Cherry Magic Thailand (2023)

Started wonderfully clever then weak writing turned it simplistic and unsatisfying.

General spoilers only. Most people will like this, and I'd encourage giving it a try. I, however, was left quite disappointed, so I'm posting this review to give an alternative to popular opinion.

If you've never seen the Japanese live version (series, special episode, and movie), then you might enjoy this more. For me, the only thing the Thai version gave in the second half of the show that wasn't already far better portrayed by the Japanese version, was the physical intimacy.

This started so strongly then became yet another Thai BL let down by weak writing. At first, the screenplay was clever in how it honored the original material while adjusting things here and there to add some new depth to the characters and their interactions. I would give Ep 1-4 a 9.5/10. It was familiar in a comforting way yet fresh and interesting.

Then it slid into simplistic & shallow writing, it rushed plot and pivitol moments, became cheesy & corny, character arcs plateaued, the number of overheard thoughts dwindled away even when people were being touched, and an increasing number of plot points required suspension of disbelief (I'm not talking about anything magic related- that's just a natural part of this story). It started to feel more like a string of fan service moments than an emotionally moving story.

Because work and life challenges became so easy to get through, it felt like Achi and Karan didn't really get to grow as a couple. There wasn't a meaningful learning curve for them in navigating life as a team. (Especially when compared to the Japanese version.) Their words to each other are very sweet, but the further in the story goes, the more their love is told to the audience more than it's shown by examples (which wasn't the case in the beginning, which is why those episodes are stronger).

Tay and New kept me watching. Especially Tay; he's just a perfect match for the character of Karan. His energy and earnestness were endlessly endearing.

The theme song is great; it's so catchy I watched through the intro credits every week just to hum along.

I will rewatch Ep 1-4 at some point because I thoroughly enjoyed them, but I'll never sit through the rest of it again. I'd rather just watch the Japanese version.

GENERAL SPOILERS below.
My thoughts on episodes as I watched the weekly releases:

Ep 1-4: A great adaptation so far. It's clever in the way it added depth to the characters and in the differences from the Japanese live version. I'm excitedly looking forward to it every week. The casting is great, Tay in particular. I absolutely love Karan's zaney internal dialogue and Tay's vocal acting with it.

Ep 5-7: Good but not as great; it's feeling less clever but I'm still invested.

I wish I had skipped Ep 8 (or just watched the last 5 min)! It's is soooo awful. The plot of this episode is so contrived, idiotic, frusterating, ridiculous, and requires a stupidly high suspension of disbelief. The boss's reasoning and interference is shallow and cliche, and the fact that he let things get that far with the awful power-play client before intervening makes him a terrible boss and unlikable human being. And Achi stayed quiet too, which was frustrating.

Ep 9 was better than 8 but it felt like it rushed the really pivitol moments. There was a lot of sweetness but also a lot of cheesy-ness. This script is just not as good with slice-of-life writing as Japanese ones often are. It feels like the quality of the script has been unraveling for the past few episodes. I doubt I'll keep re-watching it like I do with the Japanese version. I felt the first few Eps were a 9.5/10 but I am now reducing my overall rating to a temporary 8/10, I'll see if that holds.

Ep 10 was better in pacing and content. The script did a better job building up to and proceeding from the pivitol moment of Achi reaching out to touch because he doesn't believe Karan's as okay as he says he is. I'm still feeling let down with the script; there are moments that are supposed to be hearfelt but miss the mark because they are a little too cheesy to me. Also, the plot stretches credulity to force certain things to happen and it makes things feel clunky and less believable, pulling me out of immersion and reducing my ability to stay emotionally invested. Tay and New are doing great with what they are given and are the reason why I'm still watching consistently (I'm also fond of the girl Pai). I'll probably be lowering my rating but I'll wait to see how the last two episodes pan out.

I do like how Karan and Achi talk things out every episode and never let misunderstandings simmer for long before resolving them. On the other hand, the fact that they do this consistantly (every episode after they start dating) and reletively easily, undermines the validity of how uneasy Achi feels about them being in different cities for 1-2 months. Half a year I would understand, but 1 month? When you have been able to communicate with each other well every time there's an uncertainty? They haven't even used the mind reading much. Achi's voice over thoughts have been much less systemically insecure and yet the script is having him act like that's still a big issue.

Ep 11: Only the last 2 scenes (42min in, aka the last 9min) with Karan and Achi exploring intimacy were really enjoyable. The rest of it was too cheesy, shallow, and rushed. The challenges and uncertainties of life (work and relationships) that were brought up were laughably easy and simple to navigate. The screenplay dumbs everything down to the point that it's not interesting and barely enjoyable. I had to speed watch most of this episode to get through the cringness.

Ep 12: So simplistic and cheesy it made me keep cringing and itching to skip forward. Again, potential life challenges were built up but then easy to get through once the time came (all of the family stuff felt so hollow). I was left feeling disappointed.

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What did I just watch?

I heard so much about this show that I got really excited and I wish I didn't. I don't know what's up with this GMM shows where nothing happens! Like these are turning into bromances. I'm not saying I need every show to be full of NC scenes but Jesus could we maybe get some hand holding and a good cuddle? Like there is no romance there what do ever! I'm new to the whole TayNew couple and they seem like they should have some good chemistry but this show is just... I don't know is it the story or the script that's bad? Is the Japanese version better newscaster I'm serious disappointed to the point in going to have to go watch one of my comfort shows to get over the disappointment. I was so in the mood for a good romantic BL but I got nothing. Makes me afraid to watch the new OffGun series. What is GMM doing!?!?

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It Was a Cherry Magical Series

We finally got TayNew back onto our screens and I couldn't be more happy. My gosh, I completely forgot how amazing both of them look -- individually and together, and man, my my my, aren't they beautiful. Anyways, onto the Thai remake of the Japan series, "Cherry Magic", that has blessed our screens with these two. I'll say, when I first heard that this was getting a remake with Tay and New I was a bit skeptical on how this was going to go, plot-wise and acting-wise. I think I agree with others when they say this series is not an entire remake of the original. Instead, it's its own series with a lot of the plot changed, some things added, and just the overall Thai BL touch that GMMTV knows how to do well.

Let's Dive In.

The few first episodes were the best out of the entire series. The building of the characters and the setup of the overall plot was golden. I was sitting on the edge of my seat throughout it all, feeling so intrigued with Achi listening to Karan's thoughts, the connection between Achi and Jinta, the office relationship, and the overall pleasantness of the series. I'm glad they kept the iconic elevator scene and they executed it perfectly.

Now onto the rest of the series, the episodes where Achi had to leave to work in another part of Thailand, were where the episodes get a little draggy. Personally, if you take out Achi leaving and some other junk this series could've ended in 10 episodes. I hate when the last 2 episodes feel irrelevant to the actual plot, which this teetered very near that line. I got bored, and I skipped through a bunch of the filler to get to the parts that I wanted. But nevertheless, it was all still good, just blah.

Moving onto the Achi and Karan's relationship -- I think they were so stinking cute. I think the first bit of their relationship was obviously established through Achi reading all of Karan's thoughts and feelings, which led him to feel the same way. Tay and New have had years of connections and so their already close relationship helped build the chemistry between Achi and Karan perfectly. When the series was announced, the joke running around was that Tay and New took this role so they wouldn't have to kiss (lol), but they shut that down immediately with some amazing kiss scenes, and even a very mid-heat NC scene, but still it was done to show that Achi was about to lose his powers, and even I was expecting that. My only real argument about this couple is that Karan's character is not as developed as I would've liked him to be. He was a walking green flag, which isn't a problem, but his flaw was not having a flaw. You could argue that that's an actual flaw itself, but it's never pointed out in the series that he's too nice, too forgiving, too perfect. He was such a one-dimensional character, there to be sweet and his whole personality was to make Achi's life better. I would've loved some more character depth from him. For Achi, it was more that he wasn't taking accountability for a lot of what they had going on in terms of their relationship and let Karan always take the blame. Besides like one time he apologized, Karan was there to forgive first. I also kind of hate that Karan didn't feel some type of betrayal when finding out Achi was intruding into his thoughts, even if he wasn't trying to. I would've liked a conversation behind Karan wondering if Achi really liked him or was only doing so because he could hear his thoughts. But besides some of those small points, they were really cute, and TayNew did a good job.

Moving onto Jinta and Min -- the most disappointing part of this entire series. Junior (Jinta) was by far my favorite actor/character. He took this quirky role and made it work perfectly in this remake. His conversations with Achi, his reactions to MIn, his way of analyzing and thinking and reacting -- all of it was legit perfect. It was also so nice to see Mark (min) again since Sky in Your Heart. He did an incredible job in this -- showing how versatile his acting is compared to his character in SIYH. Their setup was nearly perfect, and their continued build-up was so good that I was rooting for them more than I was for Achi and Karan at one point. Then Jinta confesses, and it's magical. After that, they have a couple of cute moments, but my problem is that Jinta never loses his powers, which isn't entirely terrible, but the premise of this series is that their virgins with superpowers that no longer will have them by the end. It's upsetting, but I guess it's an oh-well situation. I would've still loved to see them connect and watch how their first time would've gone down which is why the end result of this couple is such a letdown, but nevertheless, I really liked them.

Another addition to this series was Rock and Pai who I actually really liked. I liked that Pai was assertive and more of the leader in their relationship while Rock was bubbly and just happy to be around her. Loved the way Rock treated her and flirted with her. Again, happy they became a couple, but a kiss would've been nice too.

Now, onto some nit-picky things: I wish they would've had the moments when Achi was touching someone for it to be slow-down because their touching for a long period of time when Achi read their minds felt so awkward. While I liked the Rock and Pai addition to this series, they still felt irrelevant to the entire series and didn't really help drive along the original plot. They were obviously added so this series could run for an entire 12 episodes, but that time could've been used for Jinta and Min to build more, or even Achi and Karan.

Ratings:

Story: 8.5/10 - Really nice. Felt like its own series and did not follow the same format entirely as the Japanese one. some stuff felt draggy, but overall, this was really nice.

Acting: 9/10 - Great! Junior was the best in terms of taking his character to the next level. TayNew were a close second. Everyone else did well too.

Music: 6/10: I didn't pay much attention to it at all.

Recommendation Value: 8/10: This was really nice! I would recommend it to anyone wanting to see TayNew again on their screens, and if they enjoyed the Japanese one. I feel like I liked the Japanese one still a lot more, but this was good too!

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GMMTV did one (1) thing right

I have so much praise to give about this series. Its quite literally the best BL series I have watched ever. I don't really care if you think I'm overselling it but this is MY truth!

Watched both versions (JP and TH) and I can honestly say that this is miles better from CMJP. The writing, production, storytelling, characterization, they really nailed it all. JP's version has nothing compared to the nuance and care TH's version has given and freaking GMMTV is the one behind this. They really did one (1) thing right.

New's acting really stood out here. I'm so glad he is one who gave life to Achi. Same goes to Tay as Karan and the other actors. They really made the characters come alive.

If I'm gonna list down everything that made me love this series, my review might reach 1,000 words. I'm just so glad I got to watch this series. I know its fantasy but it showed how real, gentle, kind and respectful love can be. It really is magic. ✨️

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The Magic so far (dated: 04/02/24).

So I have been watching Cherry Magic TH since it came out on 9th December 2023. And honestly this show is hands down one of the THE best series I have ever watched that includes Be My Favorite and Theory Of Love.

After what happened with Vice Versa series and an underwhelming performance from P'X (and even Jimmy Jitaraphol too) P'X had dropped out of my bias list to the point I had decided that I might never watch an X Nuttapong series again despite him having my all-time favorite series Theory Of Love under his belt. I was heartbroken then skeptical, worried and nervous when Cherry Magic TH was announced on 22/11/22 under the direction of X Nuttapong but man! With each coming episode I'm so glad that P'X keeps proving me wrong, mind you I'm so picky and choosy with what to watch and criticizing it too even regardless how much my ultimate favorite artist has starred in it.

But these past eight weeks have been nothing but pure delight each passing episode, every new episode tops the previous one, the development and dedication this work has been shown has raised my already high standards for content/series.

I just hope and pray that the ending of this work is stable, likeable and just what every Polca would want 🥹

Every actor of this series has acted so well in every damn cut! So amazing! Let's talk about Mark and Janhae first,

Mark is a rookie actor, I believe so, I first saw him in Midnight Museum and his potential blew me off and he has done the role of Min with the same level of justice, I already like him so much 💖

Whereas Janhae, I was skeptical with her at first because I remember watching Cupid's Last Wish and cringing at her acting but she has improved so much it's so nice to see and even refreshing to see her as Pai 💜

Then comes Junior, there has been so many stale and stiff side characters in Y series be it from GMM or not, but Jinta is a side character that honestly brings light into this series and 90% of the credit goes to P'Junior (with the other 10% being P'X's guidance) 🧡

P'Parn is the ultimate lady boss yet caring as a superior, I love her characterization, even if her screentime is limited, it's enjoyable 🥹

I didn't know that someone significantly older than the newly graduated people aged between 20-24 would look so good on P'Ssing, I honestly thought that he wouldn't be able to pull the slightly childish charm youngsters like me harbour but boy! Did he do justice to it 🩵

Then comes our green forest Karan, P'Tay did SUCH a great job in portraying Karan that I hope everyone who was saying that P'Tay can't do romantic roles got their answers after watching this golden series. Karan is a literal (fictional) human embodiment of love, care and dedication, when I fall in love, I aspire to be like three fictional characters; Sravani, Third and Karan. Albeit the condition (and the prayer) is that I meet someone who is Achi, 💙

Which finally brings us to our main character Achi, portrayed by P'New. I remember reading a review of The Stone Of Affection here on this very website and it stated that P'New's acting was "stiff" (although it was Bua who fit the statement more) but I would like to ask the person to reevaluate their decision because I have watched both Manee Phayabat and Cherry Magic TH and the acting P'New has done is more than just justice to Achi's character 🤌 like words have failed to express just how well P'New (and P'Tay) has acted in this series 🩷

Literally top tier series this of both 2023 and 2024 🥹

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High class BL!

The cinematography is gorgeous, they’re doing a wonderful job honoring the manga while still making it Thai, and the acting is spot on. The chemistry between Achi and Karan is fire! So happy to see TayNew in such a quality drama! This is truly their Renaissance era. I love the manga, so I had high expectations, but they’re definitely meeting them. So nice to see a Thai BL about two working adults as opposed to high school or college. I also love that they’re truly building relationships both romantically between the three ships, but also the friendships between all of the characters. I would recommend this BL to anyone!

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Achi's character doesn't work

The trailer for Thai Cherry Magic was super cute so I decided to watch the Japanese version while waiting for it to air, and I absolutely loved it. That made me even more excited to see what Thailand would do with the story, especially because I knew for sure we would get skinship that was missing from the Japanese adaptation. Unfortunately Thailand's version of Cherry Magic was a big letdown. The production values were great and the second couple was better than the Japanese version. But Achi's character didn't work at all. He was incredibly, frustratingly passive and didn't have the kindness that Adachi had in the Japanese version.

The way the character was written, it never made sense for him to be hesitant to get into a relationship with Karan in the first place . He had the support of his coworkers who wanted them to get together and he said early on that he enjoyed the attention that Karan gave him. Yet he kept dragging his feet for no reason which made him seem passive and weak. Then after he finally made up his mind to get into a relationship, the writers suddenly threw in the company policy against dating and Karan being forced by the boss to make an impossible sales goal. Karan did all of the work to keep their relationship alive, including getting on his knees in front of an abusive client, while Achi did nothing to help or protect him. I couldn't care at all about Achi after that.

That was the biggest problem that sank the character but there were other weird writing decisions as well, like having Rock help Pai instead of Achi when her ex was berating her and having Karan's sister be the one to convince her mother to accept his relationship instead of Achi doing it.

There were things I liked about the Thai version: Tay's performance was lovely, I had some problems with how Karan was written but he was sweet and charming and made the character a lot more lovable than he would have been otherwise. I also enjoyed Jinta being a chaos gremlin all the time (though why didn't they have him lose his virginity in the end??). Pai and Rock were cute but underdeveloped, though Sing's performance did a lot to make up for the sketchy writing. The next to last episode in Pattaya was charming and the lovemaking scene was very well done so kudos for that.

But overall I have to say this was a disappointment. It also makes me nervous about the upcoming GMMTV adaptations of Ossan's Love and My Love Mix Up. I think maybe Japan and Thailand are too culturally different for these adaptations to work well but i guess we'll find out.

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LOVE the first half, but slowly fizzles out........Still a lovely drama!

Subjective Gut Rating: 8.25

What a lovely Thai adaptation of the manga, and it has big shoes to fill after the beloved Japanese adaptation. I saw the Japanese drama a few years ago, and honestly, I don’t remember much. The only thing I remember was how awkward and shy Adachi was.

The early episodes of “Cherry Magic” gave me very positive vibes. It feels very Japanese and very Thai at the same time. I was in love with the first half of the drama. I love Achi more than Japanese Adachi. Achi is shy and introverted but not overly, and definitely, not as awkward as Adachi. Achi actually feels like a normal person. Karan is just as lovely as his Japanese counterpart. He’s a total Mr. Green Flag. But I do find Machida Keita more handsome and I like the more confident version of his character. Karan is sweeter, softer, more sensitive and more smitten.

The sweet, shy and adorable scenes of Karan and Achi in the first half of the drama before they officially got together was so good that I thought I might rate this a 9.0, if it continues on. I cried my eyes out during Karan’s confession scene by the boat, and the subsequent episode telling us all that he’s done for Achi behind-the-scene. My heart hurts for Karan.

Unfortunately, once the leads officially got together, the cringe started. The Japanese vibe slowly disappears and it’s all Thai cringe of sweet nothings. In a way, Karan is very cute but just a little too much for my taste. He’s just too smitten with Achi! I like the more mature and a little shyer version of Karan in the first half.

All the supporting characters are lovely and they don’t take away from the main leads. I find Rock more likable than the Japanese Rokkaku Yuta. Pai is a kickass female character and I love her shipping the leads and being the voice of reason. Min and Jinta are fine but not amazing. In the end, I somewhat lost interest in the idol storyline, the romance between Jinta and Min, and even the romance between Rock and Pai. I feel that these minor plots are not written well and not developed evenly throughout the drama.

Although the ending is lovely and more complete than the Japanese version, it felt rushed to me. A lot happened in the last episode but everything resolves and ends without much hassle.

In the end, I do recommend this lovely drama and I had an enjoyable time. I was hoping I would love this from start to finish, but that didn’t happen. At least we got good kisses and great chemistry!


Completed: 3/21/2024 - Review #419

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Excellent BL...!!!

I watched the Japanese version and fell in love with that series. Then this came out and MY GOD it hit me emotionally like a brick. The acting was excellent, a bit quirky in parts but managed to squeeze out being cute. I loved the side story of Jinta and Min. Jinta was over the top excellent in his facial expressions and acting the part out very well. The main characters were VERY well paired and rightfully so. As they are business partners and real friends in real life. So their chemistry was spot on. These are the types of BL's i like love stories that develop. Not cutesy comedic parodies of what falling in love and being in a serious relationship is all about. I've watched FAR to many BL's that do this and it's extremely frustrating. Especially, as a gay man whose been out for over 35+yrs. And seen more changes in my LGBTQ+ community then many kids have been alive. It's nice to see BL dramas or movies that take relationships seriously. I applaud the director and his passion and i want to see MUCH more of his work with these types of dramas/movies. In many respects this was even better than the Japanese version. And i tend to favor Japanese BL's over other Asian BL'S. But Thailand never leaves me disappointed either re-doing a series like they did here. Or having something completely new. I encourage everyone to watch this and how good acting and chemistry comes together. Very well done...!!!

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The differences between this and the Japanese original will make it or break it for you

Disclaimer: the Japanese drama is not just one of my all time favourite BL; it's an all time favourite for any TV series. I am hugely biased, I can't pretend otherwise.

That said, I think this ended up being perfectly calibrated for the GMMTV audience. It has leads with sweet chemistry, plenty of opportunities to use the platform to push Thai culture to the forefront, and as many boxes of Lactosoy as possible. The storybeats are similar but not exact to the manga and Jdrama, and this is enormously sweet and suited to comfort watching. I can see why many people prefer it.

But, like, go watch the original too.

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my honest review (kinda story-telling too lmao) ??

i want to desclaimer at the beginning before im continuing this review. i might adding my opinion as a polca (shipper fandom of taynew) but overall this is my honest review as a pure viewers.

first of all, this is a comeback of taynew as a BL couple and i'm so excited. no matter what kind of series they'll get, i don't care, as long as i can watch them as a couple on screen again. then, when i know taynew will got a series based on one of the famous BL manga, my excitement doubled and doubled. i know this manga already had a japanese series and ofc, i have to watch it first before the thai adaptation one is airing.

finally, on december 9th 2023, the first episode of cherry magic thailand is airing! i'm very happy and ecstatic but can't helo myself to comparing it with the japanese version. i really like the japanese one but for some reason the thai one hits so much different. starting from many adjustments to the culture in thailand so the series can be more comfortable and acceptable to watched by the native people there, details that are not shown in the hapanese series, the chemistry of taynew and other players that so fun to watched, and much more (you can watch it yourself if you want to know more).

i can proudly say, cherry magic thailand is such a masterpiece and can be one of the must-watch series that you have to see at least once in your lifetime.

the series still on-going so if you want to binge-watching it, you still have time and then keeping up until the newest episode. i'm kinda promoting here but you can watch it live at 20.30 BKK time every saturday on gmm25 channel and rewatch it on viu thailand at 22.30. the english subtitle already available both of the platform. let's feel the magic of cherries by yourself like me, guys! 🥰🍒🪄

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