Lookism

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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

*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."

Before I continue with the review, I understand that I've only read 100 chapters of an 500+ chapter series, but that's a lot of time invested already for a dissapointing story, and I'd rather not fall victim to any sunk-cost fallacy.
I jumped into this series with high expectations hearing words of praise whenever I look it up, thinking I was gonna get some school drama fighting. I was wrong. For both the high expectations and thinking this would be remotely anything close to school drama fighting. If you want a commentary on actual lookism, it does it's job well. But that's the only thing I've ... seen from this series for over 100 chapters.

People say that this manhwa is realistic, it is not. The characters are overexaggerated manfistations of tropes and characterization. And I'm completely fine with that, the characters having characterstics are enjoyable, the worst part is that the characteristic they put on main character who occupies 70% of the story. He's an amalgamation of being both extremely useless and extremely detrimental to absolutely anyone who interacts with him, and the characters around him will prop him up like a messiah. Sure, it's a great commentary on looks bias, but worthless on an entertainment media. I don't need 100 chapters and have them shove down my throat "Fat Daniel get's discriminated, so sad :c and cool Daniel is so cool because he's born perfect and everyone will worship him, because he's handsome, he's cool because he's handsome, and pretty cool, oh everyone loves him, because he's cool, omg Daniel every dude and girl in the series wants you uwu.". Daniel, is the worst protagonist I have ever witnessed, this is not a case of "Oh, he's just a normal bullied person, he doesn't know what to do" he is genuinly the most stupendous invididual in the series by a landslide. He acts retarded, his actions are retarded, and his personality is retarded, he knows what's wrong, but doesn't care about fixing anything that's in his power to help, he doesn't work to improve anything about his lifestyle except for when it's forced down his throat to do anything. Everyone in this manhwa, except for Zack are either comically evil, or comically nice. That's fine, I don't mind stereotyped characters or characters who embody tropes, I dislike characters who don't do anything just for the sake of it. Were this Manhwa about Zack or Vasco, it'd be a decent story, but instead you get the most competent (because the story demands it) yet useless idiot you'll ever witness.

The fighting is non-existent, except for stomps which last like 4 panels. Villains are comically evil just for the sake of being evil (I coudl write 3 paragraphs about how poorly written the "Antagonists" are) , they show side-characters no one will remember in 30 chapters, they never progress the plot, the main character doesn't have a shred of character development, the side characters are stagnant.

I might have gone into this series with extremely polar expectations of what it was supposed to be, and that might have skewed my opinions on the manhwa. If you care about characters or fighting, find something else, some side characters are good, but the protagonist is actually worthless for 100 chapters, the fighting is non-existent. If you read this for the social commentary, enjoy it, but I can't find any redeeming qualities except for liking the characterizations of Vasco and Zack.