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Lookism
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Alternative Titles

Japanese: 외모지상주의

Information

Type: Manhwa

Volumes: Unknown

Chapters: Unknown

Status: Publishing

Published: Nov 20, 2014 to ?

Genres: Action, Comedy, Drama, Supernatural

Serialization: Naver Webtoon

Authors: Park, Tae-Jun (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.98¹ (scored by 24,150 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #775²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #285

Members: 57,534

Favorites: 2,584

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Reviews

Filtered Results: 39 / 44

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Jan 11, 2018

Danyelasoda94

Recommended

Preliminary (148/? chp)

The story is really great because it has true topics that nobody speaks so openly about them, like the discrimination to other people for their experience, bully abuse, the pressure of the social media nowadays and others. This story has drama, comedy, mystery and some chapters are even wicked.

The characters are developed so good because each one of them have an important role in the story, even the bad ones has a good background story and with the story progress you can understand more about their actions.

The art is pretty good and like in other webtoons it has color.

The updates are every week and ...

Jan 3, 2018

Pholia

Not Recommended

Preliminary (85/? chp)

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

Feb 21, 2018

tonk0tsuramen

Recommended

Preliminary (166/? chp)

"Don't judge a book by its cover," is what everybody says.

This story is about how unattractive people in the world survive and deal with bullying and criticism every day.

Please take note that there are 2 versions of this, and the names are different in both. For example, HyungSuk=Daniel
HaNeul=Zoe
MiJin=Mira

Story:
I haven't read anything quite like Lookism, so I was instantly hooked by the unique storyline. Daniel is a fat, unattractive guy and is bullied every day. Therefore he transfers to another school to avoid the bullies. One day before he starts school, he wakes up to be extremely handsome, fit, strong, everything a man wants to be, ...

May 17, 2020

melodicrain

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (260/? chp)

Lookism was great, but all I remember now is its wasted potential. TL;DR at bottom

I used to love Lookism, so much so that I would recommend it to all of my friends who liked Webtoons. It had a unique concept, and it acted as a form of social commentary on "lookism," or discrimination on the basis of looks, while still being an entertaining series with a colourful cast of mostly likable characters. If my score was based on my original opinion, I would've easily given the series at least an 8/10, so why do I give it a 5?

The story. I started reading Lookism because ...

Mar 12, 2018

koniiichiwa-sama

Recommended

Preliminary (168/? chp)

This Manhwa (korean comics) is amazing and i recommend everyone to check it out. (Im also gonna be using the English version of there names so it wont be as complicated)

Story: 9/10
The main character Daniel is basically this fat teen that nobody really likes. he was basically bullied most of his life and his mom is the only person that looks out for him. His family is poor so they live in a shabby house with low quality food. his mom is the only person that helped him in life but he said harsh things towards her, even tho shes his only ally in ...

Feb 13, 2022

tengokunohikari

Recommended

Preliminary (378/? chp)

Story 8/10
A lot of people seems to dislike this manhwa because of the bad storyline. It does, in the first half of the beginning. But the story is getting better and better over the time. I read this manhwa until 300++ chapters and I dare to say that it's worth it! This manhwa contains information about the martial art techniques, origin, etc and it made me became more interested to learn them. The comedy might annoy some people but its actually work for me. At first, the story only focused to school-bully and body shaming dramas but as time goes on the story turns into ...

Apr 5, 2023

Zerofuku_

Recommended

Preliminary (443/? chp)

Lookism is a South Korean manhwa (comic) series written and illustrated by Park Tae-jun. The story is about a high school student named Park Hyung-suk who is bullied for being overweight. One day, Daniel Park, a visionary student and athlete, wakes up and the story follows his journey as he navigates two different worlds in his old and new body.

The artwork in Lookism is amazing, the design of each character is unique and memorable. The author does a great job of conveying emotions through facial expressions and body language, making the characters feel real and relatable.

One of the strengths of Lookism is how to deal ...

Apr 9, 2020

ST63LTH

Recommended

Preliminary (276/? chp)

Note: [Spoilers]
It's been a few weeks since I caught up with this manhwa but it is certainly very addictive, I also didn't know it had a MAL page so I'm going to add my thoughts of it here~~~

Story:
The story behind Lookism isn't fully articulated until the high school transfer but I feel that the approach of having a character that is obese being bullied on the lower end of the social spectrum also getting a chance to experience life on the upper echelon of the spectrum makes for an entertaining but educational narrative. The Story follows Danial Park, a bullied high school student ... living a miserable life serving a powerful bully which then forces him to transfer to another school where life as he knows it changes as he receives the ability to possess a physically superior, visually superior, height superior etc. body while also maintaining his original body. He learns to coexist with both bodies (while one body works and studies in the night at a convenient store, the other attends the newly transferred school) Daniel Park in his superior form supports other individuals who suffer similar to him as much as he can while also transforming the characters in his new school to help with his endeavor of minimizing bullying (or subconsciously so) Reading this series in webtoon form was 'dog god' tier since it was very easy to adapt to, character wise also. (I also enjoyed the JoJo References during the Family Gathering Arc where Daniel Park meets his cousins hehe...) 10/10 -

Art:
The art felt more on the less refined spectrum but the quality of the art is comparable to that of Solo Levelling. The shading, colors and even use of negative space made it easy to flow with the story; thus fuelling by addiction for webtoon style comics. The fighting scenes are my favorite by far and especially with Rohan's god dog facing off with Daniel Park's central crew teaming up together; all the art during that arc were masterpieces. 10/10 -

Character:
This webtoon has mastered the conditioning of character development, it manages the immediate character palette fairly nicely by constantly going back and using each character at least in every chapter and their quirky interaction. Similar to Jin Sung Lee and his 'gf' (forgot her name) when he ends up acting like an obedient dog to her when he intends to act dominant as an example to other characters needing relationship advice. Also, when Daniel Park's original body saves Ha Neul (can't remember her name) from the stalker fan, Ha Neul begins to favor him over his superior form. Overall amazing character development and there are a lot of promising characters. 9/10 -

Enjoyment:
easily 10/10, the author knows how to entertain their readers by not being too serious with content and even adding in other references besides JoJo's (I could only notice JoJo but there were many different random changes in art styles)

Nov 6, 2023

Amanda_B

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (455/? chp)

The first 200 chapters or so are amazing with great character building, story, etc. This series has made me laugh, cry and alomost jump out of my seat in fear. But then it just goes downhill with infinite power scaling, overload of poilitics and non-stop fight scenes that goes on for 10 - 20 chapters straight. Half of the characters you learn to love in the beginning haven't been seen for more than 100 chapters and there's barely no story besides the fighting. It's all about what new cool martial art the author have found or what new fighting skill the characters unlock.
All in all ...

Mar 2, 2021

ferrishbones

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (265/? chp)

I really enjoyed lookism when i first picked it up, which is what makes its current state more disappointing for me.

The first 100 or so chapters are pretty solid and introduce a very interesting body-swap scenario. The main character, who was bullied for his weight in previous years, wakes up in a completely different body, with his normal body sound asleep. Basically, people start to pay attention to him and treat him with respect because he's conventionally attractive. The manhwa covers how he makes new friends while hiding the fact that he has two bodies. It was a unique sort of slice-of-life series with its ...

Apr 12, 2019

-Lupa-

Recommended

Preliminary (225/? chp)

I almost didn't read this because the (extremely short) synopsis of the story really turned me off. "Oh great, a story about how an unattractive and unpopular guy magically turns into a hot guy and gets all of the girls and his life is great - what a great message....NOT". I am glad that I gave into the high reviews and gave the story a shot, though, because my initial impression could not have been any more wrong.

Instead of a wish-fulfillment story about someone whose life sucked but suddenly gets better because of a change in appearance, this manhwa is a story that explores ... in great depth the prejudice that people subconsciously have based on the appearance of others, as well as many of the unhealthy and misguided aspects of modern Korean society. The change in Daniel's appearance becomes a tool for the author to expose how the way we treat people is often influenced by their appearance (and, it explores how having an overly perfect appearance can *also* lead others to form a poor impression of someone).

The characters are great. There is a large, well-developed cast of secondary characters to support Daniel (and honestly, I liked some of the secondary characters even more than the main characters). These characters frequently get story arcs of their own, which allows to author to show their background and explains what their motives as and why they act the way they do. I liked some of these side stories more than others, but overall I really appreciated how well developed the characters were because of that. I see that some reviewers do not think that Daniel develops as a character, but I have to disagree. It does take a long time (this is a very long manhwa, after all), but he does slowly begin to change, especially as he is encouraged by seeing other people like Duke and Crystal overcoming obstacles despite being in the same situation as he originally was.

I will definitely say that the author often set up situations for the characters that were not entirely realistic. I mean, honestly, how many bad-a** mofo's can you have in one high school? This manhwa makes it seem like Korea is full of hot young guys who all have superb fighting abilities. That being said, the set-ups that the author created in the plot did not bother me - to me this story is almost more like a parable or a fable used by the author to make a point and explore the darker side of Korean society rather than a story that is meant to be realistic or purely for enjoyment. In addition to the overall themes of bullying and "lookism" (prejudice based on appearance), the author also uses the subplots and characters to delve into the issues of gambling, addition, overuse of social media, etc. The author clearly has a point to make, and does a good job at making the readers reflect on what their own personal bias may be.

As far as the art goes, I wouldn't say that it is....attractive.....but it has a very distinct, well-drawn style. I don't read a whole lot of shounen manga so it is different than what I am used to, but I did like it, and I felt like it was well-suited to the subject matter. If you are trying to expose the dark underbelly of society, you don't want everything to look all shiny and perfect, do you?

Mar 1, 2024

monster_magus

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (303/? chp)

Lookism is fun, has a great plot, with superb world building and nice lessons to teach you... for the first 200 or so chapters, that is.

The series has went seriously downhill ever since the author changed his art style and began to focus on fighting. Fighting, fighting and fighting is everything the webtoon is about now. Not to mention the ridiculous portrayal of all highschoolers being strong enough to beat the strongest man on earth, its almost feels like the author has lost inspiration on what he initially set out, a fat and insecure dude who suddenly gained a new handsome body and how ...

Apr 4, 2023

white114

Recommended

Preliminary (442/? chp)

I think most people who read under 200 chapters give bad reviews, and people who read over 200 chapters mostly give good reviews(?)

.

[Spoiler]
#I will give an outline of the life journey of the main character, from chapter 1 to 442
=
1. park hyungseok original(daniel) will become a popular streamer on Twitch, he earns a lot of money and sends it to his mother.
2. He will succeed in overcoming his fear of the "jujitsu black belt" owner who bullies him (Taelee/Logan).
3. he finally has many friends, there are even 2 women who sincerely love him as he is.
4. he will practice martial arts ...

Jul 29, 2022

theshadyside

Recommended

Preliminary (393/? chp)

My biggest problem with this series is that the characters have almost become caricatures of themselves. Despite the stereotypical drama everyone starts off with, it really does bring you in to care about the characters. As the plot goes on, they start to lose the feel of who they are ever so slightly like a small itch that doesn't go away.

Despite this I still gave the series a 9 because I enjoy it so much. Overall it does a good job of investing you into the characters and the action is amazing, along with an interesting plot. Is it anything new? No. But it's just ...

Feb 26, 2023

Sky621311

Recommended

Preliminary (428/? chp)

*I will be using English versions of the names*

Lookism. Out of the two manhwas I've read this one far surpasses the first. On the surface it seems like a simple story about Daniel Park who gets bullied for being overweight. And when he decides to transfer to another school he finds himself in mysterious yet perfect body.

Story:
Reading Lookism is like going down a rabbit hole. After I crossed the chapters that are already animated (I first watched the animation) it only got more interesting. The whole story is relatively complex and every little action is part of a much bigger picture. In the later chapters ...

Apr 10, 2024

Tofucado

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (357/? chp)

Lookism is a story which had incredible potential to be a fantastic read covering sensible topics and real-world dilemmas in a high school setting, with elements of mystery, drama, comedy, supernatural and action. It could have had it all.

However Lookism as a manhwa has aged like milk. The weekly updates continue to pile onto a story that is now ultimately boring.

; STORY
The initial hundred or so chapters are not bad by any means. The art isn't great per se but it's not detrimental to the overall read. You get introduced to the main cast with their varying personalities and quirks, you learn to hate them ... and love them, sometimes one after the other, and comfortably settle into the story and prepare yourself for the joy of the coming chapters that will tie up all the loose ends, fill in the gaps and finish the manhwa in beautiful fashion. Right?

It is here that the story starts deviating from its original plot points and into gang war sludge. Interesting characters are shelved and almost entirely forgotten about to instead make way for brutes and gangs. How should we stop the prejudice against ugly people? With our fists!! Daniel Park says as he goes out of his way to beat up the local gangs because they were threatening this one character we'd almost all forgotten about. Although slightly exaggerated, it's in this very manner that the story turns into one big dogpile of bloodied thugs and illegal business activities: pulled into a rinse-and-repeat cycle of 20 chapters of blood spillage, then one or two chapters of calm to cushion the fall, then a further plunge with 20 chapters of violence and so on and so forth.

The fights are barely discernable in and of themselves as they all follow the same structuring in typical Tae-jun Park fashion; A and B fight, A gets knocked down, scene plays in which a side character reminisces about how A is special / has a secret power / trained a lot behind the scenes, A gets an "unexpected" power boost, gets back up and beats B. It is predictable and frustrating, these fights and power boosts seeming nonsensical at times and turning the characters into real-life superheroes.

The story built itself up well, but failed to deliver when it most mattered and instead left a hot mess in its wake, a mess which makes for a dreadfully boring read.

; CHARACTERS
Unlike Viral Hit in which the fights complement the story and with a clear end goal in sight, Lookism's story seems to drift further and further from what it initially represented. The holes in the story remain open, and Tae-jun Park continues to pierce new holes into Lookism with each new chapter, with most of these revolving around our beloved main cast.

The author keeps drawing our attention away from them to instead serve us a 15 chapter arc on the backstory of a side character. Paired with the aforementioned troubled progression of the story, this leads to moments in which when we finally do see one of our main characters, it's usually for a couple of panels before another side story.

The characters aren't forgettable by any means, but their contributions to the story are usually minimal.

; OVERALL
TO CONCLUDE, Lookism feels like a project rather than a product. A brilliant idea which started out well enough, but ended up being tweaked and fiddled with to an unrecognisable point, and left to rot. It failed in its delivery and dug its grave further instead of fixing its pressing issues.

It is 2 stories in 1.
If you are interested in the fundamental story then don't bother as you will probably never receive a fulfilling conclusion.
If you are interested in gang wars and fights upon fights then start reading from chapter 150

I personally didn't enjoy it but my best friend did and maybe you will too. To each their own, and this manhwa is very much an example of that.

Oct 22, 2022

Aegaeon14

Recommended

Preliminary (414/? chp)

Lookism is a masterpiece of the action manhwa genre of all time.

Story 10/10 (minor spoiler here)
This comic starts with the story of a fat dude that gets bullied a lot. The storyline is really confusing about where to go in the first chapters, it really makes the reader discontinue reading the comic.
The story just tells "-oh shit another bully bad guy and this protagonist has to overcome his fears, boom the bad guy is punished, and then-". At this point, most of the readers are discouraged by this kind of naive story and at some point, the author snapped the fuck out and ... just changes the whole story into a twisted wicked evil mafia. Drugs, Night Clubs, Government Involvement, Prison Life, Gang War, Generation Fight War shit like bruh they're only 18. Anyway, its really the best decision how he changed the genre of the comic, making the readers interested in what will happen to the next character. The author really knows how to make a perfect cliffhanger and not overused it.

Character 10/10
It's just straight-up perfection, he makes us really cling to every fucking character that exists. Interesting backstory on all the characters, making us the readers show sympathy to them. He is overusing the backstory too much but, somehow it just works perfectly fine. This may be caused by the unique character he makes. Romanticism, Goofy Silly, Heroic, Intelligent, and more. Every Character made didn't look or have the same trait, he successfully use every character to entice the story. All of the Character has a fully ripened character development. And most importantly, the drip of every character I MEAN LOOK AT THEM THEY ARE SO HOT HOW CAN THE READER DIDNT BORED?

Art 10/10
Not gonna lie. the art is just bad at the start, but this manhwa aged like a fine wine. The art got better by 300%. The unique-ness of the choreography/pose of the fighting, it didn't just use a normal punch or a generic fighting boxing stance, it covers taekwondo, capoeira, systema, freestyle street fighting, karate, muay thai, kali. They all use a very unique kicking, punching, and dodging style, that really elevates the storytelling style of the story.

Music 8/10
You hear it right, they use soundtracks while you are reading. This music feature is recently added lately so you are not going to find
any music in the earlier episodes (some of the end of the arc episode have them). There is not really much memorable music as you read but it really adds the climax feel in every episode. However, you're reading speed may not match the sound causing it to ruin your experience, its still good in my opinion anyway

Overall 10/10
I will definitely recommend this to a reader that can read a whole lot of lore their mind can comprehend, has a lot of patience to wait until the gang-fighting arc, and needs a good action story. I advise reading it fast in the earlier episodes because it really didn't matter until the later episode, then you may have to read slow to know the context what's going on on the panel.

May 14, 2018

AniJan

Not Recommended

Preliminary (99/? chp)

*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 ...

Aug 29, 2020

custardloaf

Recommended

Preliminary (297/? chp)

This is my first review, so I decided to do it for my favorite manhwa.

Summary of my review:
The story evolved around a guy named Daniel Park. He got blessed to have 2 bodies, which each bodies have a very separate trait. One is typical coolest handsome guy with OP moves and other body is fat lame guy who always got bullied. Daniel's adventure start in his high school after he moved from different school cause kept getting bullied, he meet different kinds of people and friends. The story focused on moral issue towards looks of people so much, then adding some "Crow" gang fights that ...

Oct 10, 2021

Razor_Eagle11

Recommended

Preliminary (360/? chp)

Lookism is a manhwa that is confused about its own identity. But I can't really say I hate it, in fact I've grown to like it after a few hundred chapters.

The story starts with a high school boy named Park Hyung-Suk who's not attractive and bullied and suddenly has a second body that's athletic and very good looking. The early chapters focuses on the struggles of the students who are not good looking and how it affects how people treats them. The story tells different perspectives on the good looking and the ugly people and how they are treated and it's pretty interesting to ...