Dramatic essays

Similar across media

Same mood, other forms — books, series, anime, games and beyond.

Series

An inspector from the Educational Rights Protection Bureau (ERPB) who is authorized by the government to use physical intervention and unconventional methods to discipline delinquent students and reform the educational system.

4.7

Teach You a Lesson

2026

Film

Imprisoned in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden. During his long stretch in prison, Dufresne comes to be admired by the other inmates -- including an older prisoner named Red -- for his integrity and unquenchable sense of hope.

4.4

The Shawshank Redemption

1994

Game

Role-playing (RPG) · Hack and slash/Beat 'em up

4.7

Hades

2020

Anime

After last season’s revelations, the Soma family moves forward, but the emotional chains that bind them are not easily broken. Unable to admit why she wants the cure, Tohru wrestles with the truth, aware that time is running out for someone close. And a secret still lurks that could break another’s heart. But hope is not lost—a clue to the curse is found. Could their imprisonment’s end be near? (Source: Funimation) Note: This season premiered on Funimation and AnimeLab on March 20, 2021. The Japanese broadcast started two weeks later on April 6, 2021.

Comedy · Drama

4.5

Fruits Basket The Final Season

2021 · 13 eps

Manga

Xin is a war orphan in a poor village in the kingdom of Qin. He has big dreams of becoming a great general, and when his best friend’s life is cut short by political machinations, Xin sets off to find a deposed ruler and help restore his place on the throne, while working his way up through the ranks of the Qin kingdom’s army to do what no one has ever done before—unify China. (Source: VIZ Media)

Action · Drama

4.5

Kingdom

Yasuhisa Hara

2006

Series

Rip Wheeler and Beth Dutton gamble everything on a new life in South Texas, but the promise of building a future far from the ghosts of Yellowstone quickly collides with brutal new realities and a rival ranch that will stop at nothing to protect its empire.

4.6

Dutton Ranch

2026

Film

The story of Michael Jackson, one of the most influential artists the world has ever known, and his life beyond the music. His journey from the discovery of his extraordinary talent as the lead of the Jackson Five, to the visionary artist whose creative ambition fueled a relentless pursuit to become the biggest entertainer in the world, highlighting both his life off-stage and some of the most iconic performances from his early solo career.

4.3

Michael

2026

Game

Puzzle · Role-playing (RPG)

4.8

Undertale

2015

Anime

Self-proclaimed mad scientist Okabe Rintarou lives in a small room in Akihabara, where he invents "future gadgets" with fellow lab members Shiina Mayuri, his air-headed childhood friend, and Hashida Itaru, an otaku hacker. The three pass the time by tinkering with their latest creation, a "Phone Microwave" that can be controlled through text messages. The lab members soon face a string of mysterious incidents that lead to a game-changing discovery: the Phone Microwave can send emails to the past and thus alter history. Adapted from the critically acclaimed visual novel by 5pb. and Nitroplus, Steins;Gate takes Okabe to the depths of scientific theory and human despair as he faces the dire consequences of changing the past.

Drama · Psychological

4.5

Steins;Gate

2011 · 24 eps

Manga

Shouyou Hinata is out to prove that in volleyball you don’t need to be tall to fly! After losing his first and last volleyball match against Tobio Kageyama, “the King of the Court,” Shouyou Hinata swears to become his rival after graduating middle school. But what happens when the guy he wants to defeat ends up being his teammate?! (Source: VIZ Media) Notes: - Winner of the 61st Shogakukan Manga Award in the Shounen Category in 2017. - Includes two extra chapters.

Comedy · Drama

4.5

Haikyu!!

Haruichi Furudate

2012 · 404 ch

Series

Walter White, a New Mexico chemistry teacher, is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of only two years left to live. He becomes filled with a sense of fearlessness and an unrelenting desire to secure his family's financial future at any cost as he enters the dangerous world of drugs and crime.

4.5

Breaking Bad

2008

Film

Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.