2021 has been dubbed as the year of 耽改101, translated literally as “BL Adaptation 101”, in China due to a larger number than previous years of Chinese bromance TV series adapted from BL novels. The first-cab-off-the-rank Chinese BL adapted TV series for the year went online very unexpectedly without much ado on February 22, 2021. The trailer of the 36-episode webdrama, Word of Honor 山河令, premiered that afternoon with the announcement that the series would premiere that evening at 1800 hour online!
Lovely Writer (數到十就親親你) is a new Thai BL series which will premiere on February 24, 2021. The Thai name of the series, นับสิบจะจูบ, actually means Dozens of Kisses, so you can see where the lyrics of the theme song came from… This show looks like a fun TV series from the trailer, so I’m looking forward to it!
Heaven Official’s Blessing 天官賜福 is a Chinese anime TV series that aired from October 31, 2020 and finished its first season on January 2, 2021. Season 2 is expected to air this year. The anime is based on the BL novel by 墨香銅臭 (Moxiangtongxiu), the author who also wrote the novel that the 2019 TV series, The Untamed 陳情令, was adapted from. Heaven Official’s Blessing is also expected to be filmed into a live action TV series this year. Below are the songs from the OST of the anime series.
Having spent the last couple of months reading the 188 BL series with a bastard protagonist in each novel, I’m now a bit not used to reading two young, but kind-hearted protagonists with hard and quite sad lives… I have just started on the first few chapters and already felt very attached to the two protagonists! If you love Saye 撒野, I think you will like this BL novel too, with very similar beginning, but not surprisingly both these novels are written by the same novelist, Wuzhe 巫哲. A Lucky Coin is the story of an unschooled, tall 17-year-old who lives a gypsy life of travelling all over the country with his father who has a mysterious job, and both have just arrived to a new city. He met, rescued and befriended a small and quiet, stuttering 14-year-old (? the novel just stated that he is in the second year of high school) who was being bullied by his classmates… I read the synopsis and apparently, there will be mysteries (my type of story, hahaha…) surrounding the disappearance of both their fathers, and they will separate and meet again later… As usual, now that I know there are audio dramas of Chinese BL novels, I’m now needing theme song to listen to while reading the novel, so here it is, the theme song from the audio drama of A Lucky Coin…
To My Star 나의 별에게 (致我的星星／願與你不負光年) is a new Korean BL that just started airing on January 22, 2021, with a total of 9 episodes. I will add the official OST song(s) when they are available. There is a song from 2018 used in one of the trailers (trailer 3), Left Hand by NewKidd, so I will embed that song below for now…
Update February 27, 2021: It is confirmed that the OST of To My Star will be released on March 5, 2021.
Color Rush (컬러 러쉬 遇見你之後／與你的顔色) is a new 8-episode BL drama from South Korea. It began airing on December 30, 2020 with each episode of about 15 minutes. Below are 2 songs from the OST, I have also included 2 BTS videos on the making-of the OST songs…
We, Best Love is a new series of BL dramas from Taiwan. The naming of this new series is quite similar to that of HIStory series… We stands for WeTV who created the series and is the broadcaster, while the initials of Best Love is BL which, well you guess it, LOL… The first season is called No. 1 For You 永遠的第一名 (a.k.a. Forever The First) and it started airing on January 8, 2021. This is the opening theme song sang by Kelly Cheng…
After more than a year, the airdate for the Thai BL series, 1000 Stars (a.k.a. A Tale of Thousand Stars 千星記／千星傳說), has finally been announced. It will premiere on January 29, 2021. The song, Longer than Ever, was used as the BGM song for the mock trailer in 2019, so now I’m not sure if it is still the main theme song for the TV series because in the official new trailer just released yesterday, the BGM is a different song. If or until the new official theme song is released, here’s the MV for Longer than Ever which I really like and has been listening to it since last year…
Reading the 188 series of BL novels at the moment and they are a torture to read but also very addicting, LOL… You just want to punch one of the main protagonists on the nose in the first half of the novels! I have read 2 of these novels in a row the past couple of weeks, currently reading another one, The Years of Intoxication 一醉經年. In the latter part of this novel, Song Juhan 宋居寒 sang a song he wrote to He Gu 何故 and at the same time came out of the closet in the final performance of his concert and, boy, it was a touching moment especially the speech he gave after he sang the song! The song, Ai He Gu 愛何辜 (translated as Is It a Crime to Love?) is actually a play of words to 愛何故 (Loving He Gu). The song actually exists! It is from the audio drama of the novel. I have also included two other songs from the audio drama…
Currently I am in the midst of reading the 188 series of BL novels by Shui Qian Cheng 水千丞. The first time I came across this author was after watching the 2017 bromance TV series, Beloved Enemy 決對爭鋒 at the beginning of this year, later I started to read the BL novel the TV series was adapted from, 針鋒對決. Of course at the time I did not realise it was part of the 188 series, but I did notice that Yuan Yang 原煬 was really a badass in the novel compared to his watered down behaviour in the TV series.
Corner Café 