Hey guys what is up welcome back to my blog I’m so thankful that you guys took the time out of your day to read my blog post. You guys already know that I really like Lookism. I already posted a review and often talk about it on my Twitter so the anime obviously had me hyped and it delivered, I had my expectations low but it delivered to a hundred. LIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD.
The original story is really complex and long but the anime only adapts a short part. Daniel Park is a fat, short and ugly guy who is constantly bullied by his classmate Logan Lee, desperate to get away from his life of constant bullying, Daniel asks his mom to change schools. Daniel shifts away and starts living alone in Seoul and dreads going to school fearing that he’ll be bullied again. He sleeps that night only to wake up in a much more handsome and fit body. He finds that he can switch his consciousness between two bodies. Daniel decides to go to school in his new body and with that begins his adventure at J-High. Daniel realizes how much his new body can change things for him because he’s much more handsome and robust now which leads to friendships and the realization of the discrimination in the world.
The characters aren’t very fleshed out in the anime because there are only 8 episodes and the story focuses on Daniel and his own story and journey and literally everyone else is a supporting side character that gets very little depth. There’s boxer Zack Lee (yes I will use the English localized names) a classic bully who changes by Daniel’s influence, and my favorite character Vasco, the leader of the crew Burn Knuckles he’s an airhead and wants to punish the bag guys. There’s Mira who is Zack’s love interest, Zoe who gets an instant crush on Daniel, and the quiet blonde boy Jay who is the most mysterious in the show excluding the characters in the ending. I genuinely think that Jay will bring a lot of confusion to first-time viewers but he’s not just a convenient nice guy believe me. There’s also the main highlight of this arc which is Duke, a rapper who is often put down because of his looks.
The animation is absolutely amazing even with a few CGI scenes which don’t look half bad at all. There’s mostly nostalgia that will draw in the manhwa readers which I assume will be most of the viewers of the show. For newcomers however Lookism still targets a very narrow range of people, it’s slow-paced, slice of life, and a commentary on society and how the bias against people’s looks is so deeply ingrained that people will behave differently with the absolute same person all the time. Lookism has action and it looks good, there’s more to come as well however all those who come to Lookism for solely action will be severely disappointed, there’s a really deep plot going on in the background and will be amazing however for the time being we will have happy times and that’s not something for everyone. I didn’t quite like a lot of the character designs
The lesson you can learn from this anime is definitely don’t judge people based on looks, Daniel is treated very differently in both of his bodies and that just goes to show how much people discriminate on the basis of looks, so much so that they won’t even recognize if the same person came in front of them in a different body. This body is just a covering for our soul and so judging based on that is simply not right, the same goes for animal cruelty, animals just have a different body than us but they are souls on the inside too.
The anime is 8 episodes long and it’s a decent watch you can watch it in one day and finish it. The fights are short but enjoyable, the animation is stellar and the story is pretty decent in that it fits into 8 episodes. Don’t come in expecting something amazing because of the hype of the manhwa because this is just a short part of a very short part of the entire story, there’s more to come (I personally hope that S2 drops soon). The story at the start is really slow and more of a social commentary than action and detailed story. With all that said, Lookism is an absolutely amazing entry point into a great story. I personally will rate the anime a 7/10 mostly because of the nostalgia and animation because as a stand alone it isn’t all that much.
So that is it for this post guys hope you got some value from this. Thank you guys for reading to the end hit me up on Instagram and Twitter with your thoughts and if you have any ideas on what I should write about. Stay safe from the COVID-19. Thank you again and I’ll see you all next week.
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