TRUE BEAUTY

I actually really liked True Beauty in the very beginning. Jugyeong was an interesting character, and I really related to her as someone who also wears makeup whenever they go out because of low self-esteem. I also loved her little obsession with horror and gore and found her to be quite cute.

We have two male leads, Suho and Seojun, and they aren't completely boring.
I liked how they had distinctively different personalities, and I enjoyed that they also had a long history with each other instead of being two random dudes that have inexplicably fallen for our MC.

You think one guy is endgame the whole time but then you find out that this manhwa suffers from "Second Lead Syndrome" and I really didn't mind it. It didn't destroy the story for me because at the end of the day, the point of True Beauty was Jugyeong and how she uses makeup to present herself as "beautiful", and the constant fear that she'll one day get discovered as a catfish and have her whole life blow up in her face or something dramatic. And then maybe she'll learn from this experience that the "true beauty" was inside herself the whole time, or something cliche like that.

Or at least it WAS.

As the story progressed I stared to realize that Jugyeong has had little to no character development. She's shallow and a hypocrite, constantly berating other people for "catfishing" when she's literally doing the EXACT same thing, and we the audience are made to feel like we're supposed to side with her. The author has almost completely dropped her "real personality", being that she loves horror and is a huge nerd, and all we ever see is her shallow personality and "pretty" face. The story is all about her boyfriend and relationship anxieties.

All of the promises that were made in the beginning of the story were never followed through on. It almost feels like the real Jugyeong doesn't exist anymore. All the anxieties she had in the beginning about being caught are gone. There's no personal struggle as to how she sees herself vs how the world sees her. She's just a superficial, bland insta baddie now and that's it. IDK how our male leads see anything in her considering that, comparatively speaking, they've had more character development than she has.

I guess she's supposed to be nice? I mean, she helped two different characters overcome their own low self esteem by giving them a makeover and covering all their facial imperfections with concealer. Personally I don't really like the message that sends but whatever I guess.

Also there's a bunch of side characters that you think are relevant in the beginning and then you never hear from them again. I guess the focus of the story shifted once the development for the kdrama began, and the author just switched gears out of nowhere to make True Beauty a more generic kdrama. (I haven't watched the kdrama yet, so hopefully they fix some of these issues with its adaptation).

All in all, True Beauty is still ongoing so I can only hope all of these issues will be fixed. However, the story is literally going nowhere and there is no end in sight. The bar is literally on the floor right now. Just one introspective thought from Jugyeong will actually amaze me, but my expectations are very low.

The art is still pretty and that's really the only saving grace.

Side note. I find it pretty weird that this manhwa is called True Beauty when Jugyeong's solution to everything is just covering up imperfections with makeup.

It was only a matter of time before Korean content start to appear on MAL as Chinese content have comfortably found their position on this site in recent times. The reason why I decided to search True Beauty on MAL is after reading the latest chapter. The webtoon continuously astound me after every chapter since the newer arcs and I just needed to talk about it with someone, something, a wall, anything!

I started read this around Chapter 40 when my friend urged me to read this cute webtoon. Few years later, needless to say my friend stopped reading this and moved on, as for me I’ve stopped being friends with them and haven’t moved on because they left me with the dumpster fire that I cannot look away from.

The beginning arc of the story starts in a high school, like a typical shoujo high school manga. The catchy point of True Beauty is that our main girl Jugyeong, she is considered “ugly” and had been bullied because of her looks, later, she learns how to do makeup and turns herself into a “goddess” and everyone suddenly loves her. This includes two very handsome boys, Seojun and Suho. Yes, you know it, it’s a love triangle. Reading the comments section on the app is absolutely eye-opening, nobody is talking about how shit the story has become but rather STILL debating whether they are team Suho or Seojun like it’s the 2000s Twilight team Edward or team Jacob fight.

Let me open the review up by saying how the English translation of the webtoon is misleading, the original Korean name directly translates to “Descent of a Goddess” and not “True Beauty”. To this point in the webtoon I have failed to see how it has lived up to the name. The reason the story gained a lot of popularity is the ability to resonate with its audience with the premise, the chances are most girls probably have experienced what Jugyeong have experienced with society’s obscene beauty standards. In the early days of the webtoon, everyone had hopes that as the story develops in a way that Jugyeong will gain confidence and discover her “true beauty” eventually! Except that did not happen and I’m pretty sure that was never intended to happen but rather the English translation gave it too much credit.

The development or the lack of is really disappointing, literally the same shitstorm happens every week and nothing has changed. Jugyeong was aspirational at the beginning trying to find herself and pursue things she’s interested in. After Suho fucked off to Japan, everyone’s lives just stopped and lived on a loop. Why did he not call/text/email/fax anyone is beyond me, he is also very rich, a flight from Japan to Korea is not that expensive, there is no valid reason why he cut out all of his friends in the modern era just because he moved to a new country. Before you have a go at me saying he has depression, let me start a new paragraph.

Missed opportunities to tackle societal problems:

Suho’s depression was never tackled, it was used as a gimmick to say he sad boi who found out a girl he liked was going out with his best friend and oh his dad was sick or something. None of it was explored, it was just brought up whenever it was convenient for the plot’s sake.

Briefly mentioned above about finding one’s true beauty, Jugyeong never come to terms with herself and she’s still just fucking about every day on Instagram living this superficial influencer life she has created for herself. What’s more hilarious, Jugyeong shows clear dislike at this guy who she went on a date with, the reason, right, you won’t believe this, because he looks different to his filtered pictures, how contradictory. With a story premise like this, it would have been great to talk about beauty standards, how it physically and mentally harms the public, in particular in Korea where the standards are ridiculous.

Tragic back story suicide gimmick. Suho and Seojun have a best friend called Seyeon who committed suicide as kpop idol who received immense amount of hate online. It was mentioned briefly in early chapters and then the details of it were brought back up in a later day. Yaongyi was underfired for bringing this back up during a time where a real kpop idol have committed suicide. Again, it was the perfect time to depict on the Korean entertainment industry, idol and fan culture etc…except it never happened, Seyeon was just a tool used to create feud between Suho and Seojun so they have a reason to be angry at each other about.

The most recent topic is Seojun becoming a kpop idol and how his relationship with Jugyeong will conflict with it. Kpop idols are famously not allowed to date because of this toxic culture of fans taking ownership of their idols, it’s a big issue in the current idol fan culture, not just in kpop, it’s also very prominent in jpop and cpop. Nope, nothing happened, they just broke up, boo hoo let’s move on so she can date the other guy.

Well you might be saying, aren’t you expecting too much from nothing? Sure, I described these topics as interesting points from my own perspective, I just think if Yaongyi have the balls to use some sensitive topics for clout, they should at least do it some justice.

General character problems:

Jugyeong – Judging other people’s looks even though she suffered the same, never learnt from the past, lost aspirations and is now wishy washy with her studies, she couldn’t get into the makeup school she wanted so god knows what she’s doing at university now where there’s more guys hitting on her. All she thinks about is love, her passion for special effects makeup have gone out of the window. She constantly gets drunk even though she knows she’s lightweight and then cause a bunch of trouble. (This would have been another perfect commentary on Korea’s drinking pressure)

Seojun – He’s been alright, probably the only character who have a goal right now, working hard to support his mother and sister. But the story paints him in a bad light ever since he started going out with Jugyeong, he’s insecure about money so he does many part-time jobs to buy gifts for her and do his best for her. Yet she never stood in his shoe and thought about him, all she wonders is why he don’t reply to her texts – arguably that’s communication problem on both parts. He becomes jealous and suspicious because Jugyeong got a little too close to Suho and didn’t tell him, especially when these two had romantic feelings for each other in the past, his emotions toward them are totally valid, what’s more Suho still have feelings for her. Basically, he looked after Suho’s girlfriend for three years in a nutshell.

Suho – He is actually a stale as a brick character, he has the bare minimum of personality, his whole personality breaks down to rich, unemployed and has too much time on his hands to centre his life around Jugyeong. He leaves for Japan and we literally never heard anything from him, he suddenly returns…for what? To participate in this shitty variety show and then hanging around to see if he can bump into Jugyeong hoping she’s single?? All these girls screaming about Suho is really looking by everything because he’s good looking. If you swap his gender to a girl, people will be calling him a sly third wheel bitch. He comes back knowing the other two are now happily together but continuously test the waters with Jugyeong, yeah she’s dense and he is too or? Not saying opposite genders can’t be friends, Suho clearly still have feelings for her, he hangs out with her, he stands up for her when she gets drunk RIGHT IN FRONT OF SEOJUN trying to I don’t know…one up him, come on! Wake up!

Bottom line:

I am not saying you can’t have cute romantic shoujo stories, but the webtoon have just gone bad and superficial, no development of characters, the same plot just keeps repeating, the characters are no longer likeable, the only thing left is the bling bling cover and nothing inside, there is no “true beauty” to be discovered, only a pretty ugly shell.

However, if comes a time when it gets good, I will come back to edit this and eat my own words, until then, annyeong!

well i have been reading this webtoon since the first time it is released on webtoon. Tbh, my first impression is great, i immediately add true beauty to my favorite webtoon list. I also think that this webtoon have a really high potential to be one of the best and definitely popular (since the art is a legend and the story is pretty good) AT THE BEGINNING. But something did happen, I DROPPED THIS WEBTOON. Tbh, the reason why i dropped is not because i was bored, it never bores me, it just feels too cheesy for me and that's why i dropped it. I dropped since there is a show called 'prince of prince' i guess. And tbh, before i dropped it i already don't like this webtoon for quite a time. So here, let me start the review

the reason why i give 4 for the story is because it just keep repeating itself in soooooo many chapters. The beginning is so good and the author has a really great idea about makeup and accepting ur true self. But, what will happenned if the MC already accept herself? how can the story goes on? this is what happenned in this webtoon. The story just go out of the main plot and it becomes more and more ridiculous. it starts when seojun already knows jugyeong face without makeup and after that point on, there are a lot of repeating scene, ESPECIALLY WHEN JUGYEONG CHAT WITH SEOJUN IN PHONE WHICH IS SO CHEESY. So, in short, after that point on the story only tells about makeup thing and keep freezing until the time when suho came.

for the art, u don't have to ask me. It is so great and for me, it is the best of all the manga, manhwa, and manhua i have ever read. And this is the only strong point for me which is really standout and i believe the art is the reason why this webtoon so popular

The character is great AT FIRST AGAIN. jugyeong is nice and funny at the beginning, but as the times goes, rather then development i can say that she's become more childish and getting degraded, and this thing also happen to seojun. I love seojun at first more than suho. But, since he and jugyeong going out, the author keeps making seojun looks like such a bad guy and that's why i don't like him anymore. For suho, i love his personality in the beginning and i think he degraded only a tiny. I still love him though. In short, what is lacking is character development

For the enjoyment, like what i said in the beginning, i still enjoy this webtoon because it is good tbh. It just cheesy sometimes and i enjoy it a lot more in the beginning. Like, when it first released, i love it so so much.

Overall, despite its popularity, i think this webtoon is so so good at the beginning. Idk how the author throws the story that this webtoon change from being sooooo good toooo soooo bad. I do believe that there are a lot of people out there that have the same feeling as me because i have confirmed it with my friends and they also agree.

Not to be disrespectful. I still love this webtoon overall, i just think with such an amazing art which i can't find anywhere else, this webtoon will be completed with a great story as well. That's why i hope the author will make a cooperation with other people who can make a great story, so that it can become a legendary webtoon

True beauty is honestly such a let-down. As a long time reader i'm super disappointed. True beauty started off as an amazing manhwa, it was interesting and kinda a new concept.

The art for true beauty isn't really anything to complain about, it can honestly be really pretty at times. The main complaint i have about True beauty is the repetitivity, as soon as the manhwa started gaining more and more fame it started going downhill. The creator pleased the boring newer fans instead of sticking with the original plot.

Love triangles are already annoying but i feel as though the creator has dragged this out, the same thing that happened with Lookism, another popular manhwa.

I started ready true beauty because of the interesting plot, romance, and the drama. Not a extremely repetitive story that reuses the same tropes over and over again.

I may be a little but harsh but i felt as though this manhwa needed some criticism.

What happened to this Webtoon?
It started with a good idea which could have been used to create various enjoyable plots.
I thought that the MC would have at least SOME character development. It starts with an insecure girl who is constantly made fun of for her looks, so she masters the art of makeup in order to make herself more "presentable." I really love Suho and how he (minor spoilers) loved her regardless of her looks. However, it started losing speed once the second love interest was introduced. Now I'm all for Seojun, however the way he was introduced into the story was very forced. Eventually, the series starts to look like a bad telenovela and I honestly can't remember anything that's happened for the past 100 chapters.
5/10, such a disappointment

It’s been a year or two since I started reading True Beauty on WEBTOON and quite a bit has happened since, both irl and in the manhua. Between school and being busy with my personal avocations I didn’t have much time to sit down and write a review here like how I planned to but finally I had enough of a break to gather my thoughts and pen them. I would like to leave a few disclaimers however, before I get started, and sort of give a quick rundown (and another even quicker one) of what this review will cover (the TL;DR for all you lazy shmucks).

I would like to address that all of the commentary written here is my own opinion. I am perfectly fine with people disagreeing with my sentiments, and fully expect it to some degree. However, I will not tolerate slander or any sort of degradation of myself on this site. This is meant to be a fun review/discussion not an attack on one’s preferences, beliefs, or viewpoints. If there is a problem, please message me directly and I will be more than happy to discuss and, if necessary, remedy the issue. Should the problem escalate beyond my capacity, I will make sure to take appropriate action as needed. Thank you for understanding.

Lastly, before I actually get into writing the review, because I know a lot of people don’t fancy reading long-ass essays like this, I have opted to provide a nice TL;DR below. But, fair warning, it’s not that short either tbh. If you REALLY don’t want to read a lot, then check the RTFL;DETAR (Really Too F*cking Long; Didn’t Even Think About Reading) further below.

TL;DR

Main Characters - Jugyeong (Female MC) is more than a bit too naive for this world and honestly pretty dumb. At times it’s annoying, other times really endearing. When she surprises you with her moments of empathy, they seem to really hit home and make her feel much more genuine and down-to-earth as a character. Suho (Male MC) starts off as the cold, “I’m better than everyone” character and he’s not that likable. Yes, he has a few moments with Jugyeong early on, but after looking back I realized overall, he was kind of an ass to her to start. As their relationship progresses up to midpoint, it, and he get much much better though. A lot more nuance to his character is shown and it helps build him as that typical tsundere character. Seojun (Second Male MC) is someone who tries to act cool and be a “bad boy” but he’s actually soft as shit and it makes for both great comedic and emotional parts of the manhua.

Overall, the story that drives this manhua isn’t anything special. Super stereotypical. I don’t need to read the rest of the manhua to know how it pans out. Even without reading the manhua you know exactly where this is going. Every high school cliche you can think of. It’s all there. Despite these overdone cliches and boring plotline, the writing itself is fair. I'm not really into romance kind of stuff, I admit it did take a bit to get used to the tone, but after I did, I found myself liking it. It’s worth the read imo. Definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I really like the characters. If anything, the best takeaway is that both male ones are likable.

RTFL;DETAR

Still better than My Deepest Secret (read if you haven't), which the genre is what I usually prefer to read/watch. You'll sure love True Beauty if you're into romance/drama type of stuff.

Character: 7

Character-wise I’ll be looking at primarily the three main characters, with short breakdowns of some ancillary ones in an “Other Characters” section. For each of the main leads, I’ll discuss what I liked and didn’t like about each, things I think could be improved, and any other commentary I might have. I will do my best to keep it as succinct as possible, but knowing how I write, my definition of succinct isn’t necessarily that short. Apologies in advance.

Jugyeong Lim (임주경) - Starting out, jugyeong has been ridiculed, bullied, reprimanded. Not even her own family defended or really in any way helped her, her brother just adds as one of her bullies. I get why they needed to pin her character as the unfortunate “loser-in-every-way”, but I think they could’ve gotten that point across much better than simply shoving it down our throats. Luckily it didn’t last long and I was able to move on from it quickly. Although I wish her make-up transformation would’ve taken a bit longer to complete, I understand that the artist probably wanted her to have as much of a 0-100 makeover as possible. Something I think they should do, if they aren’t already (we’ll see by the end of the manhua), is to show her skin gradually getting healthier or better over time naturally, it could serve as sort of a visual representation of her own growth and development as a person/character. Perhaps at the low point in the manhua. Personality-wise, I think her character is well-defined, albeit pretty cliche. Between her naive, child-like nature and generally awkward shyness, she ends up being about as much of a stereotypical female MC as you can get. She’s the girl-next-door who needs protection from the big bad world and only the most handsome guy (or guys in this case) can save her. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, but it’s not a really good thing either. Sure it works, but it’s nothing special.

Suho Lee (이수호) and Seojun Han (한서준) - These two might get a bit dicey because I’m going to do a good amount of comparing between Suho and Nam Do San from Start-Up (a K-Drama Series), as well as Seojun and Han Ji Pyeong. Bear with me as I go over as much as I can before I shoot myself for talking about the disappointment that was Start-Up again.
Right off the bat, I want to clarify why True Beauty does the double male lead approach better than Start-Up. Unlike the latter, True Beauty introduces the main lead first, and gives him a genuine connection with the female lead. True Beauty introduces the main lead first, and gives him a genuine connection with the female lead. While it’s debatable on who the better guy in terms of personality is for Jugyeong between Suho and Seojun, Suho at least was there when it all began. This is extremely important plot-wise for Suho because it makes it his game to lose. Meaning it was less of his job to win her over, and more so to keep her by his side. Seojun’s role is to pull and tug as much as possible in order to try and wrench her free. For the sake of the argument, I’m going to ignore the slightly misogynistic concept that Jugyeong has to belong to one of these two dudes (which in and of itself is a whole essay worth writing about), and focus just on how it plays out. With Suho, Jugyeong’s heart was his from the get go. On the contrary, Do San should have been in Seojun’s situation at the beginning, where he needed to win Dal Mi over, but by taking advantage of feelings that weren’t meant for him he essentially cheated his way to winning. Ji Pyeong’s inaction is to blame for part of this, yes, but remember that when he wanted to reveal the truth, Do San wouldn’t let him. In doing so, Do San gives us the first look at sort of an ugly selfish possessiveness trait of his that comes around more than once. To clarify, this is NOT because of his choice to pursue Dal Mi, but to do so by lying to her to “win her over” (in the beginning stages of their relationship) instead of fighting the battle openly like Seo Jun does (which makes his character MORE likeable). In this way, True Beauty is sort of a reverse Start-Up. So if we imagine Su Ho as Ji Pyeong, since both were the leads who “had the girl” (again, for the sake of argument, ignore the misogyny of this whole situation) and Seo Jun as Do San (the leads fighting for the girl), I guarantee people would not be nearly as supportive of Seojun had he faked his way to Jugyeong’s heart, then told her the truth. It just doesn’t work like that. Obviously in real life it’s completely possible, but then again things like incest are possible too but we don’t see that portrayed in manhuas all the time now do we? At least for me, when I read a manhua like True Beauty or watch a K-Drama like Start-Up, I have certain expectations for how characters behave and how the story unfolds. Plot choices have to be justified and I made it extremely clear in my first essay that the decisions in Start-Up were not justified at all. And perhaps because I was so jaded with that show that True Beauty seems like a masterpiece all of a sudden, but I am extremely appreciative of the fact that both Suho and Seojun are likable characters. Yes, each of them have their flaws, but thank God neither has an inferiority complex like Do San. Although Suho’s stalkerish habits are a bit concerning, I get that it’s because he’s trying to protect Jugyeong. Seojun too is a great second lead, with the right blend of “bad boy” and “soft boi”. He’s arguably my (and probably a lot of people’s) favorite character and so many of the other details about him serve to make him that much better (his sister, his mother, Se Yeon, his motley gang, and even Jugyeong). Every interaction brings out a new dimension to his character and he keeps getting better. His newfound love motivates him to break out of his shell and discover things he didn’t even know about himself. Sound like someone else? So do I think Seojun is better than Suho? Yes. Absolutely. But, unlike Start-Up, I am okay with him losing. Because I still like Suho too. He didn’t cheat or do anything wrong, he’s not selfish or self-centered, he doesn’t harbor any resentments to Seojun (except when they’re fighting over Jugyeong, but that’s to be expected), and he genuinely cares about Jugyeong (whether or not she has make-up on). They also had a past together (comic store) and he’s the first person she shared her secret and all of that with. So as much as I would have liked for Seojun to win, I am okay in knowing he’s probably going to lose because, unlike Do San, Suho’s actions show that he actually means well.

Other Characters - The rest of these will be pretty quick, the meat of this section was definitely those two. I’ll do my best to just pump these ones out.

Sujin Kang (강수진) - Great character, like the tension she adds to the Jugyeong - Suho relationship. Her own issues and backstory are interesting as well and I want to see where that goes.

Heegyeong Lim (임희경) - Ju Gyeong’s older sis is wild. She is on a completely different level. 10/10. I aspire to have her levels of confidence.

Story: 6

I doubt this section will be as lengthy as the previous, but it will follow a similar format where I discuss likes, dislikes, what I think could improve, and any other commentary I might have.

Unfortunately, I find the overarching plot of the manhua to be a bit lackluster if I’m being perfectly honest. It’s really just another high school love story. The plot is definitely not a reason people should read this unless they’re die hard fans of romance or any of the gazillion other stuff that is similar to this manhua. Now I’m not saying there are big plot holes or issues I have with it. No useless 3 year time-gaps this time. BUT, it’s just not that interesting. I already know who Jugyeong will end up with and that everything will be more or less resolved and happy by the end. True Beauty’s plot is rather transparent and while there is charm to the B and C stories that go on throughout the first eight episodes, no big twists or changes lead me to believe this manhua will pan out exactly as expected. With this being said, I think that, at least in this case, having an okay plot is still better than having okay characters or okay writing. Because the rest of True Beauty is actually very well done, it somewhat covers up for the plot. I come back to read the manhua each week not because I want to see what happens, but because I want to see how the characters develop.

If I were to change anything in the plot, I think I would have actually given Seojun more of an opportunity. Similar to my critique of Start-Up, if Jugyeong got together with Seojun first, it would give Suho more motivation to fight for her. Only here it’s to win her back rather than prove himself like in Start-Up. Which I think works even better for this manhua because it not only provides Suho insight into his own fallibility, but also pushes him to grow and fix those problems to succeed in winning Jugyeong back, making it a more earned victory. How the dynamic might change because of this, especially between Seojun and Suho, but if I could find a way to make it work I would 100% go for it. Something along the lines of Seojun having one-sided affection and Jugyeong accidentally being swept up in the moment but never REALLY REALLY falling for him. Which is somewhat what the artist did. I would’ve just taken it one step further. Besides that change, it’s pretty hard to see any other edits that wouldn’t completely throw off the manhua as a whole from what it is/intents to be. I’m curious to see if others have more ideas or thoughts about what they would change plot-wise if they could, but that’s the only one big thing I could think of. A lot of them are still cliches in their own right, but at least the artist had a bit more freedom with how these were done and wrote them in a way that at least I hadn’t really read before.

Overall, I’ll just reiterate that while the plot has thus far been mediocre, I think the strength of the characters and their individual growth arcs are much more compelling, making the plot better as a result and worth the read.

Art: 8

Lastly on this lengthy (not really) review, I'll be stating how I visually perceive the artist's work. This one’s a bit complicated since I’m not sure if I really like the artstyle or not. For the sake of simplicity, I will treat this manhua as a whole as if I am not an artist myself. Most of this review is going to be praising it anyway so it shouldn’t matter too much.

Within the constraints of the somewhat limiting plot, I am rather impressed by the overall quality of the art and writing of the manhua. In terms of dialogue, timing and spacing, and consistency, it’s pretty well done. I never felt like the transitions were dragging on too long, which is something that often happens when I read mangas that are overwritten. There’s very little unnecessary “fluff”, which is good, as this means most of the dialogue serves one of two purposes: driving the story or adding depth to character. These are the two main indicators (among others) of good art. Every line of dialogue (or lack thereof) should be written for a reason.

Fr I love how the artist make the characters really attractive like wtf LOL they're literally supa hawt XD

Overall: 7

In short, after having finished the first not less than a hundred chapters of True Beauty, I (as much as it surprises me) can say that I am looking forward to remainder of the manhua, if not for the arguably stereotypical premise, but at least to see how the characters in the drama continue to grow and learn about themselves. For what it is, the writing is good, the side characters are diverse enough, and most importantly, it does justice to the two-male leads. I know I’ve probably bagged on it enough already, and the potential for it to have polarized my viewpoint of this manhua is entirely possible, but I’ve said it multiple times now and will say it again. In my own, genuine, honest, PERSONAL opinion, True Beauty is a great manhua to read if you're into Romance/Drama.

That is all.

PS This is the first review that I have ever written on MAL, I hope I followed the guidelines specially with how I use punctuations because I'm lowkey bad at it.

Best of luck!

It was good to read at first, but now everything is messy and out of place. The characters are no longer interesting, it seems that the author is postponing the ending because he is making money, totally damaging the plot.

Now Jugyeong is a complete hypocrite, criticizing people who don't look like the photos they post on social media, although she does that too. In addition to not being able to analyze her own feelings for neither of the love interests.
Besides that now Suho only personality trait is liking Jugyeong, and i don't care that much about Seojun anymore.

spoilers!

True beauty started out so nicely and was a 8 but later on in chapters the story slowly started falling apart and the new love triangle that was introduced wasn't enjoyable. everything seemed so rushed and just out of place.

our mc is quite a hypocrite and isn't a stable character and when our main love interest was taken away it just made all more horrible. our new love interest isn't enjoyable to read about and is trying to hard to replace suho.

the plot of the story was to be yourself and now its just some awful love triangle where barely any characters are written well and you have to force yourself to read. it had so much going for it just to be another let down.

The show was not very appealing at first because I don't read manga. Back in early 2000's and the walking dead comics is all I consume. Although, I love the underdog story so far ans where it has been expanding into something i can get behind, a girl who cannot value herself because of what she see's on the outside. She appears to be unaware of her set backs. Naivety, low self-estem and no confidence. Although, I like it. Everyday, after reading and preparing for my assignments this is a nice read that I really enjoy for what its becoming.

Story: 7 Story is paced evenly, however, I cannot praise it when key plot points feel very distant. Comedic timing is always good though. I do enjoy the way it is panelled, It feels like an anime but without voices, animation, sound and op and ending songs....

Art: 8 the art, when focused on individual characters is cute, sleck and well-designed, however, background is not very appealing because of the lack of scenary.


Characters: 9 Yes...A lot of troupes and cliches but they are all structured in the light of a very original and unfamiliar character, the main character who i adore. she is placed into situations that whilst very formulaic, she still does not solve the conflict but rather adapts and overcomes from the situation at a cost (self-confidence), having changed (learn that not everyone will like you or treat you well as a partner but don't lose hope).

Enjoyment: 8 Honestly, already talked about the great comedy that will grow on you the further it progresses and everything seems to working. There's always something to feel great about in this series even when the story feels too dragged out sometimes.

Overall: 8 If you have a love for this kind of love story with rivals and character i would recommend that you read the first 5 and review but if you are not enlightened by then, drop it. You are not going to get huge rushes of emotion from this one but it is by far the most consistent show on Webtoon.