Oemojisangjuui

Violence, name-calling, and humiliation are a daily reality for high school student Park Hyung Suk. Chubby and insecure, he is often used as a plaything and punching bag for bullies, which leads him to wish he could just disappear. Unexpectedly, when he transfers schools in the hopes of starting anew, a miraculous opportunity emerges: he awakens in a tall, handsome, and strangely athletic body. Hyung Suk quickly realizes that he is now the owner of two disparate bodies; when one falls asleep, he wakes up in the other.

Feeling like he has won the lottery of life, Hyung Suk enters his new school as this attractive and strong young man. However, it soon becomes evident that being a popular student is not all smooth sailing. From girls wanting him only for his good looks to delinquents picking fights out of jealousy, he can never seem to escape trouble. In trying to balance his two different lives, Hyung Suk may find both of them to be sources of ceaseless challenges.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Lee, Eun Tae Main

Takeuchi, Shunsuke Japanese

Park, Hyung Suk Main

Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu Japanese

Lee, Jin Sung Main

Urata, Wataru Japanese

Hong, Jae Yeol Supporting

Park, Jong Gun Supporting

Jang, Eli Supporting

Kang, Dagyum Supporting

Choi, Soo Jung Supporting

Aoyama, Reina Japanese

Park, Ha-Neul Supporting

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Park, Beom-jae Supporting

Hirose, Yuuya Japanese

Kwang, Il Han Director

ATEEZ Theme Song Performance

Park, Tae-Jun Original Creator

Alves, Natália ADR Director

Reviews

Jul 24, 2024

ThaRudy

Recommended

8/10 anime, If the animation was actually good this would of been 9/10 for me, but in the end, in this anime they show both sides on how bad it can be even if you are popular or when you aren't, I think the characters showed emotions very well, storyline was very good too, idk how to put it, it was just a good watch... enjoyed every episode!

But yeah like I said about the animation, I kind of wish some big studio would of picked this anime, I don't like the cgi work so much in animations, but for example in Chamsaw man they did ... it very well, and the animation was still super good, hopefully 2nd season will have some more improvement if they do happen to publish one ofc 😂

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 3, 2023

KillyChides

Mixed Feelings

A charming adaptation full of heart but constricted by the lack of budget and awful character designs.

Lookism is my favourite manhwa; it works on a very simple premise and takes the reader on a spectacular journey that they wouldn't see coming. Not to mention the writing and character work put into it, which is unlike anything I've ever experienced. The storylines and character development lead to some of the most wholesome and gut-wrenching moments that text on screen could give you. I admire Park Tae-jun for how far he came as an author just writing Lookism, as it went from a simple story to some ... of the most memorable moments I've experienced as a reader.

So of course, I was waiting for years for Lookism to get an animated adaptation because I was sure it would take the world by storm and put the likes of Solo Leveling and The God Of High School to shame, but this is unfortunately not what we got

While this adaptation stuck to the source material as well as it could, the budget constraints and lacklustre character designs didn't even come close to giving the beginning of this journey justice. The animation was sloppy, the character designs looked awful compared to their manhwa counterparts, and the final vocal performance was a CGI nightmare that I couldn't look at without hurting my eyes. Vasco, one of my favourite characters ever, basically got butchered. All I could think about when looking at him was "Look how they massacred my boy!"

Overall, I loved the song and voice acting, and I think they added some good heart-touching moments that weren't in the manhwa, but nothing could make that low-budget production work, let alone in 8 episodes. All this series did was set Lookism back from breaking into the mainstream.

Here's to getting an adaptation in the future that this awesome story deserves.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jun 6, 2024

AeroGunz

Not Recommended

“Lookism” is what happens when You take the idea of the halo effect and turn up the absurd to 11.

Ever heard of the halo effect?
In short (and in simplification) it’s a psychological phenomenon where You attribute positive qualities to someone just because You find them attractive. Yeap. That’s the premise of the show. Well not entirely but I’ll get to that.

Look… there is no other way for me to say it so I’ll just get this over with. This show uses cheap tricks to induce emotions and make You think it’s deeper than it is. It’s full of slow moments with slow music, ... over acted scenes of cheap bullying, inner monologues that pretend to be deep but in reality, when You stop and really think about them they are deep as a puddle and the MC acting like a shy saint. It’s so bad it’s not even funny. Calling this show cliche would be an understatement. Apart from the premise of switching bodies (that part is cool) there isn’t an original thought in all 8 episodes.

The first episode (hold on it’s not that much of a spoiler) starts with Hyung Suk - our resident MC, being bullied. He’s shown as an absolute victim but in a very, VERY, lazy and comedic way. If this was supposed to make me sympathise with him it failed miserably. As a bonus for me not caring about him is the fact that he’s an asshole to his mother. As far as I can tell he’s a piece of shit to her all the time (the show doesn’t really show us their previous interactions so it’s just speculation on my part) so him being bullied is, at least partially, karma. The show wants me to think that he’s the only “good” person in a school full of assholes but he’s not really any better than the people that bully him. He can’t punch up so he punches down and lets out his frustration on his mother. Why the hell should I care about him again? For the most part of the first episode I wanted him to suffer. He’s an asshole and not really that different from his bullies. The worst part? In the end this mofo gets what he wants. So let me get this straight, to get what You want You just have to act like a sack of shit and play victim. Got it…
Second thing. His mother barely had money for a shitty apartment in one city and somehow she is able to afford another shitty apartment in the slums in another city and the moron never questioned this situation? He was told that she doesn’t have money and yet not once asked how she’s able to afford this? Son of the year.
Granted, he does have a moment of reflection but it doesn’t really change much about him as a character and the way he gets his epiphany is so lazily written that it was almost funny.
The bullshit doesn’t end there. The first interaction he has in the new city with a random person ends up with him getting his ass handed to him and people just watching and recording it. It’s just another attempt to show Hyung Suk as a victim and sympathetic but it’s all so heavy handed and inorganic that I really don't care. It just made me laugh at how bad the writing is. You want me to believe that not one person would help a kid being assaulted on the street in broad daylight? No one. EVERYONE would just watch, record or comment on the phenotype of the victim? I guess this world doesn’t have any type of law enforcement and You can just go Alex Mercer on everyone.

The world building in this show is one of the worst I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen some really bad anime.


I think the worst part of the whole show is the way Hyung Suk gets his new body. He just does. He doesn’t earn it, he just gets it. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be a moment like in Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” but it doesn’t work. For one thing Gregor Samsa suffered because of his transformation. Hyung Suk just won a free ticket to win-town. For the whole time we see him he hasn't done one thing that would earn him a reward and yet, he does. No, being bullied isn’t a reason to get this kind of reward. He didn’t stand up to his bullies, he didn’t get bullied as a consequence of trying to help someone. Nothing. He just got bullied. It’s a weak, pathetic self indulgent fantasy where You get things just because. Did I mention that the writing in this show sucks?

The problem with him getting his new body that fast in the show is that we don’t get a contrast of what he’s like when he’s not bullied (or being an asshole to his mother) so we don’t know if his actions change that much. This is a problem. If the message is that people treat You better when You are attractive despite how You act, we should get some scenes that show the same type of actions getting different results. As it stands we could assume he’s acting like he always did but there is no definitive proof of that.
I’m not ever going to get into the bullshit of the fight scenes. They are pathetically slow, have bad, and I do mean BAD, choreography and the explanation of why he’s so skilled in fighting is just ass. It’s the most stupid, nonsensical and brain dead explanation I have ever seen. Shitty isekais with OP MCs have better once.


I want to believe that this show is a criticism of the vanity culture of the last few decades and not judging a book by its cover, and to a degree it is, but it turns up the absurd to the 11 and not in a thoughtful way. Furthermore, if the point is to not judge a book by its cover, why are all of the actions that lead to a change in characters done by the “handsome” Hyung Suk? It would be much more impactful if at least some of them would be the result of the “ugly” one.

My main gripe is that almost all the show wants to tell is heavy handed, bland and lacks originality. The use of hyperbole in people's reactions would be fine if it was used so often and in a very bland way. If You don’t want to watch anything new and just want the same old thing You saw a thousand times just with a new coat of paint I guess You can find entertainment in this. If You care about world building, story and plot, stay away from “Lookism”

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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