Japanese BL Dramas: The Complete List (2026)

Japanese BL is short, book-led and built around adaptations. The full list is below, newest first, followed by where to start and what is airing this autumn.

This Japanese BL dramas list gathers 22 live-action BL series and films from Japan, listed from the newest back to the oldest, each with its year, its length and a place to watch. Japanese BL is the original home of the genre, and it still behaves differently from the Thai and Korean shelves: shorter seasons and a manga or novel behind many of its titles.

The complete list of Japanese BL dramas

Where to start with Japanese BL

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! is the answer most people give, and the reason is scale. The live-action series ran 12 episodes from 9 October 2020 on TV Tokyo and reached Netflix, Crunchyroll, GagaOOLala, Viki and Prime Video. A film followed on 8 April 2022, an anime on 11 January 2024 and an anime film on 13 December 2024. A musical opened on 11 April 2025. Few BL stories have been told in so many formats, and the whole run began as a manga that debuted on 7 September 2018.

Love Is Better the Second Time Around is the compact option. Its first season ran six episodes in 2024 on MBS and TBS, and Season 2 began on 1 September 2026 with seven.

The Journey to Killing You suits viewers who want something darker. Six episodes aired in 2025 on FOD and Fuji TV, and Season 2 starts on FOD on 8 October 2026.

Unexpectedly Naughty Fukami shows the Japanese pipeline in miniature. The manga arrived in 2022, the anime in April 2025 and the live action on Tokyo MX on 7 April 2026.

How Japanese BL gets made

Many of the titles above start as a manga or a novel. Hold on, Harutora-kun adapts a Dear+ manga from 2021 and aired on MBS from 13 August 2026. The Boy and I Who Will Break Up in 100 Days adapts a 2023 novel and ran six episodes on GagaOOLala. The source book is usually the best guide to whether a series will suit you, because these adaptations follow their pages closely.

Seasons are short. Most series above run six to ten episodes, where Thai BL often runs 12 episodes or more.

Where to watch Japanese BL

Inside Japan the usual routes are TVer for free catch-up, FOD, ABEMA and U-NEXT. Outside Japan the picture is narrower: GagaOOLala, Viki, Netflix, Crunchyroll and Prime Video carry a handful of titles each. Nearly every series on this list has its own page with the current route, because rights differ by country.

Japanese BL coming this autumn

The next six weeks are crowded. Ao to Midori starts on 5 October 2026, The Journey to Killing You Season 2 on 8 October, Can You Kiss Me First? on 19 October and The Proper Way to Write Love Season 2 on 29 October. It’s Strictly Business and When It Rains, It Pours: Mellow Rain both begin on 5 November. The calendar page shows each premiere by date.

More guides

Keep going with the Thai BL dramas list, Korean BL dramas list, Chinese BL dramas list, enemies to lovers BL dramas, BL adaptations, where to start with BL and GL, where to watch BL and GL.