In the midst of rave reviews, I want to put out my own review here just for those who may be feeling how I'm feeling right now should they watch this show. If you fall into what feels like an isolated alien corner with this show, hello, I am here too.

I really, really wanted to like this and perhaps I'm most angry with myself for not understanding the hype. This show felt like I had put my brain through a vice. It was a class in all the tropes, I now know that I really hate.

The most obvious case being the school bullying, which can be very triggering for those who were physically bullied at school. But hopefully you are self aware enough of your triggers to know that before clicking play. I am, and still hated the bullies. I don't want to see them redeemed. I don't care about them.

But with that said, I was bored silly. This is basically a gang war with delinquent kids, which makes the immersion a little difficult, if real minors acted like this, they would be in a detention centres.
These are the 'hopeless case' kids that make everyone abandon them because they are so insufferable in the name of being tough and cool. They are headed for a gang and jail later in life. So the idea is for us as the viewer to find some sort of compassion in our dried up hearts for these kids and their circumstances. One group has taken in the autistic kid. Yes, and? Why are they still assholes to everyone else? They walked into the classroom ready to hate because of the whole campuses are at war for 16 years. *sigh* That kind of logic does exist in reality and perhaps it's why seeing it here just wore down my attention. Everyone living in a bubble counting the scores.

The male teacher was a student there so he knows how to handle the class (and probably the guy who started the war in the first place) but his teaching logic is basically, you just need to pass the exam, don't worry about the subject, which defeats the point of being a teacher. That's not a successful student to me. He's a product of his schooling. You don't need to learn, just win, which is what the principal is doing to her own son. Put him into the troubled youth class so he'll naturally be the top. No effort needed. Forget about how violent and abusive these students are. And they wonder why the school is a school for thugs?

I also had a math teacher like this. If it wasn't on the exam, dont worry about it. No wonder I failed my math 3 times because i didn't learn anything. I was taught how to answer questions. That's not teaching and is another personal irk for me as a viewer.

You'll probably hate every character except Mark's because he's the sweet one, he's just loyal to Shin. I loved Only Friends, so toxic characters aren't really the trigger here. I just couldn't find it in me to care about these ones. Again, maybe because they're school kids, and I just see my own bullies, I dont know.

When the real Tsunami is finally revealed, he conveniently destroys all the minions single handedly until the top dog with crazy eyes starts fighting. So of course, he's more of a challenge. Not to mention mom slapping Tsunami across the face after he saved her, her daughter and her son's life from this gang. If he had chosen to stay away as you insisted lady, you would have dead children right now. So there's another irk. The non sensical parent trope.

The three bullies who are starting everything, are scared to have their parents find out about their bullying but they want to join a drug gang? They kidnapped and beat the crap out of their class mate and are in school the next day like nothing happened. The adults are very conveniently placed in this show. They are there when the plot needs them to be. They care when only when it drives the plot.

And finally, the bromance. I like a bromance. This isn't a BL and personally, don't even see the gay happening and I dont care enough to keep watching to wait for it.
I see an angry young lout who opened up to his friend once and was physically beaten by him at some point and now won't forgive him. That seems pretty fair to me. What broke my interest was the chase. It was the old follow and force myself into his space until he eventually forgives me. This annoys me in a romantic sense, so it's good to know that it works platonically too lol
I don't see loving stares either. I see anger, hate and desperation.

I only made it episode 5 before I decided I just cant do it. This is really not for me. I can suspend belief for those heroic uplifting moments but I feel like this show was asking me to do that quite a lot and I don't enjoy that.