Smells Like Green Spirit

Raw, devastating, brutal coming of age stories. Focus lies on several (queer) high school students who have to deal with (extreme) school bullying, homophobia, having to hide their identity and struggling to open up to others, and even S/A. Theres kind of a romance between two characters and some solidarity/friendship building but dont expect happy endings for all.

Both have characters who are exploring their identities, looking at feelings and attitudes - including outside pressures relating to cross-dressing, gender identity, and teenagers with same-sex crushes, and both have aspects of bullying.

Queer teenagers navigating life/coming of age,
dealing with crushes, romance but also violence and rejecting
mostly calm vibe

**Spoiler Alert***

Both star actor Araki Towa in a drama that includes him being lusted after by his teacher. Smells Like Green Spirit is BL while Shounen no Abyss is not.

Cross-dressing and society making life difficult

Both stories take a look at the difficulties a cross-dressing individual faces in modern society.

Both depicts the life of LGBTQ individuals but in different generations and period of life. I genuinely like both and I can't pick which one is better but dang 2024 had good representation in Jdrama and Kdrama and I think these two are strong candidates.

Both are darker high school/coming of age stories
- male lead is gay and severely bullied because of it
- theres also a couple more lgbtq+ characters
- several characters hide specific secrets
- some are very possessive and obsessed, mentally unstable, one in particular is incredibly infatuated with the main lead and engages in criminal behaviour

Both shows are quirky and hilarious. Smells Like Green Spirit has more serious elements to the plot though.

Both are Japanese dramas that deal with serious subjects like bullying yet have extremely quirky and funny sides to them.

Fujimoto Kodai is the main lead in both japanese bls, but while one is fluffy, other one has more complicated (?) theme