Lookism

This is the first time EVER that I couldn't put a"book" down while reading. I got addicted to this manhwa pretty quick. Started reading it without knowing anything except for the description.

Story: 10/10. The story progression is well-paced. It is not too fast nor too slow. Whether or not it is realistic is for you to decide. Something supernatural happens in this story (as you can see from the genre tags), so I do not think it would be fair to expect too much realism in something such as this. However, on the side of school and bullying, I do have to say that it does a good job in portraying the harshness of it all and the things it can do to a person.

Art: 9/10. Pretty great art. I was not used to the art style at first, but it's not bad in the least. The only problem I have is that some characters (mostly secondary ones) are drawn similarly to others, which can be confusing if you don't pay attention.

Character: 10/10. All the characters play a role in the story. There are a ton of characters, but I found myself caring for all of them a lot, even the ones you are supposed to hate, as they are memorable. In a story, the best thing for me is how a character learns and develops as the story progresses. I believe Lookism really does a good job in making the characters alive in this way.

Enjoyment: 10/10. As I've already said, this is the first time I felt like I never wanted to put the "book" down.

If you ever wanna give this manhwa a shot, please read it through Line Webtoons in order to support the creators. Reading from the site is free, so there is really nothing to lose.

This is my first review, so I decided to do it for my favorite manhwa.

Summary of my review:
The story evolved around a guy named Daniel Park. He got blessed to have 2 bodies, which each bodies have a very separate trait. One is typical coolest handsome guy with OP moves and other body is fat lame guy who always got bullied. Daniel's adventure start in his high school after he moved from different school cause kept getting bullied, he meet different kinds of people and friends. The story focused on moral issue towards looks of people so much, then adding some "Crow" gang fights that when you keep reading it's just getting more interesting.


Story - 7
I am a person who likes the shonen gangster fights. It starts slow cause it's school theme-wise but after a while, the plot starts to deepen, and that's how things started making a lot of sense, and soon I wasn't expecting some interesting plot twists between the fights, the more you read the more you curious what will happened and the most interesting mystery until now is how come Daniel got his second body?

Art - 9
It's the normal manhwa art. Full colored etc. It's really nothing special, but the way the author created the character design (clothes, eyes etc) was amazing. It truly fit the character's personalities. And some fights truly have amazing effects in it, it just look like I can feel the fights just by reading it.

Character - 9
Characters were beautifully designed and drawn, as stated above. I really love all of them (so far) except for some villains (some betrayal happened and some protagonist friend switched side and became villains). The characters I thought I'd hate, I began to love. And the characters I thought had potential, I began to hate. Names are a tiny bit difficult to remember but it gets easier as you go on.

Enjoyment - 8
Let's just say I read all 290 chapters non-stop. It was a binge fest.
I regret it now though because I realised that there's a whole whopping 40 CHAPTERS NOT TRANSLATED I BEG Of YOU, TRANSLATORS, PLEASE, I NEED MORE.

This manhwa made me intrigued so much. I keep thinking like: "How?" "How" and "How?"
All in all, it was a blast. And the fights also epic.

Overall- 8
I highly recommend this manhwa.
THIS MAY BE A NEW CROWS KOREAN VERSION
The story is just keep getting better.

Lookism is a manhwa about an overweight, short, ugly, poor, fragile, very unfortunate kid named Daniel who one day mysteriously gains control over a seperate, super powerful, supermodel-esque body. What starts off as a very simple premise turns into a story full of lovable characters and crazy turns that separates it from the other pieces of literature I've read.

The best part of the manhwa is definitely the characters. Daniel is a great character that is surrounded by even better ones, mainly my personal two favorite, Vasco and Jay. The way these characters are explored and developed is done masterfully and leaves you smiling from chapter to chapter. The worst part about Lookism has to be the somewhat generic art, it's nothing flashy, but it serves it's purpose. It starts off a tad shit but over the 200+ chapters it becomes a lot more polished. That being said, objectively, the fairest score I can give the art is a 7, especially when comparing it to other pieces of work.

Lookism is great. It's not flawless, but it plays to it's strengths so well that it often times makes the flaws almost completely ignorable . It's phenomenal characters and story direction make it stand out amongst it's peers. It's very rare that I'm attached to a story as much as I was with this. Park Tae-Joon does a stellar job. It's good shit and holds a special place in my heart, 9/10.

The story is about a poor overweight high school guy that gets bullied and judged almost every single time he sees someone. He wants things to change, and much to his delight, he wakes up in a handsome and strong man's body, one day.

Story 4/10
I do not know what the story is supposed to be about at this point, it is so simplistic, unrealistic and lacks originality. In the beginning, you think you'd discover more about the mystery of the body swap, which is an overly used trope, but nope, it's just the main character, Hyung Suk, beating up bullies and protecting "ugly" people who remind him of his other body. He has a bunch of followers after him, because of his good looks and his strong punches and kicks, and yet there's always a bunch of idiotic characters that appear out of nowhere to stir some kind of unnecessary drama. Like, are you guys really high school students? They're really wild. And you never know what's happening to Hyung Suk's body in the end. He's just living the life, now that he's handsome and loved. The story seems mostly episodic: you'll have a few chapters about a certain character's unnecessary drama, and then Hyung Suk will beat the bullies with his new friends, or solve the problem with his "handsomeness" (he models at some point in the story). Though, the characters will sometimes have their own focus, and Hyung Suk will not appear or will be a side character, from time to time. The author seems to add a lot of comedy into his story, but honestly, I didn't laugh while reading the story. It's not my kind of comedy, or maybe it's truly bad.
You can tell me that the story gets better later on, but if it takes more than a hundred chapters for it to be "good", I'm not really interested.

Art 6/10
The "good-looking" characters look somewhat decent. The "ugly" ones are seriously... bad-looking, just like how it is in a lot of webtoons. I mean, was it really necessary to draw them THAT ugly? The art seems exaggerated when it comes to ugliness and some facial expressions. Like, when the characters get angry... They end up looking like the "unattractive" characters, which could sort of make sense, I suppose, since some characters that are good-looking have a rotten personality. Still, the art just isn't my type. The colors are nice and vibrant, though, it shows what kind of atmosphere the story should have, and it is somewhat appropriate for when the author tries to add some comic relief.

Characters 4/10
"What is going on with the characters...", is something I asked myself all the time while I was reading the webtoon. Their actions are so dumb and immature, and they don't make any sense, there's no real goal behind them. All the bullies look like they want to end up in jail with their violent tendencies, the "pretty" girls look like they just want to flirt with the "handsome" guys, and vice versa. The characters all seem like they have shallow personalities, and that they only care about good looks, clothes and money. If you're ugly, you are usually poor, and you don't deserve to live, is what this webtoon portrays, but then that's where Hyung Suk and a few persons come in. Of course, Hyung Suk is an exception, because he tries to fight bullies and he is, after all, initially an unattractive-looking person. He tries to help other people with their problems, but that's pretty much it... He's unable to grasp people's intentions and is so naive and optimistic, for someone who has been constantly bullied in the past. I mean, how can someone who wanted to die, be so carefree just because he got a nice new body? I'd be freaking out, not knowing if it's a short moment of happiness that's meant to destroy what little I have left of hope. I'd say, the only character that really matters in the story is his one and only true friend, the blonde dude... who has no eyes, because they're always hidden by his hair. He always helps Hyung Suk out and often shows acts of kindness without anyone noticing that he's doing so, aside from the readers. But the thing is, why is he so nice to Hyung Suk? And who is he, really? He doesn't even talk at all! The only thing we know is that he's super rich, and is probably handsome, from the way he looks. So in the end, none of the characters are really explored at all, we mostly see some drama between bullies and whatever, and then the case is somewhat resolved by beating them up. There's barely any character development: some side characters somewhat stop bullying and are kinder to "ugly" characters, and that's all there is to it. The main character doesn't even change or mature. He just lives his life innocently without even questioning what's going on around him, and he doesn't even seem to think much at all.

Enjoyment 5/10
The webtoon drags on and on, with its episodic chapters and its annoying characters. They really do get on your nerves. I ended up reading quite a lot of chapters, because I wanted to find out more about the body swap and the blonde friend, but I've reached my limit. The webtoon also has a bunch of random filler chapters, there was one about dogs... Anyway, I believe it's really not worth anyone's time and I wonder why it has so many chapters, but some people seem to still appreciate it nonetheless, so really, it all depends on what kind of tastes and how much free time you have. It can sometimes be a little entertaining to read.
This webtoon seems so superficial and tries to make it look like it's about not judging people by their appearance, but I think it really fails at delivering the message, since it's just a bunch of immature students that think they're better than elders and everyone else.

Overall 5/10

(8/10) I came across this gem a few years ago and have been keeping up with it ever since. I really enjoyed the topic it explores, the characters, the art style, and especially the fight scenes. Although this is one of my favorite webtoons it doesn’t mean that it’s flawless. The plot became way too confusing. Too many characters are getting introduced left and right leaving the main cast behind. Even though their personalities and past are well developed, the lack of scenes with these certain characters makes them kinda useless. The pacing wasn’t entirely bad but it wasn’t good either. With new arcs not including the main character, Daniel, The story got boring and progressively worse. But in the end, this manhwa was still a really fun read. And i will surely continue to keep pace with this story and hopefully by the end i could bump up the score to a 10.

*MINOR SPOILER AHEAD*


(This is my first review I've ever written, so bear with me when my words aren't the most elaborate. I am open to suggestions and advice, so please feel free to criticize me in a constructive manner. Note that this was also slovenly written)

Reading the first 4 chapters of Lookism, I was elated to continue reading. The joy and satisfaction of a student being bullied excessively and judged for his ugly looks finally getting a good life was overwhelming. So overwhelming that I overlooked the minor problems it had. Alas, that opinion slowly degraded and in recent chapters I was utterly disappointed how it turned out. Here are a list of reasons why:

1.The sheer amount of prejudice from superficial assholes is gaudy and suffocating to read. Not in the way the author intended, but in a way where I'm starting to be sick of the manga.

2.The antagonists are facsimiles of the preceding ones. Superiority complex? Check. Good looks? Check. Allures women with their handsome looks? Check. Hates ugly people? Check. For fuck's sake, when is the author going to change the formula?

3) Oh how I detest the protagonist's current way of thinking. It is unbearably naive and quick to change. An opinion he once had is diverted by one simple occurrence. For example, when Daniel encounters a female student, who too shares the same ability to switch from one unappealing body to a gorgeous one, he dislikes her immediately after she delivers an insult to someone who well deserved such treatment. Before, he admired her kindness when she met him occasionally in convenience stores. Now, he hates her. Isn't that the same kind of attitude Zach gives to others? He throws insults at others, yet Daniel continues to converse and be friendly with him? What the hell?

4) Daniel vows to change and become like others, but is never shown making any sort of progress. After a repeating influx of flashbacks and heart-wrenching images of Daniel's mother working tirelessly are presented to us, and Daniel talks about whatever negative emotion he holds towards himself, Daniel seems completely forget what he's been crying over about. It's frustrating to read. This happens with every single encounter. It is a circular path of recognizing faults and neglecting to change.

5) My lord, the fight cannot be any more repetitive. Character encounters an antagonist who is stronger than them, overcomes them from reflecting on past experiences or by strong emotion. They hold no merit and It screams "BORING BORING BORING."

This Manhwa (korean comics) is amazing and i recommend everyone to check it out. (Im also gonna be using the English version of there names so it wont be as complicated)

Story: 9/10
The main character Daniel is basically this fat teen that nobody really likes. he was basically bullied most of his life and his mom is the only person that looks out for him. His family is poor so they live in a shabby house with low quality food. his mom is the only person that helped him in life but he said harsh things towards her, even tho shes his only ally in life. He transfers schools because of all the bullying. and on the first day of school he became this hunk of a guy, he was fit handsome and was so confused as to what was going on. then he realized he basically had 2 bodies. his normal body and this one. he gets good friends later and basically has a pretty good life. The story is sort of a drama, slice of life, romance, mystery, action sort of manhwa. the story slows down often but then it gets good again after slowing down so i give it a 9/10

Art: 10/10
Lets take into consideration that this manga is in FULL COLOR! that takes so much time and effort. the art itself is also so amazing its one of the more simpler but amazing art styles.

Characters: 9.5/10
The characters in this story are amazing but some of them seem a bit bland. take his mom for example she is an amazingly nice character, however daniel was often an asshole to her. later in the story daniel becomes a better person and so on. there is also alot of amazing characters in this manhwa.

Enjoyment:10/10
This manga is so enjoyable i recommend it to everyone. it gives u the feels, the laughs, and everything else u could ever want in a story.

Overall 9.6/10:
Thats basically it, so go check out this manhwa i guarantee you will love it (most likely).

https://discord.gg/UbsGXHN to join my animu discord xD

I almost didn't read this because the (extremely short) synopsis of the story really turned me off. "Oh great, a story about how an unattractive and unpopular guy magically turns into a hot guy and gets all of the girls and his life is great - what a great message....NOT". I am glad that I gave into the high reviews and gave the story a shot, though, because my initial impression could not have been any more wrong.

Instead of a wish-fulfillment story about someone whose life sucked but suddenly gets better because of a change in appearance, this manhwa is a story that explores in great depth the prejudice that people subconsciously have based on the appearance of others, as well as many of the unhealthy and misguided aspects of modern Korean society. The change in Daniel's appearance becomes a tool for the author to expose how the way we treat people is often influenced by their appearance (and, it explores how having an overly perfect appearance can *also* lead others to form a poor impression of someone).

The characters are great. There is a large, well-developed cast of secondary characters to support Daniel (and honestly, I liked some of the secondary characters even more than the main characters). These characters frequently get story arcs of their own, which allows to author to show their background and explains what their motives as and why they act the way they do. I liked some of these side stories more than others, but overall I really appreciated how well developed the characters were because of that. I see that some reviewers do not think that Daniel develops as a character, but I have to disagree. It does take a long time (this is a very long manhwa, after all), but he does slowly begin to change, especially as he is encouraged by seeing other people like Duke and Crystal overcoming obstacles despite being in the same situation as he originally was.

I will definitely say that the author often set up situations for the characters that were not entirely realistic. I mean, honestly, how many bad-a** mofo's can you have in one high school? This manhwa makes it seem like Korea is full of hot young guys who all have superb fighting abilities. That being said, the set-ups that the author created in the plot did not bother me - to me this story is almost more like a parable or a fable used by the author to make a point and explore the darker side of Korean society rather than a story that is meant to be realistic or purely for enjoyment. In addition to the overall themes of bullying and "lookism" (prejudice based on appearance), the author also uses the subplots and characters to delve into the issues of gambling, addition, overuse of social media, etc. The author clearly has a point to make, and does a good job at making the readers reflect on what their own personal bias may be.

As far as the art goes, I wouldn't say that it is....attractive.....but it has a very distinct, well-drawn style. I don't read a whole lot of shounen manga so it is different than what I am used to, but I did like it, and I felt like it was well-suited to the subject matter. If you are trying to expose the dark underbelly of society, you don't want everything to look all shiny and perfect, do you?

Park Hyung Suk(Daniel), overweight and unattractive, is bullied and abused on a daily basis. But a miracle is about to happen.

Story 10+/10
The story focuses on Daniel's adventures and the fact that he has two bodies, as we will see later we will also tell a lot about the other characters giving us the opportunity to know them from our point of view and not only that of the protagonist.They are treated themes that not all works have the courage to rappresent, a clear example are pedophilia, rape, obsession, stalking and even religious themes.The bullisma is not romanticized and we see that each of the previous points expressed are touched with all their completeness without fear of nothing. Proceed the plot begins to divide into arcs where the author allows us to better organize the plot and to be able to divide it, always inserting some mention or advance here and the next arch. Entered moments are not forced and I spontaneous laughter escaped, there are not the classic scenes ecchi or the falls that are shown as something tender, the comedy is genuine and well inserted. usion the plot starts with a very simple and at the same time innovative concept that introduces us to live and follow a plot that will make the reader more and more cautious.

Art 9.9/10

The art of the author is precious and delicate, colorful and transmits perfectly every expression and feeling that the characters feel, changes according to the situation, in fact we move from a cheerful and colorful to a gloomy in dramatic moments by immersing the reader more and more in the moment.Who criticize the design style of the author that show his draw.The designen of characters is great, I found REALISTS, NOT EVERYONE ARE KIRINO OR MODELS,Like in other stories where the characters are all beautiful. So sincerely who is accustomed to a story where everyone they are so beautiful like Leonardio di Caprio and the women are a big boobies ,fall to their feet and go back to read those shitty harem without any sense because this story is not for them.The bodies are proportionate and completely realistic there and if we think there could be people like that.Some moments but I found the faces a little disproportionate but I'm kind of 2 throughout the story and the first time you do not even notice, but ins and style is almost PERFECT.

Characters 10/10
Well done, constant and not repetitive development. The story itself makes you love every character, suffer, cry, laugh, rejoice for them, there are no characters passive or lifeless, everyone has well-defined characteristics.There are characters for all types and tastes, each with a story to tell, with merits and defects that make them HUMAN. Some of them will hit the reader and many times, in my case, they will make at least one tear, while in other cases to cry for the impotence and to the thought that someone in the world could spend a moment like this. Everybody shows you their point of view to things and perfectly represents today's society in Korea but many affinities we can find them also in ours. and their intrusion puts us in front of a conflict of world view, just to give you an example, a character that I did not like has had such a nice development that now I adore it. It is also necessary to dwell on what are the drawings, all they have a precise design that allows us not to be confused and to identify them immediately.

Development 10/10

Well-executed, constant and non-repetitive development, it plunges you more and more into the plot and slowly introduces the reader into what is the world of lookism, not only the plot has an excellent development, the characters each one presents a CRAZY development, which is more some less depending on who is more important in that part of the saga, but in the end all show their own evolution, a goal to follow an objective and dream to be realized.there are unpredictable twists that take the reader by surprise to such an extent as to keep him completely enchanted.

Enjoyment 10/10
The weebtoon shows us certain parts or pauses to the development to deepen the characters and I found this choice, unexpectedly effective. There are chapters very funny and interesting, the pace is always constant and I really enjoyed those break chapters.Each chapter made me be willing to continue reading, just know that I read 100 and pass cracks in one night.The superficiality of which some speak sincerely do not see it, indeed I think that some comments are, have not even finished reading all the chapters and give a hasty opinion jumping parts of the story that deserve to be enjoyed.In conclusion read this work is pleasant and additive, mnon all the stories have managed to break the cliche and have had the courage to convey the message of lookism that is a set you many good ideals. This story made me laugh, emotion, cry, etc. , the author has created a work so alive that now I am completely in love with it.
I recommend this story to all those who do not fear reading a story that re-read REALITY, and is suitable for all ages.
Having said all this, I would have never thought to say this, but it is the first time in my life that I give a similar score, and it is because this work deserves that and much more.

final vote: 10

most of these reviews say lookism is generic and just full of moments where daniel fights people and helps the weak. but daniel himself is still weak minded. no matter what, daniel's mind will always go back to those days and he'll always feel terrible over what his mother did for him.

not to mention the addition of crystal's father, big 4 crew and james lee opened so many more doors in the story. most of these bad reviews are from before the chapters where the most exciting part of the whole series is introduced.

if i were you, i'd definitely read lookism. a really good story to read on your free time.