Cherry Magic Thailand (2023)

Simply magical

Warning: a tl;dr review, I can't help myself.

This is officially my favourite BL series now, not only because of the story, but because the pairing of Achi and Karan worked for me and I have to praise TayNew for their excellent portrayal of these characters. They have ascended to my favourite pairing in a BL series and I hope this won't be the last time we'll see them together. They have insane chemistry and feel very natural and comfortable in their interactions with each other. Their kissing and intimacy scenes have improved considerably since Dark Blue Kiss and I've lost count how many times I've rewatched this kiss in episode 9.

This is a story about Achi's development from someone who had little to no respect for himself and used to put Karan, whom he considered perfect in any way, on a pedestal somewhere far, far away from his own imperfect self, to someone who actually planned to propose to the aforementioned perfect guy and fell on his knees in front of him to do that. It was quite a journey.

I'll speak more of Achi because Karan pretty much remained the same person in the entire series - nice, loving, patient, adoring, respectful and absolutely madly in love with Achi, the person who showed understanding, encouraged and comforted him the right way without even realising it when he had a breakdown many years ago. When it counted, when he needed him, Achi was there for him. There are several reasons why episode 6, together with episode 11, was the highlight of the series, and one of them is that we finally got a more nuanced insight into Karan's character. I was also very grateful for episode 12, because with the introduction of Karan's parents I finally got two of my questions about him answered - why he seemed to be the only one to think that Achi would have a problem dating him because he's a man, and why, before Achi started hearing his thoughts and finally started seeing him as a potential love interest, he'd waited so long without at least trying to ask Achi out. It didn't make any sense to me that a man who was so deeply and passionately in love would be happy with watching his crush from afar for years without doing anything about it. His family and Achi's total obliviousness taken together was what kept him away.

I consider portraying Achi and his journey believably the bigger challenge, because he started pretty low. His self-esteem was non-existant, and sadly everyone around him, even Karan, seemed to emphasize this - his neighbour and his mother call him clumsy and are constantly worried about him, his best friend is in the same boat as him, with just a little more dramatic personality, and he has been watching Karan win awards, buy cars, etc. for years, admiring him for being handsome, successful, smart and therefore feeling small and insignificant himself. Yes, it was completely believable and understandable he would be totallly in shock when he realised how much Karan liked him, and it would take him a while to get used to it and accept it in order to allow their relationship to progress. The pacing was exactly right and I loved how they showed these little moments between the two in the first three episodes and how Achi's feelings slowly started to change until he caught feelings himself in episode 4. This episode was and remains one of my favourites with my probably favourite scene between them prior to the kiss - the looks and happy and open smiles they gave to each other the moment Karan smeared that white substance on Achi's cheeks. No wonder Pai screamed when she saw them, I probably would, too. Such a wholesome moment, I still habe goosebumps.

I know many complained about episode 7, but I disagree, it was exactly as good as the previous ones and also a very important one, because it was the beginning of them learning to speak openly to each other and communicate in order for their relationship to work, something that was explored further in episodes 9 and 10 and it culminated in episode 11 with their first time and episode 12 with the wedding. I think the problem with episode 7 was solely that it came after the excellent episode 6 with Karan's character finally getting explored (and let's be honest, Tay killed it, he was so good) and with the confession scene, which made me tear up a little.

Episode 8 was the only episode I indeed thought was not as good as the others, mostly because it made the boss extremely unlikable and I had problems with him the rest of the series.

To sum it up, Achi's journey and the KaranAchi relationship, after it happened, were written very well and delevoped gradually and at the right pace for a 30-year-old virgin with a low esteem who suddently found himself dating the perfect guy. I've seen some comments doubting Achi's feelings for Karan, but his feelings were obvious from episode 4 forwards and they deepened further when Achi allowed himself the chance to get to know Karan better. He isn't as expressive in vocalizing his feelings like Karan is, true, but let's be honest, few people are like Karan. Achi is a more subdued character by nature, but it doesn't mean he loves Karan less.

I didn't care much about the secondary couples, because KaranAchi overshadowed everything with their love and chemistry to me, but still, at least I liked the Jinta and Min couple, they were sweet and again, well-written and I bought they were into each other. I can't say the same for Pai and Rock. They were good characters separately, but not as a couple IMO. I also, unlike with Min and Jinta, never got the vibe that Pai was into Rock like that.

Thank you so much, production team, actors and casting directors, for making me feel happy and smily and cosy every Saturday for three months. I absolutely adored this. Karan and Achi's love story taught me about personal growth and made me remember how much kindness, loving and learning to trust yourself and respect matter.

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