Hundreds of anime use attractiveness as symbol of goodness. Villains are often ugly and heroes are usually good looking. Plenty of western shows try to empathise with ugly characters, but this rarely happens in anime. At best, they are the comedy side kick, but never the hero. No one wants to buy action figures of ugly guys, or masturbate to ugly girls. Go figure.
Enter Lookism. Its protagonist, Hyung, is short, fat, and pig-like. He lives terribly and is cruel to the few people who take his side. The show really goes out of its way to drive home how disgusting and loathsome Hyung is. It's almost comical how vile everyone is towards him. That is, until he wakes up looking like a kpop idol. Lookism isn't really breaking any ground here. There have been 'glow ups' across anime and manga. Sometimes, like in Devilman Crybaby and Cyberpunk Edgerunner, it's used to show how strength and power can corrupt. Sometimes, like in FFXV Brotherhood, it's done to reveal the layers of a character's childhood insecurities. Sometimes, like in Mob Psycho and Attack on Titan, it represents a character's journey to self improvement.
And sometimes it's wish fulfilment. Actually, it's usually wish fulfilment.
Place yourself in Hyung's shoes, humble uggo, and you too can experience what it is like to be sexy (probably - I wouldn't know). But there's a catch. Hyung's original body still exists in parallel to his handsome one, and every time he goes to sleep, he switches between the two. A lot of the anime's runtime is spent on his hijinks as he exploits his newfound attractiveness (and lowkey super powers) to beat up bullies, protect nerds, and win girls. At its core, Lookism offers the same power fantasy as Spider-man, but boiled down to its most basic concept. There's no complex plot at work here. It's mediocre fanfic level, but makes for some easy viewing. Like narrative junk food. There's some fun to be found in watching him juggle his alter egos, but this is escapism first and foremost.
The inherent benevolence of being tall and ripped gradually starts to rub off on Hyung, who develops an inner beauty to match his outer. When you examine the show's deeper messages, they're pretty harmful, but you're not meant to look too hard. Its half-hearted criticism of society's treatment of ugly people collapses in on itself pretty quickly, because the show also wants to glorify the fuck out of attractiveness. It's really best to just let the pretty colours wash over you. Aside from its plot and characters, Lookism is well animated, with good music and a talented cast of voice actors. Studio Mir is known for its work on 'western cartoons' like Legend of Korra and Voltron, and that style carries through strongly here. Mir's animation is weaker here, with some wonky CGI in parts, but still good. Unfortunately, not even that can save Lookism from its mediocre... everything.
The manhwa is big in South Korea, so I might be missing something. Maybe the source material gets around to a good message in the end, but there are hundreds of chapters and this adaptation has only eight episodes.
Lookism is the sort of show you put on in the background while you're doing something else. It is best experienced from the corner of your eye. It's not bad. But it sure as hell isn't good. If you want to see a well executed glow-up, you're better off watching any of the other anime mentioned in this review.
