original screenplays remain the norm in Thai BL, and this page covers only the adapted minority. The final section of the article lists the notable originals so that a reader looking for a source work does not keep searching for one that was never written.

How can I tell if a BL manga is about to be adapted?

Watch the publisher. Reissues, new editions and paperback releases are often timed to a screen premiere. Anata wo Korosu Tabi was reissued in two volumes across 2025 ahead of its drama, and The Boy and I Who Will Break Up in 100 Days received a bunko paperback on May 25, 2026, one day before its series premiere.

Should I read the source before watching the adaptation?

It depends on how much the adaptation changes. For Chermchey, reading first is worthwhile because the drama discards the novel’s Taipei setting entirely. For heavily compressed adaptations, reading first tends to turn viewing into a list of what was cut, so afterwards is usually better.

Where can I read these BL novels and manga legally in English?

Several Thai novels have official English e-book editions through meb or their publishers’ translation programmes. Japanese manga on this page are published in English by Seven Seas Entertainment and Square Enix Manga. Each of our individual title pages carries the official reading link where one exists.

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