Lookism

I don't understand the 1 star ratings - have you even watched the series? It just came out lol Regardless, I really enjoyed it - animation is well done, voice acting and singing was also really good.

Bullying is not an easy theme to narrate, although I believe Lookism did a good job. One may think it's a bit exaggerated, but it is like that... especially when you are targeted due to your looks.

The "twist" is also quite interesting, without spoiling anything... I'm curious about how they are going to explain it. Perhaps reading the webtoon will respond to these questions... Hopefully a second season will be released!

First off, let me disclose that I have not read the webcomic, so I am judging this show for its own qualities and not for how well it adapts the comic.

Conceptually speaking, the show has a lot of potential. Bullying is an amazing topic to make a show about. At points, the show really convinces me, that it has what is needed to explore it, but at other points I am just let down.

This show shines when it comes to the characterization of the bullied characters. Time and time again, it gives them amazing characterization with a lot of heart to it. You sympathize with them, their interactions makes sense, and their feelings are realistic to those of bullied teens.

I absolutely hate how the general public and every teen is characterized in this show.

Women in the background will constantly talk about how weird it is that a handsome guy talks with ugly losers or actively agree with people that bully and beat up those 'losers'. I understand that this has roots in reality, but there literally are scenes that show the public actively cheering on the beating up of a fat child and bullying that child on the internet. It's crazy how cruel everyone is shown to be.

I kept hoping that at some point, this would change. That more than an incredibly rare few people would develop empathy. Perhaps that the series shows us how change in that regard is possible.

Instead, people don't change and I think this is incredibly disappointing.

Picking up on that point, it's horrible to watch how bad the main character is at defusing situations. He will barely be able to say 3 word sentences in shock before a fight ensues. At some point it just feels like the show forcing it.

I think the show has a lot of potential, but it keeps falling flat again and again. Hopefully some of those issues might be resolved in season 2 with the writing of the webtoon creator/netflix writers improving too.

This is very well done, it is true that they skip several things that the manhwa, but as the anime does not seek to be a monogatari because it will not bore you with large amounts of text and therefore seeks to be very subtle, and succeeds. He achieves it to such an extent that the manhwa becomes very respected in all chapters is simply impressive how they can transmit the charisma of the protagonists of the printed to the screen.

In short, the beginning of the story is not the most captivating, if not, the development of it is passing the chapters of the Manhwa, it is impressive how the MIR studio can encourage such good and fluid fights, I am very surprised by the quality of the environments, the characters, the emphasis on important things, and the dubbing in Japanese leaves nothing to be desired is simply good, I hope it is the same quality with the animation of Solo Leveling because if the Koreans continue like this, they will conquer.

This was my first introduction to Lookism both as an animated series and as a manhwa, and I must say it was a lot better than I expected! A LOT BETTER. At first I thought it was gonna be your average freaky-friday/bullied-becomes-chad/corny-overexagerrated-coming-of-age-story - while it certainly had elements of it (especially at the beginning) - it treated a lot of the topics a lot better and more skillfully compared to the other genre flicks I just stated.

Where this show gets dragged down though its with its rocky start especially from episodes 1-3. From the start we get introduced to unlikable characters (even the protagonist) which will certainly turnoff a lot of new viewers coming in (I guess this is where most of the 1 star reviews come from) But trust me, they do get better, the characters become more lovable. I do believe the start could've been handled better, but I also believe the unlikable aspects those characters had (especially the protagonist) was needed in order to establish the character arcs they had later on (and also to further drive home the message of the show) Past those episodes the series really takes off, and we get a fantastic bingable show, with surprisingly human characters.

Would recommend, just know that the start may turn some people off, so keep an openmind that the show gets A LOT better.

Ngl I dropped this manhwa halfway on the 400 chapters. I know many people were bothered with how the characters looked in the adaptation but The art style doesn't bother me that much and the animation is actually really good. The soundtracks are also great. It's all well produced. The plot is the same as the manhwa and they didnt change much. Hoping for the next season. I'm hoping to see the development of the characters and to see the mc grow. I'm a bit disappointed it doesn't have a lot of episodes but it's all good and this is a great start. Overall this is a good adaptation kudos to everyone .