Dramas like
Weak Hero Class 1

The obvious pairing in both directions, and the correct one. School violence written as a lifelong injury, and a protagonist who answers it with a plan rather than with feelings. Same cold competence, same refusal to let the perpetrators be misunderstood teenagers. Difference: sixteen episodes of adult revenge on a much wider board, and the satisfaction it offers is patient rather than immediate.

Hooks early Episode 2, once the board is set and you can see the shape of her plan.

Institutional violence at the same tight run time and with the same absence of comfort. Six episodes, a chain of command that protects the wrong people, and boys who become unrecognisable inside it. Difference: military rather than school, and the anger is aimed at policy rather than at individuals you can beat up.

Hooks early Episode 1. Six episodes, and the first deserter case establishes the entire pattern.

The school-violence drama closest to Weak Hero's actual plot: a sibling refuses the official story about a death and goes into the school to find out what happened. Twelve episodes, real stakes, no romance carrying the load. Difference: it is more mystery than fight show, and less controlled about its tone.

Hooks early Episode 1. The ruling she refuses to accept opens the show.

Park Ji-hoon again, doing the same quiet devastation in a university setting. Bullying, money, a mother who cannot see him, and no rescue arriving. Difference: no action whatsoever. Twelve episodes of damage with not a single fight to release it.

Hooks early Episode 2, once the three of them are stuck working together and the masks start slipping.

For the escalating dread and the thesis that a decent person can be turned into something else. A cheap boarding house, tenants who keep knocking, and ten episodes of somebody's decency being worn down. Difference: this is horror, and it goes far darker than anything Weak Hero attempts.

Hooks early Episode 2, once the other tenants start knocking on his door.

If what you want is the choreography and the friendship with the despair removed. Two boxers against a loan shark, eight episodes, and two men who would take a beating for each other without discussing it. Difference: it is an action crowd-pleaser. Nobody is permanently damaged and the villain loses.

Hooks early Episode 1. The boxing gym and the loan-shark hook are both done inside one episode.

The upgrade if the part that stayed with you was the moral cost rather than the violence. Two men, one town, sixteen slow episodes, and a friendship that is also an investigation. Difference: no action, no youth, and it asks for four hours of patience before it pays anything.

Slow start Episode 3, the point at which you stop trusting both leads at once.