Review: Lookism A Thrilling and Exciting Webtoon

Introduction

Webtoon Name - Lookism

Written and Illustrated By - Park Tae Joon

Genre - School life, Psychological, Drama, Violence

Status - Ongoing

About the Webtoon

Webtoon Lookism is a South Korean comic written and illustrated by Park Tae- Joon. The story is about a high schooler named Daniel Park( his Korean name is Hyung Seok Park but I'm using the English interpretation) who gets constantly bullied for his unattractive appearance.

He decides to change schools for a fresh start where formerly again he fears he’ll be bullied again for how he looks. One day he wakes up in a different body, but this time his body is physically strong, altitudinous, and handsome. Now, he has 2 bodies! His old body and his new bone. 

And every time Daniel goes to sleep in one body, he'd wake up in the other body that was sleeping. Discovering this he goes to an academy with his new body and he learns how differently you get treated solely based on your looks. In Korea, Lookism (or the action of discriminating against a person purely based on how unattractive or beautiful they are) is a huge issue and is a huge theme within the ridiculous.

At first, when you read Lookism it doesn’t look bad but not good. The author tried to go for a realistic art style but changed it to a less realistic style over time, which was the right choice to make. The art looks good, nice, and clean.

Every character design is unique and distinct for every character. I am not an expert on how to describe how great artwork is but the art is fantastic. This comic is a drama but it also is an action series for having so many fights. The fights in this are fantastic, they all have analogous great attention to detail in every fight.

And the author utilizes multitudinous different fighting styles to make the action indeed more. There are boxing, wrestling, Mai Tai, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Karate, and so many other different fighting styles. They all stem from seeing different combinations of attacks from different sides and it's cool to see real-world fighting styles. In a way, it adds a sense of intensity to the fights, and grounds this comic which can get a little exaggerated

Another reason why this comic is fantastic is because of the characters. My God these Characters! I can’t stress enough how these characters are fantastic. Every character that is in this comic has significance to the plot, no character in this comic is useless in any way.

All of the main characters who are buddies with Daniel are truly likable. They all have an analogous charm to them and every character has a unique relationship with each other which makes every chapter entertaining to read. All the characters get character development, in one way or another and this just makes them indeed more likable.

Daniel starts as a character who was truly a little clunker who used his other body as an advantage to get him out of trouble. Later on, as the chapters continue he realizes his faults, tries to improve himself, and doesn’t want to always depend on his new body, he soon becomes a character you want to root for in the end.

Some characters reverse a generality that makes them more realistic. There is this one character that I love and her name is Zoe. She starts as a regular popular girl who uses her aesthetics to impress Handsome- Daniel but later she becomes a good person who wants to help any way she can, including Ugly- Daniel. She's a great character. 

Indeed the antagonist characters are amazing, as you get to understand how they got to where they are which makes them more sympathetic. It makes the people not all monsters but real people. And if they become inhuman monsters, you at least get to understand how they came to be who they are.

I largely recommend this entertaining webtoon to everyone because I feel like it doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves. This comic has a great art style, a veritably intriguing plot, and fantastic characters that anyone can enjoy. This comic is on Webtoon and it's still ongoing with over 400 chapters. I know it's a lot of chapters but trust me, this comic is worth every single bone.

Written By - Soumi Chatterjee

Edited By - Riya Dabas