Asian Dramas Like Merlin

Prince Bojji is deaf, tiny, and considered the weakest prince in a world that ranks kingdoms by military strength. When he befriends Kage, a shadow creature and the sole survivor o…

Like Merlin, it leans hard into coming of age. At its core, it's about a friendship that becomes the emotional anchor of everything else. The pacing is genuinely warm without tipping into saccharine.

Bi Zhi owns an antique shop and comes from the future. Su Beilu is a present-day veterinarian who stumbles into his world completely by accident. Together they travel through time …

Like Merlin, it leans hard into bromance. At its core, it's about a friendship that becomes the emotional anchor of everything else. Same adventurous and dramatic energy throughout.

Netflix's live-action adaptation of the world's best-selling manga. Monkey D. Luffy, a rubber-bodied optimist, assembles a pirate crew to find the legendary treasure One Piece. Wha…

Both are built around a friendship that becomes the emotional anchor of everything else. Same adventurous energy throughout.

Monkey D. Luffy wants to become King of the Pirates. It sounds absurd — and it is, gloriously so. Across over a thousand episodes, One Piece builds a world of unmatched scope: isla…

Both are built around a friendship that becomes the emotional anchor of everything else. Same adventurous energy throughout.

In the ancient land of Arth, warring tribes, prophesied heroes, and political power struggles play out on an epic scale. Eun-seom, born under a cursed star, rises from slavery to l…

Like Merlin, it leans hard into chosen one. The emotional territory — destiny and sacrifice — is the same. Same adventurous and dramatic energy throughout.

Two brothers use forbidden alchemy to try to resurrect their dead mother. It goes catastrophically wrong — one loses his body entirely, the other loses limbs. Now they search for t…

Both are built around characters making devastating sacrifices for people they love — and the aftermath.

Shirayuki is an herbalist with rare red hair who refuses to become a prince's concubine and flees her country. She ends up in the neighboring kingdom of Clarines, where she meets P…

Both are built around loyalty tested until it breaks — or proves it won't. The pacing is genuinely warm without tipping into saccharine.

Gon Freecss, a 12-year-old who grew up on an island, takes the notoriously dangerous Hunter Exam to find his absent father. What starts as a shonen adventure about a boy with a big…

Both are built around a friendship that becomes the emotional anchor of everything else. Same adventurous energy throughout.

The demon king is dead. The hero's party won. The story is over — except for Frieren, an elf mage who lived a thousand years before the quest and will live a thousand more after. S…

Like Merlin, it leans hard into coming of age.

A young woman gains a watch that controls time and uses it to help others, but each use costs years of her own life.

Both are built around characters making devastating sacrifices for people they love — and the aftermath. The pacing is genuinely warm without tipping into saccharine.