Among the BL and GL productions reviewed by Renkaze, the median credits 8 performers, and cast size correlates only 0.22 with episode count.
The relationship is not just weak, it is not even monotonic. Whatever sets the size of a cast here, the length of the finished show is not it.
Across the 66 BL and GL productions reviewed by Renkaze that have a documented supporting cast, the median production credits 8 performers in total. The largest is Love of Silom at 21. Cast size barely moves with episode count (r = 0.22) or with total runtime (r = 0.34), so a longer show is not reliably a more populated one.
Four groups of performers are counted: billed leads, supporting cast, guest cast and voice actors. The figure used throughout is the sum of all four for each production, with no performer counted twice inside a single production.
The figures cover the 66 productions with a supporting cast list, and 565 performer credits between them. Print works carry no cast, so novels, web novels, manga, manhwa and manhua stay outside the comparison, as do animated titles, which credit voice actors rather than a supporting list.
| Measure | Performers |
|---|---|
| Smallest | 3 |
| Lower quartile | 6 |
| Median | 8 |
| Upper quartile | 10.75 |
| Largest | 21 |
| Mean | 8.6 |
| Productions counted | 66 |
| Performer credits counted | 565 |
The twelve largest casts are below. Eleven of the twelve run between 8 and 16 episodes, which is the ordinary band for BL and GL. The one 24 episode entry, Fourever You Part 2, sits at the bottom of this table with 12 credited performers despite carrying 22.8 hours of runtime, roughly 70 percent more than Love of Silom, which tops the table.
| Title | Country | Leads | Supporting | Guest | Total | Eps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Love of Silom | Thailand | 2 | 16 | 3 | 21 | 12 |
| The Heart Killers | Thailand | 4 | 10 | 5 | 19 | 12 |
| Sammy’s Children’s Day | China, Hong Kong | 2 | 2 | 14 | 18 | 9 |
| We Are | Thailand | 6 | 9 | 0 | 15 | 16 |
| Payback | Thailand | 6 | 6 | 2 | 14 | 10 |
| ChermChey | Thailand | 2 | 3 | 9 | 14 | 10 |
| 23.5 the Series | Thailand | 2 | 12 | 0 | 14 | 12 |
| Pluto the Series | Thailand | 2 | 11 | 0 | 13 | 12 |
| WEIRDO-101 | Thailand | 2 | 11 | 0 | 13 | 10 |
| Wishing Upon the Shooting Stars | Taiwan | 4 | 8 | 0 | 12 | 12 |
| Flower Boy | Thailand | 2 | 8 | 2 | 12 | 8 |
| Fourever You Part 2 | Thailand | 6 | 5 | 1 | 12 | 24 |
Those twelve reach their totals by different routes. Love of Silom, 23.5 the Series, Pluto the Series and WEIRDO-101 each pair two billed leads with a deep supporting bench and no guest credits. Sammy’s Children’s Day does the opposite: 14 of its 18 credits are guest performers. Both shapes produce a similar headline number and describe completely different production structures.
The obvious hypothesis is that more episodes means more roles. The arithmetic does not support it. Across the 64 productions with an episode count, the correlation between total cast and episode count is 0.22 by Pearson and 0.21 by Spearman. Across the 59 where a total runtime can be derived, cast against runtime is 0.34 by Pearson and 0.26 by Spearman. Both are weak. Neither explains more than about a ninth of the variation.
Grouping instead of correlating gives the same answer, and adds a wrinkle. Productions of 1 to 8 episodes have a median cast of 7. Productions of 9 to 12 episodes have a median of 9. Productions of 13 to 24 episodes have a median of 8, which is lower than the middle band. The relationship is not just weak, it is not even monotonic.
Episode duration behaves the same way: 0.36 across 58 productions. Whatever sets the size of a cast, the length of the finished show is not it. The middle-sized series of around ten to twelve episodes turns out to be the sweet spot for an ensemble.
Of the 66 productions, 50 bill exactly two leads. The rest split into 6 with three leads, 6 with four, 3 with six and one with eight, The Crow Club. Widen the lens to all 189 screen titles reviewed and 67 bill exactly two. The lead count is close to a constant.
The supporting bench is where the range lives: 1 to 16 performers. Across the 66, 168 billed leads carry 349 supporting performers, a ratio of 2.08 supporting per lead. Per production, the median ratio is also 2.0, with a lower quartile of 1.31 and an upper quartile of 3.0. The extremes run from 0.12 to 8.0.
| Country | Productions | Median cast | Range | Supporting per lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thailand | 39 | 9 | 3 to 21 | 2.21 |
| South Korea | 9 | 7 | 3 to 8 | 1.36 |
| Japan | 7 | 7 | 3 to 10 | 2.50 |
| China | 5 | 6 | 4 to 18 | 1.70 |
| Taiwan | 4 | 9 | 5 to 12 | 1.92 |
| Hong Kong | 1 | 11 | 11 | 2.67 |
| Philippines | 1 | 6 | 6 | 2.00 |
By format, the pattern is flatter still. TV series run to a median of 9 and web series to a median of 6.5. Thailand stands out for the deepest benches, at 2.21 supporting performers per lead and a top end of 21, while Korean productions keep the tightest casts, at 1.36 per lead. The 14 GMMTV productions in the set, all Thai, have a median cast of 10 against 7 for the rest.
Across the 66 productions reviewed with a documented supporting cast, the median total is 8 credited performers. The lower quartile is 6, the upper quartile is 10.75, and the full range runs from 3 to 21.
Among those reviewed, Love of Silom, with 21 credited performers: 2 billed leads, 16 supporting and 3 guest. The Heart Killers follows at 19 and Sammy’s Children’s Day at 18.
Not reliably. Total cast correlates 0.22 with episode count and 0.34 with total runtime. Productions of 13 to 24 episodes actually have a lower median cast (8) than productions of 9 to 12 episodes (9).
Two. Of the 66 productions, 50 bill exactly two leads, and across all 189 screen titles reviewed 67 do. The supporting cast is where the variation sits, from 1 to 16 performers.
Total cast is the sum of billed leads, supporting cast, guest cast and voice actors, with no performer counted twice inside a production. Runtime is episode count multiplied by episode duration, or film length where there are no episodes.
Among the productions reviewed, Thailand has the deepest benches, at a median of 9 performers and 2.21 supporting per lead, while South Korea has the tightest at 1.36 per lead. Samples outside Thailand are small, so these are structural measures, not judgments of quality.
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