Lookism is a very interesting show, I'll give it that.
First of all, the story and the characters played out way different than I was expecting after watching the first episode, and frankly, it was a pleasant surprise.
Story: 7/10
Lookism has many deep themes (more on this later), mainly centering around bullying and self confidence, as well as societal issues present in South Korea. The bullying is overly extreme and feels very unrealistic, however, and most of the time felt forced into the story for the sake of stirring up drama and conflict, and for no other reason. Dark for the sake of dark, basically. The
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story at first felt quite shallow - a self insert main character power fantasy - and to be honest, that's pretty much what this is. However, as things progress, it begins to show more depth and steadily gets more engrossing and interesting, and by the end I was surprised by how much I simply wanted more.
Art: 7/10
The art style is quite pleasing to the eye in most scenes, and the more "ugly" people in the show still look pretty decent, while the more attractive people shine, which complements the themes quite nicely. The animation quality drops here and there, with bits of CGI mixed in to cut costs, but I'd say it doesn't alter the experience for the most part. There is however one scene towards the end that's almost entirely CGI, and it degrades the scene a bit because it distracts from what's going on. Still though, not many complaints here.
Sound: 8/10
The voice acting is solid, and to me since Korean is such an interesting sounding language, was quite fun. For the music, it's quite great at times, complimenting the scenes nicely and when the music had more importance is extremely enjoyable. Not much else to say here.
Character: 6/10
The main character is, as mentioned, pretty much a self insert. He's kind of pathetic most of the time, however when he's in his good looking body at least has the confidence to get stuff done, and get it done he does. When he's in his ugly body, he's completely useless for the most part, though. The other characters are very fun at times, although a bit shallow for the most part. Whenever Basco came on screen I knew it was going to be a good time, even though I don't think all that much is going on in his brain. Most of the bullies are basically just trash cans for the sake of plot to be honest, although there are a few interesting surprises here and there, though I think they weren't properly developed and just sort of... happened.
Enjoyment: 8/10
After finishing the first episode, I wasn't sure I was going to finish this show. But I continued, and boy am I glad I did. When it gets past the repetitive and shallow and unrealistic bullying scenes, what we get are fight scenes, hype moments, motivating scenes, and simply enjoyable stuff overall, due to the interesting story and fun characters. The fight scenes in particular left me quite hyped up, and are part of why I enjoyed it so much, because while simple overall, left a very good taste in my mouth and hopeful for the future of Lookism.
Themes: 6/10
The main issue in Lookism is the mixed genres/themes throughout. It starts off as a super dark bully drama type of thing, and then quickly turns into a more lighthearted fighting show, and swaps between those two for a bit. I found both aspects enjoyable and I felt like it ALMOST worked brilliantly, but comes across as more of just amateur writing mistakes more than anything. And then it suddenly focused on music? Like, all the things it decided to focus on it did quite well, but because of so many different things being thrown in, the pacing became pretty weird and inconsistent and made most things feel a bit off. I didn't mention the pacing during the story section because I couldn't quite figure out how to word it up there, since it's mostly related to the themes. Everything simply felt undeveloped and nothing was given enough time to really shine. However, one thing to say is that it certainly helped in keeping the show interesting, because if it had focused solely on the bullying aspect, I don't think I would have continued watching it. I'm looking forward to what this author can do in the future though, because there is an incredible amount of potential here.
Overall: 7/10
All in all, I think it was actually really fun to watch and again, it handled each of the themes pretty well, making for a sometimes fun, sometimes slightly sad, and other times motivating experience. Plus the characters, while a bit over the top for the drama themes (since they don't feel all that human), were fun to see on screen and each time Basco and the ugly rapper guy (korean names are hard okay) appeared I knew it was gonna be a fun time. I recommend this to anyone that read the synopsis and thought it seemed interesting. It's only 8 episodes anyway, what's the harm in at least trying it? Now go out there and watch it!
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Apr 17, 2023
Oemojisangjuui
(Anime)
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Lookism is a very interesting show, I'll give it that.
First of all, the story and the characters played out way different than I was expecting after watching the first episode, and frankly, it was a pleasant surprise. Story: 7/10 Lookism has many deep themes (more on this later), mainly centering around bullying and self confidence, as well as societal issues present in South Korea. The bullying is overly extreme and feels very unrealistic, however, and most of the time felt forced into the story for the sake of stirring up drama and conflict, and for no other reason. Dark for the sake of dark, basically. The ... 
Jun 10, 2020
Isekai Cheat Magician
(Anime)
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I think what made this anime somehow worse than many other anime of its kind, was actually that it tried to have a story. If you look at other isekai anime like, "The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me?" or, "Death March To The Parallel World Rhapsody" the difference is just that. Both of these anime have practically no story, but I found them to be much more enjoyable just for that reason.
Story: Without saying much, it was very bland and predictable. We get a villain that we know nothing about except that he's evil, and he attempts to test the MC with various things ... |
