Five BL Dramas to Watch After Finishing Connecting to You

Once “Connecting to You” concludes, viewers confront the familiar void that follows any beloved series: no more Chia Kai’s supernatural perception of relationship threads, no more chemistry between him and police officer Da Wei, no more moments of mischief with his best friend Chao Nan. The Taiwanese BL leaves an impression difficult to replicate, centered as it is on the intersection of magic, destiny, and slow-burn romance. Yet across Taiwan, Japan, and Thailand, five dramas offer comparable emotional weight while exploring fate and connection through distinct supernatural and narrative frameworks.

Destiny Reimagined Across Borders

La Pluie, a Thai production, presents perhaps the most direct thematic parallel to Connecting to You’s core preoccupation with destiny and fated connection. Where Chia Kai sees relationship threads only he can perceive, La Pluie constructs an alternative system of destined love: individuals born with a particular gift lose their hearing during rainfall, but gain the ability to hear their soulmate’s voice telepathically during those same moments.

Saengtai, portrayed by Title Tanatorn Saenangkanikorn, carries this gift from birth. Unlike Chia Kai, however, Saengtai actively resists his abilities and their implications. His resistance stems from witnessing his parents’ separation despite their supposedly perfect soulmate connection—a crack in destiny’s foundation that compels skepticism.

Every monsoon season in Thailand brings opportunity for connection: Saengtai hears the same male voice address him telepathically. Rather than accepting this as inevitable romantic fate, he attempts evasion, a strategy complicated by the simple fact that Thailand experiences monsoon seasons regularly. Avoidance becomes impractical, and curiosity gradually replaces resistance.

The drama’s central tension differs crucially from Connecting to You. Saengtai must choose between a love universally defined as destined and a romance with someone who chooses him independent of fate’s decree. This introduces genuine stakes to the destiny framework, questioning whether predetermined connections outweigh voluntary bonds.

The chemistry between La Pluie’s leads develops with deliberate pacing toward their first on-screen meeting, a moment the show constructs as narratively significant. This structural choice—building anticipation toward a pivotal encounter—mirrors the slow-burn methodology that defined Connecting to You’s appeal.

Humor Built on Persistent Misfortune

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The Japanese BL “Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice But to Kiss!” approaches supernatural burden through comedy rather than romance-focused destiny. Fukuhara Kota, played by Sota Ryosuke, carries not magical sight but its opposite: a persistent and inexplicable curse of terrible luck.

The Machinery of Bad Fortune

Kota’s bad luck operates systematically. From the moment he wakes until he returns home after work, disasters pursue him without relent. No amount of preparation prevents catastrophe; the luck finds him regardless of his precautions. This curse manifests comically—pratfalls, timing failures, environmental mishaps—but creates genuine obstacle to his fundamental desire: a normal college experience.

At university, Kota pursues invisibility, hoping to navigate student life without drawing attention to his curse. This strategy collapses entirely upon meeting Shinomiya Naoya (Sato Yusuke), whose exceptional luck operates as Kota’s exact inverse. Where Kota attracts disaster, Shinomiya radiates fortune.

The Misreading That Changes Everything

A single group dinner alters everything. Positioned beside Shinomiya, Kota experiences a night entirely free from calamity. He theorizes that proximity to good luck might neutralize his curse—a logical if desperate hypothesis. He asks Shinomiya to maintain physical closeness, to spend time together, to test whether luck transfers through association.

Shinomiya responds by leaning in for a kiss, a gesture that reveals Kota communicated something other than what he intended. Now Kota faces a choice: accept a romantic relationship with the one person who apparently insulates him from disaster, or reject Shinomiya and return to isolated misfortune.

This structure parallels Chia Kai’s repeated tendency to create absurd situations despite pure intentions to help. Yet where Chia Kai’s complications stem from his magical meddling, Kota’s emerge from his curse and his attempts to counteract it. The humor operates on similar frequency: watching a fundamentally decent person stumble repeatedly while maintaining essential goodness.

Mind-Reading and Involuntary Revelation

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!, the Japanese BL available in multiple international versions, grants its protagonist an extraordinary ability—but only under extraordinary circumstances. Adachi Kiyoshi (Akaso Eiji) turns 30 while maintaining virginity, triggering an old legend that provides him with mind-reading powers through physical touch.

Power Arrives Uninvited

Adachi exists as office infrastructure: a timid loner desperate to complete work without error or additional responsibility. His coworker Kurosawa Yuichi (Machida Keita) represents everything Adachi admires from distance—competence, popularity, willingness to help. Adachi watches Kurosawa succeed while he struggles to remain adequately invisible.

The mind-reading ability initially feels like burden rather than gift. Adachi attempts to ignore it, to sustain his protective invisibility through conscious avoidance of touch. This strategy lasts approximately one day. During a routine elevator ride crowded with colleagues, Adachi stands beside Kurosawa and inadvertently initiates contact. Through Kurosawa’s mind, Adachi discovers his admired coworker harbors romantic feelings for someone in that elevator car.

Piecing together the clues—the proximity, the way Kurosawa looks at him—Adachi makes a startling realization: Kurosawa’s attraction targets him specifically.

Magic as Instrument of Truth

The mind-reading ability strips away Adachi’s protective mechanisms. Despite his instinct to bury both the information and the complication it creates, his magical gift repeatedly forces him into proximity with Kurosawa. The ability becomes catalyst for honesty rather than method of evasion.

The Japanese live-action adaptation maintains strongest fidelity to the source material and character nuance, though the drama received remakes in Thai and other languages. This suggests that Adachi’s specific presentation—his overthinking, his discomfort, his particular flavor of anxiety—depends on cultural and performance specificity rather than universal storytelling framework.

Healing Through Circumstance and Connection

See Your Love, a Taiwanese BL, mirrors Connecting to You’s emotional tone and pacing while avoiding direct narrative overlap. The story introduces Zi Xiang (Raiden Lin), a wealthy heir returning to Taiwan. Immediate conflict arrives in the form of a street fight, during which his assistant Feng Jie typically functions as both bodyguard and support.

This time, a passerby named Shao Peng (Jin Yun) intervenes instead. The meeting appears inconsequential, a moment between strangers that should dissolve into forgotten history.

Zi Xiang’s ruthlessness surfaces in their second encounter. He learns that Shao Peng is hearing impaired—a detail he weaponizes. Conscious that enemies pursue him and that his assistant already poses information risk, Zi Xiang recognizes an opportunity: a hearing-impaired caretaker cannot overhear corporate secrets. Playing up his injuries from the fight, he manipulates Shao Peng into becoming his live-in aide.

This calculated premise softens over time into genuine affection. The show’s thematic core emphasizes accepting others and loving oneself despite initial selfish motivation. Unlike Connecting to You’s magic-centered framework, See Your Love locates its emotional power in human vulnerability and the possibility of redemption through authentic connection.

The pacing and feel-good energy mirror Connecting to You without replicating its supernatural elements, offering familiar emotional satisfaction through different narrative machinery.

Identity, Secrecy, and Small-Town Dynamics

Wishing Upon the Shooting Stars, another Taiwanese BL, constructs its drama around identity transformation and the secrets only certain people share. He Xiang Yong (Jed Chung) returns to his coastal hometown after failing at city life. He faces ridicule from his father, who runs the family inn, and disconnection from his community.

During a night of stargazing with best friend Wan Zhe (Yu Chieh En), Xiang Yong expresses a desperate wish: to disappear, to become someone unrecognizable, to shed his failed identity entirely.

The impossible becomes reality. No one except Wan Zhe recognizes Xiang Yong despite his physical appearance remaining unchanged. Everyone else—including his own father—sees him as a complete stranger. Xiang Yong and Wan Zhe exploit this magical loophole to construct an entirely new identity for him, securing employment at the inn under an assumed name.

The tension escalates when Hao Wei (Chu Meng Hsuan), Xiang Yong’s former romantic interest, joins the inn staff. Hao Wei becomes attracted to this mysterious stranger, noticing uncanny similarities to the man he once loved. The show creates dramatic irony through this double-blind: Hao Wei senses something familiar in a face he should not recognize, while viewers and Wan Zhe alone hold the secret of Xiang Yong’s true identity.

Best Friends and Shared Secrets

Wishing Upon the Shooting Stars mirrors the dynamic between Chia Kai and Chao Nan from Connecting to You—two characters whose bond forms the emotional anchor of the narrative. Xiang Yong and Wan Zhe share this same intimate closeness, alongside similar underrated humor that surfaces unexpectedly among the deeper emotional beats.

By inviting viewers into a secret that even Xiang Yong’s biological father cannot penetrate, the show creates complicity between audience and protagonist. The structure rewards close attention while emphasizing the unique position of the best friend—the one person who knows the truth when everyone else remains deceived.