OK, for the last year or two, I've seen a few anime set in high school with kids who're dealing with trauma from middle school, and one with a high schooler helping protect a middle-school family member from such trauma.
In most, it's made clear that middle schoolers (in the stories if not always IRL) are among the worst crowds; they're old enough to care about things and pay attention to things a little more than grade schoolers, but they're still kids and jump to conclusions or make assumptions and take things as fact more quickly. All this is still quite true in high school, but in anime/manga at least it's often far worse in middle school.
While I've seen plenty of trauma carried over from middle school, I don't believe I've seen much in the way of real drama set in one, with romance and drama and the good and the bad set in this period that's portrayed as having so much potential impact. So, are there any good examples of romances or dramas set in middle school that really deal with major issues or revealed deviations? The only middle-school drama I can think of off the top of my head is Mizuiro Jidai, and I don't know if that ever deals with major events, the sort that's not just a part of growing up but rather something that changes a person's life or turns everyone's image of them upside-down.