Psychological School Dramas

Action: ★★★★★ Comedy: ★★★★☆ Psychological: ★★☆☆☆ Angst: ★☆☆☆☆
Tone: Gritty, emotionally charged, hopeful and action-heavy. Possibility of physical violence brings unease that's carefully balanced by the comedy, friendships and action. Not as dark as some other entires.

Study Group retains the charm of the webtoon with fleshed out characters and exaggerated action scenes. The male lead's school life does not only revolve around fighting, but also on academics. Portrays the systematic failure of the school where teachers do not care, other adults won't interfere and where students have to survive on their own. The school environment where the default is violence, where the weak is bullied and assumptions of no friendship, only alliances. In middle of that the male lead tries to carve different path along his friend group.

Action: ★★☆☆☆ Comedy: ★☆☆☆☆ Psychological: ★★★★★ Angst: ★★★☆☆
Tone: Opressive, merciless and humiliating. Relentless social bullying, psychological scheming and unyielding class hierachy where mind games are the reality.

Pyramid Game is set in all-girls high school with focus on the psychological side of the bullying: every student in the class is part of hierachy and their worth is determined by a rank they get from the voting. It is gripping look of rigid hierachy, mind games, social bullying and abuse of power. The female lead is set up for a failure due to being a new transfer student in the class. Her low ranking results in being socially isolated, humiliated, spread rumors about and her worth being undermined.

Action: ★★★★☆ Comedy: ★★★★☆ Psychological: ★★☆☆☆ Angst: ★★★★☆
Tone: Humiliating, brutal, hopeless and intense. How low social standing and bullying affects a person in the long run. It has it's moments of comedy, but it doesn't really lighten the tone, only brings focus on the feeling of hopelessness.

Boyhood presents heart-breaking and rurthless view on effetcs of bullying and low social standing. The male lead is timid, awkward and insecure person who tries to escape the bullying and get friends. His plans and actions brings surprising comedy, but it doesn't lighten the atmosphere, only emphasizes the male lead's desperation to not be at the bottom of the school social hierachy. He is broken to pieces by the violence and he is meagerly trying to tape himself together so he can get resemble of strength, peace and survive the ordeal.

Action: ★★★☆☆ Comedy: ★☆☆☆☆ Psychological: ★★★★★ Angst: ★★★☆☆
Tone:  Violent, grim, tense and doubtful. Desperately tying to survive being alive, while trying to unravel the issues within the class.

Night Has Come blends the horror of trying to survive alive and unraveling the psychological issues of the class together. While there's some typical action scenes, the most notable is the psychological aspect. Where classmates use different ways to survive: be it friendship, intimidation, cunningness, charm or manipulation. It's between life and death to get people to your side, to trust you to form alliances or to get betrayed. All the while the old and hidden issues of the class unravels in the fear of the death: including the class structure and old traumas.